238 winds; climate; 



than in the rest of Germany. To the Scandinavian 

 mountains, which run between Norway and 

 Sweden from the farthest north of Europe, a still 

 more remarkable contrast between the condition 

 of these two countries, as regards climate, is owing. 

 For, while the sea-climate prevails throughout the 

 whole of Norway up to the North Cape, the 

 north of Sweden, and of Lapland particularly, 

 presents all the marks of the continental climate 

 — colder winters, warmer summers, and greater 

 dryness of the air. 



Similar conditions hold good in North America. 

 A mighty chain of mountains, many of whose 

 peaks reach above the snow-level, runs from the 

 Arctic Sea on the west side of the Mackenzie 

 river, and through seven or eight degrees of lati- 

 tude, almost along the coast of the Pacific. 

 This range arrests altogether the proper influence 

 of the sea-air ; and this explains why the western 

 slopes of the Rocky Mountains, down to the sea- 

 coast, have far less difference between their ex- 

 tremes of temperature, and a higher mean, than the 

 east of North America enjoys. It is true that 

 west and south-west winds blow regularly quite 

 across to the eastern coasts, but they must yield 

 up their charges of heat and moisture on the high 

 crests of the mountains, and they are therefore 

 generally dry, bringing with them only the tem- 

 perature of the wide tracts of countrv over which 



