NATURAL HISTORY OF COMMERCE. 



NATURAL HISTORY OF COMMERCE. 

 CHAPTER II. 



National Home IU Climate, Soil, and Consequences resulting 

 then 'ido'of the United Kingdom and Contrast of Cor- 



respou'Him' I. ititudus Position of the United Kingdom rolntiTC 

 urope Climate DiTersitie* of Tcmperatura Diversities of 

 fall Causes of Dlreraity Gulf Stream Deflection of Iso- 

 thermsCurrent and Counter-Current Aerial Currents Botani- 

 cal or Floral Regions Iberian or Asturion, Armorican, Germanic, 

 and Boreal Regions Minor Diversities of Climate and Vegetation 

 Chart of Floral Ecgions. 



The United Kingdom, between 50 and 61 N. lat., by 

 \ E. and 11 W. long., comprises several hundred islands, 

 if wliich Great Britain and Ireland are the chief, the 

 laindcr being unimportant. 



Great Britain includes England, Wales, and Scotland, 



id is the largest island in Europe. 



The British Empire comprehends, besides the United 



lingdom, colonies and possessions in every zone, so ex- 



jnsively and widely dispersed as to give literal truth to 

 the saying, that the sun never sets on the Queen's domi- 

 nions. 



The latitude of the United Kingdom corresponds with 

 that of the cold and sterile regions of Labrador, in 

 America, and the ice-bound shores of Kamtschatka, in 

 Asia. In the southern hemisphere its like or analogue 

 is the cheerless land of Tierra del Fuego. London is 



the same latitude as the Strait of Belleisle and Cape 

 lOpatka; Edinburgh, the northern metropolis, corre- 

 sponds with Moscow, and also with Cape Horn. 



These are striking contrasts. We cannot imagine a 

 flourishing people living in the bleak and pitiless 

 countries just referred to. From what, then, are our 

 immunities derived ? A well-known American writer 

 says of England : 



" The territory has a singular perfection. The climate 

 is warmer by many degrees than it is entitled to by 

 .latitude. Neither hot nor cold, there is no hour in the 

 whole year when one cannot work. The temperature 

 makes no exhaustive demands on human strength, but 

 allows the attainment of the largest stature. In variety 

 of surface it is a miniature of Europe, having plain, 

 forest, marsh, river, sea-shore ; mines in Cornwall, caves 

 in Derbyshire, delicious landscape in Dovedale, and sea- 

 view at Torbay ; highlands in Scotland ; Snowdon in 

 Wales; in Westmoreland and Cumberland, a pocket Swit- 

 zerland, in which the lakes and mountains are on a 

 sufficient scale to fill the eye and to touch the imagina- 

 tion. 



" From first to last it is a museum of anomalies. This 

 foggy and rainy country furnishes the world with astro- 

 nomical observations. Its short rivers do not afford 

 water-power, but the land shakes under the thunder of 

 its mills. There is no gold mine of any importance, but 

 there is more gold in England than in all other countries. 

 It is too far north for the culture of the vine, but the 

 wines of all countries are in its docks ; and oranges and 

 pine-apples are as cheap in London as in the Mediter- 

 ranean. * 



Position of the United Kingdom relative to Europe. 



The relative position and climate of the United 

 Kingdom are both peculiar. Great Britain is insulated 

 from the Continent, of which it is the natural boundary, 

 its seasons are abnormal, and its temperature is arti- 

 ficial. 



1st. Position of tlie United Kingdom. 



ikr about a hundred miles west of Ireland the slope of 

 the sea-bed is gradual, when a sudden descent occurs of 

 more than 2,000 feet, forming submarine cliffs that mark 

 the confines of the Old World. The bed of the German 

 Ocean, on the other hand, is generally shallow. Its 



" English Traits." 

 91 N.E. 



By E. W. Emerson. 



average depth is not over thirty or forty fathoms, which 

 would not cover the chimney-shafts of many of oar 

 factories, and in no part are the soundings deep, except 

 olt' i ho precipitous coasts of Norway, which the Atlantic, 

 loan the North Sea, may bo said to lave. Travers. 

 ing this sea are also many shoals and sand-banks, the 

 largest being the Dogger, .'350 miles long, running north* 

 ward, midway between the coast of Northumberland and 

 Jutland. Some of these banks come within six or seven 

 fathoms of the sea-level. 



The neighbouring lands on both sides the German 

 Ocean assume the features of the sea-bed. Farts of 

 Holland are forty feet below the sea-level, and are only 

 protected from marine irruptions by embankments and 

 sand dunes. Jutland is entirely alluvial. English 

 " Holland," or the Fen districts, in the neighbourhood of 

 the Wash, consists of land rescued from the sea, much of 

 it so low-lying as also to require dykes and embankments 

 to prevent inundation. In fact, the great European plain 

 commences in the tcrtia y and alluvial deposits of Eng- 

 land, takes in the German Ocean, embraces the Nether- 

 lands and Denmark, and then sweeps along the low lands 

 and stoneless steppes below St. Petersburg, and extends 

 to the Caspian Sea. The whole plain gives evidence of 

 an ancient sea-bed, of which the sandy flats about Calais 

 and Berlin, and the lake-plain of Pomerania, are parts, 

 and with which England is conjoined. The United 

 Kingdom consequently retains, in many respects, a 

 European character, although insular. 



2nd. Climate of the United Kingdom. What is meant 

 by Climate ? 



" Climate," says Professor Ansted, " is a resultant of 

 all the atmospheric phenomena, embracing the tempera 

 ture of the air at various times and seasons, the range 

 and variation of the temperature, the direction and force of 

 the prevalent winds, the liability to storm, the amount of 

 humidity in the air at various seasons, the quantity of 

 mist and rain, the distribution of rain, and the varieties 

 of electrical condition. 



" These phenomena affect and depend on each other, 

 but all may ultimately be traced to certain general 

 causes. 



" 1. The position of the station in latitude. 



"2. The size and figure of the land on which the 

 station is situated, whether detached island, archipelago, 

 or continent. 



" 3. The elevation of the station above the sea. 



" 4. The position of the land on which the station is 

 placed, with reference to the neighbouring land. 



"5. The position, distance and direction, magnitude 

 and elevation, of the nearest continent. 



" 6. The nature, magnitude, and direction of the nearest 

 great marine current to its shores." 



The phenomena of the climate of the United Kingdom 

 may be summarised under the heads of Diversities of 

 Temperature, and Diversities of Rainfall. 



1. Diversities of Temperature. 



The western coast of Ireland is 10 warmer than the 

 like latitude on the east coast of England. Scotland, 

 compared with England, is cold and wet, although not 

 subject to extremes. The winters, indeed, are so mild 

 that the harbours generally do not freeze, as on the Con- 

 tinent, in similar and even in lower latitudes. The 

 Western Islands have a uniform and genial climate, con* 

 trasting with the opposite coast. Unst, one of the Shet- 

 lands, and the Isle of Wight, correspond in winter 

 temperature, although nearly 700 miles, or 10 of latitude, 

 separate them. 



Again, Devonshire and Cornwall, in point of winter 

 temperature, are warmer than London by 5 ; Penzance 

 and Torquay, in mildness and salubrity, resemble 

 Madeira, and are recommended to patients affected with 

 pulmonary disease. 



