Because of the vast extent of the Eurasian (Europe and Asia) continent the difference between continental and marine climates is more marked than in the Western Hemisphere. Huntington and Cushing, in their splendid work on “Principles of Human Geography”,[3] make a comparison between the southern Lofoten Islands, off the coast of Norway, and Verkhoyansk in Siberia, which probably furnish the greatest contrast to be found anywhere between places of the same latitude. Although both are inside the Arctic Circle, the influence of the Atlantic Ocean with its warm-water currents coming all the way from the tropics (Chart 13) protects the Lofoten Islands from the extreme cold that otherwise would come to them; vegetation remains green and cattle are pastured every month in the year. But the ocean retains nearly the same temperature in summer as in winter, and as a result the Islands are too cold to grow trees or many crops. Verkhoyansk is so different that one can scarcely believe that both places are in the same latitude. At the Siberian town the winter temperature falls to 70° or 80° below zero every winter, and has been known to register 90° below zero. It is said that steel skates often will not “take hold” but slip sideways as well as forward on the surface of the excessively cold ice. This doubtless is due to the fact that under ordinary winter cold the weight of the skater melts a thin film of water under the edge of the skate, which freezes instantly when the skate passes and relieves the pressure. But here the cold is so intense that the weight of no skater is sufficient to lubricate his movements with water molecules. Remarkable to relate, the summer at Verkhoyansk is warmer than in the islands off the Norwegian coast, due to the rapidity with which the land surface warms up under the action of the solar rays in the midst of a continental area remote from water, 75° to 80° frequently being recorded during the long summer days. The ground never thaws for more than a foot or so, but a number of crops are successfully grown.