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and moisture which are received; for, if we examine this from 
the extreme north of Europe to the Torrid Zone, we find, 
as we change the latitude, a continual change in the physiog- 
nomy of the vegetation. And, again, if, in the Torrid 
Zone, we ascend from the level of the sea to the top of the 
highest mountains, which, there, often rise above the limits 
of perpetual snow, we find the same order of changes more 
or less defined. In ascending these mountains, the same 
climates are passed through which correspond to burning 
Africa, the temperate lands of Europe, and frozen of Spitz- 
bergen; and as the elevation changes, so does the vegetation. 
The beautiful banana and the majestic palm in the tropics 
are not found above the height of 8,000 feet, but near the 
limit of perpetual snow are the grasses and other plants of 
Northern Europe. 
The change of latitude is not, however, accompanied by a 
corresponding change in heat and moisture, owing to several 
causes which I shall shortly mention : — 
1. Inland localities are colder than sea-coast ones of the 
same latitude. Thus, if we go towards the pole in the 
interior of the two great continents of either America or the 
Old World, it is found that the temperature decreases much 
more rapidly than in the interjacent seas. By Behring's 
Straits the voyager can only penetrate to the 70th degree of 
north latitude ; by sailing along the American coast, through 
Baffin's Bay, he has reached the 77th degree of north lati- 
tude ; while in the open sea, in the meridians of Norway and 
Sweden, it is easy to sail to Spitzbergen, which lies above 
the 81st degree of north latitude. The pole, therefore, is 
not the coldest point of the earth, but there are two poles of 
cold, one in the interior of each continent. 
2. Winds and rain, or the absence of the latter, are other 
perturbing causes. In the north of Chili, on the coast of 
Bolivia, and in the south of Peru, are large tracts of country 
