Equatorial regions

“ On the contrary, in both respects, land in the equatorial regions may absorb more heat than water; and thus we have, as general conclusions, the greatest uniformity of climate, with the greatest expansion of sea; the greatest mean annual heat toward the poles, with equatorial land and polar oceans; and the least mean annual heat with polar land and broad equatorial sea. ”

“ One great physical barrier would, however, even then exist; the hot equatorial zone would divide the faunas and floras of the colder regions of the northern and southern hemispheres from any chance of intermixture. ”

“ If with the same amount of land the continents had been so grouped as to occupy a considerable portion of the equatorial oceans—such as would have been the case had Africa been turned so as to join South America, and Asia been brought to the south-east so as to take the place of part of the equatorial Pacific, then the great ocean-currents could have been but feeble or have hardly existed. ”

“ This surprising fact seems most improbable to those who are not acquainted with the Protectorate, but it must be remembered that temperature and climate depend on elevation as much as on geographical position. The best-known equatorial countries—such as West Africa, Brazil, and the Malay Archipelago—are comparatively low and flat. It is only rarely, as in Bolivia and East Africa, that we find the much rarer combination of equatorial position and considerable altitude. ”

“ It is immensely cooler, therefore, in the interior than at the coast; and the equatorial zone all over the world possesses a climate in every way superior to that of the borders of the temperate region. At night, in Equatorial Africa, it is really cold, and one seldom lies down in his tent with less than a couple of blankets and a warm quilt. The heat of New York is often greater than that of Central Africa ”

“ This assumed the earliest current of population, in its progress from a supposed Asiatic cradleland, to have spread through the islands of the Pacific, and reached the South American continent before any excess of population had diffused itself into the inhospitable northern steppes of Asia. By an Atlantic oceanic migration, another wave of population occupied the Canaries, Madeiras, and the Azores, and so passed to the Antilles, Central America, and probably by the Cape Verdes, or, guided by the more southern equatorial current, to Brazil. ”

“ Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, North America, and South America, really correspond, each to a zoological region, but their boundaries require to be modified more or less considerably; and if we remember this, and keep their extensions or limitations always in our mind, we may use the terms "South American" or "North American," as being equivalent to Neotropical and Nearctic, without much inconvenience, while "African" and "Australian" equally well serve to express the zoological type of the Ethiopian and Australian regions. Europe and Asia require more important modifications. ”

“ Below Ecuador on the west coast, though still in the torrid zone, we find cooler weather, practically no rain, and for 1600 miles a desert region; beyond this there is a temperate climate with gradually increasing rainfall, and at last in southern Chile too much. On the east coast tropical weather and products continue till we pass Santos and the Tropic of Capricorn, followed by sub-tropical and temperate climates and production. The mountainous regions even at the equator have cooler weather, the temperature ever lowering with increase of altitude. ”

“ Where the inhabitants adapt their mode of life to the peculiarities of the climate, as is the case with the Dutch in the Malay Archipelago, they enjoy as robust health as in Europe, both in the case of persons born in Europe and of those who for generations have lived under a vertical sun.
Uniformity of the Equatorial Climate in all Parts of the Globe.—The description of the climatal phenomena of the equatorial zone here given, has been in great part drawn from long personal experience in South America and in the Malay Archipelago. ”

“ It is obvious, therefore, that the coast-lines of such lands as Africa owe their regularity primarily to their approximate coincidence with the steep boundary-slopes of the continental plateau, while the irregularities characteristic of the coast-line of north-western Europe and the corresponding latitudes of North America are determined by the superficial configuration of the same plateau, which in those regions is relatively more depressed. ”

“ The boundaries of the Neotropical or Tropical American region have been sufficiently indicated in the definition of the equatorial zone. A broad and most irregular band of country, in which the South and North American forms are mixed, exists in the north. ”

“ It may be considered as beginning on the west coast of Africa, within the region of the trade winds. These cause a westward flow, known as the equatorial current. On reaching the coast of Brazil, the greater portion of this current bends northward, carrying with it the waters of the Amazon and Orinoco, and passes through the Caribbean Sea into the Gulf of Mexico. ”

“ The uniformity of climate in equatorial Africa contributes very much to extend the range of particular species of plants. To this may be added the absence of those mountain systems which elsewhere, as in Asia, traverse the continent in all directions. Without let or hindrance the trade-winds exert their influence over the entire breadth of this region. ”

“ It will be plainly seen that all these points of countries lean toward the Equatorial center of motion. The islands of Oceanica, strung out on the line of the Equator, also show the effect of the Earth’s revolution.
The Island of Australia is apparently a new production in embryo of a new continent in future connection with some of the large adjacent islands, and ultimately of most of the island groups of Oceanica. The same result is likely to follow with the Greater and Lesser Antilles.
The rivers are marked evidence of centrifugal force on both continents. ”

“ It spends itself on the coast of Central America between the Equator and 10° north latitude, part of it turning south until it is swallowed up again by the Equatorial currents, the other half turning north and eventually merging into the Mexican Current coming down from the north. This current fulfils all the requirements of our argument. It would naturally land emigrants from Malaysia on the coast of Central America between 10° and 14° north latitude.
The most ambitious of Sea Migrations in early times are perhaps those of the Polynesians. ”

“ It will be seen from this statement that eastern Africa has high mountain-ranges rising into an elevated plateau; that the land in Equatorial Africa gradually descends toward the west and north-west until within one or two hundred miles of the Atlantic Ocean, when the descent is rapid to the low and unhealthy coast-lands. Through equatorial Africa runs the Kongo, the land north of the Kongo gradually rising to an elevation of about 2,000 feet, and then descending to 1,200 feet at Lake Chad. ”

“ Massaua and Suakin, on the Red Sea, are unhealthy and worthless, unless connected by railroad with the upper Nile.
There remains equatorial Africa, including the French settlements on the Ogowe, the region about Lake Chad, the Kongo and its tributaries, and the lake region. The more we learn of equatorial Africa, the greater its natural advantages appear to be. The rivers open up the country in a favorable manner for trade and settlement. Its elevation from 2,000 to 3,000 feet will render it healthy, though this elevation is only equal to from ten degrees to fourteen degrees of north latitude. ”

“ Sweeping northward and southward, yet tending eastward, we will afford you a comprehensive view of the equatorial lands and portions of the North and South Temperate Zones. Observe how diversified is this Equatorial region. Cities, towns and villages dot the wide expanses which largely are devoted to agricultural pursuits, and so productive are the lands that they not only afford sustenance for local populations but admit of great quantities of grains, fruits and vegetables being shipped to other less favored localities. Truly, Ento's Irrigated Belt is the garden of the Planet. ”

“ Commencing at this parallel of 30o, therefore, in the North Pacific, and tracing thence the course of the northeast trade-winds, we shall find that they blow thence, and reach the region of equatorial calms near the Caroline Islands. Here they rise up ”

“ South America, at the Equator, bulges most to the east. The mountain ranges, the Rocky, Sierra Nevada and Cordilleras, in North America, the Andes, in South America, forming a barrier against the further encroachment of the Pacific Ocean. The West Coast of Africa is protected from the Atlantic largely by the mountains of Morocco, including the Black and White, running south, somewhat protecting Senegambia, and then the Kong, with other mountain ranges in upper and lower Guinea, stop the encroachment on line of Gulf of Guinea. ”

“ All the tribes from the Atlantic Ocean to East Longitude 30° in the Equatorial region have a distant resemblance of features and customs, but I should place East Longitude 18° as the divisional line of longitude between two families of one original parent race. Across twelve degrees of longitude, we have hundreds of tribes bearing a most close resemblance to one another. ”

“ The wide gap which the Atlantic Ocean opens in the zone of habitation has the effect of producing "fringe"-lands. Although a brisk intercourse from north to south, together with thickly-peopled regions at the back, and more favorable climates, have rendered these far less ethnographically destitute than the regions towards the poles, we still find that in Africa the highest development has been reached on the east coast, in America on the west, that is, on the inner sides or those farthest from the Atlantic. ”

“ The shores of the Gulf of Guayaquil and part of the Ecuadorian coast are vividly green from the dense mangrove thickets and other vegetation, but as soon as the mist zone of the Equator is left behind the coastal zone becomes stark and unfruitful, beaten by tearing surges between the few havens. ”

“ Here three clearly defined ranges diverge from the Ecuadorian frontier and spread northward like the ribs of a fan; the Western and Central Cordilleras merge before reaching the Caribbean Sea, and slope off into foothills and plains near the coast, and the Eastern Cordillera continues in an almost unbroken line until, as the Sierra de Parija, it plunges into the sea at the end of the bleak, forbidding peninsula (Goajira) west of the Gulf of Maracaibo. ”

“ In summer the equatorial belt of calms and heavy rainfall not only migrates northward and occupies a portion of Central America, bringing to Costa Rica and Nicaragua cloudy skies and abundant precipitation, but seems to be carried bodily still farther northward, so that the influence of the southeast trades of the southern hemisphere makes itself felt, and four somewhat well-marked annual changes occur, namely, two wet and two dry seasons. ”

“ Just fancy that Providence had run the Equator through Europe, instead of through the Pacific, or wherever it is now. If the Equator happened to be located in the Old World, each of the kings we have seen, and more to be heard from, would be itching and grabbing for it, pouring out their subjects' blood like water (saving their own, of course) to get hold of the blamed thing. ”

“ Taking into consideration the proofs of recent elevation both on the fringed coasts and on some others (for instance, in South America) where there are no reefs, we are led to conclude that the great continents are for the most part rising areas; and from the nature of the coral-reefs, that the central parts of the great oceans are sinking areas. The East Indian archipelago, the most broken land in the world, is in most parts an area of elevation, but surrounded and penetrated, probably in more lines than one, by narrow areas of subsidence. ”

“ Climate.—Climatic conditions in Ecuador are very largely contingent on altitude, and the transition from one climate to another is a matter of only a few hours’ journey. Although the equator crosses the northern part of the republic, only 15 m. north of the city Of Quito, a very considerable part of its area has the temperature of the temperate zone, and snow-crowned summits are to be seen every day in the year from its great central plateau. ”

“ This is the most fertile and productive part of Ecuador, especially on the higher lands near the Cordillera. The Trans-Andine region is similar to the neighbouring territories of the upper Amazon basin occupied by Colombia, Brazil and Peru—a great forest-covered plain descending gently toward the east, broken on its western margin by short spurs from the Andes enclosing highly fertile valleys, and by low, isolated ranges between the larger river courses, and traversed by large rivers flowing into the Napo and Marañon. ”

“ So extreme are the irregularities of the sea-floor in the area lying between Australia, the Solomon Islands, the New Hebrides, and New Zealand, and so great are the depths attained by many of the depressions, that the margins of the continental plateau are harder to trace here than anywhere else in the world. The bottom of the oceanic trough throughout a large portion of the southern and western Pacific is, in fact, traversed by many great mountain-ridges, the summits of which approach the surface again and again to form the numerous islets of Polynesia. ”