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Show 118 STEPPES AND DESERTS. George, in the same latitudes respectively as Gotten burg and Geneva) I am indebted to Admiral Lutke's voyage of circumnavigation. Iluluk and Danzig are nearly on the same parallel, and although the mean temperature of Iluluk, owing to its insular climate and to a cold sea-current, is somewhat lower than that of Danzig, yet the winter temperature of the American station i1: milder than that of the port on the Baltic. Latitud e. Long itude. Reaumur. Fahrenheit. Oo.6 33o.4 Sitka 57° 3' 135° 161 w. 5:>.6-- 440.5- - 10o.2 55o.O -Oo.2 310.5 Gotten burg 57° 411 11° 591 E. 6o.4-- 46° .4- - 13° .5 620.4 2o.6 370.9 Fort George 46° 181 122° 58' w. So. I-- 50°.3- - 120.4 600.0 0° .7 33o.6 Geneva 46° 12' (Alt. 1298 E. ft.) 7o.9-- 49" .8- - 140.0 630.5 -3o.l 25°.0 Kherson 46° 381 32o 391 E. 90.4-- 530.2- - 17o.3 710.0 Snow is hardly ever seen on the banks of the Oregon or Columbia River, and ice on the river lasts only a very few days. The lowest temperature which Mr. Ball once observed there in the winter of 1833 was 6~ 0 ofReaumur below the freezing point, or 17.4" Fahrenheit (Message from the President of the United States to Congress, 1844, p. 160; and Forry, Olim. of the U. States, pp. 49, 67, and 73.) A cursory glance at the summer and winter temperatures above given, shows that on and near the west coast, a true insular climate prevails. The winter cold is less than in the western parts of the Old Continent, and the summers are much cooler. The most striking contrast is presented by comparing the mouth of the Oregon with Forts Snelling and Howard, and the Council Bluffs in the interior of the Mississippi and Missouri basin (lat. 44°-46°)-where, to speak in the language of Buffon, we find an excessive, or true conti- |