m 
and the Distribution ^ Heat over the Globe, 
Baron Von Buch found the minimum of the temperature of the 
water to be 68°, and the maximum 74°. 8. The temperature 
of the air in the warmest of the coldest months, is, in that quar- 
ter, from 64<°.4 to 75°. In advancing towards the north, 
we find still greater differences of winter temperature between 
the surface of the sea and the superincumbent air. The cooled 
particles of water descend till their temperature reaches 89°.2 ; 
and hence in 46° and 50° of Lat. in the part of the Atlantic 
which is near Europe, the maximum and mmimum of heat are 
In the water at its surface, 68“.0 and 41®.9 
In the air from the mean of warmest and coldest months, and 35.6 
The excess in the mean temperature of the water over that of 
the air, attains its maximum beyond the polar circle, where the 
sea does not wholly freeze. The atmosphere is cooled to such a 
degree in these seas, (from 68° to 70° of Lat., and 0° of Long.) 
that the mean temperature of several months of winter descend 
on the continents to 14° and 10°. 4, and on the coasts to S8° 
and 21°. 2, while the temperature of the surface of the sea is 
not below 82° or 80°. 2. If it is true, that even in those high 
latitudes the bottom of the sea contains strata of water which, 
at the maximum of their specific gravity, have 89°. 2 or 41° of 
heat, we may suppose that the water at the bottom contributes 
to diminish the cooling at the surface. These circumstances 
have a great influence on the mildness of countries in continents 
separated from the Pole by an extensive sea. 
Hitherto we have attended to the distribution of heat on the 
surface of the globe at the level of the sea. It only remains for 
us to consider the variations of temperature in the higher re- 
gions of the atmosphere, and in the interior of the earth. 
The decrease of heat in the atmosphere, depends on several 
causes, the principle of which, according, to Laplace and Les- 
lie *, is the property of the air to increase its capacity for heat by 
its rarefaction. If the globe was not surrounded by a mixture 
of elastic and aeriform fluids, it would not be sensibly colder at 
the height of 8747 yards than at the level of the sea. As each 
* Essay on Heat and Moisture, p. 11. i and Geometry, p. 495. 
