The line of the greatest mean warmth is not coincident with the
equator, but falls to the north of it. This line at 160° W. Long, from
Greenwich is 4° below the geographical equator; at 80° it is about 6°
north, sweeping along the coast of New Granada; at 20° it comes down
and touches the equator; at 40° E. Long., it crosses the Red Sea about
16° north of the equator, and at 120° it falls at Borneo, several
degrees below it;--and the points of the greatest heat, in this line,
are in Abyssinia, nearer the tropic of Cancer than to the equator. On
the other hand, the greatest mean cold points, according to the
opinions of Humboldt, Sir David Brewster, and others, do not coincide,
as would seem natural, with the geographical poles, but they are both
to be found in the northern hemisphere, in Latitude 80°, 95°E. Long.
and 100° W. Long. from Greenwich. The western is ascertained to be
4-1/2° colder than the eastern or Siberian. If this be the fact,--but
it is not positively admitted,--an open sea at the pole may be
considered as probable, on the ground of its having a higher mean
temperature than is found at 80°. Kaemptz places one of these cold
points at the north of Barrow's Straits,--the other near Cape Taimur,
in Siberia. Burghaus, in his Atlas, transfers the American cold pole
to 78° N. Lat. It is perhaps too early to determine rigorously the
true temperature of these points.

A noticeable fact also is this,--that places in the same latitude
rarely receive the same amount of heat. Quebec, in British America,
and Drontheim, in Norway, enjoy about the same quantity, while the
former is in 47° and the latter in 68° N. Lat. The mean winter
temperature of Pekin, 39° 45' N. Lat., is 5° below the freezing-point;
while at Naples, which is north of Pekin, it seldom, if ever, goes
below it, and Paris, 500 miles farther north, has a mean winter