Europe : — a popular Physical Sketch. 5 



The mean temperature at the south-west extremity of the 

 Alps on the coast of the Mediterranean (Avignon, Mar- 

 seilles) is considerable, and the winter very mild (equal to 

 the spring at Copenhagen). On the Lombardric plain (Mi- 

 lan) the mean temperature is somewhat lower, and the win- 

 ter proportionally severe, severer even than in Edinburgh ; 

 the summer temperature again is proportionally high. Du- 

 ring a long series of years, the greatest heat has been 92.75°, 

 the greatest cold 5°. The maritime Alps and the Apennines 

 guard against the influence of the sea, and the climate 

 therefore approaches to continental. 



Still more deviating are the seasons in the eastern extre- 

 mity of the Alps (Ofen), where the difference between summer 

 and winter is 39.37°, in Milan 36°, at Marseilles only 21.37°; 

 the Bavarian table land (Munich) in consequence of its ele- 

 vation, 1706 feet above the sea, has nearly the same mean 

 temperature as Denmark, and yet the cold is sometimes 19.7° 

 below zero.* At Geneva, in consequence of the elevation, the 

 mean temperature is lower than at Paris, which is situated 

 3° more northerly, and the winter is proportionally mild, 

 because the Rhone valley affords a passage for the mild 

 south-westerly winds. At an elevation of 3200 feet (Peissen- 

 berg) is found a mean temperature like that of Stockholm, 

 but the winter is milder, and the summer less warm than in 

 the Swedish capital. 



At an elevation of 6826 to 8213 feet (the monasteries St. 

 Gothard and St. Bernard) the mean temperature is lower 

 than at the North Cape. In the Alps, consequently, a 

 traveller may in less than 24 hours pass through as many 

 different climates as he would on a journey from the foot of 

 the Alps to the North Cape. From a probable calculation, 

 the mean temperature on the top of Mont Blanc must be 

 27° below the freezing point. 



* During some 50 years the greatest cold has been 8.5o below zero, 

 the greatest heat 93.87° in Copenhagen. 



