THE WEATHER 



from the plains of Europe in summer are very 

 hot, and, the sky being clear, the ground in 

 England is further heated by the direct rays of 

 the sun. On the other hand, although the 

 water of the ocean absorbs much less of the 

 sun's heat in summer than the earth's surface, 

 it radiates much less of it in winter. Moreover, 

 by movements in the water, the heat thus ab- 

 sorbed is more evenly distributed in the sea 

 than in the ground, and the capacity for heat 

 of such a vast volume of water being enormous, 

 the ocean acts as a great reservoir of heat to 

 supply the land. For all these reasons the sea 

 is warmer in winter and cooler in summer than 

 the land. In summer, then, the south-west 

 winds may actually come from cooler regions 

 than the north-east winds, and, moreover, the 

 sky with a south-west wind being often cloudy, 

 there is very little heat obtained by the ground 

 from the direct rays of the sun. 



Since the invention of the electric telegraph, 

 we have been able to learn much more about 

 the weather, for it is now possible to find out 

 what is going on at many places at once, and to 

 know how far the wind or weather is the same 

 with us as with our neighbours. In London, 

 and in the capital cities of most other civilised 

 lands, there are offices which exist for the pur- 

 pose of collecting information about the weather. 

 Every morning in the Times newspaper, and in 

 some others, there is printed a small map of the 



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