of Edinburgh , Session 1868-69. 567 
within a hundred miles of the Mediterranean in Algeria, and 
extends probably south to the 20th parallel of north latitude. 
Taking up the line in Asia, we find it passing completely 
round the interior of Asia Minor, at no great distance from its 
coasts, then through Damascus into Arabia, round the head of the 
Persian Gulf, and through the Punjab, south of Peshawar, to the 
table-land of Tibet and the coast of China, near Shanghae ; 
thence it turns north-east through the Yellow Sea to Hakodadi, 
in the north island of Japan, along the line of islands to the east 
coast of Kamtchatka, near Petropaulovsk, across the Behring Sea 
toAliaska; thence down the west coast of America, close to the 
lines of less range, to the 35th parallel of north latitude, where it 
turns east across the continent to the west coast at Chesapeake 
Bay ; thence it skirts the coasts of Nova Scotia, touches on New- 
foundland at St John’s, and, taking a northern direction, reaches 
the Greenland coast near Disco Island. Carried south by the 
influence of Greenland, it leaves the east coast, perhaps in the 
latitude of Iceland, and stretches thence probably beyond the 
North Pole, returning to the islands of Novaia Zemlia, where 
observation at two points gives a range of only 39°. From this 
the line of 40° range keeps near the north coast of Russia, and 
passes down through the centre of the Scandinavian Peninsula, 
by Christiana and Gottenburg to Stockholm, is carried north- 
wards into the Gulf of Bothnia, then half way into the Gulf of 
Finland to Helsingfors, along the coasts of the Baltic provinces, 
and southwards through central Europe to Vienna. As we found 
the chain of the Pyrenees breaking the line of 30° range, so here 
we observe that the range of the Alps isolates the part of this line 
of 40°, which marks out the plain of Northern Italy. Another 
separate area, of above 40° range, is observed in the valley of the 
Ebro, in North-East Spain, and the heights of the Carpathians and 
Transylvanian Alps form a third exceptional portion of this line, 
since, though within the main line of 40°, they have a slightly less 
range. From Vienna the main line of 40° passes round the Hun- 
garian plain, through Turkey to the north of the Balkan range, 
across the Black Sea south of the Crimea, into Trans Caucasia, 
nearly as far as Tiflis, and thence bends back again round the coasts 
of Asia Minor. 
4 E 
TOT/. VI. 
