208 SPARKS FROM A GEOLOGIST'S HAMMER. 



land in winter and falls below it in summer. Winds blowing 

 from the sea upon the land carry with them somewhat of 

 the temperature of the water. At Boston, consequently, 

 or at New York, or Savannah, a sea-breeze exerts a cooling 

 influence in summer and a warming one in winter. 



The amount of equalizing influence exerted by the 

 ocean must obviously depend on the proximity of the 

 water and the relative amount of wind blowing from the 

 water over the land. The interior of large land areas, 

 like North America, Europe or Australia, must preserve 

 nearly the temperatures due to the common astronomical 

 conditions, and the capacity of the land alone to absorb 

 and radiate solar heat. Hence the British Islands have 

 a more equable climate than Kussia. The winters of 

 New York are less severe than those of Saint Louis, though 

 the latter is nearly two degrees farther south ; and the 

 summers also are less excessive. But the direction of 

 the prevailing wind is a circumstance of the utmost im- 

 portance. A location by the ocean's shore would experi- 

 ence extremely little of the equalizing influence of water 

 if the movement of the atmosphere were always from the 

 land. Now, it results from the rotation of the earth that 

 the prevailing winds in the temperate zone are westerly. 

 Those localities, therefore, which lie upon the eastern 

 shores of the oceans experience more the ameliorating in- 

 fluence of situation than those upon western shores. The 

 climate of Western Europe is accordingly less subject to 

 extremes than that of Eastern North America. Western 

 Europe is more equable than Central and Eastern Europe; 

 as our Pacific shores possess a less rigorous climate than 

 our Atlantic States in the same latitudes. 



Were we to fun a line westward from New York 



