102 



THE AMERICAM MUSEUM JOURNAL 



one side that the l•e^■erse conditions 

 prevail. 



Still another element of complexity 

 is added by the fact that when storminess 

 increases at times of many or few sun- 

 spots as the case may be, the increase 

 occurs at different seasons in different 

 parts of the country. Thus in northern 

 Germany storms increase in summer 

 l)ut decrease in winter during times of 

 many spots. In Winnipeg there is an 

 increase from January to March and 

 again from July to November, while 

 farther south in the same latitude there 

 is an increase in April and May, but a 

 decided decrease from July to November. 

 Other parts of the world show still other 

 peculiarities, yet everywhere there seems 

 to be a definite law at work, if only we 

 could discover it. 



From all this it appears that in spite 

 of seeming contradictions there is a 

 distinct relationship between sunspots 

 and the variations of the earth's climate 

 from season to season. The relation- 

 ship is highly complicated because it is 

 not direct, but arises through a read- 

 justment of the atmospheric circulation. 

 It is further complicated by the fact 

 that there are several kinds of solar 

 variation, each of which exerts an in- 

 fluence. For instance the minor cycles 

 of two or three years discovered by 

 Arctowski, seem to take place independ- 

 ently of the sunspot cycles whose aver- 

 age length is about eleven years, but 

 which may vary from seven to fifteen 

 years. In addition to these two kinds 

 of cycles there are known to be others 

 of greater length, as well as little ones 

 having a periodicity of a month or more. 

 All these many variations are in progress 

 at once, one tending to upset the earth's 

 climate in one direction and another in 

 another. The final results as they 

 impress themselves upon n an are the 

 product of a great number of cycles, 



which sometimes conflict and some- 

 times reenforce one another. To these 

 must be added the influence of terres- 

 trial conditions like tides and volcanic 

 eruptions. No wonder the problem of 

 long range weather predictions is diffi- 

 cult. 



Although the problem is difficult, it is 

 far from discouraging. Within the last 

 few years such progress has been made 

 that we may well be hopeful. The great 

 difficulty is lack of investigators. The 

 sun's nature and changes are being 

 minutely investigated by such agencies 

 as the Smithsonian and Carnegie Insti- 

 tutions. Wlien the new hundred-inch 

 telescope on Mount Wilson near Los 

 Angeles is completed we may expect a 

 great enlargement of our knowledge of 

 the true nature of sunspots, solar promi- 

 nences, and other solar phenomena, and 

 the meaning of the results thus obtained 

 will quickly be discovered by a corps 

 of highly trained observers. The other 

 side of the problem — that is, the col- 

 lection of climatic data, is being carried 

 on unceasingly by the world's weather 

 bureaus, among which our own holds 

 an unrivaled position. There is one 

 great deficiency however, which the 

 officials of the United States Weather 

 Bureau are the first to deplore. As a 

 nation we are obsessed by the idea that 

 we must be "practical." The result is 

 that the short-sighted American people 

 is willing to spend millions of dollars in 

 gathering figures and in finding out how 

 much rain there is, how early the frosts 

 come, and a multitude of other useful 

 matters, but begrudges any money for 

 finding out why these things occur. 

 This foolish country of ours thinks 

 nothing of spending a thousand dollars 

 apiece for a thousand clerks to record 

 figures, but it squirms and says "im- 

 practical" at the mere suggestion that 

 five thousand dollars apiece be appro- 



