CHANGES OF TEMPKRATURE. 371 



longer to diifuse the warminn; influence of its waters CHAPTEK 

 into the North Sea; or if, finally, anotlicr mass of solid ^^^^L 

 land should be upheaved by volcanic action, and inter- 

 posed between the Scandinavian peninsula and Spitz- 

 bergen. If we observe that in Europe the mean annual Chances of 

 temperature falls as we proceed, from west to east, under [JJ'sain'cf ""^ 

 the same parallel of latitude, from the Atlantic shores of r'H/'i'^^i of 

 France through Germany, Poland, and Russia, towards 

 the Uralian mountains, the main cause of this pheno- 

 menon of increasing cold must be sought in the form of 

 the continent, (which becomes less indented, and wider, 

 and more compact, as we advance,) in the increasing 

 distance from seas, and in the diminished influence of 

 westerly winds. Beyond the Uralian mountains, these 

 winds are converted into cool land-winds, blowing over 

 extended tracts covered with ice and snow. The cold Temperature 

 of western Siberia is to be ascribed to these relations of 

 configuration and atmospheric currents, and not — as 

 Hippocrates and Trogus Pompeius, and even celebrated 

 travellers of the eighteenth centurj', conjectured — to the 

 great elevation of the soil above the level of the sea." 



But it is impossible to reduce within limited space, Extent of 

 and in a popular form, all the remarkable indications of ^"^ ^^'^ 

 natural phenomena and great general laws, brought by 

 the extensive researches, and singularly sagacious con- 

 clusions of the great traveller. 



Humboldt treats, in another of the remarkable works Views of 

 which we owe to his pen, of the sublime phenomena of 

 creation, as illustrated by science. This has been de- 

 signated " Views of Nature," and in it, also, he describes 

 some of the most remarkable natural phenomena of the 

 Asiatic continent. In the chapter in which he treats of 

 steppes and deserts, he remarks — " On the mountainous 

 range of Central Asia, between the Gold or Altai Moun- 

 tain and the Kouen-lien, from the Chinese wall to the 

 further side of the Celestial Mountains, and towards the 

 Sea of Aral, over a space of several thousand miles, ex- 

 tend, if not the highest, certainly the largest steppes in 



