All parts of the earth do not have seasons such as we have. If we should travel north we should find the climate growing colder and colder. After a long time we should come to a region of intense cold. The ground would be covered with ice and snow all the year through, both winter and summer. This most northern part of the earth is called the North Pole. The region around it is the North Frigid Zone. There is a South Pole and a South Frigid Zone as cold as the northern one. You can see where they are on the diagram.
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If we start from here and take a trip south we find it constantly growing warmer. At last we come to a place where it is extremely warm in both summer and winter. That region is called the Torrid Zone because “torrid” means “hot.” This hot zone extends right around the middle part of the earth. The very hottest part through the middle is the Equator. Notice on the drawing that we live in a zone between the very cold region, or Frigid Zone, and the very warm region, or Torrid Zone. Our zone is called the North Temperate Zone. We have here spring, summer, [p83] autumn and winter. Our weather is seldom so cold as in the Frigid Zones, nor so warm as in the Torrid Zone. Our spring and autumn are mild or temperate.
THE ZONES.
Find the South Temperate Zone. Its climate is just like ours. What seasons do they have there? What zone lies north of it and which south of it?
Copy the diagram of the zones in your note-book.
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THE TEMPERATE ZONE—OUR ZONE
Most of the people of the world live in one of the Temperate Zones, and most of the great cities are in these zones. People can work better here where we do not have either intensely hot or intensely cold weather all of the time. There are two Temperate [p84] Zones, the North Temperate Zone and the South Temperate Zone. In which do we live?