BOOK

animals indeed are strong and brawny, but few in number; olive complexions and bilious temperaments prevail XVII. amongst the natives of these countries. Their ferocious and sanguinary dispositions correspond to the character under which nature has appeared in these dreary and inhospitable regions.

humid cli

The hot and humid climate prevails in Bengal, in Meso- Hot and potamia, in the coasts of Zanguebar, Senegambia, Guayana, mate. and Panama; these countries enjoy the verdure of perpetual spring; and furnish the most gigantic productions of the vegetable kingdom; but there also reptiles of unwieldy length wallow in the mud of marshes, steaming with pestilence; there man, robust in his frame of body, propagates with rapidity, but his moral character is sunk almost as low as that of the brutes. The deep swarthy skin, and the phlegmatic temperament belong peculiarly to these countries. The cold and dry climate supports a hardy, Cold and though certainly not a profuse vegetation; the waters are generally pure but hard; animals and men, respiring more oxygen, are strong, active, and healthy; the moral and the physical part are in a state of equilibrium. They propagate slowly but with regularity: the sanguine temperament, and the white skin, are characteristic of this climate, which comprehends the greatest part of Europe and of Asia.

dry cli

mate.

mate.

The cold and humid climate, in its extreme, such as is Cold and humid cli experienced in Siberia, and to the north of Canada, envelopes the atmosphere with unwholesome fogs, and reduces vegetation to a few cheerless stunted shrubs, and to creeping moss. The animals are covered with a thick fur, under which they remain torpid one-half of the year. Man himself, tall, but weak and sluggish, thinks only of defending his physical existence against the unkindness of nature. The red copper-coloured skin, and the melancholic temperament, seem to be the native growth of such a climate. By unfolding, in this manner, the views of the celebrated philosopher Kant,* our design has been only to exhibit a

* Memoir upon the four principal constitutions of the human race, in the collection, entitled, Mundane Philosopher by Engel. (in German.)

tions of

these cli

mates.

BOOK sketch of the combinations of extreme temperatures, and XVII. their most probable effects. We admit, that the four principal climates are, perhaps, no where to be found without Modifica some modifications, which alter their nature. These modifications are of two kinds; the one kind arises from a succession of two different climates in the same region; the other is owing to the more or less elevated degree of any of the four qualities which constitute climate. It is these modifications which, in opposition to the system of Hippocrates, can entitle any climate whatever to the appellation of temperate, since the true sense of this term denotes an atmospherical constitution in which the hot, the dry, and the humid, are equally moderated by each other. Thus, in Egypt, the succession of humid heat, during an inundation, and of dry heat for the remainder of the year, tempers a climate, which, without either alternative, would be insupportable. Thus, the Dutch see with pleasure the dry cold succeed the humid cold, which, of itself, would render their country extremely insalubrious. At other times, the succession taking place too rapidly, or the two temperatures being too remote the one from the other, the climate is rendered more disagreeable than if one uniform temperature continued. It is thus that the inhabitants of Astrachan, and of some other towns, feel in summer the heat of Africa, and in winter the cold of Siberia. These atmospherical constitutions are also modified by the solar climate; thus, the dry heat, which renders Sahara almost inaccessible, becomes, at Madrid or at Marseilles, a temperature very suitable to man. The baneful effects of humid heat, are, in like manner weakened, as we recede from the equator. On the other hand, we find the cold, dry or damp, more and more supportable as we advance from the pole towards the tropics. For example, at Bergen in Norway, and at Brest in France, there is always the same constitution of winter rendered variable and humid from the vicinity of an ocean which never freezes. But how great is the differenco in the intensity of the cold!

These observations upon the true acceptation of the word

XVII.

climate naturally lead us to take a general view of the dif- BOOK ferent temperatures of the five zones into which we are accustomed to divide the globe.

ture of the

The torrid zone experiences only two seasons, the one Temperadry, and the other rainy.* The former is looked upon as torrid zone. the summer, the latter as the winter of these climates; but they are in direct opposition to the celestial winter and summer,-for the rain always accompanies the sun, so that, when that luminary is in the northern signs, the countries to the north of the line have their rainy season. It appears that the presence of the sun in the zenith of a country, continually heats and rarefies its atmosphere. The equilibrium is every moment subverted, the cold air of countries nearer the poles is incessantly attracted, it condenses the vapours suspended in the atmosphere, and thus occasions almost continual rains. The countries of the torrid zone where no vapours rise into the air, are never visited by the rainy

season.

Local circumstances, particularly high chains of mountains, which either arrest or alter the course of the monsoons and the winds, exercise such influence over the physical seasons of the torrid zone, that frequently an interval of not more than several leagues separates summer from winter. In other places, there are two rainy and two dry seasons, which are distinguished by the names of great and little.

of the

The heat is almost always the same within 10 or 15 de- Difference grees of the equinoctial line; but towards the tropics, we equatorial feel a difference between the temperature which prevails at and tropical regions. the moment the sun is in the zenith, and that which obtains, when, in the opposite solstice, the solar rays falling under an angle of more than 47 degrees. We may therefore, with Polybius, divide the torrid zone into three others. The equatorial zone, properly so called, is temperate, compared with the zone of the Tropic of Cancer, composed of

* Varen. Géographie Générale, ch. xxxvi. propos. 10. sqq. Bergmann, Geog. Physique, 143.

BOOK the hottest and least habitable regions of the earth. The XVII. greatest natural heat ever observed, which is 35 degrees of Reaumur, (111° Fahr.) has been at Bagdad, at 33 degrees of latitude. The zone of the Tropic of Capricorn contains but little land, but it appears to experience momentary heats of extreme intensity.

Most of the ancients, disregarding the observation of Polybius, conceived that the heat continued to increase from the tropic towards the equator. Hence they concluded that the middle of the zone was uninhabitable. It is now ascertained that many circumstances combine to establish even there a temperature that is supportable. The clouds; the great rains; the nights naturally very cool, their duration being equal to that of the days; a strong evaporation; the vast expanse of the sea; the proximity of very high mountains, covered with perpetual snow; the trade winds, and the periodical inundations, equally contribute to diminish the heat. This is the reason why, in the torrid zone, we meet with all kinds of climates. The plains are burnt up by the heat of the sun. All the eastern coasts of the great continents, fanned by the trade winds, enjoy a mild temperature. The elevated districts are even cold; the valley of Quito is always green; and perhaps the interior of Africa contains more than one region which nature has gifted with the same privilege.

Nothing equals the majestic beauty of the summer in the torrid zone. The sun rises vertically-it traverses in an instant the burning clouds of the east, and fills the heavens with a light, whose effulgent splendour is unobscured by a single shade. The moon shines here with a more brilliant lustre, Venus blazes with purer and more vivid rays, and the milky way glitters with augmented brightness. To this magnificence of the heavens, we must add, the serenity of the air, the smoothness of the waves, the luxuriance of vegetation, the gigantic forms of plants and animals, all nature more grand, more animated, and yet less inconstant and less changeable.

Seasons of

The temperate zones, on the other hand,* are indemnified BOOK by the mild and varied charms of spring and autumn, by the XVII. moderate heat of summer, and the salutary rigours of winter. This succession of four seasons is not known beyond the tro- the tempepic, nor towards the poles. Even that part of the northern rate zone, temperate zone which lies between the tropic and the 35th degree of latitude, in many places resembles the torrid zone. Until we come towards the 40th degree, the frost in the plains is neither intense nor of long duration-it is equally unusual to see snow fall there, though unquestionably it is not true, that when a fall of snow does take place, the ladies of Rome or of Naples leave the theatre to enjoy so extraordinary a spectacle, or that the Academicians run out, with their glasses in their hands, to examine this singular phenomenon. Elevated countries feel all the rigour of winter-and the trees even in the plains lose their foliage, and remain stripped of verdure during the months of November and December.

climates.

It is from the 40th to the 60th degree, that the succession The most of the four seasons is most regular and most perceptible, temperate without however endangering the health of man: And it is within these latitudes, that we must look for the nations that are most distinguished for knowledge and civilization, and those who display the greatest courage by sea and by land. It would appear, that in countries where there is no summer, the inhabitants are destitute of genius, or at least of intelligence and taste; while in those regions where there is no winter, true valour, constancy, and loyalty, as well as other civil and military virtues, are almost unknown. But, let us remember, that it is man himself, who has in a great measure created these salubrious climates;-France, Germany, and England, not more than twenty ages ago, resembled Canada, and Chinese Tartary, countries situated, as well as our Europe, at a mean distance between the equator and the pole.