184 Climate 



Winters are colder and summers hotter in Germany 

 than in England, mainly for this reason because the 

 air is so much drier owing to the greater distance of 

 the ocean. For the same reason, plants and shrubs 

 need protection there during the winter which they do 

 not here ; and, on the other hand, grapes will ripen 

 there when they will not here. 



But, besides these general circumstances, there are 

 also various local circumstances which affect climate 

 more or less. Thus, if the neighbourhood of the ocean 

 tends to equalize climate, the neighbourhood of any 

 large expanse of dry soil does exactly the reverse, inas- 

 much as it dries the air. 



If the Sahara were covered with water, the climate 

 of the South of Europe would be many degrees less 

 warm than it is ; for the wind passing over it would be 

 cooled, instead of heated as it now is. It would also be 

 moistened, and so more snow would fall in the Alps, 

 and less would melt in the summer. 



Then, again, there are the many ocean currents, hot 

 and cold, which also influence climate to a considerable 

 extent. Western Europe would be far colder than it 

 is without the Gulf Stream, which brings about 166,000 

 cubic miles of hot water from the tropics to the North 

 Atlantic in the course of each year. And this tre- 

 mendous volume of steaming water, besides warming 

 the air, loads it with moisture ; so that it is easy to 

 understand why the winter climate of Ireland should 

 be mild enough to allow of myrtles flourishing out of 

 doors, and yet why the summer heat should not be 

 sufficient to ripen fruit, owing to the thick veil of 

 vapour which screens it from the sun. 



Other local circumstances which affect climate in a 



