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Ch. XII.] 



OF CORRESPONDING LATITUDES. 



237 



everywhere a mean temperature, which it communicates to 

 the contiguous land, so that it tempers the climate, mode- 

 rating alike an excess of heat or cold. The elevated land, on 

 the other hand, rising to the colder regions of the atmosphere, 

 becomes a great reservoir of ice and snow, arrests, condenses, 

 and congeals vapour, and communicates its cold to the ad- 

 joining country. For this reason, Greenland, forming part 

 of a continent which stretches northward to the 82nd de- 

 gree of latitude, experiences under the 60th parallel a more 

 rigorous climate than Lapland under the 72nd parallel. 



In addition, however, to the cause here assigned by Hum- 

 boldt, it must be borne in mind that the eastern coast of 

 Greenland is skirted for a thousand miles by the cold waters 

 of the Greenland current flowing from the North Pole, while 

 Lapland is warmed by the waters of the Gulf-stream flowing 

 from the south. 



But if land be situated between the 45th parallel and the 

 equator, it produces, unless it be of great height, exactly the 

 opposite effect ; for it then warms the tracts of land or sea 

 that intervene between it and the polar circle. For the sur- 

 face being in this case exposed to the vertical or steeply 

 sloping rays of the sun, absorbs a large quantity of heat, and 

 raises the temperature of the atmosphere which is in contact 

 with it. For this reason, the western parts of the old conti- 

 nent derive warmth from Africa, ' which, like an immense 

 furnace, distributes its heat to Arabia, to Turkey in Asia, 

 and to Europe.'* The north-eastern extremity of Asia, on 

 the contrary, experiences in the same latitude extreme cold ; 

 for it has the land of Siberia on the north between the 65th 

 and 70th parallel, while to the south it is separated from 

 the equator by the Pacific Ocean. 



In consequence of the more equal temperature of the waters 

 of the ocean, the climate of islands and of coasts differs essen- 

 tially from that of the interior of continents, the more mari- 

 time climates being characterised by mild winters and more 

 temperate summers ; for the sea breezes moderate the cold 

 of winter, as well as the heat of summer. When, therefore, 

 we trace round the globe those belts in which the mean 



* Malte-Brim, Phys. Geol. book xvii. 





