The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

104 SCANDINAVIA.seas these long and alternating nights and days contribute to impart to thelife of the land its grand and stern aspect, which so endears it to the people.The form of the Norwegian seaboard aids not a little in maintaining thewarmth of the land. The temperature of the fiords to their lowest depths ishigher than that of the ambient atmosphere. The researches made by ALohnshow that these basins are filled with comparatively warm waters, 24° higherthan the surface air in January.* This is due to their formation, causingthem to communicate over raised ledges with the ocean, whence they consequentlyreceive warm south-west currents only. The deep waters of the Faroerand Iceland seas under the same latitudes have a temperature below freezingpoint, whereas the fiords never freeze except along the shores farthest removedfrom the high seas. Thus the whole Norwegian seaboard is, so to say, furnishedwith a vast heating apparatus by these outer reservoirs filled with waters severaldecrees above the normal temperature.The thermometric regime of these waters presents remarkable contrasts withthe seasons. In summer and autumn the temperature falls from the surfacedownwards, whereas in winter the heat rises gradually with the depth, a resultdue to the atmosphere. In summer the air is warmer than the surface waters,which it consequently heats. This heat is transmitted downwards, but veryslowly, while the colder and heavier zones remain below.isIn winter the surfacerapidly cooled by the colder atmosphere, the lower zones remaining unchanged.But from the surface downwards the natural sinking of the cold strata producesdisplacements of the liquid layers, which regulate the series of temperatures.The thermal curves for each season figured on Mohn's ingenious charts oscillateon either side of a fixed standard, occurring at about 600 feet below the surface.Nevertheless the influence of the warm waters would be very slight but for thewarm south-west and south winds prevailing on the Norwegian seaboard. It isunder their influence that the Scandinavian isothermals are diverted northwards,following the coast-line almost inversely to their normal direction.Still there is a certain alternation in the general atmospheric movement.The prevailing winds in winter, and even in spring and autumn, are breezesblowing from all the valleys and fiords towards the surface of the sea, whosetemperature is always above freezing point. But in summer the reverse takesplace, the winds setting from the ocean towards the heated regions of the interior.Thus the temperature of the sea and coast lands becomes modified from monthtc month. The winds passing over the inland snow-fields cool the waters of theseaboard, which preserve their normal temperature only where the influence ofthose winds is unlelt. In their alternating movement from winter to summerand summer to winter the winds are deflected regularly with the coast-line.winter they set northwards, thus aiding vessels coasting from the Naze to NorthIn* Temperature of the fiords and the atmosphere :Atmosphere.Deep Water. Mean. January.. 41° 45° 33° SkagcrEak Trondhjem-fiord .Hardanger-fiord 43" 45° 32° Vest-fiordSogne-fiord . 43 s 45" 31' Varangcr-fiordBeep Water.. 44'