THE CLIMATE AND PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF THE EQUATORIAL 

 ZONE 



The three Climatal Zones of the Earth Temperature of the Equatorial 

 Zone Causes of the Uniform High Temperature near the Equator 

 Influence of the Heat of the Soil Influence of the Aqueous Vapour 

 of the Atmosphere Influence of Winds on the Temperature of the 

 Equator Heat due to the Condensation of Atmospheric Vapour 

 General features of the Equatorial Climate Uniformity of the Equa- 

 torial Climate in all parts of the Globe Effects of Vegetation on 

 Climate Short Twilight of the Equatorial Zone The aspect of the 

 Equatorial Heavens Intensity of Meteorological Phenomena at the 

 Equator Concluding Remarks. 



IT is difficult for an inhabitant of our temperate land to 

 realise either the sudden and violent contrasts of the arctic 

 seasons or the wonderful uniformity of the equatorial climate. 

 The lengthening or the shortening days, the ever- changing 

 tints of spring, summer, and autumn, succeeded by the leafless 

 boughs of winter, are constantly recurring phenomena which 

 represent to us the established course of nature. At the 

 equator none of these changes occur ; there is a perpetual 

 equinox and a perpetual summer, and were it not for variations 

 in the quantity of rain, in the direction and strength of the 

 winds, and in the amount of sunshine, accompanied by corre- 

 sponding slight changes in the development of vegetable and 

 animal life, the monotony of nature would be extreme. 



In the present chapter it is proposed to describe the chief 

 peculiarities which distinguish the equatorial from the tem- 

 perate climate, and to explain the causes of the difference 

 between them, causes which are by no means of so simple a 

 nature as are usually imagined. 



