194 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



Mean Temperature of hottest month (July), 60'0 to 65'0'. 

 Mean Temperature of sea on West Coast in winter is 41 '0. 



2. Diversities of Rainfall. 



Constant humidity rather than amount of rainfall dis- 

 tinguishes the United Kingdom; for the total rainfall 

 is not actually greater than that of many other countries 

 in the same latitude. Nevertheless we owe to it our 

 numerous rivers and the fertility which makes nearly the 

 whole land resemble a garden. Ireland is more humid 

 than England, and the western sides of each island are 

 more humid than the eastern. As a consequence, Ireland 

 is essentially a grazing country, and in England pasturage 

 is more common in the western than in the eastern 

 counties, where tillage chiefly prevails. These facts are 

 patent in the familiar terms of Irish butter, Devonshire 

 cream, Cheshire and Gloucester cheese, Hereford short- 

 horns, Alderney cows; while Norfolk and Suffolk and 

 the valley of the Thames are suggestive of corn. 



At Keswick, Cumberland, the yearly average rainfall is 

 60 inches ; in London, the average is 24 inches. The 

 average for the whole of the United Kingdom may be 

 between 30 and 40 inches. 



The following diagram will give a better view of the 

 rainfall : 



DIAGRAM OF THE RAINFALL OF THE UNITED KINGDOM. 



Ireland. 



EAST SIDE. 



Coast and Interior. 

 Inverness . 27'0 inches. 



Edinburgh . 25'0 



W. Denton, North 



umberland . 36'8 



York . . 24-0 



Bedford . . 317 



London . . 24'0 



Hastings . . 31 '0 



Isle of Wight . 30-9 



Mean of East Side, 

 etc. . . . 27'4 



Great Britain. 



i WEST SIDE. 



Coast and Interior. 

 Cape Wrath . . 38 -6 inches. 

 Rothsay . . . 48'0 

 Glasgow . . . 33-6 

 Lake Districts, from 



50'0 to 140.6 



Liverpool . . 347 

 Swansea . . .35*4 

 Penzance . . 43'0 

 Bath . . .32-0 

 Mean of West Side, 

 etc. . . 45-5 



EAST SIDE. 



Londonderry . . 31'0 inches. 



Belfast . . . 35-0 



Dublin . . . 30-8 



Portarlington . . 23'0 

 Mean of Coast and 



Interior . . 297 



WEST SIDE. 



Westport, Mayo . 46'0 inches. 

 Cahirciveen . . 59'0 

 Cork County . . 40'0 

 Castletownsend . 42'0 

 Mean of West Coast 



and Interior . 47'4 inches. 



3. Causes of Diversity. 



Our western shores are bathed by an ever-flowing 

 warm current from the Atlantic, called the Gulf Stream. 

 The winds, for more than two hundred days in the year, 

 blow in the track of this great marine current, and fill 

 the air with humid vapours exhaled from its surface. 

 The Gulf Stream originates in the embayed waters of 

 Mexico, whence, heated and expanded by a tropical sun, 

 it issues as an ocean river through the Narrows of 

 Florida. Widening in its course northwards, it divides 

 in mid-Atlantic. One current curves to the parched 

 plains of Africa, and becomes lost in the equatorial 

 waters. A polar prolongation, accurately defined, 

 diverges till it fills the space between Iceland and Nor- 

 way. By its influence the North Cape is freed from ice 

 even in the depth of winter, and its effects are felt as far 

 as Spitzbergen, where its interfusion with the ocean be- 

 comes complete. 



The United Kingdom fully receives the beneficial 

 influences of this stream. The warm air and heated 

 flood combine to deflect the isothermal lines northward, 

 raising the temperature and giving to high European 

 latitudes the amenities of a southern climate. Now it is 

 a physical law that every current, whether aerial or 

 marine, has a corresponding counter-current. We find, 

 therefore, firstly, that at an undefined distance to the 

 west, a cold stream flows down Baffin's Bay, ard past the 

 Greenland shores, sinking by its density beneath the 

 Gulf Stream, and completing its circuit ; secondly, that, 

 to the east, a polar counter-current blows over the 

 distant Eussian plains to complete the aerial circuit. 

 Thus we are twice favoured : by the presence of the low, 

 genial currents, and by the absence of the high, inclement 

 counter-currents, which, respectively, determine the 

 climate of their neighbourhood. While the western 

 maritime borders of Europe are verdant, the coasts of 

 Labrador are frostbound and barren ; and the region of 

 the intensest cold on the globe is in the Russian 

 dominions. 



During the vernal and autumnal equinoxes the aerial 

 streams in the latitude of the United Kingdom come into 

 conflict ; then the cold easterly and north-easterly winds 

 condense the vapours from the ocean, and produce 

 characteristic fogs. These winds are trying, and ofter* 

 prevail for weeks together. 



Botanical or Floral Regions. 



Within the confines of the United Kingdom various 

 botanical or floral regions have been defined with toler- 

 able accuracy, each region being characterised by its own 

 climate. 



Our cloudy sky keeps off heat, prevents radiation, and 

 is favourable to the growth of crops, whose variety makes 

 up for the greater certainty of the harvests of the Con- 

 tinent. Though we do not enjoy uninterrupted fine 

 weather, there is scarcely a day, except at the equinoxes, 

 when the sun does not shine ; and we rarely suffer from 

 a succession of bad seasons. 



1. Iberian or Asturian Region. 



In the part principally open to the Gulf Stream and 

 to the prevalent winds, the air is so charged with 





