828 COSMOS. 



(lat. 57 3'), it is 12'4 above this point. At the first-named 

 place, the mean summer temperature hardly amounts to 43, 

 whilst, at the latter place, it is 57. Pekin (39 54'), on the 

 eastern coast of Asia, has a mean annual temperature of 52 0> 3, 

 which is 9 below that of Naples, situated somewhat further 

 to the north. The mean winter temperature of Pekin is, at 

 least, 5 - 4 below the freezing-point, whilst in Western Europe, 

 even at Paris, (48 50'), it is nearly 6 above the freezing- 

 point. Pekin has also a mean winter cold which is 4' 5 lower 

 than that of Copenhagen, lying 1 7 further to the north. 



We have already seen the slowness with which the great 

 mass of the ocean follows the variations of temperature in the 

 atmosphere, arid how the sea acts in equalising temperatures 

 moderating simultaneously the severity of winter and the heat 

 of summer. Hence arises a second more important contrast- 

 that, namely, between insular and littoral climates enjoyed by all 

 articulated continents having deeply-indented bays and penin- 

 sulas, and between the climate of the interior of great masses 

 of solid land. This remarkable contrast has been fully deve- 

 loped by Leopold von Buch in all its various phenomena, both 

 with respect to its influence on vegetation and agriculture, on 

 the transparency of the atmosphere, the radiation of the soil, 

 and the elevation of the line of perpetual snow. In the 

 interior of the Asiatic Continent, Tobolsk, Barnaul 011 the 

 Oby, and Irkutsk, have the same mean summer heat as Berlin, 

 Munster, and Cherbourg in Normandy; the thermometer 

 sometimes remaining for weeks together at 86 or 88, whilst 

 the mean winter temperature is, during the coldest month, as 

 low as 0'4 to 4. These continental climates have, there- 

 fore, justly been termed excessive by the great mathematician 

 and physicist, Buffon ; and the inhabitants who live in coun- 

 tries having such excessive climates seem almost condemned, 

 as Dante expresses himself, 



" A Bofferir tormenti caldi e geli."* 



In no portion of the earth, neither in the Canary Islands> 

 in Spain, or in the south of France, have I ever seen more 

 luxuriant fruit, especially grapes, than in Astrachan, near the 

 shores of the Caspian Sea (46 21'). Although the mean 

 annual temperature is about 48, the mean summer heat rises 



* Dante, Divina Commedia, Purgatorio, canto iii. 



