320 CLIMATE AND PRODUCTIONS OF 



south-west of America is truly surprising. Sand- 

 wich Land, in the latitude of the north part of 

 Scotland, was found by Cook, during the hottest 

 month of the year, " covered many fathoms thick 

 with everlasting snow;" and there seems to be 

 scarcely any vegetation. Georgia, an island 96 

 miles long and 10 bi'oad, in the latitude of York- 

 shire, " in the very height of summer is in a man- 

 ner wholly covered with frozen snow." Tt can 

 boast only of moss, some tufts of grass, and wild 

 burnet : it has only one land-bird [Anthus corren- 

 dera), yet Iceland, which is 10*^ nearer the pole, has, 

 according to Mackenzie, fifteen land-birds. The 

 South Shetland Islands, in the same latitude as the 

 southern half of Norway, possess only some lich- 

 ens, moss, and a little grass ; and Lieut. Kendall* 

 found the bay, in which he was at anchor, begin- 

 ning to freeze at a period corresponding with our 

 8th of September. The soil here consists of ice 

 and volcanic ashes interstratified ; and at a little 

 depth beneath the surface it must remain perpetu- 

 ally congealed, for Lieut. Kendall found the body 

 of a foreign sailor, which had long been buried, 

 with the flesh and all the features' perfectly pre- 

 served. It is a singular fact, that on the two great 

 continents in the northern hemisphere (but not in 

 the broken land of Europe between them) we have 

 the zone of perpetually frozen under-soil in a low 

 latitude — namely, in 56° in North America at the 

 depth of three feet,t and in 62° in Siberia at the 

 depth of twelve to fifteen feet — as the result of a 

 directly opposite condition of things to those of 

 the southern hemisphere. On the northern con- 

 tinents the winter is rendered excessively cold by 



* Geographical Journal, 1830, p. C5, 66. 

 t Eichardson's Append, to Back's Exped., and Humboldt's 

 Fragm. Asiat., torn, ii., p. 386. 



