LAND- AND SEA-CLIMATES. 157 



necessary to bring them in-doors. The island of 

 Chiloe, like the adjoining continent, is covered with 

 a thick forest which abounds in moisture ; the air 

 is seldom entirely clear. Only nine degrees of 

 latitude to the north, in dry central Chili, where, 

 during a long summer of seven months, no rain 

 falls, and the sky is seldom overcast with clouds, 

 the snow-line is raised eight thousand feet higher. 



The Pyrenees and the Caucasus lie under 

 exactly the same latitude ; yet in the latter the 

 snow-limit is found two thousand feet higher, 

 because the greater distance of this range from the 

 ocean, and the consequently greater dryness of the 

 air, lessens the abundance of atmospheric precipi- 

 tation during the winter months, while on the 

 other hand it favours the thawing and evaporation 

 in summer. 



The influence of dryness and of the continental 

 summer is shown most strikingly on the Himalaya, 

 on whose southern slope the snow-level comes 

 down four thousand feet lower than on the 

 northern. 



On the Alps, the snow-level descends throughout 

 somewhat lower on the north than on the south 

 side, because in Italy in winter and summer the 

 air is warmer and clearer than it is in Germany, 

 and moreover because the frequent warm south 

 winds (the "Foen") first touch the southern slope. 



Many peaks of the Alps, which rise above the 



