226 Meteorological Phenomena in 



remarkable, first in Scotland, and then in America. In February, 

 the warmth advanced from the south up to Berlin, and as far as 

 Dantzic, and the cold was moderate in Sweden. In March it took 

 ground again towards the south, then Dantzic and Berlin were brought 

 once more under its dominion. At last it prevailed again in April 

 over the whole of Southern Europe, but was not proportionably felt in 

 America. If northerly currents are, however, the principal cause of 

 the lowering of the temperature in the winter, still the place where 

 the greatest relative cold prevails, especially in the spring, is not 

 dependent on that cause alone. The pressure of a southerly current 

 through a northern one is, as a rule, associated with a heavy fall of 

 snow, which takes place in the higher mountains also, during the 

 prevalence of the southern current. Then the masses of snow which 

 have been heaped up on the heights during the winter form a centre 

 of refrigeration when the spring has already commenced in the plains 

 below, and occasion frequent returns of cold. The cold air then dis- 

 charges itself in the form of cataracts and waterfalls, which pour down 

 the sides of the Alps. One may easily trace this cold in Berlin, 

 where it arrives, for example, with a south wind. Those who dwell 

 in the plac3 where this cold reaches its maximum, form an exagge- 

 rated idea of the extremes if they do not take into consideration the 

 diffusion of warmth in other places. Thus, in the Berlin papers the 

 winter of 1823-24 w : as mentioned with great emphasis as a hitherto 

 unheard-of occurrence. It was certainly severe, but it was felt 

 only near Berlin, and the weather was much milder in the south of 

 Germany. The atmosphere took very little note of the ideas enter- 

 tained by many Berlin writers, that it must have been general. For, 

 when with its proud waves it flowed over the Alps, was it likely, they 

 thought, that its progress should be stopped by the walls of our city ? 

 The winter of 1740 was also very severe, as well as that of 1840, 

 in which it solemnised its jubilee. Such isolated extremes as these 

 deceive the judgment for a long time ; and it was an instance of 

 the same kind, occurring in the climate of France during the war, 

 which gave our troops, who made acquaintance with the country when 

 it was experiencing an accidental degree of cold, much too unfavour- 

 able an idea of its climate. They judged of it by the severe winter 

 of 1813-14. The opposite errors are committed by German travel- 

 lers, who go into Italy to winter, and needlessly expose themselves 

 to the bitter cold of Lombardy. No one could wish that every tra- 

 veller should be transformed into a meteorologist, still every one ought 

 to know that January is colder in Milan than on the west coast of 

 Iceland. 



If extremes of weather have prevailed for a long time during win- 

 ter, then as the sun's power increases with the advancing season, the 

 spring has already begun in the countries which had a mild winter; 

 whilst in places where the severest cold had prevailed, the temperature 

 has not risen much above the freezing point, and the increased warmth 



