A VENERABLE CLIMATIC FALLACY 185 



Comparison of the oceanic and terrestrial 60° belts. — Advancing 

 10° poleward, it is to be noted that the parallel of 60° S. Lat. is 

 practically oceanic throughout; it crosses no appreciable land. It 

 traverses the southern portions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian 

 oceans and these portions have broad connections with the corre- 

 sponding tropical portions, affording free faciHties for a normal 

 distribution of oceanic influence. Notwithstanding this, the belt 

 is one of prevailing ice floes. The mean temperature at the surface 

 is practically 0° C, and the climate very severe. Such Hfe as 

 appears at and above the surface seems to be chiefly that which 

 lives directly or indirectly on the minute life brought to the region 

 by under currents of the ocean. Such life is not therefore a direct 

 index of the local climate. There are no permanent human settle- 

 ments on any island in this belt or on any lands within it. 



Quite in contrast to this oceanic parallel, the parallel of 60° N. 

 Lat. lies chiefly on land. It however crosses the Atlantic, where 

 narrowed at the north, touching the very apex of Greenland; it also 

 crosses Behring Sea, a dependency of the North Pacific. It is 

 inhabited by man in practically all its sections. It shows rather 

 markedly the local effects of the warm currents of the ocean in 

 raising the temperature on the east sides of the water bodies and 

 of the cold currents in lowering it on the west sides. But even in 

 Siberia, where the oceanic influence is unfavorable or remote, Viv- 

 ninkskoe, Ust Maiskaya, Olekminsk, and Repolovskoe lie on or near 

 the 60th parallel, while many settlements lie farther north. Follow- 

 ing the parallel westward from Siberia, we reach Petrograd before 

 much effect of the warm Atlantic currents is felt. Farther on, 

 Helsmgfors and all the settlements of Finland lie north of this paral- 

 lel, while Upsala lies just south of it and much the larger part of 

 Sweden lies north of it. Christiania is almost on the 60th parallel, 

 while nearly all Norway lies north of it. The Scandinavian penin- 

 sula shows markedly the effects, not of "the ocean" in an unquali- 

 fied sense, but of the warm currents of the east side of the ocean. This 

 effect is offset, on the west side, by the Labrador Current, which 

 gives rise to corresponding depressive effects. These latter are 

 just as much effects of "the ocean" as are those of the Gulf Stream. 



