As in the old continent, European civilization has had its principal seat on the western coast, it could not fail to be early remarked that under equal degrees of latitude the opposite eastern littoral region of the United States of North America was several degrees colder, in mean annual temperature, than Europe, which is, as it were, a western peninsula of Asia, and bears much the same relation to it as Brittany does to the rest of France. The fact, however, escaped notice that these differences decrease from the higher to the lower latitudes, and that they are hardly perceptible below 30°. For the west coast of the New Continent exact observations of the temperature are still almost entirely wanting; but the mildness of the winter in New California shows that in reference to their mean annual temperature, the west coasts of America and Europe under the same parallels, scarcely present any differences. The annexed table gives the mean annual temperatures, which correspond to the same geographical latitudes, on the eastern coast of the New Continent and the western coast of Europe:— ──────────┬────────────┬──────────┬─────────────────┬────────────────── │ │ │ │Difference between Similar │ Eastern │ Western │Mean Temperature │ the annual Degrees of│ Coast of │ Coast of │ of the Year, of │ Temperature of Latitude. │ America. │ Europe. │ Winter, and │ Eastern America │ │ │ Summer. │ and Western │ │ │ │ Europe. ──────────┼────────────┼──────────┼─────────────────┼────────────────── │ │ │ - 0°.4│ 57° 10′│Nain │ │ 25°.7 —————│ │ │ │ 45°.7│ │ │ │ │ 20°.7 │ │ │ 31°.5│ 57° 41′│ │Gottenburg│ 46°.4 —————│ │ │ │ 62°.4│ ══════════╪════════════╪══════════╪═════════════════╪══════════════════ │ │ │ 23°│ 47° 34′│St. John’s │ │ 38°.1 —————│ │ │ │ 54°│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 31°.1│ 47° 30′│ │Buda │ 50°.5 —————│ 13°.6 │ │ │ 69°.8│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ 37°.8│ 48° 50′│ │Paris │ 51°.7 —————│ │ │ │ 64°.6│ ══════════╪════════════╪══════════╪═════════════════╪══════════════════ │ │ │ 24°.1│ 44° 39′│Halifax │ │ 43°.5 —————│