Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 1 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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Its temperature was only 22.5 degrees of the
centigrade thermometer, while that of the air was 28.7 degrees.
The
springs which descend from the neighbouring mountains of a greater
height often indicate a too rapid decrement of heat. If indeed we
suppose the mean temperature of the water on the coast of Cumana
equal to 26 degrees, we must conclude, unless other local causes
modify the temperature of the springs, that the spring of Quetepe
acquires its great coolness at more than 350 toises of absolute
elevation. With respect to the springs which gush out in the plains
of the torrid zone, or at a small elevation, it may be observed, in
general, that it is only in regions where the mean temperature of
summer essentially differs from that of the whole year, that the
inhabitants have extremely cold spring water during the season of
great heat. The Laplanders, near Umea and Soersele, in the 65th
degree of latitude, drink spring-water, the temperature of which,
in the month of August, is scarcely two or three degrees above
freezing point; while during the day the heat of the air rises in
the shade, in the same northern regions, to 26 or 27 degrees. In
the temperate climates of France and Germany, the difference
between the air and the springs never exceeds 16 or 17 degrees;
between the tropics it seldom rises to 5 or 6 degrees. It is easy
to account for these phenomena, when we recollect that the interior
of the globe, and the subterraneous waters, have a temperature
almost identical with the annual mean temperature of the air; and
that the latter differs from the mean heat of summer, in proportion
to the distance from the equator.
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