FREEZING TEMPERATURE OF THE OCEAN. 263 



perature average sea water invariably assumes during 

 the process of congelation ; " and it appears that 

 during a series of experiments undertaken with a view 

 of determining the temperature of the water in the 

 arctic regions " De Haven invariably found the tem- 

 perature of the sea water, immediately under the ice, 

 to be 28 Fahr." * Here therefore, we have an ad- 

 ditional reason, which of itself would go far to explain 

 why "the Baltic" (a general name for these land- 

 locked seas) should freeze up in winter. Because not 

 only does it do so at a higher temperature than the 

 ocean, but also the climate on the Swedish side is 

 distinctly colder, and more rigorous in winter than it 

 is upon the Norwegian coasts, and the temperature 

 often descends there below what is usual even at 

 Hammerfest. Visitors to the Baltic will however be 

 charmed with the beauty of its wooded shores, which 

 are almost everywhere covered to the tops of the 

 highest hills with luxuriant pine forest, which continues 

 to cover the uncleared interior of the country up to 

 and beyond the arctic circle, where the fir trees in 

 sheltered ravines and on alluvial lands still flourish 

 with considerable freedom of growth. Very fine timber 

 in fact grows there, as we have ourselves seen. 



The cause of this luxuriant growth of trees upon 

 the Gulf of Bothnia notwithstanding the severity of its 

 climate, is of course the greater length and warmth 

 of its summer season, and the protecting range of 

 mountains to the westward, which break the force of 



* The Physical Geography of the Sea, by Lieut. Maury, U.S.N., 

 1 6th Edition, p. 282. 



N.B. The officer referred to is Lieut. De Haven, U.S.N., who was 

 in command of one of the expeditions sent out by the U.S. in search 

 of Sir John Franklin. 



