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vities, chilling the surrounding valleys: such is the cutting north wind called the bise in Switzerland.

Next to elevation, the difference in the radiating and absorbing powers of the sea and land has the greatest influence in disturbing the regular distribution of heat. The extent of the dry land is not above the fourth part of that of the ocean, so that the general temperature of the atmosphere, regarded as the result of the partial temperatures of the whole surface of the globe, is most powerfully modified by the sea; besides, the ocean acts more uniformly on the atmosphere than the diversified surface of the solid mass does, both by the equality of its curvature and its homogeneity. In opaque substances the accumulation of heat is confined to the stratum nearest the surface; but the seas become less heated at their surface than the land, because the solar rays, before being extinguished, penetrate the transparent liquid to a greater depth, and in greater numbers than in the opaque masses. On the other hand, water has a considerable radiating power, which, together with evaporation, would reduce the surface of the ocean to a very low temperature, if the cold particles did not sink to the bottom, on account of their superior density. The seas preserve a considerable portion of the heat they receive in summer, and, from their saltness, do not freeze so soon as fresh

water so that, in consequence of all these circumstances, the ocean is not subject to such variations of heat as the land; and, by imparting its temperature to the winds, it diminishes the intensity of climate on the coasts and in the islands, which are never subject to such extremes of heat and cold as are experienced in the interior of continents, though they are liable to fogs and rain from the evaporation of the adjacent seas. On each side of the equator, to the 48th degree of latitude, the surface of the ocean is in general warmer than the air above it: the mean of the difference of temperature at noon and midnight is about 1°.37, the greatest deviation never exceeding from 0°.36 to 2016, which is much cooler than the air over the land.

On land the temperature, depends upon the nature of the soil and its products, its habitual moisture or dryness. From the eastern extremity of the Sahara desert quite across Africa, the soil is almost entirely barren sand, and the Sahara desert itself, without including Dafour or Dongola, extends over an area of 194000 square leagues, equal to twice the area of the Mediterranean Sea, and raises the temperature of the air by radiation from 90° to 100°, which must have a most extensive influence. On the contrary, vegetation cools the air by evaporation and the apparent radiation

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of cold from the leaves of plants, because they absorb more caloric than they give out. graminiferous plains of South America cover an extent ten times greater than France, occupying no less than about 50000 square leagues, which is more than the whole chain of the Andes, and all the scattered mountain-groups of Brazil: these, together with the plains of North America and the steppes of Europe and Asia, must have an extensive cooling effect on the atmosphere, if it be considered that, in calm and serene nights, they cause the thermometer to descend 12° or 14°, and that, in the meadows and heaths in England, the absorption of heat by the grass is sufficient to cause the temperature to sink to the point of congelation during the night for ten months in the year. Forests cool the air also by shading the ground from the rays of the sun, and by evaporation from the boughs. Hales found that the leaves of a single plant of helianthus, three feet high, exposed nearly forty feet of surface; and if it be considered that the woody regions of the river Amazons, and the higher part of the Oroonoko, occupy an area of 260000 square leagues, some idea be formed of the torrents of vapour may which arise from the leaves of the forests all over the globe. However, the frigorific effects of their evaporation are counteracted in some measure by

the perfect calm which reigns in the tropical wildernesses. The innumerable rivers, lakes, pools, and marshes interspersed through the continents absorb caloric, and cool the air by evaporation; but on account of the chilled and dense particles sinking to the bottom, deep water diminishes the cold of winter, so long as ice is not formed.

In consequence of the difference in the radiating and absorbing powers of the sea and land, their configuration greatly modifies the distribution of heat over the surface of the globe. Under the equator only one-sixth part of the circumference is land; and the superficial extent of land in the northern and southern hemispheres is in the proportion of three to one: the effect of this unequal division is greater in the temperate, than in the torrid zones, for the area of land in the northern temperate zone is to that in the southern as thirteen to one, whereas the proportion of land between the equator and each tropic is as five to four; and it is a curious fact, noticed by Mr. Gardner, that only one twenty-seventh part of the land of the globe has land diametrically opposite to it. This disproportionate arrangement of the solid part of the globe has a powerful influence on the temperature of the southern hemisphere. But, besides these greater modifications, the peninsulas, promontories, and capes, running out into the

ocean, together with bays and internal seas, all affect the temperature: to these may be added, the position of continental masses with regard to the cardinal points. All these diversities of land and water affect the temperature by the agency of the winds. On this account the temperature is lower on the eastern coasts both of the New and Old World, than on the western; for, considering Europe as an island, the general temperature is mild in proportion as the aspect is open to the western ocean, the superficial temperature of which, as far north as the 45° and 50° of latitude, does not fall below 48° or 51° of Fahrenheit, even in middle of winter. On the contrary, the cold of Russia arises from its exposure to the northern and eastern winds; but the European part of that empire has a less rigorous climate than the Asiatic, because the whole northern extremity of Europe is separated from the polar ice by a zone of open sea, whose winter temperature is much above that of a continental country under the same latitude.

The interposition of the atmosphere modifies all the effects of the sun's heat; but the earth communicates its temperature so slowly, that M. Arago has occasionally found as much as from 14° to 18° of difference between the heat of the soil and that of the air two or three inches above it.

The circumstances which have been enumerated,

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