TEMPERATURE. 



147 



the winter that the sea and mountain masses act on the tempe- 

 rature. The sea in particular moderates the summer heat, and 

 still more the winter cold ; and in a less degree tends to equalize 

 the temperature of day and night. Hence arises the most 

 remarkable character of the climate on the sea-coast viz. the 

 comparative equability of its temperature, a circumstance every- 

 where observable round the British coasts, and more favourable 

 in winter to our islands and the coast of Norway than along 

 any other band of longitude in the northern parts of the globe, 

 because they are continually bathed in tides flowing northward 

 from the warm latitudes of the S. Atlantic. 



The same considerations apply exactly to the hour of greatest 

 daily warmth, which in all countries follows after some interval 

 the hour of greatest solar elevation. At Plymouth the warmest 

 epoch of the day (in the shade) is at 1 P.M., or rather a little 

 after that hour* ; at Brussels 1'25. At York it is about 2 P.M. ; 

 at Leith 2-40 p.M.f 



The highest observed temperature in the shade at York, pre- 

 vious to 1825, is : 



On the 5th of July, 1852, the thermometer in the shade, at 

 York, reached 87'5, 88 and 88-5. 



In 1825, a temperature of 90 in the shade was registered 

 at Brandsby, a point north of York, and more elevated above 

 the sea. 



The extreme difference between the highest and lowest tem- 

 perature observed in the shade in twenty-five years is 83-5. 



* Sir W. Harris, in Rep. of Brit. Assoc. 1839. 

 f Sir D. Brewster, in Edinb. Phil. Trans. 



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