i CLIMATE AND ASPECTS OF THE EQUATORIAL ZONE 219 
not be difficult to point out localities within the temperate 
zone of our maps, which exhibit all the chief characteristics of 
tropical nature to a greater degree than other localities which 
are, as regards geographical position, tropical. 
Temperature of the Equatorial Zone 
The most characteristic, as it is the most important feature 
in the physical conditions of the great equatorial zone, 
is the wonderful uniformity of its temperature, alike 
throughout the changes of day and night, and from one 
part of the year to another. As a general rule, the 
greatest heat of the day does not exceed 90° or 91° Fahr., 
while it seldom falls during the night below 74° Fahr. It 
has been found by hourly observations carried on for three 
years at the meteorological observatory established by the 
Dutch government at Batavia, that the extreme range of 
temperature in that period was only 27° Fahr., the maximum 
being 95° and the minimum 68°. But this is, of course, very 
much beyond the usual daily range of the thermometer, which 
is, on the average, only a little more than 11° Fahr. ; being 
12*6° in September, when it is greatest, and only 8T° in 
January, when it is least. 
Batavia, being situated between six and seven degrees 
south of the equator, may be taken as affording a fair example 
of the climate of the equatorial zone; though, being in an 
island, it is somewhat less extreme than many continental 
localities. Observations made at Para, which is on the South 
American Continent, and close to the equator, agree, however, 
very closely with those at Batavia ; but at the latter place all 
the observations were made with extreme care and with the 
best instruments, and are therefore preferred as being 
thoroughly trustworthy. 1 The accompanying diagram, show- 
ing by curves the monthly means of the highest and lowest 
daily temperatures at Batavia and London, is very instructive ; 
more especially when we consider that the maximum of tem- 
perature is by no means remarkably different in the two 
1 “ Observations made at the Magnetical and Meteorological Observatory 
at Batavia. Published by order of the Government of Netherlands, India. 
Yol, I. Meteorological, from Jan. 1866 to Dec. 1868 ; and Magnetical, from 
July 1867 to June 1870. By Dr. P. A. Bergsma, Batavia, 1871.” This 
fine work is entirely in English. 
