370 



VAKIATIOXS OF TEMPERATUKE. 



Important 

 chanjrus of 

 temperature. 



CHAPTF.n mouth of the Terek, (in the latitude of Avignon and 

 XXV IIL j{,iiiiiui) the thermometer sinks in the winter to — 13" 

 or — 22°." 



No less remarkable are the important changes in 

 temperature, animal and vegetable life, &c., produced 

 by relative position, and deu;rees of elevation. To this, 

 nearly as much as to tlie comparative distances from the 

 equator and the pole, belong the great variations of tem- 

 perature, and tlie changes in the living beings scattered 

 through different portions of the same zone; so that 

 it still remains an unsolved question, whether vast 

 tracts in the interior of the African continent are arid 

 wastes, burnt up by equatorial fires, or elevated plateaus 

 clothed witli the rich herbages and occupied by the 

 abundant life of a temperate clime. The Nile, it is now 

 all but proved, rises in mountains covered with eternal 

 snows, and in the supposed torrid centre of the African 

 continent, very recent discoveries have brought to light 

 a vast inland lake, or sea, the source of internal commu- 

 nication, as well as of a more tempered clime. " The 

 same relations," says Humboldt, " which exist between 

 the equable littoral climate of the peninsula of Brittany, 

 and the lower winter and higher summer temperature of 

 the reinainder of the continent of France, are likewise 

 manifested, in some degree, between Europe and the great 

 continent of Asia, of which the former may be consi- 

 dered to constitute the western peninsula. Europe owes 

 its milder climate, in the first place, to its position with 

 respect to Africa, whose wide extent of tropical land is 

 favourable to the ascending current, while the equatorial 

 region to the south of Asia is almost wholly oceanic; 

 and next to its deeply articulated configuration, to the 

 vicinity of the ocean on its western shores ; and, lastly, 

 to the existence of an open sea, wliich bounds its northern 

 confines. Europe would, therefore, become cohler if 

 Africa were to be overflowed by the ocean; or if the 

 mythical Atlantis were to arise and connect Europe 

 with North America ; or if the- gulf stream were no 



Climates of 

 Europe and 

 Alrica. 



