Climate i^^ 



because the heat received by day all escapes again through 

 the clear air. 



Everybody knows that a clear night is a cold night, 

 while a misty or cloudy one is comparatively warm. 



Among other circumstances, therefore, which greatly 

 affect the climate of a country is its nearness to, or dis- 

 tance from, the ocean. For where constant evaporation 

 is going on, on a large scale, as, of course, it is from the 

 ocean, there the air must needs be loaded with moisture, 

 with the consequences already mentioned: the nights are 

 warmer, the days cooler, the winters less severe, the sum- 

 mers less scorching. In one word, the climate is more 

 equable. Moreover, the ocean is warmer than the land, 

 in winter and by night, while it is cooler in summer and 

 by day; and this tends to further equalize the tempera- 

 ture. 



If the neighborhood of the ocean tends to equalize 

 climate, the neighborhood of any large expanse of dry soil 

 does exactly the reverse, inasmuch as it dries the air. 



If the Sahara were covered with water, the climate of 

 the south of Europe would be many degrees less warm 

 than it is; for the wind passing over it would be cooled 

 instead of heated as it now is. It would also be moistened, 

 and so more snow would fall in the Alps, and less would 

 melt in the summer. 



Then, again, there are the many ocean currents, hot 

 and cold, which also influence climate to a considerable 

 extent. Western Europe would be far colder than it is 

 without the gulf stream, which brings about one hundred 

 and sixty-six thousand cubic miles of hot water from the 

 tropics to the North Atlantic in the course of each year. 

 And this tremendous volume of steaming water, besides 



