File:The earth and its inhabitants (1894) (14743347476).jpg

Identifier: earthitsinhabita941recl (find matches)
Title: The earth and its inhabitants ..
Year: 1894 (1890s)
Authors: Reclus, Elisée, 1830-1905 Ravenstein, Ernest George, 1834-1913 Keane, A. H. (Augustus Henry), 1833-1912
Subjects: Geography
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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temperature of 88°Fahr., or 6° or 8° more than on the neighbouring coastlands. At Puerto Nacional,on the Magdalena, the glass has often registered 104° in the shade. As a rule, the heat is considerably greater on the Atlantic than on the Pacificseaboard. Thus Tumaco, on the south-west coast, not far from the equator, liesunder the isothermal of 79°, whereas the Groajira peninsula, washed by theCaribbean Sea, over 600 miles farther north, has a normal temperature of84°. From this it appears that the influence of Humboldts cold Pacific currentis still felt as far north as the west Colombian coastlands. Thus relief, aspect, direction of aerial and marine currents are more potent CLIMATE OF COLOMBIA. 163 factors than latitude. From the torrid heats of the lowlands to the arctic zone ofthe snowy crests, all the transitions are observed, though not in direct ratio tothe rarefaction of the atmosphere. The curves of altitude and of temperature Fig. 63.—Road in the Hot Lands, Colombia.
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nowhere run in parallel lines, but are, on the contrary, everywhere interlacedm an inextricable tangle. Speaking broadly, the temperate zone, comprisedbetween 75° and 59° of the thermic scale, includes the largest part of Colombiaproper, that is, excluding the llanos. In this zone the cold winds descending 164 SOUTH AMERICA—THE ANDES REGIONS. from the uplands and the hot winds ascending from the plains are constantly incollision, producing a state of permanent instability. Being intercepted or obstructed by the Cordilleras, the trade winds blowregularly only on the shores of the Caribbean Sea, where their fury is intensifiedby the rarefaction of the air, caused by the high temperature prevailing onthese coastlands. Although hurricanes, properly so called, never range quite sofar south, the east and north east gales often assume the aspect of raging storms,driving the surf with tremendous violence against the exposed parts of the sea-board. On the other hand, the rare north winds n

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