amount of cold.

* Since the explanation in page 109 [Chapter 5 Paragraph 5]
was printed, I have been pleased to see the same explanation
given by the popular astronomer and natural philosopher, M.
Babinet, in reference to the climate of France. It is quoted
from a letter of a correspondent of the 'Times' in Paris:

"In the normal meteorological state of France and Europe, the
west wind, which is the counter-current of the trade-winds
that constantly blow from the east under the tropics--the west
wind, I say, after having touched France and Europe by the
western shores, re-descends by Marseilles and the
Mediterranean, Constantinople and the Archipelago, Astrakan
and the Caspian Sea, in order to merge again into the great
circuit of the general winds, and be thus carried again into
the equatorial current. Whenever these masses of air,
impregnated with humidity during their passage over the ocean,
meet with an obstacle, such as a chain of mountains, for
example, they slide up the acclivity, and, when they reach the
crest, find themselves relieved from a portion of the column
of air which pressed upon them. Thus, dilating by reason of
their elasticity, they cause a considerable degree of cold,
and a precipitation of humidity in the form of fogs, clouds,
rain, or snow. A similar effect occurs whatever be the
obstacle they find in their way. Now this is what had
gradually taken place before 1856. By some cause or other
connected with the currents of the atmosphere, the warm
current from the west had annually ascended northward, so
that, instead of passing through France, it came from the
Baltic and the north of Germany, thus momentarily disturbing
the ordinary law of the temperatures of Europe. But in 1856 a
sudden change occurred. The western current again passed, as
before, through the centre of France. It met with an obstacle
in the air which had not yet found its usual outlet toward the
west and south. Hence a stoppage, a rising, a consequent
dilation and fall of temperature, extraordinary rains and
inundations. But, now that the natural state of things is
restored, nothing appears to prognosticate the return of
similar disasters. Were the western current found annually to
move further north, we might again experience meteorological
effects similar to those of 1856. Hence the regular seasons