CLIMATE. 229 



Although the amount of solar heat poured out over 

 the two hemispheres in the course of the year may be 

 absolutely equal, yet a priori the climate of the southern 

 hemisphere must theoretically be more extreme than that 

 of the northern hemisphere. It is true that in perman- 

 ently-inhabited countries of the southern hemisphere, and 

 in latitudes that have been visited at all seasons of the 

 year, less fluctuation in temperature has been observed 

 than in corresponding places of the northern hemisphere ; 

 but the cause of this deviation from normal conditions 

 must be looked for in the unequal distribution of land 

 and water, in the huge preponderance of the oceanic over 

 continental areas, and in the existence of the gigantic 

 southern ocean, with its three broad bays penetrating 

 northward deep into the land. The Antarctic region 

 is situated precisely like an island in the middle of 

 this boundless ocean, nowhere approaching any known 

 continent to within 600 miles ; and it is thus deprived of 

 the climatic influences of vast continental regions, while, 

 on the contrary, subject to the unmitigated oceanic climate 

 of our globe. The character of an oceanic climate is well 

 known ; it is equable, and by diminishing the fluctations 

 in temperature it reduces the summer heat and the winter 

 cold, and produces great precipitation of moisture. This 

 would lead us to expect that the climate of the Antarctic 

 masses of land, or of the problematical south polar con- 

 tinent, must be wholly dominated by the climate of the 

 great southern ocean, and must share its peculiarities. 

 This, however, is counteracted by the peculiar positions 

 of south polar lands. If we imagine all the lands of those 

 regions, as far as they are known to us, united into a 

 single mass, then the coasts would, in accordance with 

 our present knowledge, have an equatorial direction. 

 But in that case the ocean would immediately be deprived 

 of a large part of its influence, because for any given 

 degree of latitude the supply of solar heat is a constant 



