THE EARTH'S SHAPE 



forests, and now with deserts. There is no corner of the 

 whole world which has not undergone changes of climate. 

 These changes are very slow. There is no reason for 

 supposing, in spite of the laments we sometimes hear 

 about the loss of old-fashioned winters and old-fashioned 

 summers, that the climate of England, for example, has 

 changed in the least since Caesar's legions landed on its 

 shores. The Roman settlers in Britain doubtless ex- 

 perienced sloppy winters and wet summers now and 

 again, just as we do; and King Arthur's knights, no 

 doubt, had their saddening experiences of November 

 fogs. Yet slowly and surely changes of climate do 

 take place, and nothing except the winds influence them 

 more than does the presence of a neighbouring sea or 

 ocean. Most of us reckon the warmth of a locality's 

 climate by the distance it is from the pole. That is, 

 however, a very rough and ready method. Vladivostok 

 is roughly the same distance from the North Pole as 

 Venice ; but there is a good deal of difference in the 

 temperature of the two places. In Manchuria when 

 the Russians and Japanese were entrenched before 

 Mukden men died of cold and were frozen at their 

 posts at a time when other people in Mentone and 

 Monte Carlo, at the same distance from the Arctic 

 Circle, were complaining of the heat. So that we see 

 that it must not be assumed that a place like England 

 (where for two thousand years we occasionally have 

 had winters that would kill trees like eucalyptus or 

 fig trees, and where oranges could never ripen in the 

 open air) was always equally cold. It may have been, 

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