242 THE RING OF NATURE 



also two months. Why is it that October is so 

 much brighter and warmer than February ? The 

 answer is easy. Because October has the warm 

 months of August and September behind it, while 

 February follows a hundred and twenty short 

 days and long cold nights. The earth chills 

 slowly and warms up again slowly, so that the 

 coldest days follow midwinter day and the 

 warmest days come after midsummer day. 



That is one reason why October is not so much 

 colder than September, nor November so much 

 colder than October as the days are shorter. One 

 explanation of so unpractical a problem is usually 

 held sufficient, and so the practical man never 

 tumbles on the fact that the sun is actually nearer 

 the earth at Christmas than at midsummer. 

 Some of the brilliance of our autumn sun at mid- 

 day is accounted for by the fact that he is a good 

 million miles nearer than he was at midsummer. 

 He will have advanced towards us another million 

 and a half miles by Christmas. It is only as much 

 as though a man sitting at the end of a thirty-foot 

 drawing-room should be asked to come one foot 

 nearer the fire, turning his chair at the same time 

 so that the blaze was rather less direct. 



It may seem a small thing, but counts for more 

 hi the case of a very fierce fire like the sun than 

 where a mild air- warming coal fire is concerned. 

 Another point in favour of the autumn sun is that 

 we are advancing towards it all the time, and 

 thus intercepting its rays at a greater velocity 



