Temperate climate

“ Climate is always more intense in the interior of continents than in islands or sea-coasts. An increase of land within the tropics would therefore augment the general heat, and an increase in the temperate and frigid zones would render the cold more severe. ”

“ In consequence of the more equal temperature of the waters of the ocean, the climate of islands and of coasts differs essentially from that of the interior of continents, the more maritime climate being characterized by mild winters, and more temperate summers; for the sea-breezes moderate the cold of winter, as well as the heat of summer. When, therefore, we trace round the globe those belts in which the mean annual temperature is the same, we often find great differences in climate ”

“ It can readily be understood that a place recognized to be within the tropics, may, by reason of its proximity to the sea, its altitude, relation to mountain chains, and other natural surroundings, have a climate so modified that the actual sunlight may have less influence than in localities which may be situated upon the borders or even within the temperate zones. Another factor influencing local conditions may be the color of the soil and the resulting modification of the intensity of the heat rays coming from it, because the radiation from the soil is of importance. ”

“ The northern temperate belt, in which the great land areas lie, is much broader than the southern, especially over the continents. These temperature zones emphasize the natural conditions of climate more than is the case in any subdivision by latitude circles, and they bear a fairly close resemblance to the old zonal classification of the Greeks. ”

“ A marked variation, which has an important bearing not only on climate, but on the distribution of life encountered in passing from equatorial to polar regions, is found in the distribution of light. Between the tropics the number of hours of light and darkness each day is approximately equal; in the temperate zone there is considerable diversity from season to season, which increases with increase in latitude ”

“ More than any other, it affects the distribution of living forms, not only in zones of climate, but in geological time. The contour of the earth's surface, and the relations of land and water upon it, may produce important local changes, or establish local faunas and floras, but these are scarcely more than modifications of grander and more general results. Arctic plants may, indeed, flourish under the equator, but only on mountains where an arctic climate prevails. Heat determines the limits equally of the vine, the palm of the tropics, the cereals of the temperate zone, and. ”

“ Geological investigations show indeed that there have been extensive variations of climate in past times; vast glaciers and icebergs have swept over the temperate regions at one time, and tropical vegetation has flourished near the poles at another time. ”

“ Temperate products from tropical highlands. Isothermal lines in anthropo-geography. Historical effect of compressed isotherms. Effect of slight climatic differences. Effect of climate upon distribution of immigration Climate and race temperament. Contrasted temperaments in the same nation. Complexity of the geographic problem. Monotonous climatic conditions. The effects of Arctic cold. Similarity of cultural development. Cold and health The small amount of tropical emigration Effects of tropical climate. Historical significance of deterioration The problem of acclimatization. ”

“ The point of first importance concerns the distribution of heat and moisture over the surface of the land; for on these features depends the fitness of the land for all forms of life. The influences which principally determine the climate of a continent come to it from the neighboring seas. The moisture arises there, and finds its way thence to the land; and the heat or coolness which modifies the land climate comes with it. ”

“ Land elevation, cooling crust and cooling oceans, sea restriction and consequent deepening, together with a great increase of land in northern latitudes, all conspired greatly to change the world's climate in all regions far removed from the equatorial zone. ”

“ If, on the contrary, the heat of the atmosphere be on the increase, the plants and animals of low grounds would ascend to higher levels, the equatorial species would migrate into the temperate zone, and those of the temperate into the arctic circle. ”

“ So long as the lands of the globe were discontinuous and of relatively small extent, warm ocean-currents reaching polar regions produced a general uniformity of temperature—the climate of the terrestrial areas being more or less markedly insular in character. ”

“ I say limited, because we cannot speculate on the entire transposition of a group of animals and plants from tropical to polar latitudes, or the reverse, as a probable or even possible event. We may believe the mean annual temperature of one zone to be transferable to another, but we know that the same climate cannot be so transferred. Whatever be the general temperature of the earth's surface, comparative equability of heat will characterize the tropical 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. ”

“ These two directions are those of heat and cold. We cannot suppose that life would develop in any important degree in a region of perpetual frost, such as the polar regions of our globe. But we do not find any end to it as the climate becomes warmer. On the contrary, every one knows that the tropics are the most fertile regions of the globe in its production. The luxuriance of the vegetation and the number of the animals continually increase the more tropical the climate becomes. ”

“ The local climate of continents is also largely influenced by the winds which blow over them; for these determine, to a considerable degree, the temperature and the annual rainfall; hence the volume and excavating power of rivers, etc. The higher portions of continents, as mountain-chains and plateaux, are colder than the lowlands, and hence become condensers of moisture—places where snow accumulates and glaciers are formed. ”

“ Regions that have sometimes been frozen and cold have become warmer, and have covered themselves now with oceans, and now with -33- forests, and now with deserts. There is no corner of the whole world which has not undergone changes of climate. ”

“ Climate too has changed again and again, either through the elevation of mountains in high latitudes leading to the accumulation of snow and ice, or by a change in the direction of winds and ocean currents produced by the subsidence or elevation of lands which connected continents and divided oceans. ”

“ When the absorption of the solar rays was in no region impeded, even in winter, by a coat of snow, the mean heat of the earth's crust would augment to considerable depths, and springs, which we know to be in general an index of the mean temperature of the climate, would be warmer in all latitudes. ”

“ In the general journey southward, the plants of the mountains would descend to the plains and mingle with those of the far north. Then the climate commences to moderate; and, as the mountains of ice and snow retire to their original homes in the north, many of the plants would keep company with the cold and return, but many others, encountering mountains in their paths, would find the climate cold enough for their growth, and would be left there in isolation while their nearest relatives would be separated from them by hundreds of miles of country. ”

“ Here alone, in the Oriental region, are found the most typical equatorial forms of life—organisms adapted to a climate characterised by uniform but not excessive heat, abundant moisture, and no marked departure from the average meteorological state, throughout the year. ”

“ The greater elevation of the land (in the Ice period) is simply assumed as an hypothesis to account for the cold. The facts of geology, however, are fast establishing the opposite conclusion, viz., that when the country was covered with ice, the land stood in relation to the sea at a lower level than at present, and that the continental periods or times, when the land stood in relation to the sea at a higher level than now, were the warm inter-glacial periods, when the country was free of snow and ice, and a mild and equable condition of climate prevailed. ”

“ It must be remembered that even under the tropics some of the highest mountains carry a perpetual snow-cap. There is therefore all possible gradations of climate from sea-level to the top of such mountains, even at the equator, and plant life is as a result as varied as is climate. ”

“ But when, on the contrary, a series of changes in the physical geography of the globe, or any other supposed cause, occasions an elevation of the general temperature,—when there is a passage from the winter to one of the vernal or summer seasons of the great cycle of climate,—then the order of the migratory movement is inverted. The different species of animals and plants direct their course from the equator towards the poles; 698 and the northern and southern hemispheres may become peopled to a certain limited extent by identical species. ”

“ The line beyond which grass will not grow is determined in part by temperature; it marks the limit beyond which grazing animals cannot thrive, and, with a few exceptions, cannot survive. Conditions of temperature, such as obtain in the temperate zones, stimulate both the bodily and the mental faculties of humanity. [6] Therefore they have resulted in a civilization fundamentally different from that of tropical regions. ”

“ The three climatic zones of moderate temperature are described in detail, and the distinctive features of the social condition and civilisation of their inhabitants dwelt upon. The influence of the atmosphere, heat, &c., on the physical and even mental and moral peculiarities of peoples is maintained to be great. Not only the darkness of skin of the negroes, but their characteristics of disposition and of mode of life, are traced to the influence of climate. ”

“ Not only so, but we shall find that the differentiation of the earth's climate into tropical and arctic zones is comparatively modern, and that in past ages not only were the climates more uniform, but more evenly distributed over the whole world. ”

“ The climate, of the central table-land at least, must not be considered enervating. One must lay his ideas of climate, as depending upon latitude, aside, and comprehend that here it is a matter of elevation above the sea. ”

“ But the temperature of a place is influenced very much by several other causes, as well as by the force and duration of the sun's heat. First, the elevation of a country above the level of the sea has a great influence upon its climate. Elevated districts of country, even in the torrid zone, often enjoy the most agreeable climate in the world. ”

“ But not to indulge too far in these speculations, I may observe, in conclusion, that however great, during the lapse of ages, may be the vicissitudes of temperature in every zone, it accords with this theory that the general climate should not experience any sensible change in the course of a few thousand years; because that period is insufficient to affect the leading features of the physical geography of the globe. ”

“ The calmer light, the more gentle and equalized heat, the thicker and more humid atmosphere, explain that equalization of temperature, those days half veiled and transparent nights, and that tepid climate of the polar regions, that we might consider as presiding at the development of primitive life. Finally, the primitive sun, by its slow condensation, passing insensibly into its present state, necessarily forced the retreat of the torrid zone, thus ending the anterior equality of the climate, permitting cold to become established at the pole, and concentrating heat at the equator. ”

“ The climate, for an equatorial region, is far from being excessively hot: it is extremely dry; and although the sky is often clouded, rain seldom falls, excepting during one short season, and then its quantity is variable. ”

“ In fact, the climate is much more endurable, all the year round, with our refreshing breezes, and particularly in some of the more elevated parts of it, or within one hundred miles of the coast, both in and out of doors, at the South than at the North, which shows most conspicuously the folly of the annual summer migrations, to pursue an imaginary mildness of temperature, which is left at home. ”

“ In effecting these nice differentiations of local types, climate is nearly always one of the factors at work, emphasizing perhaps an existing ethnic difference. Even the slight variations of temperature to be found in the same zone or the same climatic region produce distinct results, especially where they are harnessed, as is usually the case, with some other geographic condition of relief, area or soil, pulling in the same direction. ”

“ One of the most interesting questions with which geological science has to deal is that of the evolution of climate. Although there is no general agreement as to how former climatic fluctuations came about, yet the prevalent opinion is that in the past, just as in the present, the character of the climate must have depended mainly on latitude and the relative position of the great land- and water-areas. ”