48 t COSMOS. 



frozen soil seems to rise a couple of degrees farther north, 

 after which it intersects, as it turns southward, the Lena 

 valley, almost 8 south of the Jenessei. Farther eastward, 

 this line again rises in a northerly direction." 61 Kupffer, who 

 has visited the mines of I^ertshinsk, draws attention to the 

 fact that independently of the continuous northern mass of 

 frozen soil, the phenomenon occurs in an island-like form 

 in the more southern districts, but in general it is entirely 

 independent of the limits of vegetation, or of the growth of 

 timber. 



It is a very considerable advance in our knowledge, when 

 we are able gradually to arrive at general and sound cosmical 

 viows of the relations of temperature of our earth in the 

 northern portions of the old continent ; and to recognise the 

 fact that under different meridians the limits of the frozen 

 soil as well as those of the mean annual temperature, 

 and of the growth of trees, are situated at very different 

 latitudes ; whence it is obvious that continuous currents of 

 heat must be generated in the interior of our planet. 

 Franklin found in the north-west part of America that the 

 ground was frozen even in the middle of August at a depth 

 of 16 inches, while Richardson observed upon a more eastern 

 point of the coast in 71 12' lat. that the ice-stratum was 

 thawed in July as low as 3 feet beneath the herb-covered 

 surface. Would that scientific travellers would afford us 

 more general information regarding the geothermal relations 

 in this part of the earth and in the southern hemisphere ! 

 An insight into the connection of phenomena is the most 

 certain means of leading us to the causes of apparently in- 

 volved anomalies, and to the comprehension of that which 

 we are apt too hastily to regard as at variance with normal 

 laws. 



31 Middendorff, Bd. i, s. 166. Compare also s. 179. "The curve re- 

 presenting the commencement of the freezing of the soil in Northern 

 Asia exhibits two convexities, inclining southwards, one on the Obi, 

 which is very inconsiderable, and the other on the Lena, which is much 

 more strongly marked. The limit of the frozen soil passes from Ber- 

 resow on the Obi, towards Turuchansk on the Jenisei, it then runs 

 between Witirnsk and Oleminsk, on the right bank of the Leua, and, 

 ascending northwards, turns to the east." 



