696 INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE 



clothed with skins, and nourished by animals, 

 obtained chiefly from the sea. Without agricul- 

 ture, commerce, manufactures, or the possibility 

 of uniting together under regular forms of govern- 

 ment, they are reduced to a state of complete bar- 

 barism ; and, like the scattered tribes of northern 

 Asia, are mere dwarfs in stature as in mind. 



And if we pass to the elevated plains of ancient 

 Scythia, in central Asia, where the climate is 

 colder than any part of the northern hemisphere 

 in the same latitudes,* where bleak northerly 



* Central Asia is bounded on the north by the Altai mountains, 

 which extend from west to east across the continent, on the south 

 by the great Himalaya range, which extends from the north of 

 India eastward, across China, and westward until it takes the 

 name of Hindoo Koo, and Caucasus, the ancient name of that 

 vast range, on some part of which Prometheus is said to have 

 been bound for stealing fire from heaven. Between these two 

 great mountain chains there is another lofty range termed the 

 Thian Chan mountains ; so that a large portion of the country 

 is from eight to ten thousand feet above the sea, and nearly the 

 whole of Tartary about five thousand feet. But another cause of its 

 extreme coldness and dryness is, that the warm winds which blow 

 during summer from the Indian Ocean, are prevented by the lofty 

 Himalayas from passing over the plains of the interior, and de- 

 posit nearly all their vapours in floods of rain, on the southern por- 

 tions of the continent. In addition to this, the prevalent west 

 winds from the middle latitudes of the Atlantic give out a large 

 portion of their caloric, and deposit nearly all their moisture while 

 passing over Europe, and before arriving at central Asia, becom- 

 ing cold and dry as they advance eastward. Hence it is that the 

 mean temperature of winter at Edinburgh in lat. 5557 / is 38-6, 

 .while at Moscow in the same latitude, it is only 10-8, and about 

 the same in Circassia, 10 further south. 



