268 



CLIMATE. 



ferent according to the different causes which affect 

 it, and the observations hitherto mude have led, ;is 

 yet, to no definite result. In general, however, geo- 

 graphical latitude is the principal circumstance to be 

 taken into view in considering tin 1 climate of a 

 country. The highest degree of heat is found under 

 the equator, and the lowest, or the greatest degree 

 of cold, under the poles. The temperature or the 

 intermediate regions is various, according to their 

 1'iiMtiuii and local circumstances. Under the line, 

 the heat is not uniform. In the sandy deserts of 

 Africa, particularly on the western coast, also in 

 Arabia and India, it is excessive. In the mountain- 

 ous regions of South America, on the contrary, it is 

 very moderate. The greatest heat in Africa is es- 

 timated at 70 of Reaumur, or 1895 of Fahrenheit. 

 The greatest degree of cold at the poles cannot be 

 determined, because no one has ever penetrated to 

 them. The greatest altitude of the sun at noon, 

 and die time of its continuance above the horizon, 

 depends altogether on the latitude. Without re- 

 gard to local circumstances, a country is warmer in 

 proportion as the sun's altitude is greater and the 

 day longer. The elevation of any region above the 

 surface of the sea has likewise an important influ- 

 ence on the climate. But the nature of the surfiice 

 is not to be disregarded. The heat increases as the 

 soil becomes cultivated. Thus, for the last thousand 

 years, Germany has been growing gradually wanner 

 by the destruction of forests, the draining of lakes, 

 and the drying up of bogs and marshes. A similar 

 consequence of cultivation seems to be apparent in 

 the cultivated parts of North America, particularly 

 in the Atlantic states. The mass of minerals, which 

 composes the highest layer of a country, lias, with- 

 out doubt, an influence on its temperature. Barren 

 sands admit of a much more intense heat than loam. 

 Meadow lands are not so warm in summer as the 

 bare ground.* The winds, to which a country is 

 most exposed by its situation, have a great influence 

 on the climate. If north and east winds blow fre- 

 quently in any region, it will be colder, the latitude 

 being the same, than another, which is often swept 

 by milder breezes from the south and west. The 

 influence of the wind on the temperature of a coun- 

 try is very apparent in regions on the sea-coast. 

 The difference in the extremes of temperature is 

 least within the tropics. The heat, which would 

 be intolerable when the sun is in the zenith, is miti- 

 gated by the rainy season, which then commences. 

 When the sun returns to the opposite half of the 

 torrid zone, so that its rays become less vertical, the 

 weather is delightful. Lima and Quito, in Peru, 

 have the finest climate of any part of the earth. 

 The variations in temperature are greater in the 

 temperate zones, and increase as you approach the 

 polar circles. The heat of the higher latitudes, 

 especially about 59 and 60 amounts, in July, to 

 75 or 80 of Fahrenheit, and is greater than that of 

 countries 10 nearer the equator. In Greenland, 

 the heat in summer is so great that it melts the 

 pitch on the vessels. At Tornea, in Lapland, 



The cultivation of a new country is often attended by 

 most disastrous consequences, which oupht not, always, to 

 be imputed to the improvidence of colonists. The new 

 ."oil, the moment that it is broken up by the plough, and 

 penetrated by the rays of the sun, must necessarily under- 

 go a strong evaporation, and its exhalations, which are not 

 always of a harmless kind, little elevated in the air, are 

 condensed by the cold, which still continues to be sharp, 

 particularly during the night. Hence arise those epidemic 

 maladies which ravage colonies newly established. The 

 destruction of forests, when carried too far, is followed by 

 pernicious effects. In the Cape de Verd islands, it is the 

 burning of the forests which has dried up the springs, and 

 rendered tjie atmosphere sultry. Persia, Italy, Greece, and 

 many other countries, have thus been deprived of their 

 delightful climates. 



where the sun's rays fall as obliquely at the sum- 

 mer solstice as they do in Germany at the equinox, 

 the heat is sometimes equal to that of the torrid 

 zone, because the sun is almost always al>ove the 

 horizon. Under the poles, the climate is, perhaps. 

 the most uniform. A greater degree of cold than 

 any we are accustomed to, seems to reign there 

 perpetually. Even in midsummer, when the sun 

 does not go down for a long time (at the poles not 

 for six months), the ice never thaws. The immense 

 masses of it, which surround the poles, feel no sensi- 

 ble effect from the oblique and feeble beams of the 

 sun, and seem to increase in magnitude every year. 

 This is very remarkable ; for there is the most un- 

 doubted evidence that these now deserted countries 

 were, in former ages, inhabited. But, within a few 

 years, large portions of this continent (if we may so 

 call it) ol ice have separated, and floated down to 

 southern seas. This led the British government to 

 adopt the project of penetrating to the north pole. 

 See North Polar Expeditions. 



From the general division of America into lofty 

 mountainous plateaus and very low plains, there re- 

 sults a contrast between two climates, which, al- 

 though of an extremely different nature, are in al 

 most immediate proximity. Peru, the valley of 

 Quito, and the city of Mexico, though situated be- 

 tween the tropics, owe to their elevation the general 

 temperature of spring. They behold the paramo*, 

 or mountain ridges, covered with snow, which con- 

 tinues upon some of the summits almost the whole 

 year, while, at the distance of a few leagues, an in- 

 tense and often sickly degree of heat suffocates the 

 inhabitants of the ports of Vera Cruz and of Guaya- 

 quil. These two climates produce each a different 

 system of vegetation. The flora of the torrid zone 

 forms a border to the fields and groves of Europe. 

 Such a remarkable proximity as this cannot fail of 

 frequently occasioning sudden changes, by the dis- 

 placement of these two masses of air, so differently 

 constituted a general inconvenience, experienced 

 over the whole of America. Everywhere, how- 

 ever, this continent is subject to a lower degree of 

 heat than the same latitudes in the eastern portion of 

 the earth. Its elevation alone explains this fact, as 

 far as regards the mountainous region ; but why, 

 it may be asked, is the same thing true of the low 

 tracts of the country ? To this the great observer, 

 Alexander Humboldt, in his Tableaux de la Nature, 

 makes the following reply : " The comparative nar- 

 rowness of this continent; its elongation towards 

 the icy poles ; the ocean, whose unbroken surface is 

 swept by the trade winds ; the currents of extremely 

 cold water which flow from the straits of Magellan 

 to Peru; the numerous chains of mountains, abound- 

 ing in the sources of rivers, and whose summits, co- 

 vered with snow, rise far above the region of the 

 clouds ; the great number of immense rivers, that, 

 after innumerable curves, always tend to the most 

 distant shores ; deserts, but not of sand, and conse- 

 quently less susceptible of being impregnated with 

 heat; impenetrable forests, that spread over the 

 plains of the equator, abounding in rivers, and which 

 in those parts of the country that are the farthest dis- 

 tant from mountains and from the ocean, give rise to 

 enormous masses of water, which are either attracted 

 by them, or are formed during the act of vegetation, 

 all these causes produce, in the lower parts of Ameri- 

 ca, a climate which, from its coolness and humidity, 

 is singularly contrasted with that of Africa. To 

 these causes alone must we ascribe that abundant 

 vegetation, so vigorous and so rich in juices, and 

 that thick and umbrageous foliage, which constitute 

 the characteristic features of the new continent.'' To 

 these remarks Malle-Brun adds (Universal Geogra- 



