The intermediate summits occurring in the freezing-point curves of alloys are usually rounded; this feature is believed to be due to the partial decomposition of the compound which takes place when it melts.
The summer temperature in the plains is that of southern Italy; in the mountain district& it is high during the day, but falls almost to freezing-point at night.
About the same time Davy showed that two pieces of ice could be melted by rubbing them together in a vacuum, although everything surrounding them was at a temperature below the freezing point.
In the case of a pure substance, and of a certain small class of mixtures, there is no further fall in temperature until the substance has become completely solid, but, in the case of most mixtures, after the freezing-point has been reached the temperature soon begins to fall again, and as the amount of solid increases the temperature becomes lower and lower.
The communication between the Atlantic and Arctic basins being cut off, as already described, at a depth of about 300 fathoms, the temperatures in the Norwegian Sea below that level are essentially Arctic, usually below the freezing-point of fresh water, except where the distribution is modified by the surface circulation.
