HARD IVICXE'S SCIENCE- G OSSJP. 



121 



IS OUR BRITISH CLIMATE CHANGING? 



By J. E. TAYLOR. 



$ HERE is no more 

 certain fact revealed 

 by geological sci- 

 ence than that Great 

 Britain has experi- 

 enced all kinds of 

 climate since life 

 first appeared on 

 the globe. This 

 took place long be- 

 fore the appearance 

 of Man. Climates 

 have swung, per- 

 haps alternately, 

 from one extreme 

 to another — from 

 tropical heat to 

 glacial cold, with 

 all the variations 

 between, known as 

 temperate. The rocks of the British islands contain 

 unquestioned evidences of this fact. 



But these climatal changes have been exceedingly 

 slow — not violent or cataclysmic. They have been 

 largely due to external cosmical causes, as any 

 reader will see who turns to the works of Dr. James 

 Croll, "Climate and Time"; Dr. James Geikie's 

 " Great Ice Age," or Sir Robert Ball's recent book 

 on "The Cause of the Glacial Period." Such 

 physical changes as were brought about by these 

 almost imperceptibly slow astronomical aberrations 

 and influences required periods of time, which 

 neither traditional nor written history knows anything 

 about. And to cause a distinct swing of the climate 

 pendulum from the Eocene Period, when the London 

 Clay was formed, to the Glacial Epoch, when the 

 Boulder Clay accumulated, may have required a 

 couple of millions of years at least, judging by the 

 great physical geological changes which took place 

 all over the world in the meantime. 

 No. 330. — June 1892. 



Therefore, when we think of discussing the subject 

 as to whether our English climate is altering or has 

 altered within comparatively modern times, we must 

 dismiss the direct geological or astronomical influ- 

 ences afore-mentioned. The question becomes 

 narrowed almost to the "memory of the oldest 

 inhabitant." Apart from the well-known and easily 

 comprehended fact that even highly intelligent old 

 people regard the period of their youth as distinctly 

 superior in every respect to that they are privileged 

 to spend their latter days in (every generation of 

 elderly people has always done the same), the 

 question remains as to whether, by any other causes 

 than those directly geological or astronomical, the 

 climate of this country has recently altered. Of 

 course, when we compare the charms of the ordinary 

 modern First of May (we had nothing to complain of 

 this year) with the descriptions of the weather of that 

 time in the older poets, we must remember that the 

 Calendar has been altered since then, and that our 

 First of May is twelve days earlier than it was in the 

 days of Charles II., when Pepys wrote his Diary. 



In a notable book published by the Hon. Mr. 

 Marsh, then American Ambassador at Florence, 

 twenty-five years ago, entitled " Physical Geography 

 as influenced by Human Action," we have the only 

 true key to the explanation of the rapid local changes 

 of climate brought about within living but extended 

 memories. Mr. Marsh showed how the cutting 

 down of ancient forests to make clearings for 

 emigrants and settlers "out West" affected the 

 periodicity of the rainfall, the floods of the rivers, 

 droughts, rainy seasons, etc. "Woods and forests 

 are the divinely-appointed " governors " of the 

 climate of any country. I use the word "governors " 

 not in any political sense, but in that employed by 

 engineers, who understand thereby the " throttle 

 valve," which regulates the force of steam admitted 

 to work the machinery. All over the world, Mr. 

 Marsh's views are now not only accepted but acted 



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