PREDICTION 0^ CLIMATIC VARIATIONS 



103 



priated to pay the salaries of half a 

 dozen real investigators whose work 

 would be merely to ponder on the figures 

 gathered by others and extract from 

 them the inner meaning. The officials 

 of the Weather Bureau deserve all 

 praise for the large amoimt of in^'estiga- 

 tion that they carry on, but the great 

 majority of them have to do it as a by- 

 product. Their time is mainly taken 

 up with routine work which tires the 

 mind and leaves it too much exhausted 

 for the artluous work of framing and 

 testing hypotheses. The far more valu- 

 able work which many of them might do 

 is relegated to the time that they can 

 snatch from their other tasks or from 

 evenings and \acations. If Congress 



could be persuaded to let the Weather 

 Biu'cau put five or six of the country's 

 l)est meteorologists to work on the prob- 

 lem of the causes of climatic changes 

 and to devote all their time to it with 

 suitable clerical assistance, there is little 

 doubt that within ten years we should be 

 far on the way to the prediction of the 

 weather months in advance. Some day 

 we shall doul)tless achieve that result 

 even under the present handicaps, but 

 the country would be vastly richer if it 

 would hasten the result by encouraging 

 its Weather Bureau to engage in ab- 

 struse studies which may not appear 

 practical now, but which in the end will 

 lead to the saving of millions and 

 billions of dollars. 



Darkest shading, regions of maximiim storniiness; nexl darkest, moderate storminess; lightest shading, very 

 slight storminess; dotted areas, without cyclonic storms. Median lines of the main storm area and its brandies are 

 indicated by heavy solid lines; the hypothetical median lines of the ancient storm belts are shown by doited lines. 



Changes of climate in the past have consisted largely of variations in the location of the storm belt — In the 

 past and today no natioc has risen to the highest grade of civilization except in regions where the stimulus from 

 storms is great; the distribution of civilization closely follows the distribution of climatic energy [From Cioiliza- 

 tion and Climate] 



