Cook's young companion on his second voyage of circumnavigation, the
intelligent George Forster, to whom I am indebted for the lively interest
which prompted me to undertake distant travels, was the first who drew
attention, in a definite manner, to the climatic differences of temperature
existing in the eastern and western coasts of both continents, and to the
similarity of temperature of the western coast of North America in the
middle latitudes, with that of Western Europe.*
[footnote] *George Forster, 'Klein Schriften', th. iii., 1794, s. 87; Dove,
in Schumacher's 'Jahrbuch fur', s. 289; K??mtz, 'Meteorologie', bd. ii., s.
41, 43, 67, and 96; Arago, in the 'Comptes Rendus', t. i., p. 268.
Even in northern latitudes exact observations show a striking difference
between the 'mean annual temperature' of the east and west coasts of
America. The mean annual temperature of Nain, in (lat. 57 degrees 10'),
is fully 6.8 degrees 'below' the freezing point, while on the northwest
coast, at New Archangel, in Russian America (lat. 57 degrees 3'), it is 12.4
degrees 'above' this point. At the first-named place, the mean summer
temperature hardly amounts to 43 degrees, while at the latter place it is 57
degrees. Pekin (39 degrees 54'), on the eastern coast of Asia, has a mean
annual tempeerature of 52.
Pages:
648
649
650
651
652
653
654
655
656
657
658
659
660
661
662
663
664
665
666
667
668
669
670
671
672