VARIATIONS OF CLIMATE.
History informs us that many of the countries of Europe which now possess very mild winters, at one time experienced severe cold during this season of the year. The Tiber, at Rome, was often frozen over, and snow at one time lay for forty days in that city. The Euxine Sea was frozen over every winter during the time of Ovid, and the rivers Rhine and Rhone used to be frozen over so deep that the ice sustained loaded wagons. The waters of the Tiber, Rhine, and Rhone, now flow freely every winter; ice is unknown in Rome, and the waves of the Euxine dash their wintry foam uncrystallised upon the rocks. Some have ascribed these climate changes to agriculture—the cutting down of dense forests, the exposing of the unturned soil to the summer’s sun, and the draining of great marshes. We do not believe that such great changes could be produced on the climate of any country by agriculture; and we are certain that no such theory can account for the contrary change of climate—from warm to cold winters—which history tells us has taken place in other countries than those named. Greenland received its name from the emerald herbage which once clothed its valleys and mountains; and its east coast, which is now inaccessible on account of perpetual ice heaped upon its shores, was in the eleventh century the seat of flourishing Scandinavian colonies, all trace of which is now lost. Cold Labrador was named Vinland by the Northmen, who visited it A.D. 1000, and were charmed with its then mild climate. The cause of these changes is an important inquiry.—Scientific American.
AVERAGE CLIMATES.
When we consider the numerous and rapid changes which take place in our climate, it is a remarkable fact, that the mean temperature of a place remains nearly the same. The winter may be unusually cold, or the summer unusually hot, while the mean temperature has varied even less than a degree. A very warm summer is therefore likely to be accompanied with a cold winter; and in general, if we have any long period of cold weather, we may expect a similar period at a higher temperature. In general, however, in the same locality the relative distribution over summer and winter undergoes comparatively small variations; therefore every point of the globe has an average climate, though it is occasionally disturbed by different atmospheric changes.—North-British Review, No. 49.
THE FINEST CLIMATE IN THE WORLD.
Humboldt regards the climate of the Caspian Sea as the most salubrious in the world: here he found the most delicious fruits that he saw during his travels; and such was the purity of the air, that polished steel would not tarnish even by night exposure.
THE PUREST ATMOSPHERES.
The cloudless purity and transparency of the atmosphere, which last for eight months at Santiago, in Chili, are so great, that Lieutenant Gilliss, with the first telescope ever constructed in America, having a diameter of seven inches, was clearly able to recognise the sixth star in the trapezium of Orion. If we are to rely upon the statements of the Rev. Mr. Stoddart, an American missionary, Oroomiah, in Persia, seems to be, in so far as regards the transparency of the atmosphere, the most suitable place in the world for an astronomical observatory. Writing to Sir John Herschel from that country, he mentions that he has been enabled to distinguish with the naked eye the satellites of Jupiter, the crescent of Venus, the rings of Saturn, and the constituent members of several double stars.