973 



CLIMATE. 



CLIMAX. 



874 



know how far to the south or north the rainless region extends. The 

 high table-land which backs this coast on the east is said to have 

 annually some rain, but we have no account of this region on which 

 we can rely ; it may be that it owes this advantage to local peculiarities, 

 especially to its elevation. Farther east the rainless region extends 

 through Meckran, a province of Beloochistan, the desert of that country, 

 and over the delta of the Indus. Here it appears not to comprehend 

 more than 4 of latitude. From this point it turns to the north-east 

 and extends to 30 N. lat., comprehending the Indian desert to the 

 rery base of the Himalaya mountains. Behind this range .extends the 

 high table-land of Tibet, which also has no rain. But at the eastern 

 extremity of the Old Continent, in China, there is no rainless region, 

 which may perhaps be owing to the circumstance that all the parts of 

 China between 22 and 30 N. lat. are traversed by the high mountain 

 chains of the Nan-ling and Yoo-ling, and consist of a continual succes- 

 sion of ridges and valleys. 



That part of Southern Africa, on the shores of the Atlantic, which 

 extends to the north of the Gareep, or Orange River (between 24 

 and 28 S. lat.), is said to be a sandy desert, with little or no rain. 

 Towards the Indian Ocean, Africa is traversed by several mountain- 

 ranges, and consequently has there a somewhat moister climate. 

 Australia also appears to be subject to the same disadvantages. The 

 long droughts, sometimes continuing several years together, which 

 occur in New South Wales, indicate that a great portion of Australia 

 must be reckoned among the countries which are entirely or nearly 

 ilcstit ite of rain. 



In America the rainless region near the tropics is less distinctly 

 marked, probably on account of the comparatively narrow width of 

 that continent near the tropics, and other local peculiarities ; yet such 

 a region exists in both hemispheres. In the northern it seems to 

 occupy the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, between 24 and 26, and to 

 extend westward, comprehending the arid plains of Monterey and 

 Chihuahua, till it reaches the northern portion of the Sierra Madre 

 Mountains, whose northern extremity it surrounds. It then stretches 

 along both banks of the Rio Gila to the Gulf of California, where it 

 however does not terminate, as the peninsula of California has no rain 

 north of 23. The countries of South America, near the tropic of 

 Capricorn, rise suddenly from the Atlantic Ocean to a considerable 

 height, and take the form of high table-laud, traversed by mountain 

 ridges. These parts of course are not without rain ; but nearly 

 midway between both oceans the country sinks considerably lower, and 

 the Grand Chaco or Great Desert occurs, in which rain seems to be 

 very rare. This extensive plain is divided from the Atlantic by a 

 mountainous country, and from the Pacific by the high range of the 

 Andes. In both these mountainous regions rains are frequent ; but 

 on the coast of the Pacific, though it presents a very uneven surface, 

 not a drop of rain is known to fall all the year round between 23 and 

 27 S. lat. This barren tract consists of the Chilese department of 

 Copiapo and the Bolivian province of Atacama. 



These two belts of rainless regions, which on the land are frequently 

 narrowed or interrupted by local circumstances, have a more distinct 

 character on the ocean. Rain seldom falls within the range of the 

 trade winds, except on their very borders, both towards the region of 

 the calms and towards that of the variable winds. [CALMS.] 



Between the two belts formed by the rainless regions are situated 

 those countries which are subject to the equatorial rains. The ocean 

 also has these rains in a small degree in those parts which constitute 

 the region of calms. Here the phenomena of the atmosphere succeed 

 one another with great regularity. The sun rises in a cloudless sky ; 

 towards noon some faint clouds appear near the horizon, which rapidly 

 increase in extent and density, and are soon followed by thunder and 

 violent gusts of wind, accompanied by heavy rains of short duration ; 

 towards evening the clouds disappear, and the sun sets in a serene sky 

 of a deep blue hue. It does not appear that this state of the weather 

 in at all affected by the seasons. 



Those parts of both continents which lie on each side of the equator 

 between the rainless regions have the greatest quantity of rain, and 

 this occurs at certain periods of the year, whence these rains are called 

 periodical rains. The season of the rains depends on the position of 

 the sun. It begins some time before the sun reaches the zenith of a 

 place, and continues for some time after it has passed it ; hence the 

 r&iny season varies with .the difference of latitude. Though the obser- 

 vations which are requisite to determine this point are far from being 

 sufficiently numerous, it would appear that those countries which are 

 near the equator are never for many days altogether without ram, and 

 that there the rainy season, which occurs when the sun passes over the 

 zenith, is only distinguished from the other parts of the year by a 

 greater continuance and a greater abundance of the rains. In the 

 countries more than 5 of lat. distant from the equator, the drf and 

 wet seasons are distinctly marked. The rains begin either immediately 

 or not many days after the sun in its progress towards such a place 

 has passed the equator. They are heaviest when the sun approaches 

 the zenith of the place, after which they continue with less abundance 

 for an equal or even a longer time. In general the rains are more 

 abundant in the first than in the second half of the season. 



Countries that lie between 5 and 10 of lat. have commonly two 

 rainy and two dry seasons. The greater rainy season occurs when the 

 aim in its progress to the nearest tropic passes over the zenith, and 



lasts from three to four months. The less rainy season occurs when 

 the sun on its return from the nearest tropic approaches the parallel of 

 the place. The rains then last only from six weeks to two months, 

 and are much less abundant and continual. Countries more than 10 

 or 12' from the equator have only one rainy and one dry season ; tho 

 first begins when the sun approaches the nearest tropic, and ends some 

 time after, when, in its course from the tropic, it has passed the 

 parallel of the place. It lasts from four to six months. Such is the 

 course of the rainy and dry seasons in these countries, when their 

 regularity is not disturbed by local circumstances, which sometimes 

 effect considerable changes. The most remarkable deviation from this 

 order occurs in India, where the period of the rainy and dry season is 

 not regulated by the position of the sun, but by the change of the 

 monsoons. 



The periodical rains differ from the variable rains, which occur in 

 the countries that lie without the tropics, not only in the greater regu- 

 larity of the time at which they fall, but also in their abundance. The 

 quantity of water which pours down between the tropics in one hour 

 is often greater than that which falls in these latitudes in three or four 

 hours. There is however an erroneous opinion prevalent respecting 

 these rains : it is generally supposed that they continue for many days 

 without interruption, but this is not the case : a day in which the rains 

 fall without interruption from morning to evening is of much rarer 

 occurrence between the tropics than with us ; the sun usually rises in 

 a cloudless sky : two hours before noon the clouds begin to appear, 

 and at noon the rains set in. They then frequently pour down in 

 torrents for four or five hours ; but towards sunset they cease, tho 

 clouds suddenly disappear, and not a drop descends during the whole 

 night. As the abundant rains, especially when the rainy season sets 

 in, frequently cover the level and low country a foot deeper with 

 water, the atmosphere of such tracts is continually loaded with vapours 

 and exhalations during that period, which render the stars invisible at 

 night, and are doubtless a principal cause of the unhealthiness of those 

 countries. 



The parts which lie between the rainless regions and the pole arc 

 subject to the variable rains. There is not a single day in the year in 

 which it has not rained, or may not rain, and the rains are perhaps as 

 common in the night as in the day. There are certainly differences, 

 both in the quantity and in the time of the rains in these countries ; 

 but these differences can only be ascertained by comparing long sets of 

 exact observations ; and such exact observations are still wanting, 

 except for the western parts of Europe. Comparing these observations, 

 one would suppose that the countries south of 45 N. lat., with few 

 exceptions, have also a kind of rainy and dry season, the former 

 occurring in autumn and winter, and the latter in spring and summer. 

 In summer frequently two or three months pass without a single drop 

 of rain falling. In the countries north of 45 such a difference is not 

 observed ; there the greatest quantity of rain seems to fall in the 

 summer, except in England, where the spring and summer are the 

 driest seasons. The quantity of rain however decreases as we advance 

 from the shores of the Atlantic to the inland parts of the European 

 continent. The rains become again more abundant when we reach the 

 plains of Eastern Europe, near Petersburg and Moscow, which may 

 perhaps be owing to the circumstance, that here the winds proceeding 

 from the Gulf Stream meet those which blow from the Ural Mountains 

 and the great sandy deserts. These rules, derived from .observations 

 made in Europe, will probably not hold good for other parts of the 

 globe, because the temperature of Europe forms, as we have observed, 

 a great anomaly. Accordingly we find that meteorological observations 

 made in the United States are far from confirming these rules. [ISO- 

 THERMAL LINES, METEOROLOGY, RAIN, REFRIGERATION OF THE GLOBE, 

 SNOW, TEMPERATURE, WEATHER.] 



CLIMAX (x\l^, a step or ladder), commonly called a figure of 



rhetoric, but properly only an artifice of style ; for a figure or trope is 

 a use of words in some other than their natural or literal sense. In 

 accordance with the primary meaning of the Greek word, a climax in 

 composition is a mode of expression by which the writer mounts, as it 

 were, from one clause to another, as if he were climbing a series 

 of steps. In other words, each clause expresses a higher degree of 

 that which is stated in the preceding clause. The three words 

 which Suetonius records to have been uttered on the occasion of one 

 of his victories by Julius Cresar " Veni, vidi, vici," form a climax. 

 The following sentence addressed by Cicero to Cataline is another : 

 " Nihil agis, nihil moliris, nihil cogitas, quod ego uon audiam, 

 non videam, planeque sentiam." (You do nothing, you attempt no- 

 thing, you conceive nothing, which I do not hear, which I do not see, 

 nay, which I do not even feel.) " A gradual progress from small to , 

 great," observes Lord Kames (' Elements of Criticism/ chap, iv.), " is 

 not less remarkable in figurative than in real grandeur or elevatiou. 

 Every one must have observed the delightful effect of a number of 

 thoughts or sentiments, artfully disposed like an ascending series, and 

 making impressions deeper and deeper ; such disposition of members 

 in a period, is termed a climax." In another passage he makes an 

 attempt to explain the effect asserted to be thus produced. " If a 

 number of objects of the same kind," he says (chap, xviii. 2), " differ- 

 ing only in size, are to be ranged along a straight line, the most agree- 

 able order to the eye is that of an increasing series ; in surveying a 

 number of such objects, beginning at the least, and proceeding to 



