156 HEAT OF HIGHER LAYERS OF AIR. 



perpetual snow at any place. On the Swedish 

 side of the Scandinavian mountain-chain, the snow- 

 limit retreats on account of the hotter summer to 

 a greater height than on the Norwegian side, 

 where, notwithstanding the higher annual tempe- 

 rature, the summer is cooler and wetter, and where 

 consequently the fall of snow in the mountains is 

 greater, and the thaw takes place more slowly 

 than in Sweden. In the same manner, it is ob- 

 served that the snow on the eastern slopes of the 

 Andes of South America melts away to a consider- 

 ably greater height than on the western side, 

 where the summer, somewhat cooler by reason of 

 the influence of the sea, cannot act so powerfully in 

 lessening the store of snow laid up during the winter, 

 as does the hotter and drier summer of the inland 

 continent. It seems to be the general rule, that 

 the snow-level descends in the neighbourhood of 

 the sea, while, on the contrary, in the interiors of 

 continents on great mountain-masses and table- 

 lands, it is lifted up. Thus the unusually low 

 position of the snow-line, in the mountains of 

 southern Chili and Chiloe, which run near the sea, 

 is to be attributed entirely to the influence of the 

 moist sea-air. The mean temperature of Chiloe is 

 10°-5 C. (50°'9 P.) Nevertheless the summer 

 there is so cool that, with the exception of apples 

 and strawberries, no fruit ripens perfectly, and 

 that sometimes, to ripen barley and corn, it is 



