THE LIFE OF MAN IN THE TEMPERATE ZONES

Climate and Man in the Temperate Zones: General—Northward Movement of Civilisation in the North Temperate Zone—Present-day Migrations within the Temperate Zones—The Continents and the Temperate Zones—Differences between Northerners and Southerners—Variety of Conditions in the Temperate Zones: Classification—Life of Man in the Forests of the Temperate Zones—Forest Clearings—The Steppes—Climates and Crops in the Temperate Zones—The Deserts—Mountains—Climate and Weather: Some Mental Effects—Climate and Weather and Military Operations—Railroads—Transportation by Water—Various Effects of the Weather.

_Climate and Man in the Temperate Zones: General._ Intermediate in location, in mean temperature, and in their physiological effects, the temperate zones, whatever was the condition in the past, are to-day clearly the centre of the world’s civilisation, as they have also been the scenes of the most important historical developments for several centuries. From the temperate zones have come the explorers and adventurers of the past, and are coming the exploiters and colonisers of to-day. In the occurrence of the temperate zone seasons lies much of the secret—who can say how much of it?—of the energy, ambition, self-reliance, industry, thrift, of the inhabitant of the temperate zones. Guyot did not exaggerate when he wrote:

In the temperate zones all is activity, movement. The alternations of heat and cold, the changes of the seasons, a fresher and more bracing air, incite man to a constant struggle, to forethought, to the vigorous employment of all his faculties. A more economical Nature yields nothing except to the sweat of his brow; every gift on her part is a recompense for effort on his.... Invited to labour by everything around him, he soon finds, in the exercise of all his faculties, at once progress and well-being.

The monotonous heat of the tropics and the continued cold of the polar zones are both depressing. Their tendency is to operate against man’s highest development. The seasonal changes of the temperate zones stimulate man to activity. They develop him physically and mentally. They encourage higher civilisation. A cold, stormy winter necessitates forethought in the preparation of clothing, food, and shelter during the summer. Carefully planned, steady, hard labour is the price of living in these zones. Development must result from such conditions. In the warm, moist tropics, life is too easy. In the cold polar zones it is too hard. Temperate zone man can bring in what he desires of polar and tropical products, and himself raises what he needs in the great variety of climates of the intermediate latitudes. Near the poles the growing season is too short. In the moist tropics it is so long that there is little inducement to labour at any special time. The regularity and the need of outdoor work during a part of the year are important factors in the development of man in the temperate zones. Where work is a universal necessity, labour becomes dignified, well-paid, intelligent, independent.

Behind our civilisation there lies what has been well called a “climatic discipline,”—the discipline of a cool season which shall refresh and stimulate, both physically and mentally, and prevent the deadening effect of continued heat. On the other hand, a very long winter is about as unfavourable as a very long summer. If outdoor work is seriously interrupted, progress is retarded. Buckle based certain too broad generalisations on this consideration, and saw in it an explanation of similar national characteristics among peoples whose outdoor work is interrupted for the same length of time. But it is clear that the length of the farming season is a large factor in controlling the return from the soil, the kind of work done, and the manner of doing it. It is not surprising to learn that the difficulty of keeping farm labourers through the long winter has in the past been a handicap in western Canada, and that it was urged against the abolition of slavery in Russia that it would be impossible, without some form of compulsion, to keep farm-hands through the winter.

_Northward Movement of Civilisation in the North Temperate Zone._ The gradual migration of the centre of civilisation away from the tropics, and the highest development of the human race, not where life is easiest, but in extra-tropical latitudes, are significant.

“Slowly but surely,” as Benjamin Kidd says [_Control of the Tropics_, 51-52], “we see the seat of empire and authority moving like the advancing tide northward. The evolution of character which the race has undergone has been northwards from the tropics.... Underneath all the outward national quarrels of Europe there has been going on for centuries what is really a struggle between what we might call the Latin type of civilisation, represented by the southern races, and that type of civilisation which has been developed in northern Europe.”

From the Mediterranean region, where the world’s civilisation, its commerce, and its power were long centred, westward through Spain and Portugal, the migration continued farther and farther north in Europe, until Holland and then England became the dominant power. From lands of more genial climates to lands of colder and longer winters, but also of the most active and energetic races, the migration has taken place. The advance of Christianity, from its origin in the sub-tropical belt of Eurasia into higher latitudes, has been pointed to as another illustration of the same tendency. Together with this northward tendency of civilisation there has run through the past an equatorward movement, already noted in the case of the tropics, of the stronger peoples of the north toward the milder and more genial southern latitudes, involving historical events of great importance.

_Present-day Migrations within the Temperate Zones._ Within the north temperate zone especially, and also across from the north to the south temperate, vast, peaceful migrations are taking place, determined largely by climatic considerations. From Europe and Asia to the United States alone, a million people a year are now migrating. These immigrants have shown marked tendencies to settle where climate, soil, and occupations are most like those of their old homes, although the fact that most of them land at one port on the eastern seaboard, the concentration of industries in certain sections, and other controls, have operated very effectively to counteract and interfere with this tendency. Scandinavians, for example, have gone largely into the north-west; and in the future the southern parts of the United States will doubtless have a large Latin population, chiefly of Italians and Spaniards, who will there find homes and occupations in climates best suited to their needs. Canada has grown slowly, partly on account of the repelling effect of her long, cold winters and her generally severe climate. Of late years, however, the rapid settlement of farming lands in the United States, the attraction of free, or cheap, lands in western Canada, and the success which has been attained in raising wheat and other crops during the short but favourable Canadian summer, have combined to induce a considerably increased immigration of farmers from the United States, and of Europeans, into Canada. This migration within the temperate zone is peopling Canada, South Africa, and Australia with the same stock that occupies the homeland of the British Isles. Therefore institutions and government essentially similar to those at home are possible in these colonies of England beyond the sea. The case is very different in tropical climates, as has been seen. Russia will later be found to gain great strength from the fact that she has expanded eastward within the same zone.

In Argentina, the climatic control of migrations is even more clearly marked than in the United States, the Italians tending to settle towards the north, where the climate is most like their own, while the races from northern Europe show a tendency towards the south.

It is interesting to observe how immediately controlled by the special weather conditions of even one season these voluntary migrations may be. Years of sufficient rainfall and abundant crops in the United States are always followed by a larger immigration. A failure of crops in Europe, whether it be of wheat in one country, or of fruit in another, or of potatoes in another, resulting from drought, or storms, or excessive rainfall, always promotes a larger exodus from the country concerned. There is, furthermore, a considerable seasonal migration across the Atlantic. Thousands of Italians come to the United States in the spring to work during the warmer months, when farm and outdoor labourers are in demand, and return to the milder climate of Italy for the winter. Similarly there is a seasonal migration, also chiefly of Italians, to Argentina at harvest-time. The possible effects of the advancing ice-sheet of the glacial period in producing forced migrations equatorward may be mentioned, in passing, as another example of climatic controls over human movements.

There is also an interesting tendency westward, observable not only in the westward “course of empire,” but in the advantages enjoyed, in the belt of prevailing westerly winds, by those who live in the western quarters of cities. The “west ends” are usually the most fashionable and the newest sections of these cities, while the quarters to leeward, the “east sides” and “east ends,” are inhabited by the poorer classes. Ratzel points out that among the Arabs of Syria the tent farthest west is that of the sheik.

_The Continents and the Temperate Zone._ Europe is well situated climatically, being almost altogether in the temperate zone, and open to the ocean on the west, so that nearly all parts of it are well watered.

Asia is an overgrown continent. Much of it is in the temperate zone, it is true, but the interior is so far from the sea that the climate is severe and the rainfall very deficient. This condition of hopeless aridity is depressing, in the extreme, and this region is prevented from becoming thickly populated or important on that account.

Most of Africa is within the tropics. Its plateaus will furnish considerable areas not wholly unfavourable for white settlement. The southern part of Africa is just within the marginal sub-tropical belt of the south temperate zone. The same is true of Australia.

North America is widest in the temperate zone, which is one of its greatest assets. It suffers from the extreme cold of its winters in the north, and from the rain-shadow effect of its western mountains, which gives the interior basin and part of the western plains deficient precipitation.

South America is widest within the tropics. Its west coast is peculiar in having the tempering influence of high plateaus in the interior and of a cool ocean current along the coast. Its southern portion tapers off into the south temperate zone. This part of South America, and the scattering islands of the ocean area in these latitudes, suffer from an equable but cheerless, depressing, and inhospitable climate. The forlorn natives of Tierra del Fuego, most inadequately clothed and housed; living on shell-fish and other sea-food; with the poorest kind of utensils and implements; nomadic in habits; shifting their single fur garment from side to side according to the wind direction—these furnish a good illustration of man’s mastery by a climate which Darwin described in the following words: “It would be difficult to imagine a scene where he (man) seemed to have fewer claims or less authority. The inanimate works of nature—rock, ice, snow, wind, water—all warring with each other, yet combined against man—here reigned in absolute sovereignty.” The Falkland Islands, by reason of their dull, moist, cool, and windy climate, produce nothing but a few poor potatoes and some berries. All other food, excepting mutton and beef, has to be imported. Very different is the life of man in the same latitudes of the continents in the northern hemisphere, where a more severe climate has given better opportunity for man’s development.

_Differences between Northerners and Southerners._ There are certain broad, distinguishing characteristics of man in the temperate and tropical zones, in determining which it is reasonable to believe that climate has played a part. Similarly, there has been a natural tendency to attribute certain differences between northerners and southerners in the temperate zones to a difference in climate. There is an opinion that the former, living in a duller, harsher climate, with long and dreary winters, are more serious, more industrious, more enterprising, and act after more mature deliberation, than the latter who, reflecting their brighter skies, are more cheerful, more emotional, more impulsive, more genial, more generous, but also less energetic, and more easy-going. It has recently been pointed out by Professor Jerome Dowd that labour organisations in the southern United States are hampered by their liability to hasty, ill-advised action. The northerner must exercise more forethought, care, industry, and prudence; he has to work harder, and is usually better paid than the southerner. These national differences are proverbial between northern and southern Germans, French, Spanish, Russians, Italians, Arabs, and other peoples. The influence of climate has likewise been traced in the sad, even pessimistic tone of much of the northern literature, and in the gravity and melancholy of modern northern music, as well as of the older northern folk-songs.

The question is a very complex one, often much complicated by actual racial differences between the northern and southern people of the same country. Yet even racial distinctions are more or less directly traceable, in many instances, to climate. Thus a recent writer, Gustave Michaud (_The Century_, March, 1903), has told us that the Baltic race is probably the result of the natural selection by a cold climate over emigrants who belonged to the primitive Mediterranean race, and who gradually moved northward. Many of their mental as well as their physical characteristics find an explanation in that hypothesis; those individuals who, through lack of ingenuity, foresight, or activity, were unable to meet the requirements of a severe winter, perished generation after generation; their posterity was constantly decreased, and the posterity of the active, energetic, and thoughtful was thereby relatively increased.

Sir Archibald Geikie, in his _Scottish Reminiscences_, has emphasised the climatic influence in producing the grim character of the Scot in the following words: “The gloom of his valleys is deepened by the canopy of cloud which for so large a portion of the year rests upon the mountain ridges and cuts off the light and heat of the sun. Hence his harvests are often thrown into the late autumn, and in many a season his thin and scanty crops rot on the ground, leaving him face to face with starvation and an inclement winter. Under these adverse circumstances he could hardly fail to become more or less subdued and grim.”

Draper emphasised the important historical consequences of the difference in the characteristics of northerners and southerners in the United States, which he attributed largely to climate, and which found expression in the Civil War. The climate of Virginia, somewhat more genial than that of New England, may not unreasonably be supposed to have made its mark upon the early settlers in the former state, while the Puritans were struggling against the harsher forces of nature in the north-east. The Boers in Africa have developed along lines different from those of the Dutch in the United States. The climate, soil, and crops of the southern states made negro labour highly desirable, even necessary, and the presence of the negro involved some form of compulsion—slavery.

_Variety of Conditions in the Temperate Zones: Classification._ The temperate zones embrace so great a variety of climates that it is not practicable to consider the relations of climate and man according to any rigid climatic scheme. It is simpler, as well as more logical, to consider the typical examples here selected according to the broad classification of forests, steppes, and deserts. This is essentially a scheme which depends upon rainfall, and is, therefore, a reasonable one for adoption by those who approach the subject from a climatic standpoint.

_Life of Man in the Forests of the Temperate Zones._ The forests of the temperate zones are chiefly coniferous on highlands and in colder climates, and deciduous on lowlands and in lower latitudes. They are found, as a rule, where the mean summer temperature is over 50°, where the rainfall is reasonably heavy, and is well distributed, and where soil and other factors are not unfavourable. Forests are characteristic at the present time of the rainy west coasts of the continents, as in southern Chile and on the northern Pacific coast of North America; of much of the interior of North America and of Siberia; of the Scandinavian highlands. On the north, the great forest belts merge into the tundra through a zone of scattering trees and stunted bushes. On the south, they grade into the open steppe country of the continental interiors. Much of the temperate zones, except where too dry, was originally forest-covered, but the trees have been gradually cleared away and an open country, devoted to agriculture, or the seat of modern manufacturing and industrial settlements, has taken their place. The southern portions of the great forest belts, because of their more favourable climates, are better adapted to agriculture than the northern portions, and are therefore first attacked, as is now the case in Siberia. The more severe climate of the latter, and their greater inaccessibility, will help to preserve them from destruction for farming districts, with the primitive life of the trapper and woodsman as their distinguishing characteristic. The temperate zone forests, hampering man’s movements, preventing dense population, and being replaced by more profitable farming country, have thus gradually been driven back from the lowlands onto the mountains and highlands of Europe, where scattering forests alone remain. These are in most cases protected by government. In the United States, similar clearing has been going on, with similar consequences. Many of the forests which still remain on the mountains have been set apart as national forest reserves, in order that they may serve as regulators of water supply and as parks for future generations. The slow spread of the white population in the United States, from the originally forested eastern section where it so long had its seat, to the open country farther west, was certainly in part due to the great difficulty which the early settlers experienced in clearing away the forests which they found on the Atlantic slope. A larger population, better means for clearing the forests, and improved transportation, later changed this.

The foregoing statements must not, however, lead us to jump at the conclusion that all open areas were once forested, and thus to infer that a supposed deforestation, which may never have taken place, has produced a change of climate which has not been proved. Many such cases have been reported for the sub-tropical belt of the Mediterranean, and for South Africa, but sub-tropical climates, with their dry season and light rainfall, are not favourable to heavy forest growth. It is significant that the ancient Greeks imported their most valuable woods from the north.

Before the forest cover—the natural product of soil and favourable climate—is cleared away, man is chiefly occupied in hunting fur-bearing animals in the colder latitudes; in fishing, and in lumbering. The latter occupation is greatly facilitated by the winter snows in northern latitudes, which make sledging easy, and by the spring freshets, which carry the logs down to the saw-mills. Where there is no snow, the difficulty and expense of getting out the timber are usually considerably greater. The woodsman’s life is primitive and hard, and retains many nomadic traces. The resort to “the woods” for hunting and fishing by a good many people from the north temperate zone for a part of the year brings for a time a relief from the restraints of civilisation, and the rest that comes from a return to more primitive conditions of life. There is a considerable seasonal change of occupation among the lumbermen of the northern United States and of Canada, many of them becoming farmers or sailors in summer. Industries which depend upon a supply of lumber, such as paper and pulp mills, shipbuilding, furniture, carriage and barrel manufactories, and the like, are often found on or near the streams down which the logs are floated. The simple log hut of the early settler in the American forest is one of the most typical forest dwellings, which are naturally built of wood. The Japanese houses of bamboo and wood are not unsuitable in a region of tree growth, of a modified continental climate, and of earthquakes. Forest fires are often very destructive, not only to the trees themselves but to the wooden dwellings in the forest.

Fish and game are the natural food of forest peoples, and clothing is chiefly made of fur or leather. Forest products are brought to the edge of the forest for sale or exchange. Thus the trappers in North America played an important part in the early history of that continent. Settlements, which were originally trading posts, grew up along the streams, and later became towns and cities. Almost all the large cities of the north Pacific coast of the United States owe their prosperity to the lumber industry, and the same is true of other cities in or near the forested portions of the country east of the Rocky Mountains.

The dense Alaskan coast forests, which extend far north where the moisture, even without high temperatures, is favourable to them, have to-day certain noteworthy effects on the native Indian tribes who live along their borders. The density of vegetation and the difficulty of agriculture force them to turn to the sea, on which they spend most of their time, on which they travel, and from which they obtain their food. They become expert canoe-builders, sailors, and fishermen; are finely developed in the upper portions of their bodies, but spend so much of their life in their boats that they dislike walking and are poor hunters and porters. Their food, and the material for some of their utensils and implements, they secure from the sea. They wander about to different fishing grounds, living a more or less nomadic life; some of them even going into the State of Washington in harvest-time. It is an interesting fact that the best canoes are built by the Indians who live in the most stormy locations, and these same people are also the best sailors. On the coasts of southern Chile the dense forests have kept the population close to the sea; have made clearing for farming difficult, and have resulted in making lumbering, hunting, and fishing the chief occupations. Darwin reported of this region that the constant rains keep everything so wet that to clear the forest by fire is almost impossible.

_Forest Clearings._ Man gradually makes clearings in the virgin forest, and then cultivated crops take the place of the natural tree-cover, except where extremely favourable conditions for tree growth, or poor soil, or steepness of slope, make forests more profitable than agriculture. At present, much of the population of the civilised world lives in such clearings. Where the clearings are small, as in parts of Scandinavia, the life is simple, combining lumbering, hunting, and fishing of the forest with agriculture. If the sea is near by, boat-building, as in Norway, also becomes an important industry, with deep-sea fishing and sailing. Simpler industries, like wood-carving and match-making, are also found. Communities are scattered, and are largely independent of one another. Each community is self-supporting, and each individual is more or less of a “Jack-of-all-trades.” Isolated clearings, where civilised man is making the first inroad into the primeval temperate forest, may still be seen in several parts of North America, and will become increasingly common in the Siberian forest belt.

With the destruction of the forest and the growth of agriculture, with settled places of abode and a reasonably certain food supply following steady, careful, and intelligent labour, comes the gradual accumulation of a surplus, and the increasing diversity of interests and occupations which characterise the modern, highly civilised community. Here we find a very complex life, with industries and manufactures of all sorts; where raw materials and supplies are imported from other lands and climates and exported to them, and where the immediate climatic control often becomes difficult to see. It is under such conditions that civilised man lives to-day, using the products of the forest, the farm, the mine, the sea, the lake, the river; making the most of his opportunities; overcoming more and more the disadvantages of his immediate surroundings. It remains a fact, nevertheless, that one of the most important controls in determining the location of modern industries, next to nearness to materials and markets and water-power, is climate.

_The Steppes._ In the intermediate belts, between the heavier rainfall of the forested districts and the deficient rainfall of the deserts, come the grass-lands of the temperate zones, commonly known as steppes (“unwooded tracts in middle latitudes, of considerable extent and covered with useful vegetation”). These are found where the rainfall is small because of distance from the sea, or by reason of the rain-shadow effect of enclosing mountains, and over broad, more or less level topographic areas, of fairly uniform climatic conditions. The general severity of the climate, the small rainfall, the shortness of the growing season, and other factors, such as high winds, favour grass rather than tree growth. The central Asiatic plateau, except where so arid as to be a true desert, with uniformity of climate and of population, is the great steppe region of the world. Southern Siberia, southern Russia and Hungary, and parts of Arabia, Persia, and Asia Minor belong to this same area. The Great Plains between the Rocky Mountains and the 100th meridian are classed as steppes, as are the grass-lands of eastern temperate South America. The Asiatic steppe is extremely unfavourable, so far as occupation and development by man are concerned. At the centre of a great overgrown continent, with the trade of the world naturally passing around it, largely by water, rather than across it; with few rivers and deficient precipitation, the effect on man, whatever may have been the conditions of the past, is such as to depress, retard, overcome him. Civilisation there lags behind that in the rainier lands of the temperate zone. The grass-lands of North America, it may be noted, have the advantage of being a narrow belt between two well watered and fertile regions. The dry season scorches the grass and dries up the rivers; the spring rains bring out the carpet of grass and flowers. Winter storms and cold sweep over the steppe, often fatal to man and beast.

The primitive inhabitants of the Eurasian steppe, like the Kirghiz, Mongols, Kurds, are nomads, moving about during the summer in search of water and pasturage for their animals. Their migrations often take them to the higher country, where there is more chance of finding water, and where the grass is better. A dry year forces migration into the adjacent rainier districts. In the colder months the people settle down in more permanent abodes. Thus also we find the inhabitants of the Hungarian plain townspeople in winter and semi-nomadic farmers in summer. Professor W. M. Davis has noted the use of small farm-houses on wheels in Bosnia, which “are drawn forward on the plain in the dry season, so as to stand near the pasture fields; and back again towards the higher margin in the wet season.” The driving of cattle from Argentina across the mountains into Chile during the dry season is another instance of seasonal migration in search of pasturage in grass-lands.

The primitive steppe-dweller depends on his flocks and herds for his food and clothing, and for his tent-coverings and utensils. From their wool, or hair, he makes his cloth, or carpets. The summer dwellings of the Asiatic steppe-dweller are usually felt tents, adjustable, portable, skilfully constructed. These, with simple household goods made principally of leather, at once the most available and most useful material, are easily transported from place to place. In winter, encampments are carefully selected where there are water and grass, and where hay is collected. The winter dwellings are better built, of the willows or reeds found along the streams, and the animals are sheltered against cold and storm. As on the coastal desert of South America, so here, a common fuel (in winter) is the dried dung of animals. Horses are a precious possession, essential to the wandering life of people some of whom call themselves The Horsemen (Kazák). The trade of the Asiatic steppe is carried on with China on the one side and Russia on the other. Hides and other products obtained from the flocks and herds are exchanged for tea, flour, opium, clothing, etc. Independent, conservative, and proud, the natives retain their traditional customs, and resist the encroachments of civilisation. The life of man in steppe and in tundra has many points of resemblance, but the steppe is the more favourable to improvement.

The early life of the white man on the Great Plains of North America has been similar in many ways to that on the Asiatic steppes. Immense herds of cattle have grazed at will over a vast extent of territory, driven here and there in search of pasturage and water, and tended by semi-nomadic cowboys spending most of their lives in the saddle. The gradual destruction of the natural grass forage by over-stocking, and by the introduction of sheep, has not infrequently led to armed conflicts between those in charge of different herds of cattle. The United States has also illustrated what has been observable in other lands, viz., the conflict between the divergent interests of those who want grass-lands for agriculture and those who want them for grazing. In North America the conflict was not waged with bloodshed, but history furnishes examples of the warlike encroachment of pastoral nomads into the peaceful farming communities on the borders of the steppe. China, for example, was invaded by steppe-dwellers, as was Europe at one time; even to-day, Kurds and Armenians are struggling in a similar way. In the United States, the facility of communication and the rapid advance of population from the east have led, in recent years, to a considerable change in the use of certain portions of the Great Plains steppe region. After an almost exclusive use of these plains for cattle, farming without irrigation was tried over their central portion in the latter part of the decade 1880-1890, during and closely following a series of years with a rainfall somewhat above the average. The experiment proved to be a failure when a series of drier years followed. Since then, local irrigation by means of wind-mills has been introduced to a considerable extent, and diversified farming under irrigation, with cattle-raising on a much smaller scale than formerly, has been found to be a far more profitable undertaking than farming on a large scale without irrigation. The cattle are fed, when necessary, with alfalfa or other forage raised for that purpose; are bred under supervision, and are protected against the severe winter storms and cold. The climatic limitations of the Great Plains are now clearly recognised. By far the greater portion must forever remain pastoral, but where irrigation can be practised, farming and cattle-raising together are more profitable than either alone. Irrigation, together with the proper preparation of the soil and the planting of crops suited to the climate, has worked a complete change in the appearance and in the economic value of many parts of the Great Plains. The large modern cattle ranch in the western United States is very different from the wandering cattle herd of a few years ago. There are summer and winter ranges for the stock, the winter range being sheltered as much as possible. On a well-equipped ranch, a barometer is watched as carefully as on board ship. When a storm is expected, the sheep or cattle are brought to shelter if possible, or if not, are driven to windward, so that they will be driven home by the storm. In Australia the grass-lands have been occupied by British sheep-owners, employing native stockmen, and the conditions of life are much like those of the ranchmen on the Plains of North America.

Obviously, wherever irrigation is possible, steppes become more valuable for farming than for grazing. There is a limit to the water supply, whether that come from rivers or from underground, and an increasing population, with increasing demands for water, must in time reach the limits of the supply. In many of the western states of the American Union, where with increasing population the need of irrigation has been felt more and more, much litigation has arisen concerning the right to water. The difficulties have come in great measure from the fact that the laws were imported from rainier regions, where irrigation was unnecessary. On the Asiatic steppes, Russian influences are encouraging irrigation and agriculture. As a rule, the steppes of the temperate zone have been cultivated where settled by people who had formerly been farmers in more humid regions.

The wide expanse of the steppes, with their unobstructed surface, situated as they usually are in the extreme climates of the continental interiors, exposes them to sudden temperature changes. The far-reaching sweep of cold storm winds from higher latitudes, such as the cold norther or blizzard of North America and the buran of Siberia, may destroy thousands of cattle in a few hours and not infrequently human lives as well. Depressing hot winds from lower latitudes, which carry high temperatures far poleward, sometimes injure crops by their heat and dryness. In dry times, fires once started have a free sweep over the open steppe country.

_Climates and Crops in the Temperate Zones._ The variety of climates found over the temperate zones, especially in the northern hemisphere, is very large, ranging from the modified marine climate on the west coasts to the extreme continental of the interiors and the modified continental on the east coasts, and also varying greatly with latitude. No such simple discussion according to climatic subdivisions is possible as in the case of the tropics. Forests are found on the rainy west coasts and also in the interiors. Agriculture is practised where the forest has been cleared, and also on the steppes and even in the deserts, wherever irrigation is possible. These variations in climate from east to west and north to south across a continent, are such as to necessitate great differences in the season and methods of agriculture, and in the crops that are grown.

In the sub-tropical belts, favoured as they are in many ways as to climate, man fights against frost in California; protects his crops by walls or hedges against high winds, as in the Azores, in Malta, and in southern France; manufactures artificial ice in Palestine; retards the ripening of his fruit under the spring sun by screening it. The latter is an interesting phase of man’s effort to make the most of his climate, regulating it so far as may be possible. In parts of Italy it is customary to cover the lemons with screens of cloth or rushes, so that they may not ripen until the summer demand is at its height in England and America, and prices are good. The equable climate of the Pacific coast of the United States makes it possible to keep farm animals outdoors most, or even all, of the year, thus saving the expense of barns and stables necessary in more rigorous climates. In summer on this coast, advantage is taken of the dry season to leave wheat out in sacks, sometimes for weeks at a time, without much fear of damage by rain. This is a great convenience for the farmer. Raisins are usually dried outdoors, although some of the larger growers are now introducing drying houses. The damage done by one rain is so great when raisins are partially dry, that the field labourers at such critical times, when rain is forecasted, insist on being paid extra high wages to bring in the fruit. The kind of agricultural machinery depends largely upon conditions of climate and crops. The combined harvester and thresher used in California could not be successfully employed under other conditions of dryness and ripeness of the grain. The use of this machine is much restricted farther north, in Oregon and Washington. It may here be noted, in passing, that in Norway agricultural machinery has been well received on account of the shortness of the summer and the need of accomplishing outdoor work quickly. Cereals are a winter crop in the regions of winter rains, and many fruits can be very successfully grown, such as lemons, figs, olives, oranges, etc. The sub-tropical vine-growing districts of Italy, Spain, southern France, California, southern Australia, and Cape Colony are natural centres for the wine industry.

The great cereal lands of the world are found in the continental interiors, in the regions of summer rains, where the precipitation is sufficient. Roughly, between latitudes 40° and 52°, other conditions being favourable, we find the principal wheat belt; but wheat is cultivated much farther north, for example in Asia, and also farther south than the above limits. Barley grows over a much wider belt, both poleward and equatorward; oats grow north of wheat, and corn grows south of it. In the higher latitudes, with shorter summers, it is more and more difficult for cereals to ripen. All over the cleared farm-lands and cultivated steppes of the temperate zone, droughts, or excessive rains, or frosts, or other harmful conditions are always to be feared. On the whole, the struggle against adverse conditions of climate, and weather, and soil, is so hard that it constantly demands man’s best energies, his best methods, his best implements.

Climate has, in a large way, set apart certain great areas where agriculture may be best carried on. Similarly, it has determined that one area shall be adapted for grazing and another for forests. Forests will always grow chiefly in the rainier regions, because, although trees can be made to grow, by careful selection and proper care, over a good deal of steppe country, they will always grow better, and faster, and more cheaply, where the rainfall is heavier. A map of the products of any country, in crops, or cattle, or forests, will show, when compared with a rainfall map, the broad, general relations which are here referred to. There is, it may be noted, often an intimate connection between a product of one sort and one of another sort, as, for example, in the case of hogs in the United States, which are raised in largest numbers in the region which produces the most corn, on which the hogs are fed. The climatic control of occupations is beautifully illustrated in Chile. In the rainy south, the forests, with lumbering and fishing; in the arid north, the deserts, which would be uninhabited were it not for the nitrate and other mineral deposits which have given the region an extraordinary value; in the central portion, with a climate neither too wet nor too dry for agriculture, we have the great farming, cereal, and stock-raising districts.

_The Deserts._ In the continental interiors, where the distance from the ocean is great and the enclosure by surrounding mountains is effective in intercepting the moisture brought by the winds, grass-land is replaced by sparser and sparser vegetation; steppe merges into desert; population decreases more and more. Such arid regions are found in the deserts of south-eastern California, Arizona, and New Mexico; in northern Mexico; in the interior of the great overgrown continent of Asia. These deserts are the extreme product of continental climate. With moderate or cold winters and hot summers, the life of man in them is controlled in much the same way as in the deserts of the tropics.

No more striking illustration of this control over the primitive desert-dwellers of the temperate zone has been given than in the study made by McGee of the Papago Indian tribes of southern Arizona. “The Papago prefers to live where other people famish; he is able to do so by reason of his remarkable adjustment of his habits, his food and raiment, his industries, his social organisation, to a peculiar assemblage of conditions.” These people can go long without food and water; in emergencies they secure water from the barrel cactus (_biznaga_)[30]: they chase rain-storms for miles across the desert, and plant wherever water or damp soil is found; their houses, built of mesquite saplings, protected against the ravages of cattle by thorns, or of adobe, are located near damp soil, or a water supply. The Papago’s life is nomadic for much of the year because he migrates in search of the means of subsistence, of which, as McGee puts it, “the first, and the second, and the third are water, _water_, WATER, to alleviate his own thirst in the sun-parched deserts, water to sustain his horses and burros and kine, water to vivify the plants of which man and his creatures eat.” The seasons of planting and of harvest depend on storms, come when these may; when the local water supply fails, water is carried long distances on burros, or on the head; the springs are protected by a corral or stockade made of cactus, and even of the dried carcasses of bulls killed in the battle for water; only the simplest arts of pottery-making are practised. All this shows a climatic control of which no better illustration can be found anywhere in the world. The thick adobe walls of the Indian dwellings of the south-western United States in general are well adapted for keeping the inside temperature equable, in spite of the large diurnal ranges outside. The Pueblo Indians show the influence of climate in their use of stone, and in the absence of wood in their buildings and utensils. Heat and cold split the rocks of their mesas and furnish material for building. The reckoning of a man’s wealth according to the number of horses in his possession; the open and easily-transported huts of the Navahoes, which furnish sufficient protection against the heat and the wind of the hotter months, with more permanent winter houses of adobe, better fitted as a protection against the severe weather of the colder season; the rain-dances and rain-gods of the south-western United States,—all this is but a repetition of what is found among the native tribes of the hot tropical desert. It has been well said by one writer that “the whole religion of the south-west may be summed up in a single phrase—a prayer for rain.”

[30] A good illustration may be found in Pl. xviii of the “Desert Botanical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution,” 1903.

In the arid interior of Asia we see the same nomadic life, the same difficulty of travel, the same semi-pastoral, semi-industrial population along the borders or in the oases of the desert, as in the tropics. But in the temperate zone deserts there comes always the greater need of protection against more severe cold. It has been believed by many writers that a progressive desiccation in central Asia drove the inhabitants out onto the lowlands, and was followed by the Asiatic invasion of Europe; but there are not wanting those who do not believe such desiccation proved, and who doubt, as H. J. Mackinder has said, whether these changes, even if proved, have “in historical times vitally altered the human environment.”

In time, civilised man will make use of every available drop of water which is supplied in these arid regions, whether by streams, or in the form of rain, or from underground, and the irrigated desert will develop in man those qualities of coöperation which have been conspicuous in the irrigated communities of Peru, among the Indians of the south-western United States, in Africa and in Asia, in Utah and in California. Where every drop of water has a money value, there results a unification of interests in the common water supply which is as striking as it is interesting. But there is a limit to the population whose needs can be supplied in these deserts, even when every available water supply is drawn upon; and the temperate deserts, like those of the tropics, must always remain sparsely populated, as a whole, with their inhabitants collected here and there around oases, or in the larger, modern, irrigated areas. The immense public irrigation works recently completed, or now being carried out by the United States government, furnish striking illustrations of the effective use which civilised man now makes of water in an arid region, while the Mormon irrigation, practised in Utah, still remains a model of what can be accomplished by individuals working in harmony.

A typical desert industry is the harvesting of salt, as from Great Salt Lake in Utah, at Salton in the California desert, in Turkestan, Patagonia, and China. In the last-named country salt was formerly used as money, the salt industry being a government monopoly, protected by a prohibition of the importation of foreign salt. In Chinese Turkestan blocks of rock salt are sometimes used in building walls, and huts built of rock salt have also been reported. The difficulty of securing water in the temperate deserts is often serious. Baku is to-day supplied in part with water obtained by distilling the brackish waters of the Caspian Sea.

Railroad construction and operation in the temperate deserts, _e. g._, in Arizona and south-eastern California, or on the new trans-Caspian railroad in Asia, and on the projected trans-Australian railroad, have to contend with difficulties similar to those in the tropical deserts, to which reference has already been made. A curious effect of sand-blasting is noted from the California desert, where the telegraph poles along the railroad are so worn near their bases by the blowing sand that they have to be protected by piles of stones. The southern transcontinental railroads of the United States, which traverse the hottest and dustiest part of the interior desert, lose much travel in summer because passengers prefer the more northerly, cooler, and less dusty journey.

_Mountains._ The mountains of the temperate zones are often forest-covered on their upper slopes, with pasture lands farther down, and below these, the lower slopes are used for agriculture. The variety of occupations within a restricted area is thus considerable, _e. g._, lumbering, forest industries, and hunting above; farming and fruit-growing below. Mountains which rise from steppes or deserts have the character of oases, or islands. The general conditions of climate and of life on mountains are so different from those on lowlands that it is not surprising to note the differences, often observed, between mountain and lowland peoples. The decreasing mean temperature, the inaccessibility, the smaller amount of land available for profitable use (except in the case of mines), and the decrease in plant and animal life for food, suffice to set a limit of height to the habitability of these mountains by man. Human settlements, as a whole, therefore decrease in number and importance with increasing altitude, except where mineral wealth or forests are an attraction.

The successive vertical zones or belts of vegetation vary much in altitude above sea-level, according to the slope on which the plants grow, the warmer southern slopes (in the northern hemisphere) giving vegetation more favourable conditions at a greater altitude than the northern. A similar effect of favourable exposure is commonly seen in the distribution of population in mountainous districts. Human settlements are usually found at greater elevations on the sunnier slopes, where the conditions for agriculture and for grazing are most favourable, but temporary lumbering or mining operations may locally induce higher settlements on the shady slopes, and more favourable rainfall on the latter may also bring about a departure from the general rule. The average upper limit of settlements in the Alps coincides fairly well with the upper limit of grain. It is reported that in the Oetz Valley, in the Alps, considerably more than 75 per cent. of the population live on the sunny side of the valley. Lugeon’s study of the principal valley of the canton of Valais, between Martigny and the Rhone glacier, has brought out similar interesting facts. In a certain part of this district, the villages, with but one or two exceptions, are on the sunny side. In fact, a certain distinction of classes results from this difference. There is developed an aristocracy of the sun, so to speak. The people on the sunny side are, on the whole, more prosperous and better educated, and look with some contempt upon the people on the shady side. The marked avoidance of the lower parts of valleys in the Alps, and in other temperate mountain regions, and the building of houses on the mountain slopes or the hill-tops, depend upon the frequent occurrence of inversions of temperature. Löwl has pointed out that in parts of the Alps, terraces, fan-cones, and other topographic forms elevated somewhat above the valley floors, are thus sought out as locations for houses.

The value of land is obviously determined largely by its position with reference to slope, exposure, and liability to frost occurrence. Southern slopes (in the northern hemisphere) are usually more desirable as well as more expensive, and many examples might be given of the difference in value of land which is more exposed to frost and of that which is less exposed. California furnishes many excellent examples. A grain ranch lying in a frosty pocket may there be next to land which is practically frost-free. The latter is worth two hundred or more times as much per acre when well established in oranges. The kind of crop which can be grown, and hence the financial return, also depends largely upon exposure to sunshine and frost, protection against destructive winds, and the like, as well as upon soil.

It is a characteristic habit in many parts of the temperate zones to drive cattle up onto the higher slopes of the mountains for pasturage in the summer months, whereas, on the approach of the winter, they are brought back to the permanent settlements below. Examples are found, among other places, in Switzerland, where the cattle and goats, with their herders and shepherds, spend the summer far up on the alp; in Sweden and Norway; in south-eastern France; on the Balkan peninsula; among certain Indian tribes and also on some of the great cattle ranches of the United States; in much of the plateau country of Asia, as on the Pamir, and in parts of Armenia, the Thian Shan, and the central Himalayas; in northern Africa, and in the Urals. The modern development of summer resorts in mountains is but another manifestation of this seasonal control of migrations by the climatic conditions resulting from the presence of mountains. Special cases of a peculiar kind are found in the Sary-Tur and Thian Shan mountains, among the Boginzes and the Kirghiz, who in winter drive their horses and herds up above the level of the winter clouds and snows to the upper pastures, which are well watered by the summer rains, and furnish abundant grass for fodder. Again, in Sistan, Ellsworth Huntington reports an occasional migration down from the relatively cool mountains during a dry season, and across the desert to the lake waters beyond. But these are exceptions to the general rule of upward migrations in summer.

The forests above the grass zone are frequently the last resort of wild animals which have retreated from the lower slopes, and hunting expeditions in search of this game are often made.

Mountain peoples have special conditions to meet. Their dwellings are usually better built and furnish better protection than is the case on the lowlands. In some cases the people live almost or quite underground, in order to secure the maximum protection against cold, or heat, or high winds. In Kashmir some of the natives carry about, under their loose clothing, earthenware pots filled with live coals, to keep them warm. Severe winters on mountains, with little or no possibility of doing outdoor work, promote home industries. Foehn or chinook winds locally favour the raising of special crops or fruits; melt the snow rapidly, so that cattle may find sustenance through the winter; or necessitate strict regulations against fires, as in parts of Switzerland. The bora interferes with shipping along the eastern shore of the Adriatic. Mountain and valley winds sometimes locally attain such violence as to make travel or habitability difficult or impossible.

A peculiar custom which prevails among certain native tribes of the Himalayas, and which is an interesting result of climate, has been reported by Ellsworth Huntington (in manuscript). Certain Kashmiris, who live in the Himalayas between Kashmir and Ladakh, at an altitude of about 10,500 feet, spread earth on the snow in order to make the snow melt more quickly.

“Those whom I saw,” reports Huntington, “were Kashmiris who had come to the country within a generation or two, and had learned the practice from the long-settled Ladakhi or Tibetan inhabitants. The snow, April 11, 1905, was unusually deep, about 10 feet, and was not expected to disappear for nearly two months, some two weeks later than usual. In the drier region of Ladakh, nearly to the east, the practice is followed by people living as high as 14,000 feet. Sometimes a snowstorm covers the layer of soil on the old snow, and new soil has to be gathered and spread.”

Travel and transportation meet with many obstacles in mountains, apart from the natural difficulties which come from steepness of slope and from forest cover. In all latitudes where snow falls in winter, obstruction by snow-blockades is a serious matter, and the question whether it is better to tunnel, or to build above the ground and keep the tracks clear by means of ploughs and snow-sheds, is an important one for the engineers to settle. The northern transcontinental railroads in North America, where they pass over the western mountain ranges, are protected for long distances at critical points by snow-sheds. These, being of wood, are apt to take fire, and fire watches and fire apparatus are provided for such emergencies. Below the latitudes where snow falls in considerable quantities, sheds are not needed. Some railroads in mountains are abandoned altogether in winter. Floods and washouts, landslides and avalanches, are additional handicaps. The famous Uspallata Pass, between Chile and Argentina, is not used by travellers in winter, on account of the snow. Traffic then goes by steamer, by way of the Strait of Magellan. Fierce, cold winds, and the altitude, have been effective barriers in keeping Tibet so long isolated, and will remain effective barriers in the way of any movement of troops across the Tibetan plateau.

_Climate and Weather: Some Mental Effects._ The frequent and sudden weather changes of the temperate zones affect man in many ways, as do the larger seasonal changes. The relations between weather and conduct have frequently been investigated. Professor E. G. Dexter has made an extended empirical study of the effects of the weather in relation to deaths, suicides, the number of errors made in banks, and misdemeanours generally. It appears, as one of the most interesting general conclusions, that physically exhilarating weather conditions are accompanied by an abnormal prevalence of excesses in deportment, while deaths, suicides, and errors in banks show a decrease. So many indirect effects come into play in these conditions that care must be taken not to draw too hasty conclusions. Thus H. H. Clayton has pointed out that errors in banks may be more likely on cloudy days because of the greater difficulty in seeing figures, and also that fine weather tempts people out of doors and thus brings them into contact with others, giving opportunities for crime. Light wind movement seems to be accompanied by fewer misdemeanours in schools; low relative humidity by a larger percentage of misdemeanours; great cold by more suicides, and so on. Bertillon has collected data on suicides and seasons in France, and Leffingwell has investigated illegitimacy and the influence of seasons on conduct in Great Britain.

The difference in the effects of a bright, crisp day, when work is well and quickly done, and of a dull, depressing, and enervating day is well known. A dismal day is a _dies mali_. Strong cyclonic winds, blowing polewards from lower latitudes, are characteristic of the temperate zones, and are proverbially disagreeable and irritating, in strong contrast with the cooler winds from higher latitudes. The sirocco in Italy; the solano in Spain; the norte in Argentina, for example, are such winds. The sirocco has been described as “not fatal to human life,” but “deadly to human temper.” In Spain there is a proverb, “Ask no favour during the solano.” The nervous effects of the dry foehn and chinook are well known. The zonda of the Argentine is reported as not infrequently making people temporarily insane, and leading to suicide. Many other mental effects of the weather might be noted.

_Climate, Weather, and Military Operations._ Historical consequences of great importance have followed from special conditions of climate or weather. Maguire’s _Outlines of Military Geography_ (Cambridge, 1899) contains a chapter on the influence of climate on military operations, but this subject has hitherto received little attention. More recently, Bentley, in a presidential address before the Royal Meteorological Society, London, considered the matter. A few illustrations only can here be given.

The fleet of Xerxes was lost in a storm on the coast of Greece. In 54 B.C., owing to a preceding drought and scanty harvest, Cæsar was obliged to scatter his army in separate winter quarters, and in this situation one of these isolated bodies of Romans was attacked and destroyed. The consequences came near being very disastrous for Cæsar. A storm destroyed the Spanish Armada. The French Revolution was precipitated by a severe winter. Napoleon was defeated in 1796, owing to the ground being too heavy for the movement of the French artillery. In 1796, also, Gen. Hoche’s fleet, sailing for Ireland, was scattered by a storm. The terrible winter retreat of the French from Moscow furnished a vivid illustration of the strength of the two invincible Russian generals, January and February (to use a Russian expression). The battle of Waterloo was postponed on account of a heavy rainfall. The siege of Sebastopol furnished another illustration of the suffering which a severe winter may produce. The “Boxer” outbreak in China, in 1900, was precipitated by a scarcity of rain in the preceding autumn, bringing on destitution and famine, and driving the people to pillage and robbery. During the fighting around Tientsin, early in July, the situation of the allied troops was very critical when a torrential rainfall compelled the Chinese to retire. During the Boer war there were many instances of weather controls over military operations. On January 9, 1900, a heavy rain checked the fighting near Ladysmith, and cloudy weather often prevented the use of the heliograph in communicating with Ladysmith. During the recent British campaign in Tibet, great difficulty was experienced at the higher altitudes, owing to the hardening of the oil in the guns on account of the cold, and the low boiling point made it difficult to cook food properly in the absence of cooking utensils adapted for use at low pressures. In the Russo-Japanese war, the cold and heat and rain made themselves felt as powerful factors in the campaign.

The effect of even one rain may be far-reaching. It has been said that a shower of rain acts like a wet blanket on a mob. Numerous recent illustrations of the truth of this statement are available. A rain in Paris on the day of the Dreyfus verdict, in September, 1899, doubtless helped to prevent, if it did not actually prevent, an outbreak. During a great strike in Moscow at the end of January, 1905, a snowstorm greatly helped the authorities in keeping the people off the streets. Again, on April 6, 1906, at St. Petersburg, a steady downpour of rain all day prevented an open-air meeting which would doubtless have led to conflict with the military.

_Railroads._ Railroads have reached their greatest development in the continental climates of the temperate zones, and the influence of these climates upon the construction and operation of these roads is far-reaching, varied, and of the greatest economic importance. Transportation by rail is necessarily closely affected by weather conditions, for trains have no protection against snow, or wind, or heat. The extremes of heat and cold have a racking effect upon all iron and steel work, and careful allowance has to be made for this factor. Floods wash away bridges, tracks, and ballast. In the Mississippi basin of the United States, floods in 1903 cost the Santa Fé Railroad alone $1,000,000. Stormy weather means bad country roads, and this may prevent the transportation of farm products to the railroads, and thus result in irregularity in the supply of freight. It is believed that were freight delivered regularly, the railroads would find it possible to use less rolling stock, with better returns.

Many of the most obvious climatic handicaps are seen in the more northern latitudes of the north temperate zone, where the winter brings snow and ice. The trans-Siberian Railway was constructed with great difficulty because of frozen soil, spring thaws, and upheaved tracks. Across the rivers and across Lake Baikal, rails were laid on the ice during construction times. Later, the trains were carried across the lake in winter on ice-breaking ferryboats. The houses for the labourers were also built on the ice. Work was greatly interrupted during the winter. On the Great Lakes of North America, temporary rails are laid on the ice during the ice-cutting season. The new trans-Canadian railway lines will traverse a region of severe cold in winter, but generally of moderate snowfall, and although situated far to the north, they will draw upon a splendid wheat crop, favoured by the warmth and well distributed rains of summer. The snow-blockades on the northern railroads of America led to the invention and use of the ingenious and effective rotary snow-plough; to the planting of trees along the right of way to serve as snow-breaks, and to the construction of snow-fences. In Siberia, the snow itself is occasionally piled up in heaps by means of ploughs or shovels, and is thus made to serve as a windbreak. The campaign of a modern electric street railway system, in an American city, against the winter’s snow, is carefully planned in the preceding summer, and every detail is worked out beforehand. A mild, open winter in latitudes where winter snowfall is an important factor in railroad operation, means a saving of money, time, and labour, which results in increased earnings and even in larger dividends. The motive power which is otherwise employed in fighting snow is then earning money for the company.

In the warmer latitudes and drier seasons the blowing sand and dust are disagreeable, and even delay transportation at times. High temperatures and heavy rainfall hasten the decay of railroad ties. The growth of weeds on the right of way of earth-ballasted roads is a considerable difficulty in many parts of the temperate zones, as well as in the tropics. In the United States, the Union Pacific Railroad has used a gasoline weed-burner, which scorches off the vegetation, and the salt water of Great Salt Lake, sprinkled over the road-bed, has also been found to serve well as a weed-destroyer.

The state of the weather sometimes fixes the load of an engine, as in the case of freight trains running west from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. According to the weather forecast of favourable, reasonably good, bad, and very bad weather, the load of a freight engine varies from 1750 tons to 1225 tons. The business of railroads depends largely upon the season, but the time at which these roads are generally the most useful, and also the most overburdened, is after harvest-time. Then, in the great wheat regions of North America, the immense crops can with difficulty be handled and stored, and the need of money to “move the crops” not infrequently leads to financial readjustment and stringency in the money market.

_Transportation by Water._ The oceans at the equatorward margins of the temperate zones have the light, variable winds and calms of the horse latitude belts, with the seasonal change from trades to westerlies, and back again. From the Mediterranean, a fairly calm sea with few storms, came many of the early navigators and explorers, doubtless tempted to sea by the regularity and steadiness of their winds and by the clearness of the air which, before the days of lighthouse, compass, and telescope, aided navigation by making it easy to see distant landmarks. In the higher latitudes, the prevailing westerlies, blowing with moderate to high velocity and frequently disturbed by storms, especially in winter, generally favour voyages to the eastward, but are head winds for vessels sailing westward. The voyage from Europe to North America is not an easy one for sailing ships, for, in addition to the head winds, there is also the danger of ice and of fog on the Banks of Newfoundland. The sailing route from Europe to North America by way of the north-east trade, and back, more directly, in the westerlies, makes effective use of these two great wind systems. To keep clear of ice and fog, the North Atlantic steamer routes at certain seasons keep farther to the south, with the disadvantage of lengthening the distance travelled. Ocean currents, which are meteorological phenomena because wind-driven, are important factors in controlling the location of sailing routes. The voyage around Cape Horn to the westward, in the teeth of boisterous westerly gales, is much dreaded by seamen. Outward-bound vessels from England to Australia find it convenient to sail by the Cape of Good Hope, while on the homeward voyage they can round Cape Horn to the eastward. By so doing they have a good chance of fair winds all the way. The most favourable weather condition for passing Cape Horn to the westward is the presence, during the period necessary for rounding the Horn and for crossing latitude 50° S. in the Pacific, of a centre of low pressure in the immediate vicinity of the Cape, and not too far to the southward. This pressure distribution gives north-east, east, and south-east winds in succession in the case of a west-bound vessel which passes the centre to the southward. The cyclones of the westerlies are always more or less of a hindrance and danger to shipping. Storm winds have, it is true, accidentally led to the discovery of new lands, but stormy seas do not tempt man to sail upon them. Protected harbours are naturally sought; unprotected harbours are provided with breakwaters and docks; low-lying coasts, like those of Germany and Holland, are subject to damage and flooding, and even loss of life, by storm waves and high tides. Even on the borders of the temperate zones, in the sub-tropical belts, the winter cyclones of the westerlies occasionally give rise to gales dangerous to shipping, as on the coast of California and of Chile. When a strong norte blows at Valparaiso, as it sometimes does in the winter season, the vessels at anchor in the harbour are obliged to steam or to be towed out into the open ocean, in order to avoid being blown ashore. The vessels in this harbour are anchored at both bow and stern, always facing the north.

The freezing of harbours at the termini of the northern railroads is a serious handicap in many countries. Ice-breakers are used by Russia at Vladivostock; and at Hango, Cronstadt, St. Petersburg, and other ports on the Baltic, Germany’s northern ports suffer more or less from the inconvenience of ice in winter. The closing and opening to navigation of the grain ports is a matter of the greatest importance in the world’s grain trade. Canada is much handicapped by the freezing of the St. Lawrence River. The trans-Atlantic steamers change their sailings in winter to ports that are accessible the year around. It has been proposed to use an ice-breaker to keep the St. Lawrence open longer in the fall, and to break up the ice earlier in the spring. The projected route from Canada to Europe by way of Hudson’s Bay is obviously greatly handicapped, if not rendered wholly impracticable, by the winter ice. On the frozen Gulf of Finland a considerable population of fishermen live on the ice for several months; building houses for themselves and abandoning for a time their usual occupation of farming. On the frozen Neva, at St. Petersburg, street traffic goes on as on dry land; roads are made over the ice; the streets are lighted; cars are run and fairs are held.

_Various Effects of the Weather._ Effects of varying conditions of seasons and weather are observable on all sides. The march of the seasons brings a succession of occupations. Thus farming, building, painting, and outdoor work generally, are prominent occupations in the warmer months in much of the temperate zones. Lumbering, ice-cutting, and snow-shovelling are distinctly occupations of the colder months in the higher temperate latitudes in the United States. In North America the harvesting of the cereal crops calls for thousands of harvest hands every summer, many of whom begin work in the south and gradually work north into Canada, as the crop comes later and later in the season with increasing latitude. It is worth noting, in passing, that the wheat harvest in Argentina usually begins late in November in the north, and progresses southward until February; in India, the harvest begins late in February in the south and progresses northward until early in May. The Indian and Argentine wheat thus come to market in what is known as the “dead season” in the other wheat countries, and therefore have an important effect on prices.

Rainfall, insufficient in quantity or poorly distributed, leads to a failure of the crops, and one or more years of crop failure may bring on a general financial depression. Even political overturns, as has been shown by Clayton for the United States, have been brought about by deficient rainfall resulting in short crops, and a similar occurrence has not been unknown in England. Political consequences following crop failure have been traced to the occurrence of destructive hot winds in Kansas in 1890 and 1891, which gave the Populist Party national importance. The financial value of one rain, at a critical time of drought, can sometimes be approximately estimated. In Kansas and Nebraska, in 1900, the value of one rain, lasting twenty-four hours, in saving the corn crop was put at over $80,000,000. In Australia, the wheat crop, as has been shown by Wills, is so closely related to rainfall that the ratio of wheat in bushels per acre and the annual rainfall in inches has been made out to be a remarkably definite one. Similarly, the number of sheep per square mile in Australia and in Argentina depends very closely upon the rainfall, as has also been shown by Wills. Unseasonable weather, at any time of year, disturbs trade, which is very closely adjusted to the normal weather conditions that may reasonably be expected at any given time. Strikes have come to an end because of the approach of cold weather, and the prospects of suffering among the strikers; and strikes have continued during great heat because of the desire of the men to remain idle at such times. Certain atmospheric conditions seem to be more favourable than others to spontaneous combustion. A dense London fog causes a heavy money loss in the extra expense for gas and electric light, and in the delay and damage to shipping. It has been estimated that the cost of the gas burned during one day of an ordinary London fog approximates $15,000. In New York city, the coming of a summer afternoon thunder storm is reported by watchmen to the electric light power-houses, where the dynamos are set going at full speed in order to supply the sudden demand for extra light. In England, a good deal of business is done by insurance companies in indemnifying cricket clubs against loss in case an important game happens to be interfered with by rain. So many claims have arisen for the insurance money that it has become customary in such cases to stipulate what amount of rain shall fall in order that the claim shall be paid. Insurance against damage by tornadoes, lightning, hail, etc., illustrates the efforts of man to guard against loss due to hostile features of his weather and climate. The danger from tornadoes on the western plains and prairies of the United States has led to the building of underground “dug-outs,” or tornado cellars, which are somewhat akin to the underground winter dwellings of some of the natives tribes of northern Siberia, built as a protection against winter storms. Such illustrations might be multiplied indefinitely.