Influence of climate in a commercial, social, sanitary, and humanizing point of view : being a paper read before the American Geographical and Statistical Society : accompanied by a map of the world showing the most important isothermal lines / by J. Disturnell.
- John Disturnell
- Date:
- 1860
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Influence of climate in a commercial, social, sanitary, and humanizing point of view : being a paper read before the American Geographical and Statistical Society : accompanied by a map of the world showing the most important isothermal lines / by J. Disturnell. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)
13/30
![4. The Cold Zone, between 40° and 20° Fahrenheit, includes the countries around Hudson Bay, Labrador, most of Greenland, Spitzbergen, part of North Eussia, and the greater portion of Siberia, being sparsely set- tled by hardy tribes of the human family. Here the fur-bearing animals are found in great numbers, together with the rein-deer, musk ox, white bear, wolves, foxes, hares, the walrus and seals. Through a great part of this region, the soil at varying depths remains perpetually frozen throughout the year, even in latitudes in Asia, nearly as low as that of London; but to a certain varying extent, the surface is thawed by the powerful temperature of the brief Siberian summer, so that most of the cerials ripen, and harvests of wheat, barley, and rye, are gathered above subterranean sheets of eternal frost and ice. The Nor- way fir and birch tree being succeeded by the mosses and lichens, which terminate vegetation toward the North and South Poles. 5. The Frigid Zone, bounded by the Isothermal of 20° mean annual temperature, falling to zero, or even below that point. It includes most all the regions in- cluded in the Arctic and Antarctic circle,* except part of Spitzbergen, and North Cape, Norway, which are favored by the Gulf Stream, conveying the warm waters of the Mexican Gulf into the Northern Atlantic Ocean, its influence being felt even as far as 78° North latitude. The animal life found in these inhospitable regions, consists of the polar bear, rein-deer, wolves, foxes, dogs, and hares ; various species of seals and whales, and likewise the auks of the north, and the penguins of the south Polar Seas. Capt. Ross, of the b. e. n., alike a discoverer in the northern and southern Polar Seas in 1S18, dis- covered the Arctic Highlands, north-Avest of Baffin's Bay. lie says : The vegetable productions are heath, moss, and coarse grass, which afford shelter to hares and other game. The natives are Esquimaux, who, until visited by Capt. Ross's exploring party, supposed themselves to be the only people in the world/' At Barrow's Strait and Smith's Sound, the latter being in about 80° North latitude, the thermometer ranges from 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the months of July, to 40 degrees below zero in January, averag- ing during the year, a mean temperature of about zero. The more northern Arctic climate, discovered by Dr. Kane and his adventurous followers, is yet to be made known in its full extent, affording an incentive to new discoveries within the Arctic Circle. If this more * Tile Arctic and Antarctic Circles are in latitude 66° 32', both in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres ; being 23' 28' from the North and South Poles. The parallels at 23 28', on each side of the equator, arc called Tropica. favorable climate is found to exist, may not a passage be effected by sailing north-east from Spitzbergen, and north of Nova Zembla across the open Polar Sea. and enter the North Pacific Ocean through Behring Strait. It being a well established fact, that the current of the Gulf Stream, sets as far north as the above named islands, and that the waters of the Polar Sea flow south- ward through Behring Strait, into the North Pacific Ocean. While this remains the greatest problem to be solved, in regard to geographical discoveries, let me urge upon the members of the American Geographical and Statistical Society, the incalculable importance of discovering the secret Influence of Climate in all its bearings—both in a scientific and social point of view, —thus advancing one of the great objects of the early friends of this association, they conceiving that the ad- vancement of geographical and statistical knowledge in all its branches, would confer a blessing on the Ameri- can public, wrho, above all other people, are favored with a free and enlightened government—useful and exact knowledge alone being wanted and applied, to make them, as a nation, truly great and happy. Table of Temperature Running across Europe, Asia and America, with a mean Temperature of near 30° Fahrenheit. PLACES. Archangel, Russia,. Vclcbi-Oustong, Catbarinenberg, Tomsk, Barnaul, Irkutsk, Okak, Labrador,... York Factory, Norway House, Cumberland House. Fort Chepewyan,... Fort Simpson, Variation,... N. Lat. MeanTcm. Year. 64° 34' 60° 45' 56° 50' 56° 30' 53° 20' 52° 17' 57° 30' 57° 54° 53° 57' 58° 43' 61° 51' 33°Fahr. 32° 33° 29° « 31° 32° « 28° 26° 28° 30° 27 25° 22° Lat. 8° Fahr. FOUR SEASONS. Spring: Sum'er. Autumn. Winter. 31° 29 33 29 31 35 25 19 26 32 22 2G 16° 57° 60 60 61 63 61 49 54 59 60 58 59 14° 35° 34 33 28 31 32 33 33 29 32 31 27 9° 7 5 0 0 0 4 2 - 3 — 2 — 3 —10 19° The coldest places on record, according to Blod- get's Cleviatology, are Fort Hope, Repulse Bay, North America, and Jakutzk, East Siberia, in Asia, as follows : TLACES. N. Lat. MeanTem. Year. FOUB SEASONS. Spring. Sum'er. Autumn. Winter. 62°32' 62 or 10 Fahr. ] 2 — 4° 14 59° I 13 58 12 —86](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21115072_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
