There is a separate difference for each parallel of
latitude, and without a special comparison of the winter and summer
temperatures of the opposite coasts, it will be impossible to arrive at a
correct idea of climatic relations, in their influence on agriculture and
other industrial pursuits, or on the individual comfort or discomfort of
manking in general.
In enumerating the causes which produce disturbances in the form of the
isothermal lines, I would distinguish between those which 'raise' and those
which 'lower' the temperature. To the first class belong the proximity of a
western coast in the temperate zone; the divided configuration of a
continent into peninsulas, with deeply-indented bays and inland seas; the
aspect of the position of a portion of the land with reference either to a
sea of ice spreading far into the polar circle, or to a mass of continental
land of considerable extent, lying in the same meridian, either under the
equator, or, at least, within a portion of the tropical zone; the prevalence
of southerly or westerly winds on the western shore of a continent in the
temperate northern zone; chains of mountains acting as protecting salls
against the winds coming from colder regions; the infrequency of swamps,
which, in the spring and beginning of summer, long remain covered with ice,
and the absence of woods in a dry, sandy soil; finally the constant serenity
of the sky in the summer months, and the vicinity of an oceanic current,
bringing water which is of a higher temperature than that of the surrounding
sea.
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