CLIMATES OF THE OCEAN. 303 



the Atlantic, from the equator to the parallel of 40° north, and 

 which raised this immense area to the temperature of 80° and up- 

 ward, is not to be found in earlj spring on this side of the parallel 

 of 8° north. 



873. The isotherm of 80° in March, after quitting the Carihhean 

 Sea, runs parallel with the South American coast toward Cape 

 St. E-oque, keeping some 8 or 10 degrees from it. Therefore the 

 heat dispensed over Europe from this caldron falls off in March. 

 But at this season the sun comes forth with fresh supplies ; he 

 then crosses the line and passes over into the northern hemisphere ; 

 observations show that the process of heating the water in this 

 great caldron for the next winter is now about to commence. 



874. In the mean time, so benign is the system of cosmical ar- 

 rangements, another process of raising the temperature of Europe 

 commences. The land is more readily impressed than the sea by 

 the heat of the solar rays ; at this season, then, the summer cli- 

 mate due these transatlantic latitudes is modified by the action of 

 the sun's rays directly upon the land. The land receives heat from 

 them, but, instead of having the capacity of water for retaining it, 

 it imparts it straightway to the air ; and thus the proper climate, 

 because it is the climate which the Creator has, for his own wise 

 purposes, allotted to this portion of the earth, is maintained until 

 the marine caldron of Cape St. Eoque and the tropics is again heat- 

 ed and brought into the state for supplying the means of maintain- 

 ing the needful temperature in Europe during the absence of the 

 sun in the other hemisphere. 



875. In like manner, the Gulf of Guinea forms a caldron and a 

 furnace, and spreads out over the South Atlantic an air-chamber 

 for heating up in winter and keeping warm the extra-tropical re- 

 gions of South America. Every traveler has remarked upon the 

 mild climate of Patagonia and the Falkland Islands. 



876. "Temperature in high southern latitudes," says a very 

 close observer, who is co-operating with me in collecting materials, 

 " differs greatly from the temperature in northern. In southern 

 latitudes there seem to be no extremes of heat and cold, as at the 

 north. Newport, Ehode Island, for instance, latitude 41° north, 

 longitude 71° west, and Rio Negro, latitude 41° south, and Ion- 



