reservoir of ice and snow, arrests, condenses, and congeals vapor,
and communicates its cold to the adjoining country. For this reason,
Greenland, forming part of a continent which stretches northward to the
82d degree of latitude, experiences under the 60th parallel a more
rigorous climate than Lapland under the 72d parallel.

But if land be situated between the 40th parallel and the equator, it
produces, unless it be of extreme height, exactly the opposite effect;
for it then warms the tracts of land or sea that intervene between it
and the polar circle. For the surface being in this case exposed to the
vertical, or nearly vertical rays of the sun, absorbs a large quantity
of heat, which it diffuses by radiation into the atmosphere. For this
reason, the western parts of the old continent derive warmth from
Africa, "which, like an immense furnace, distributes its heat to Arabia,
to Turkey in Asia, and to Europe."[168] On the contrary, the
northeastern extremity of Asia experiences in the same latitude extreme
cold; for it has land on the north between the 60th and 70th parallel,
while to the south it is separated from the equator by the Pacific
Ocean.

In consequence of the more equal temperature of the waters of the ocean,
the climate of islands and of coasts differs essentially from that of
the interior of continents, the more maritime climate being
characterized by mild winters, and more temperate summers; for the
sea-breezes moderate the cold of winter, as well as the heat of summer.
When, therefore, we trace round the globe those belts in which the mean
annual temperature is the same, we often find great differences in
climate; for there are _insular_ climates in which the seasons are
nearly equalized, and _excessive_ climates, as they have been termed,
where the temperature of winter and summer is strongly contrasted. The
whole of Europe, compared with the eastern parts of America and Asia,
has an insular climate. The northern part of China, and the Atlantic
region of the United States, exhibit "excessive climates." We find at
New York, says Humboldt, the summer of Rome and the winter of
Copenhagen; at Quebec, the summer of Paris and the winter of Petersburg.
At Pekin, in China, where the mean temperature of the year is that of
the coasts of Brittany, the scorching heats of summer are greater than
at Cairo, and the winters as rigorous as at Upsala.[169]

If lines be drawn round the globe through all those place