As in the old continent European civilization has had its pr_Aspects of nature, in different lands and different climates (Vol. 1 of 2) with scientific elucidations

seats on a western coast, it could not but be early remarked that,

under equal degrees of latitude, the opposite eastern coast of the

United States was several degrees colder in mean annual temperature

than Europe, which is, as it were, a projecting western peninsula to

Asia, as Brittany is to the rest of France. But in this remark it was

forgotten that these differences decrease from the higher to the lower

latitudes in such manner that they almost entirely disappear from 30°

downwards. For the west coast of the new continent, exact thermometric

observations are still almost entirely wanting; but the mildness of

the winters in New California shews that the west coasts of America

and Europe, under the same parallels of latitude, probably differ

little from each other in mean annual temperature. The subjoined table

shows what are the corresponding mean annual temperatures, in the same

geographical latitudes, of the west coast of Europe and the east coast

of the New Continent.

+---------+------------+----------+------------------------+-----------------------+

| | | +------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

+---------+------------+----------+------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+

| | | | -14°.4 | | -0°.5 | |

|57° 10′ | Nain | | -2°.8 ----- | | 25°.8 ----- | |

| | | | 6°.1 | | 45°.8 | |

| | | | | 9°.2 | | 20°.7 |

| | | | -0°.2 | | -31°.5 | |

|57° 41′ | |Gottenburg| 6°.4 ----- | | 46°.4 ----- | |

| | | | 13°.5 | | 62°.4 | |

+---------+------------+----------+------------------------+-----------------------+

| | | | -4°.0 | | 23°.0 | |

|47° 34′ | St. John’s | | 2°.7 ----- | | 38°.0 ----- | |

| | | | 9°.8 | | 54°.0 | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | -0°.4 | | 31°.0 | |

|47° 30′ | |Ofen | 8°.2 ----- | 5°.8 | 50°.5 ----- |13°.0 |

| | |(or Buda) | 16°.8 | | 69°.8 | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | 2°.6 | | 37°.8 | |

|48° 50′ | |Paris | 8°.7 ----- | | 51°.6 ----- | |

| | | | 14°.5 | | 64°.6 | |

+---------+------------+----------+------------------------+-----------------------+

| | | | -3°.5 | | 24°.2 | |

|44° 39′ |Halifax | | 5°.1 ----- | | 43°.5 ----- | |

| | | | 13°.8 | | 63°.0 | |

| | | | | 6°.1 | | 13°.7|

| | | | 4°.8 | | 42°.8 | |

|44° 50′ | |Bordeaux | 11°.2 ----- | | 57°.2 ----- | |

| | | | 17°.4 | | 71°.2 | |

+---------+------------+----------+------------------------+-----------------------+

| | | | 0°.1 | | 32°.2 | |

|40° 43′ |New York | | 9°.1 ----- | | 52°.5 ----- | |

| | | | 18°.2 | | 73°.0 | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | 0°.1 | | 32°.2 | |

|39° 57′ |Philadelphia| | 9°.0 ----- | | 52°.2 ----- | |

| | | | 18°.1 | | 72°.8 | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | 1°.8 | | 36°.0 | |

|38° 53′ |Washington | | 10°.2 ----- | 3°.4 | 55°.0 ----- | 8.0 |

| | | | 17°.4 | | 71°.2 | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | 7°.8 | | 49°.5 | |

|40° 51′ | |Naples | 12°.9 ----- | | 61°.0 ----- | |

| | | | 19°.1 | | 75°.0 | |

| | | | | | | |

| | | | 9°.0 | | 52°.2 | |

|38° 52′ | |Lisbon | 13°.1 ----- | | 61°.5 ----- | |

| | | | 17°.4 | | 71°.2 | |

+---------+------------+----------+------------------------+-----------------------+

| | | | 12°.2 | | 59°.5 | |

|29° 48′ |St. Augustin| | 17°.9 ----- | | 72°.2 ----- | |

| | | | 22°.0 | | 81°.5 | |

| | | | | 0.2 | | 0°.4 |

| | | | 11°.8 | | 58°.5 | |

|30° 2′ | |Cairo | 17°.7 ----- | | 71°.8 ----- | |

| | | | 23°.4 | | 84°.7 | |

+---------+------------+----------+------------------------+-----------------------+

In the column of temperatures in the preceding table the first number

represents the temperature of the year; that which stands in place

of a numerator the mean winter temperature; and that which stands in

the place of a denominator the mean summer temperature. Besides the

great difference of mean annual temperature, there is also a striking

difference between the two coasts in respect to the distribution of

that temperature into the different seasons of the year, and it is

this distribution which is most influential both on our feelings and

on the processes of vegetation. Dove remarks generally, that the

summer temperature of America is lower under equal degrees of latitude

than that of Europe: (Temperatur tafeln nebst Bemerkungen über die

Verbreitung der Wärme auf der Oberfläche der Erde, 1848, S. 95.) The

climate of St. Petersburgh, (or to speak more correctly the mean annual

temperature of that city which is in lat. 59° 56′), is found on the

east coast of America in lat. 47-1/2°, or 12-1/2° more to the south;

in like manner we find the climate of Konigsberg, (lat. 54° 43′), at

Halifax, (lat. 44° 39′). The temperature of Toulouse, (lat. 43° 36′)

corresponds to that of Washington (lat. 38° 53′).

It would be very hazardous to lay down any general statements

respecting the temperature in the territory of the United States of

America, as we must distinguish in that territory three regions:--1,

the Atlantic States east of the Alleghanies; 2, the Western States in

the wide basin between the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains, through

which flow the Mississipi, the Ohio, the Arkansas, and the Missouri;

3, the high plains between the Rocky Mountains, and the Maritime Alps

of New California through which the Oregon or Columbia River finds a

passage. Since the highly honourable establishment, by John Calhoun,

of uninterrupted observations of temperature, made on an uniform plan

at 35 military posts, and reduced to daily, monthly, and annual means,

we have arrived at more just climatic views than those which were so

generally received in the time of Jefferson, Barton, and Volney. These

meteorological stations or observatories extend from the point of

Florida and Thompson’s Island, (Key West), lat. 24° 33′, to the Council

Bluffs on the Missouri; and if we reckon amongst them Fort Vancouver,

lat. 45° 37′, they include differences of longitude of 40°.

It cannot be affirmed that, on the whole, the mean annual temperature

of the second or middle region is higher than that of the first or

Atlantic region. The further advance of certain plants towards the

north, on the west of the Alleghany mountains, depends partly on the

nature of those plants, and partly on the different distribution of

the same annual quantity of heat. The wide valley of the Mississipi

enjoys at its northern and southern extremities the warming influence

of the Canadian Lakes, and of the Mexican Gulf stream. The five

lakes, (Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario), occupy a space

of 92,000 English square miles. The climate is much milder and more

equable in the neighbourhood of the lakes; for example, at Niagara,

(lat. 43° 15′), the mean winter temperature is only half a degree of

Reaumur (1°.2 Fahrenheit) below the freezing point, while at a distance

from the lakes, in lat. 44° 53′, at the confluence of the river St.

Peter’s with the Mississipi, the mean winter temperature of Fort

Snelling is -7°.2 Reaumur, or 15°.9 Fahrenheit (see Samuel Forry’s

excellent Memoir on “the Climate of the United States,” 1842, p. 37,

39, and 102.) At this distance from the Canadian Lakes, (whose surface

is from 500 to 600--530 to 640 English--feet above the level of the

sea, whilst the bottom of the lakes Michigan and Huron is about five

hundred feet below it), recent observations have shewn the climate

of the country to possess a proper continental character, _i. e._,

hotter summers and colder winters. “It is proved,” says Forry, “by

our thermometrical data, that the climate west of the Alleghany Chain

is more excessive than that of the Atlantic side.” At Fort Gibson, on

the Arkansas River which falls into the Mississipi in lat. 35° 47′,

with a mean annual temperature hardly equal to that of Gibraltar, the

thermometer in the shade, and without any reflected heat from the

ground, has been seen, in August 1834, to rise to 37°.7 Reaumur, or

117° Fahrenheit.

The statement so often repeated, although unsupported by any

thermometric measurements, that since the first European settlements

in New England, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, the eradication of many

forests on both sides of the Alleghanies had rendered the climate more

equable, (_i. e._, milder in winter and cooler in summer), is now

generally doubted or disbelieved. Series of trustworthy thermometric

observations in the United States hardly extend so far back as 78

years. We see in the Philadelphia observations, that from 1771 to 1824,

the mean annual temperature has hardly increased 1°.2 Reaumur, (or 2°.8

Fahrenheit),--a difference which is attributed to the increased size of

the town, to its greater population, and to the numerous steam-engines.

The difference may possibly be merely accidental, for I find in the

same period an increase of mean winter cold, amounting to 0°.9 Reaumur,

or 2° Fahrenheit; the three other seasons had become somewhat warmer.

Three-and-thirty years’ observations at Salem in Massachusetts shew

no alteration at all: the annual means oscillate, within a degree

of Fahrenheit, about the mean of the whole number of years; and the

winters of Salem, instead of having become milder, as supposed from the

destruction of the forests in the course of the thirty-three years,

have become colder by 1°.8 Reaumur, or 4° Fahrenheit. (Forry, p. 97,

101, and 107.)

As the east coast of the United States is comparable in respect to

mean annual temperature in equal latitudes to the Siberian and Chinese

coasts of the old continent, so also the west coasts of Europe and

America have been very properly compared together. I will only take

a few examples from the western region on the shores of the Pacific,

for two of which (Sitka in Russian America, and Fort George, in the

same latitudes respectively as Gottenburg and Geneva) I am indebted

to Admiral Lütke’s voyage of circumnavigation. Iluluk and Danzig are

nearly on the same parallel, and although the mean temperature of

Iluluk, owing to its insular climate and to a cold sea-current, is

somewhat lower than that of Danzig, yet the winter temperature of the

American station is milder than that of the port on the Baltic.

+-----------+---------+------------------+-------------+-------------+

| +---------+------------------+-------------+-------------+

| | | | 0°.6 | 33°.4|

|Sitka | 57° 3′ | 135° 16′ W. |5°.6 ----- | 44°.5 -----|

| | | | 10°.2 | 55°.0|

| | | | | |

| | | | -0°.2 | 31°.5|

|Gottenburg | 57° 41′ | 11° 59′ E. |6°.4 ----- | 46°.4 -----|

| | | | 13°.5 | 62°.4|

| | | | | |

| | | | 2°.6 | 37°.9|

|Fort George| 46° 18′ | 122° 58′ W. |8°.1 ----- | 50°.3 -----|

| | | | 12°.4 | 60°.0|

| | | | | |

| | | | 0°.7 | 33°.6|

|Geneva | 46° 12′ |(Alt. 1298 E. ft.)|7°.9 ----- | 49°.8 -----|

| | | | 14°.0 | 63°.5|

| | | | | |

| | | | -3°.1 | 25°.0|

|Kherson | 46° 38′ | 32° 39′ E. |9°.4 ----- | 53°.2 -----|

| | | | 17°.3 | 71°.0|

+-----------+---------+------------------+-------------+-------------+

Snow is hardly ever seen on the banks of the Oregon or Columbia river,

and ice on the river lasts only a very few days. The lowest temperature

which Mr. Ball once observed there in the winter of 1833 was 6-1/2° of

Reaumur below the freezing point, or 17.4° Fahrenheit (Message from the

President of the United States to Congress, 1844, p. 160; and Forry,

Clim. of the U. States, p. 49, 67, and 73). A cursory glance at the

summer and winter temperatures above given, shews that on and near the

west coast, a true insular climate prevails. The winter cold is less

than in the western parts of the old continent, and the summers are

much cooler. The most striking contrast is presented by comparing the

mouth of the Oregon with Forts Snelling and Howard, and the Council

Bluffs, in the interior of the Mississipi and Missouri basin (Lat.

44°-46°),--where, to speak in the language of Buffon, we find an

_excessive_, or true _continental_ climate,--a winter cold, on single

days, of -28°.4 and -30°.6 Reaumur (-32° and -37° Fahr.), followed by

mean summer temperatures of 16°.8 and 17°.5 Reaumur (69° and 71°.4

Fahr.)

[19] p. 10.--“_As if America had emerged later from the chaotic watery

covering._”

An acute enquirer into nature, Benjamin Smith Barton, said long since

with great truth, (Fragments of the Natural History of Pennsylvania,

P. i. p. 4), “I cannot but deem it a puerile supposition, unsupported

by the evidence of nature, that a great part of America has probably

later emerged from the bosom of the ocean than the other continents.”

The same subject was touched on by myself in a memoir on the primitive

nations of America (Neue Berlinische Monatschrift, Bd. xv. 1806, S.

190). “Writers generally and justly praised have repeated but too

often that America is in every sense of the word a New Continent. Her

luxuriance of vegetation, the abundant waters of her enormous rivers,

the unrepose of her powerful volcanoes, all (say they) proclaim that

the still trembling earth, from the face of which the waters have

not yet dried off, is here nearer to the chaotic primordial state

than in the Old Continent. Such ideas appeared to me, long before I

commenced my travels, alike unphilosophical and contrary to generally

acknowledged physical laws. Fantastic images of terrestrial youth,

and unrepose associated on the one hand,--and on the other, those

of increasing dryness, and inertia in maturer age,--could only have

presented themselves to minds more inclined to draw ingenious or

striking contrasts between the two hemispheres, than to strive to

comprehend, in one general view, the construction of the entire globe.

Are we to regard the south of Italy as more modern than its northern

portions, because the former is almost incessantly disquieted by

earthquakes and volcanic eruptions? Besides, what small phenomena

are the volcanoes and earthquakes of the present day, in comparison

with those revolutions of nature which the geologist must suppose to

have accompanied, in the chaotic state of the earth, the elevation,

solidification, disruptions, and cleavings of the mountain masses?

Diversity of causes must produce diversity in the operations of natural

forces, in countries remote as well as near. Perhaps the volcanoes of

the new continent, (of which I still reckon above 28 in a state of

activity), have only continued to burn longer than others, because

the lofty mountain ridges, on which they have broken forth in rows

or series above long subterranean fissures, are nearer to the sea,

and because this proximity seems, with a few exceptions, to affect

the energy of the subterranean fires in some way not yet sufficiently

explained. Besides, both earthquakes and fire-emitting mountains have

periods of activity alternating with periods of repose. At the present

moment,” (I wrote thus 42 years ago!) “physical disquiet and political

calm reign in the New Continent, while in the Old the desolating strife

of nations disturbs the enjoyment of the repose of nature. Perhaps

a time is coming when, in this singular contrast between physical

and moral forces, the two sides of the Atlantic will change parts.

Volcanoes are quiescent for centuries before they burst forth anew;

and the idea that in the so-called older countries, a certain peace

must prevail in nature, is founded on a mere play of the imagination.

There exists no reason for assuming one entire side of our planet to

be older or newer than the other. Islands are indeed raised from the

bed of the ocean by volcanic action, and gradually heightened by coral

animals, as the Azores and many low flat islands of the Pacific; and

these may indeed be said to be newer than many Plutonic formations of

the European central chain. A small district of the earth, surrounded,

like Bohemia and Kashmeer, (and like many of the vallies in the Moon),

by annular mountains, may, by partial inundations, be long covered

with water; and after the flowing off of this lake or inland sea,

the ground on which vegetation begins gradually to establish itself

might be said, figuratively, to be of recent origin. Islands have

become connected with each other by the elevation of fresh masses of

land; and parts of the previously dry land have been submerged by the

subsidence of the oscillating ground; but submersions so general as

to embrace a hemisphere, can, from hydrostatic laws, only be imagined

as extending at the same time over all parts of the earth. The sea

cannot permanently overflow the boundless plains of the Orinoco and the

Amazons, without also overwhelming the plains adjoining the Baltic. The

sequence and identity of the sedimentary strata, and of the organic

remains of plants and animals belonging to the ancient world enclosed

in those strata, shew that several great depositions have taken place

almost simultaneously over the entire globe.” (For the fossil vegetable

remains in the coal formation in North America and in Europe, compare

Adolph Brongniart, Prodrome d’une Hist. des Végétaux Fossiles, p. 179;

and Charles Lyell’s Travels in North America, vol. ii. p. 20).

[20] p. 10.--“_The Southern Hemisphere is cooler and moister than our

Northern half of the globe._”

Chili, Buenos Ayres, and the southern parts of Brazil and Peru, have

all, as a result of the narrowness of the continent of South America

as it tapers towards the south, a true “insular climate;” or a climate

of cool summers and mild winters. As far as the 48th or 50th parallel

of latitude this character of the Southern Hemisphere may be regarded

as an advantage, but farther on towards the Antarctic Pole, South

America gradually becomes an inhospitable wilderness. The difference of

latitude of the southern terminating points of Australia, (including

Van Diemen Island), of Africa, and of America,--gives to each of these

continents a peculiar character. The Straits of Magellan are between

the 53d and 54th degrees of latitude, and yet in December and January,

when the sun is 18 hours above the horizon, the temperature sinks to 4°

Reaumur, or 41° Fahrenheit. Snow falls almost daily, and the highest

atmospheric temperature observed by Churruca (1788) in December, (the

summer of those regions), was not above 9° R., or 52°.2 Fahr. The Cabo

Pilar, whose towering rock, though only 218 toises, or 1394 English

feet high, may be regarded as the southern termination of the chain

of the Andes, is almost in the same latitude as Berlin. (Relacion del

Viage al Estrecho de Magallanes, apendice, 1793, p. 76.)

While in the Northern Hemisphere all the continents attain a sort of

mean limit towards the Pole, coinciding pretty regularly with the

parallel of 70° the terminating points in the Southern Hemisphere,--of

America, in the deeply indented and intersected Tierra del Fuego,--of

Australia,--and of Africa,--are respectively 34°, 46-1/2°, and 56°

distant from the south pole. The temperature of the very unequal

extents of ocean, which divide these southern points from the icy pole,

contributes very materially to modify their climates. The areas of dry

land in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres are to each other in the

proportion of 3 to 1. But this inferiority in extent of continental

masses in the Southern Hemisphere, as compared with the Northern,

belongs much more to the temperate than to the torrid zone. In the

temperate zones of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the ratio

is as 13 to 1; in the torrid zones as 5 to 4. The great inequality in

the distribution of the dry land exercises a very sensible influence

on the strength of the ascending aerial current which turns towards

the southern pole, and on the temperature of the Southern Hemisphere.

Some of the noblest forms of tropical vegetation, for example the

tree-ferns, advance south of the equator as far as the parallels of

46°, and of even 53°; whereas north of the equator they are not found

beyond the tropic of Cancer. (Robert Brown, Appendix to Flinders’

Voyage, p. 575 and 584; Humboldt, de distributione geographica

Plantarum, p. 81-85.) Tree-ferns thrive extremely well at Hobart Town

in Van Diemen Island, (lat. 42° 53′), where the mean annual temperature

is 9° Reaumur, or 52°.2 Fahrenheit, and is therefore 1°.6 Reaumur, or

3°.6 Fahrenheit, less than that of Toulon. Rome is almost a degree of

latitude farther from the equator than Hobart Town, and has an annual

temperature of 12°.3 R., or 59°.8 Fahr.;--a winter temperature of 6°.5

R., or 46°.4 Fahr.,--and a summer temperature of 24° R., or 86° Fahr.;

these three values being in Hobart Town 8°.9, 4°.5, and 13°.8 R., or

52°.0, 42°.2, and 63°.0 Fahr. In Dusky Bay, New Zealand, tree-ferns

grow in S. lat. 46° 8′, and in the Auckland and Campbell Islands, even

in 53° S. lat. (Jos. Hooker, Flora Antarctica, 1844, p. 107.)

In the Archipelago of Tierra del Fuego,--where, in the same latitude

as Dublin, the mean winter temperature is 0°.4 Reaumur, (33° Fah.) and

the mean summer temperature only 8° R., or 50° Fahr.,--Captain King

found the “vegetation thriving most luxuriantly in large woody-stemmed

trees of Fuchsia and Veronica”; while this vigour of vegetation,

which, especially on the western coast of America in 38° and 40° of

south latitude, is so picturesquely described by Charles Darwin,

suddenly disappears south of Cape Horn, on the rocks of the Southern

Orkney and Shetland Islands, and of the Sandwich Archipelago. These

Islands, but scantily covered with grass, moss, and lichens, “Terres de

Désolation,” as the French navigators call them, are still far north

of the Antarctic Circle; whereas in the Northern Hemisphere in 70° of

latitude, at the extremity of Scandinavia, fir-trees attain a height

of between 60 and 70 English feet. (Compare Darwin in the “Journal of

Researches,” 1845, p. 244, with King in vol. i. of the Narrative of the

Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, p. 577.) If we compare Tierra del

Fuego, and particularly Port Famine in the Straits of Magellan in lat.

53° 38′, with Berlin, which is one degree nearer the equator, we find

for

Berlin 6°.8, -0°.5/13°.9 R., 47°.2, 30°.8/63°.2 Fahr.; and for

Port Famine 4°.7, 1°.2/8°.0 R., 42°.6, 34°.8/50°.0 Fahr.

I subjoin in one view the few well-assured temperature data which we at

present possess, for the lands of the temperate zone in the Southern

Hemisphere, and which may be compared with the temperatures of the

Northern Hemisphere, in most parts of which the distribution into

summer heat and winter cold is so different and so much less equable. I

employ the convenient method of notation before used and explained in

pages 129-131.

+---------------------+---------+------------------------------+

| | | Mean Annual, Winter, |

| Place. | South | and Summer Temperature. |

| | |---------------+--------------+

+---------------------+---------+---------------+--------------+

|Sidney and Paramatta | | 10°.0 | 54°.5 |

| (New Holland.) | 33°.50′ |14°.5 ----- |64°.5 ----- |

| | | 20°.2 | 77°.5 |

| | | | |

| | | 11°.8 | 58°.5 |

|Cape Town (Africa.) | 33°.55′ |15°.0 ----- |65°.7 ----- |

| | | 18°.3 | 73°.3 |

| | | | |

| | | 9°.1 | 52°.5 |

|Buenos Ayres | 34°.17′ |13°.5 ----- |62°.4 ----- |

| | | 18°.2 | 73°.0 |

| | | | |

| | | 11°.3 | 57°.3 |

|Monte Video | 34°.54′ |15°.5 -----(?)|66°.8 ----- |

| | | 20°.2 | 77°.5 |

| | | | |

|Hobart Town (Van | | 4°.5 | 42°.2 |

| Diemen Island.) | 42°.45′ | 9°.1 ----- |52°.5 ----- |

| | | 13°.8 | 63°.0 |

| | | | |

|Port Famine (Straits | | 1°.2 | 34°.8 |

| of Magellan.) | 53°.38′ | 4°.7 ----- |42°.6 ----- |

| | | 8°.0 | 50°.0 |

+---------------------+---------+---------------+--------------+

[21] p. 11.--“_A connected Sea of Sand._”

Aspects of nature, in different lands and different climates (Vol. 1 of 2) with scientific elucidations · 第 9 / 19 段

As in the old continent European civilization has had its principal