. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. Dr Forry on the Climate of the United States. 93 Platte and Missouri, 24°.47 and 75°.82 ; thus shewing that the disparity in the mean temperature of winter and summer, on the same parallel of latitude, and on the same isothermal line (that of Foi-t AVolcott being 50°.61, and that of Council Bluffs, 51°.02), is 14°.80 greater in an excessive th&n in a uni- form climate. As those who first observed the climatic difference between western Europe and eastern North America, were natives of the former, they of course regarded the climate of their own countr
. Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. Dr Forry on the Climate of the United States. 93 Platte and Missouri, 24°.47 and 75°.82 ; thus shewing that the disparity in the mean temperature of winter and summer, on the same parallel of latitude, and on the same isothermal line (that of Foi-t AVolcott being 50°.61, and that of Council Bluffs, 51°.02), is 14°.80 greater in an excessive th&n in a uni- form climate. As those who first observed the climatic difference between western Europe and eastern North America, were natives of the former, they of course regarded the climate of their own country as constituting the rule, and that of America as the exception ; while some, even now, as, for instance, Lyell, as already quoted, make Europe the exception to the general rule. But when these facts came to be genei'alized, it was discovered that the eastern coasts of both continents have a lower annual temperature and more contrasted seasons than the w^estern in corresponding latitudes. These results find a satisfactory explanation in physical causes ; thus demonstrating the harmony of the laws of climate throughout the globe. Did space allow, it would be easy to shew that the rationale of all these laws finds a ready explanation in the phenomena of the polar and equatorial cun-ents, in connection with cer- tain local causes. Suffice it to refer to a single explanation. Tlie wands without the tropics have a prevailing direction from the west,—a fact which affords a solution of the pro- blem that in extra-tropical latitudes, countries lying to the eastAvard of seas or other great bodies of water, have milder climates than those situated on the eastern portions of a continent. That this westerly breeze prevails with consider- able regularity, is apparent from the following observations made by John Hamilton, during twenty-six voyages between Philadelphia and Liverpool, from 1798 to 1817, shewing that the winds were more than half the time from the west. Thus, out of 202
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