5G 
On the Temperature of the Sea, and its Influence 
and then sweeps up the valleys whieli open on tlie south-west to the 
sea. A glance at a geolojjical map will show that all the older lock- 
lormations have in these islands a general strike from the north-east 
to the south-west, and thus govern the direction of many open 
vallevs and mountain chains. This is particularly the case in the 
south-west of Ireland, where the valleys and bays open funnel-like 
to the sea ; and on the west of Scotland the Firths and Lochs have 
a similar arrangement. In England the bell-mouthed Severn opens 
up a passage for the warm wind to the middle of the country. 
The Hat surface of the middle of Ireland enables the westerly 
wind to have a clear sweep over most of the island ; it afterwards 
sheds its heat on the plain of Cheshire, and deluges the Cum- 
berland mountains with rain. 
The hills which constitute the backbone of England form a 
dividing wall of climate, which may be traced from the Cots- 
wolds northward along the crests of the Pennine range to the 
Cheviot hills. On the west of this line we have the warmth 
and humidity of the ocean, on the east the dry air and greater 
summer-heat of the Continent. It is a wall which, so far as 
climate is concerned, divides the arable field from the grazing 
lands of England : on the one side there is a preponderance of corn- 
growing power, on the other of meat-producing capabilities. The 
texture of the soil and the demand at the market may modify 
this conclusion ; but other things being equal, submission to the 
teaching of climate will in the long run be found the safest and 
jnost profitable course for the farmer to pursue. 
After the end of April and during the summer months the 
British Isles receive no warmth from the surrounding seas ; but 
the wide ocean on the west then produces a contrary effect. As 
the great wave of summer-temperature sweeps northward over 
Europe, it is retarded by the cooler air from the sea on the 
western coasts, where the isothermals are bent southward along 
the coast-line from Denmark to Belgium. 
The amount of heat which in July rests on the south of 
England is on the Continent extended further north than St. 
Petersburg ; and in this month the summer-heat is as great at 
Tornea and Archangel as at lulinburgh. 
The comparatively low temperature of the water of the German 
Ocean in summer tends also further to reduce the inHuence which 
the high summer temperature of Central Europe would otherwise 
exert on the eastern plains of England ; but any defect of our 
climate due to this cause is more than compensated for by 
the equality of temperature and steady downfall of rain which 
we enjoy, and which give a capability of productive power to the 
soil of England far greater than the dry summer-heat of the Con- 
tinent could bestow. 
