30 INFLUENCES OF CLIMATE ON NATIONAL LIFE. 



therefore would presumably be excluded from many 

 of its advantages, and yet this is not so, for this 

 drawback is more than compensated for by exceptional 

 and peculiarly favourable climatic conditions, caused, 

 as it is generally supposed, by the set of the Gulf 

 Stream, which to all intents and purposes has the 

 effect of so far modifying the rigour of its northern 

 position, that it enjoys almost all the benefits which 

 would accrue from a much more southern situation. 

 The fact is so well known that we think it sufficient 

 merely to mention it, as a complete answer to such 

 an objection. Had this not been so, it is to be feared 

 that Great Britain would never have attained to that 

 pre-eminent 'position assigned to her by history: the 

 effects of climate upon both the mental and physical 

 condition of man being such, that the world's history 

 shows it has generally been decisive in this respect. 



The condition of Labrador, which occupies on the 

 opposite side of the Atlantic, a similar position to that 

 of Great Britain, furnishes us with a good example of 

 what climate may do to prevent the material progress 

 of a country. Here, it so happens that climatic in- 

 fluences are unfavourable, the icy current from the Polar 

 seas making it rigorous in the extreme. As a conse- 

 quence Labrador has been excluded from all material 

 progress, and remains a nearly uninhabited region of 

 lakes, swamps, and rocky wilderness, ice-bound for 

 the greater part of every year. So far as is known, 

 very little of it appears to be improveable, for the 

 conditions necessary for the formation of humus, or 

 vegetable soil, are generally non-existent. 



But so long as the climate is not too severe for the 

 cultivation of the principal cereals, and the raising of 



