ILLUSTRATIONS (20). SOUTHERN TEMPERATURE. 109 



lichens, Terres de Desolation, as they have been called by 

 French navigators, lie far to the north of the Antarctic Polar 

 Circle; whilst in the Northern Hemisphere, in 70 lat., on the 

 extremest verge of Scandinavia, fir-trees reach a height of 

 more than 60 feet.* If we compare Tierra del Fuego, and 

 more particularly Port Famine, in the Straits of Magellan, 



53 38' lat., with Berlin, which is situated one degree nearer 



ooo Q 



the equator, we shall find for Berlin, 47.3 ^, ' ; and for 



34.7 62 ' 3 



Port Famine, 42. 6 ^QQ-Q Fahr. I subjoin the few certain 



data of temperature which we at present possess of the tempe- 

 rate zones of the Southern Hemisphere, and which may be 

 compared with the temperatures of northern regions in which 

 the distribution of summer heat and winter cold is so unequal. 

 I make use of the convenient mode of notation already explained 

 in which the number standing before the fraction indicates 

 the mean annual temperature, the numerator the winter, and 

 the denominator the summer temperature. 



* Compare Darwin in the Journal of Researches, 1845, p. 244, with 

 King in vol. i. of the Narr. of the Voyages of the Adventure and fkA 

 Beagle, p. 577. 



