PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 109 



land are so much colder ; but these, as the land becomes 

 cleared, will have their temperature raised. The im- 

 mense deserts of Africa and Asia can, from their nature, 

 imbibe but little of the sun's rays, which causes the air 

 to become intensely hot. The sea likewise has an effect 

 on the temperature ; the water cools the atmosphere by 

 absorbing the caloric, and this it is that renders islands 

 less hot than the main land. 



The effects of the climate both on the animal and 

 vegetable world are particularly striking. "Within the 

 Polar Circles scarcely any other vegetables are seen than 

 mosses and lichens, while in the Torrid Zone vegetation is 

 most profuse. In the higher latitudes domestic animals 

 become stunted in their growth, until they ultimately 

 disappear. The Torrid Zone, on the contrary, produces 

 animals of the most gigantic and of the most powerful 

 and savage nature ; the air, the earth, and the water 

 here all teem with life; and the number of animals of every 

 kind, of birds, fishes, reptiles, insects, and vegetable 

 productions, is excessive, beyond our imagination. The 

 Temperate Zone preserves a happy medium between the 

 scarcity of the Frigid Zone and the superabundance of 

 the Torrid, and produces everything necessary for the 

 wants and comforts of man. 



While different kinds of animals and vegetables are 

 confined to certain climates, and are with difficulty made 

 to exist by art, except by a peculiar temperature, man 

 alone is unconfined, and can exist in the frozen regions 

 of the North, or in the scorching deserts of the South. 

 The inhabitants of the Frigid Zones differ from those 

 of the Torrid Zone, and both from Europeans, in their 

 physical and mental qualities ; but this cannot be sup- 

 posed to be through any original difference in their na- 

 ture, as undoubtedly all mankind sprang from one head, 

 but from difference of climate and incultivation of mind. 

 Thus as mankind of every clime become more and more 

 enlightened, and their mental faculties expanded, and 

 particularly as they become sensible to the truths of 

 Christianity, so will their characters become elevated, 

 and their habits and modes of living improved. We 

 ourselves were originally a savage people, and are now 

 pre-eminent in science, literature, and religion. 



