tes North.

The description given by ancient as well as modern navigators of the sea
and land in high southern latitudes, clearly attests the greater
severity of the climate as compared to arctic regions. In Sandwich Land,
in lat. 59 degrees S., or in nearly the same parallel as the north of
Scotland, Capt. Cook found the whole country, from the summits of the
mountains down to the very brink of the sea-cliffs, "covered many
fathoms thick with everlasting snow," and this on the 1st of February,
the hottest time of the year; and what is still more astonishing, in the
island of S. Georgia, which is in the 54 degrees south latitude, or the
same parallel as Yorkshire, the line of perpetual snow descends to the
level of the ocean.[178] When we consider this fact, and then recollect
that the highest mountains in Scotland, which ascend to an elevation of
nearly 5000 feet, and are four degrees farther to the north, do not
attain the limit of perpetual snow on our side of the equator, we learn
that latitude is one only of many powerful causes, which determine the
climate of particular regions of the globe. Capt. Sir James Ross, in his
exploring expedition in 1841-3, found that the temperature south of the
60th degree of latitude seldom rose above 32 degrees Fahr. During the
two summer months of the year 1841 (January and February) the range of
the thermometer was between 11 degrees and 32 degrees Fahr.; and
scarcely once rose above the freezing point. The permanence of snow in
the southern hemisphere, is in this instance partly due to the floating
ice, which chills the atmosphere and condenses the vapor, so that in
summer the sun cannot pierce through the foggy air. But besides the
abundance of ice which covers the sea to the south of Georgia and
Sandwich Land, we may also, as Humboldt suggests, ascribe the cold of
those countries in part to the absence of land between them and the
tropics.

If Africa and New Holland extended farther to the south, a diminution of
ice would take place in consequence of the radiation of heat from these
continents during summer, which would warm the contiguous sea and rarefy
the air. The heated aerial currents would then ascend and flow more
rapidly towards the south pole, and moderate the winter. In confirmation
of these views, it is stated that the ice, which extends as far as the
68 degrees and 71 degrees of south latitude, advances more towards the
equator whenever it meets an open sea; that i