514 Europe : — a popular Physical Sketch. 



is 39*32°, in Vienna 37*12°, at Bourdeaux 28-4°. In the plateau 

 of Auvergne, the town of Clermont (1349 feet above the sea) 

 has a mean temperature equal to that of Paris, which is 

 situated 3° more to the northward. Clermont, compared to 

 Bourdeaux, proves that a height of 1349 feet lowers the 

 mean temperature 5'62°, which is at the rate of 2*25° per 537*8 

 feet. 



The annual quantity of rain on the west coast of France 

 is 24§ inches, consequently little less than in Holland, and a 

 good deal less than in the west of England. Towards the 

 mountains the quantity increases; in the Rhine valley, for 

 instance, from Coblentz to Muhlhaunsen from 21 to 28£ 

 inches. On the eastern plains the quantity appears to be- 

 come less, more so even than on the north European plain ; 

 thus the quantity of rain in Prag is 18 inches, in Ofen 16. 



Notwithstanding the Carpathians attain an elevation of. 

 8533 feet, yet the snow on them is not perpetual ; and on the 

 Eisthalerspitze but a little snow remains during summer in 

 the clefts, and there forms a small glacier ; nor do the rest of 

 the central European mountains, of which none is higher than 

 6400 feet, reach the snow-line. The higher mountains of 

 the Carpathians are of course covered with snow during the 

 greater part of the year, which some of their names indicate, 

 as Schneekopf,* Schneeberg.f 



The western coast of France consists in a great measure 

 of heaths (Les Landes), but is also covered in some places 

 by forests, consisting of coast-fir, a species quite different 

 from the northern. The French mountains (Jura, Cevennes, 

 Auvergnes,) present chiefly beech and oak in the higher, 

 chestnut in the lower regions. The German mountains are 

 covered partly by pines and (hence the names of Schwarz- 

 wald, Tichtelgebirge, &c.) partly by beech and oak, and in 

 the Rhine, Mayence, and Neckar valley is also found the 



* i. e. Snow-head. t i« e- Snow-mountain. 



