Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1872-01-12
HOT AND COLD.
RY sCuELE DE NERE.

year attCr year, Jilc mysteries vi bhO ANSN
World. Another, Karl Vogt, after hav- :
traces our race back 10 the age when
dragons and megatheriums dwelt on our
earth. The third, DeSOr, still lives on
those heights; in his beautiful villa, in
the .Jura Mountains, he assemblies every
summer circle of valued friends and
Combe.Varin, with Its twenty-four guest
chambers, often shelters, as it did last
year at the same time, the President oil
the Swiss Confcderacy, famous mCdW
from the East Indies, diamond mer-
chant from Brazil, and an illustrious states
man of our Union. They came TO rest
from their labors; to enjoy the healthtul
air of the Alps, which is cool and bracing,
while the plain is painting in the fierce
summer heat; to inhale the perfume OF
vast pine forests, and to do honor to their
hosts most excellent cellar. But even
their leisure hours and their friendly chat
are constantly bearing much precious
| fruit, and the result of many lively dis
| cussion is carefully copied into gigan-
/ tic album, from which annually extracts
| are made and published in Swiss journals.
1t was at one of these delightful re-
unions, where all restraint is banished, l.
and ali ceremony laid aside, that great |
mraRt suddenly asked why the tempera- |
ture on u mountain top should be lower /
than on the plain, since the summit was |
surely so many thousand feet nearer to /
the sun than the valley. His compan-
ions were astonshed to find that, while I
all admitted or knew the fact, none had
ever tried to ascertain the reason. There
upon they discussed the question, and
this was the result:
The ray of heat, which comes from the
distant sun, has to pass through more than
. ~ ,,,i1lipna Of untlpa pf snnpp hpfDrp n
reaches the atmosphere of the earth, and
then begins to lose its heat rs it passes
through the lower layers, which are, OF
course, denser than the upper part. ray,
therefore which strikes an object at
height of six thousand feet above the sea,
must be much warmer than another ray
!, which reaches the surface of the earth
six thousand feet lower. This theorctic
view has been proven by actual expert
, ment the temperature on the great pla-
. teau of Mont Blanc, nearly nine thousand
/, feet above the valley, was found to be
higher than that near the village of Cha
. mounix at its foot Hence the sun is actu-
ally hotter on the summit, and must heat
. the soil more cffectually there than below
. in the plain. This, also, is easily proven
by facts Persons who ascend the Alps,
:. and, heated by the effort, sit down in a
y, fowery Alpine meadow, can do so with
= out inconvenience and injury, while in
the valley the same proceeding would in
II evitably cause discomfort, and most like
"a ly bring on an attack of rheumatism. y
~ thermometer sunk into the ground on the
" Faulhorn, twenty-siX hundred and eighty
meters above the sea, was observed during
many weeks, and showed, invariably, a
:, higher temperature than the soil of the
V valley. This heated state of tie soil pro
. duces several striking effects OIL the ply
~ steal geography of the Alps. The snow
!" always melts, not when the sun shines or
- it, but from below, by the warmth of the
e. soil. The foot, placed upon the edge Off
:, ~ glacier or a snowield, crushes the THU
" crust, and shows underneath a hollow
!" space, where snow and ice have long sine
melted away. Huge vaults and caves o
-, ice shelter, not unfrequently, large mum
"a bers of bright flowers under their crysta
"A ~ roof, and the vast glaciers move and slid
~ down the mountain slope, merely becaus
Nv u their foot, the lower part which tOuche
. the ground, melts gradually away by cor
u, tact with the heated soil More than te
eh thousand feet above the sea, tiny snow
"' mouse sleeps through the fearful winter
- securely sheltered in little holes less tha
ou an inch below the surface 1t is diite
ent in Spitzbergen. where the snow cover
%, the ground throughout the year; there n
animal lllt Is pOSslDlt', anu tNtli AhN nun
" Der of phanerogams is quite insignihcan
10 And vet it is cooler upon high moul
tains than below? Yes; for this hea
Wy quickly given, is also quickly lost, sine
,9cu ,cu radiation is far more active there, viii
les the plain is sheltered under an immen:
leu layer of air, which prevents, to a certai
US degree, the loss of the heat which hi
u no % been accumulated during the day.
}, slight cover excluding the air sutices
ar protect men at great heights even, an
some Alpine explorers slept comfortab
icy night after night upon the highest al
bleakest parts of Mont Blanc with /
0Iol other protection than plank upon Il
MS. snow below, and canvas tent Overhea
ale Nevertheless, everything in Nature los
axe heat at night, when the sun is no long
III OF work warming us with its benign ray
men, animals, plants, and the air itse
all cool off and return large part OF {
: heat they have accumulated during {
my day. The very fact that the rarefed {
llal on mountqin-tops allows the soil to
Is heated higher than in the plains, allo'
lef- also a more active radiation, and hence
Dui. greater loss of heat at night. This
ph aided, moreover, by the immense amou
we of moisture held by the soil at such e
ow' vatOn; rain, mists, and melting snow,
Il as sink into the ground and saturate
ork throughout the whole year. What we Il
e a when, upon coming out of a bath, lie
J'0d wind blows upon and suddenly chills
the damp mOuntain-soil experiences cI
tinually, for here almost perpetual wiz
favor the evaporation of snow, ice a
water, and thus cause n quick and &C
her, siderable falling of the temperature
lrty The reasons why the air on high mot
of tains is cooler, although the sun bun
ncy hotter there are, therefore, in the Fl
ture place, the two simple facts of more act
most radiation and quicker evaporation
cry moisture. But there is a third reason,
g to miiar to all who have ever ascend
Y of high mOuntain-tops. They will not
esce apt to have forgotten the magnific'
lean spectacle spread out before them ol
;, to fine morning when the air was still a
IDLE the sky clear All the valleys were C
may cred as with CHASTITY shrOud of den
can dismal mists; but the very first
haps of the rising sun, kissing the di
are gray surface, sent sudden sh
that der of life through this vast, mott
heir less ocean. The mass begins sloN
be- to swell and to rise, assuming thous'
be marvellous and grotesque shapes, NOV
not wearily from place to place, and drl1t
nder from valley TO valley. But, all of S
light. den, it jeems to make a gigantic effort
are rises deliberately and breaks into clio
most which look as If they were striving
itical climb up the steep mountain-sides; III
tand enormous balloons rise majesucally
cast the air; their long thin bands wander
i its into snow-covered abysses, or hang
the hevelled and torn upon point ana pr
N to Immense horizontal masses cut the m'
O be tain in two halfway up the summit,
ortu- light, feecy clouds wander purpose
sense from side to side. Here and there
4 any mass is torn asunder and the delgl
Re eye plunges down into the deep val
give. discerning, far below the smiling P
they lowered meadows, and silvcry bro
,ntlre with here happy village cluste