CLIMATE 



1430 



CLIMATE 



IVfery High 



OS! Very Low 



CLIMATE IN ITS RELATION TO ENERGY 

 The map shows roughly the distribution of human energy. 



in green, perhaps obtained from carbonate of 

 copper, in black from charcoal, yellow from 

 yellow ochre, and white, probably from kaolin. 

 One "cliff palace" in Cliff Canyon in South- 

 western Colorado is 421 feet long, contains 

 127 rooms and is capable of affording shelter to 

 1,500 persons. The best-preserved cliff dwelling 

 ruins are found in Colorado, and the Federal 

 government is restoring some of the most inter- 

 esting ones. One of the sights of interest to 

 the tourist out of Colorado Springs is an exact 

 reproduction of a small cliff dwelling ruin, with 

 an exhibit of ancient relics of this race. M.S. 



Consult Nadaillac's Prehistoric America; Bul- 

 letin 52 of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 

 Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 



CLI'MATE, the general average of tempera- 

 ture, moisture and other weather conditions 

 in any certain region or locality. The climate 

 of a place, therefore, may be hot or cold, wet 

 or dry, healthful or unhealthful, according to 

 the kind of weather, or meteorological, condi- 

 tions, which have prevailed there for a great 

 number of years. Climate may be said to be 

 a settled or regular condition, for no very 

 marked change has been known to occur in 

 the climate of any region in 2,000 years. 

 Weather, on the contrary, is a present atmos- 

 pheric condition, and may change daily. 



Influence of Climate on Civilization. Cli- 

 mate is the most potent factor in determining 

 the civilization, vegetation and animal life of 

 a region. In the tropics, wherever the equa- 



torial rain belt prevails, animal and vegetable 

 life are abundant, but the excessive heat is 

 apt to prevent the people from developing 

 enterprise and energy. In the frigid zones, 

 where there is little or no vegetation, the few 

 people have difficulty in living and cannot 

 develop the arts and sciences. Thus it will 

 be seen that in the great temperate zones, 

 where cold and heat succeed each other, and 

 where neither is extreme, are developed the 

 great civilizations of the world. 



Factors of Climate. Climate is the result of 

 a number of factors, or determining influences. 

 These are chiefly latitude, altitude, distance 

 from the sea, winds, mountain ranges, rainfall, 

 inclination of the earth's axis and ocean cur- 

 rents. In general, the warmth necessary to sus- 

 tain life comes from the sun; the sun warms 

 the earth, and the earth in turn warms the air. 



Latitude. The latitude of a place is the chief 

 factor in determining its average warmth, or 

 mean temperature, and the mean temperature 

 of a place computed for not less than ten years 

 is its "normal" temperature. At the equator 

 the rays of the noon sun are practically vertical 

 and in every part of the torrid zone they are 

 vertical during a part of each year. Beyond 

 the tropical circles they fall more and more 

 obliquely as the latitude increases; therefore 

 these parts of the earth receive less and less 

 warmth as the latitude increases. If the. earth 

 were a perfectly smooth land mass, all places 

 in the same latitude would have the same tem- 



