The universal geography : earth and its inhabitants

8 THE NORTH-EAST ATLANTIC.the normal climate of these lands. In the middle of the North Atlantic, underthe 50° parallel, the waters have a temperature of over 54° Fahr. even inJanuary, whereas in Silesia and Russia, under the same parallel, the thermometerat times falls to 20° or even 30° below zero. On the westernseaboard of Ireland, where the myrtle flourishes as on the Mediterranean shores,the winter temperature is higher than that of Naples and Athens. In GreatBritain the northern extremity of Scotland, washed by these southern waters,enjoys in January a somewhat warmer atmosphere than London and other townsin the south of England. In short, the normal climatic laws are here reversed.The winters of Iceland are less severe than those of Denmark. The meantemperature of the sea, taken in January at the station of Fruholm, near CapeNorth—that is to say, in a latitude where the sun remains an entire monthbelow the horizon—is 38° Fahr., nearly 5° above that of Vevey, on LakeGeneva, and 2° more than that of Venice, situated on the Adriatic. In Tresco,one of the principal islands of the Scilly group, palms and other tropical plantsnourish in the gardens in the open air, although the Azores, 10° nearer to theequator, are already beyond the geographical limits of the palm.* A travellerproceeding in January from Philadelphia to the North Cape, 2,100 miles nearer tothe pole, would find himself always under the same isothermal latitude of 2° to 3°.But going due north he would meet with a mean temperature of — 13° in Baffin'sBay, under the same parallel as the extreme Scandinavian headland. The amountof heat liberated by the Atlantic waters suffices to give the whole of North-westEurope a temperature in winter which, but for it, this region could not enjoy evenin summer.Thanks to the two superimposed currents of air and water setting towards thenorth-west shores of the continent, here is the chief laboratory of the Europeanclimate, and from this point especially proceed the fierce hurricanes which beginin the West Indies and United States, sweeping thence across the Atlantic overthe current of warm waters, and bursting on Europe after traversing the BritishIsles. The comparative study of the barometrical waves is nowhere more importantthan on the European shores of the North Atlantic. The rains falling on thegreater part of the continent, and giving rise to its multitudinous streams, are dueto the west winds prevailing on the western seaboard during the greater partof the year. The vapour-charged atmosphere enveloping Europe as for as CentralRussia comes mainly from the North Atlantic. At the same time the moisturediminishes gradually eastwards, so that the lands situated far from the ocean arefree from those dense fogs so frequent on the shores of England. These werepossibly likened to "marine slugs," being neither of the air, the earth, nor thewater, but a mingling of the elements, preventing the progress of vessels, asdescribed by the old navigator Pytheas, born under brighter skies by the bluewaters of the Mediterranean. Typical of these foggy climes is the tract stretchingnorth and west of Iceland. In 1868 the members of the German Polar Expeditionfound these northern waters wrapped in fogs, on an average, for eight hours daily,* Oscar Drude, in Pctermann's Mitthcilungen, 1878.