192 REACTION OF THE INTERIOR OF THE EARTH 



the production of a state of equilibrium. The recog- 

 nition of so many agencies affecting the -vertical 

 distribution of heat, leads to well-founded conjectures 

 respecting the connection of complicated local pheno- 

 mena, but not to the derivation of any direct numerical 

 determinations. In mountain springs, (and the higher 

 ones, being important to the Chamois hunters, are 

 carefully sought out,) a doubt often subsists as to their 

 being mixed, either with waters which sinking down 

 from above bring a colder temperature, or with waters 

 rising from below and bringing with them the higher 

 temperature of more deeply seated strata. From 

 nineteen springs observed by Wahlenberg, Kamtz 

 draws the conclusion that in the Alps we require to 

 ascend between 960 and 1020 feet, to see the tempe- 

 rature of springs diminish 1*8 Fahr. (average, 550 feet to 

 1 Fahr.) More numerous and more carefully selected 

 observations by Hermann and Adolph Schlagintweit, in 

 the eastern Carinthian, and the western Swiss Alps round 

 Monte Rosa, give a more rapid decrease of temperature, 

 viz. 1-8 Fahr. to only 767 feet (426 feet to 1 Fahr.). 

 According to the great work of these excellent ob- 

 servers, ( 265 ) "the rate of decrease of the temperature 

 of the springs with increasing elevation is in every case 

 somewhat slower than that of the mean annual tem- 

 perature of the atmosphere, which in the Alps gives 

 319 English feet for lFahr. The springs there are, 

 generally speaking, warmer than the mean tempera- 

 ture of the air at the same level; and this difference 

 between the temperature of the air and the springs 

 increases with the elevation. The temperature of the 

 ground at equal heights is not the same throughout 



