NATURAL HISTORY OP COMMERCE. 



17 



NATURAL IIISToKY OF ruM.M KKCK. 

 CIIAIMI.I; vin. 



Till. milll.MI KMI'IRK: 11K1I1MI (ol.o.MK^ VXD POSSESSIONS. 

 jclu-r.il lK:H.-rI|>tioii 'I'll.' <',,!.. ui<-* i<ti. 1. -n; 1 In tli.-ir ( liin.it i.- /...u.-s 



Britinli Nurtli America Zone of Wheat und Northern Grains 

 Produce of the Warm Temperate /one Australia South Africa 

 Indian PoMOMions Wect Indie* and Central Amerioa. 



1 1 ptive examples of analogous produce between 

 ihe I niied Kingdom and \;uimi- Kumpoan states prove 

 that our commerce would bo very narrow if limited to 

 Knrope. Hut British produce, properly BO called, is 

 entod by our colonies and possessions in every 

 ' tin; globe. Regarded in this light, it embraces 

 nearly every known commodity, and explains our 

 supremacy in commercial interchange. To arrive at a 

 clear conception of so important a subject, it is neces- 

 sity to possess a double knowledge, first of the range 

 and nature of commodities included in the term British 

 produce ; secondly, of the conditions of their production. 

 An acquaintance with geology will enable us to trace the 

 cotiMinic history of the inorganic or mineral division of 

 those commodities, while the aid of physical science 

 is generally required to elucidate the more complex 

 phenomena of organic or animal and vegetable produce. 



Whether or not climatic influences originally affected 

 the deposition of the useful minerals, wo cannot discern 

 any present relation among them to zones of tempera- 

 ture. Minerals, metalliferous or otherwise, are grouped 

 in certain formations, at the pole or at the equator. 

 Gold is found in the frosty Urals, and in the sands of 

 Africa; copper in Lapland and Australia; tin in Corn- 

 wall ami in the Straits Settlements. We must study the 

 produce of the mineral kingdom as best wo may, but 

 remember that it is only the zones of climate which 

 determine the varieties of organised life, and systematise 

 our investigation of animal and vegetable produce. 



The Colonies considered in their Climatic Zones. 



The isothermal zones, or zones of equal temperature, 

 correspond but very irregularly, and in parts not at all, 

 with the parallels of latitude, being disturbed by every 

 new combination of the elements of climate. The absence 

 of laud, for instance, causes the southern hemisphere to 

 be cooler in summer than the northern hemisphere, 

 while the equable climate of the ocean presents fewer 

 marked deviations from parallel bands. The zones are 

 likewise variously designated according to the prevailing 

 character of their productions. Grain, being more widely 

 spread and largely produced than any other food sub- 

 stance, is the product most usually applied as a de- 

 scriptive term. Equatorial grains are maize and rice, 

 the latter of which is supposed to feed as many of the 

 human family as all the rest of the cerealia put together. 

 Wheat blends with these grains in both hemispheres, 

 first as a winter crop, and afterwards as a summer crop. 

 Still further from the equator wheat grows with rye, 

 barley, and oats, the so-called northern grains, which 

 extend into higher latitudes where wheat disappears. 



The following approximate chart will now assist us : 



Arctic and Sub-Arctic Zone*: British Colonies (Northern 

 Grains)' 



only parts of those zones under British rule are 

 the gr- tries of North America, which, in the? 



hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, have long been 

 famous for their produce of furs, for which indeed the 

 whole zone is the world's grand storehouse. The marine 

 produce of the region has been referred to in describing 

 the British whale fisheries and the Newfoundland cod 

 fisheries. There are no British possessions in the sub- 

 arctic portion of the southern hemisphere; Cape Horn 

 is the only point of hind reaching 



Temperate Zone : Zone of Wheat and Northern Oraint. 



The climatic limits of this zone, in the northern hemi- 

 sphere, are more irregular than the boundaries of the 

 warmer zones, being subjected to the variable physical 

 influences which characterise the temperate regions. 

 This irregularity is greatest amid the broken coasts of 

 Europe, where the configuration of the land adds to the 

 deflection caused by rains and winds not periodical, and 

 by the Gulf Stream. It is, therefore, with an elastic 

 meaning that we speak of the width of the zone in 

 degrees. The zone is determined northward by the lino 

 where wheat ceases to ripen, and southwards by the 

 limits of the ripening of the grape. The limit of wheat 

 in Britain is at Inverness, in latitude 58, whence it is 

 deflected across the North Sea to Drontheim, in Norway, 

 in latitude 64, and waves onwards to St. Petersburg, 

 in latitude 60, whence, varying with every local cir- 

 cumstance of climate, it passes through the Old World 

 to the coast opposite Saghalien, in latitude 48 or 50. 

 Westward the same line sweeps across America, from 

 the low latitude of 45 in 'Nova Scotia, rising in a broad 

 curve to 48 or 50 on the Pacific side of the continent. 

 The climatic line of the vine cuts the Biscayan coast of 

 France, in latitude 45, whence it is deflected to Berlin, 

 52 31', and afterwards passes on through Europe and 

 Asia, in a wave gently tending to the lower latitude of 

 40 north of Corea. The same line reaches its lowest 

 latitude in America, which it traverses nearly coincident 

 with the parallel of 36. 



This great girdle comprehends the European plain, 

 and a vast but nearly unknown strip of Central Asia. 

 Westward it takes in the northern states of the American 

 Union, and the British Confederation, of which Canada 

 is the chief. 



The corresponding zone in the southern hemisphere 

 has fewer irregularities ; it tends triflingly nearer to the 

 equator, and its outer limits have not yet been defined. 

 The extreme part of Australia barely enters the zone, 

 which is best represented by Tasmania and New Zealand, 

 although Patagonia, bending furthest towards the south 

 pole, is the greatest tract of land within it. Except our 

 own islands, no part of the northern zone of the Old 

 World, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, belongs to us. 

 Throughout this extensive region, while every country 

 has its specialities both in climate and produce, there is 

 a general resemblance a unison in diversity which 

 continues in both hemispheres. 



In scientific language, the species of animals and of 

 plants vary ; but the genera are identical. The general 

 aspect of the vegetation may differ in each country, 

 and yet be constituted of plants closely allied. While 

 describing, therefore, the produce of our colonies, we 

 describe generally that of the whole climatic region. 



The part of Europe comprised in this zone is indif- 

 ferently named the cider and beer, the butter region 

 (distinguishing it from the division of the oil and winu 

 countries adjoining), the region of summer grain, or of 

 deciduous trees. Such descriptions indicate the nature 

 of the produce. Thus, butter associates itself with 

 pastures and oxen, and with dairy produce. 



Inferentially it leads us to the consideration of the 



106-N.F. 



