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THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA BRITANNICA
A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE AND GENERAL INFORMATION
ELEVENTH EDITION
VOLUME VI SLICE V
Clervaux to Cockade
Articles in This Slice
CLERVAUX (clara vallis), a town in the northern province of Oesling, grand-duchy of Luxemburg, on the Clerf, a tributary of the Sûre. Pop. (1905) 866. In old days it was the fief of the de Lannoy family, and the present proprietor is the bearer of a name not less well known in Belgian history, the count de Berlaymont. The old castle of the de Lannoys exists, and might easily be restored, but its condition is now neglected and dilapidated. In 1798 the people of Clervaux specially distinguished themselves against the French in an attempt to resist the institution of the conscription. The survivors of what was called the Kloppel-krieg (the “cudgel war”) were shot, and a fine monument commemorates the heroism of the men of Clervaux.
CLETUS, formerly regarded as the name of one of the early successors of St Peter in the see of Rome, or, according to Epiphanius and Rufinus, as sharing the direction of the Roman Church with Linus during Peter’s lifetime. He has been identified beyond doubt with Anencletus (q.v.). See Père Colombier, in Rev. des questions hist. Ap. 1st, 1876, p. 413.
CLEVEDON, a watering-place in the northern parliamentary division of Somersetshire, England, on the Bristol Channel, 15½ m. W. of Bristol on a branch of the Great Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 5900. The cruciform church of St Andrew has Norman and later portions; it is the burial-place of Henry Hallam the historian, and members of his family, including his sons Arthur and Henry. Clevedon Court is a remarkable medieval mansion, dating originally from the early part of the 14th century, though much altered in the Elizabethan and other periods. The house is considered to be the original of “Castlewood” in Thackeray’s Esmond; the novelist was acquainted with the place through his friendship with the Rev. William Brookfield and his wife, the daughter of Sir Charles Elton of Clevedon Court.
CLEVELAND, BARBARA VILLIERS, Duchess of (1641-1709), mistress of the English king Charles II., was the daughter of William Villiers, 2nd Viscount Grandison (d. 1643), by his wife Mary (d. 1684), daughter of Paul, 1st Viscount Bayning. In April 1659 Barbara married Roger Palmer, who was created earl of Castlemaine two years later, and soon after this marriage her intimacy with Charles II. began. The king was probably the father of her first child, Anne, born in February 1661, although the paternity was also attributed to one of her earliest lovers, Philip Stanhope, 2nd earl of Chesterfield (1633-1713). Mistress Palmer, as Barbara was called before her husband was made an earl, was naturally much disliked by Charles’s queen, Catherine of Braganza, but owing to the insistence of the king she was made a lady of the bedchamber to Catherine, and began to mix in the political intrigues of the time, showing an especial hatred towards Edward Hyde, earl of Clarendon, who reciprocated this feeling and forbad his wife to visit her. Her house became a rendezvous for the enemies of the minister, and according to Pepys she exhibited a wild paroxysm of delight when she heard of Clarendon’s fall from power in 1667. Whilst enjoying the royal favour Lady Castlemaine formed liaisons with various gentlemen, which were satirized in public prints, and a sharp quarrel which occurred between her and the king in 1667 was partly due to this cause. But peace was soon made, and her influence, which had been gradually rising, became supreme at court in 1667 owing to the marriage of Frances Stuart (la belle Stuart) (1648-1702) with Charles Stuart, 3rd duke of Richmond (1640-1672). Accordingly Louis XIV. instructed his ambassador to pay special attention to Lady Castlemaine, who had become a Roman Catholic in 1663.
In August 1670 she was created countess of Southampton and duchess of Cleveland, with remainder to her first and third sons, Charles and George Palmer, the king at this time not admitting the paternity of her second son Henry; and she also received many valuable gifts from Charles. An annual income of £4700 from the post office was settled upon her, and also other sums chargeable upon the revenue from the customs and the excise, whilst she obtained a large amount of money from seekers after office, and in other ways. Nevertheless her extravagance and her losses at gaming were so enormous that she was unable to keep up her London residence, Cleveland House, St James’s, and was obliged to sell the contents of her residence at Cheam. About 1670 her influence over Charles began to decline. She consoled herself meanwhile with lovers of a less exalted station in life, among them John Churchill, afterwards duke of Marlborough, and William Wycherley; by 1674 she had been entirely supplanted at court by Louise de Kéroualle, duchess of Portsmouth. Soon afterwards the duchess of Cleveland went to reside in Paris, where she formed an intrigue with the English ambassador, Ralph Montagu, afterwards duke of Montagu (d. 1709), who lost his position through some revelations which she made to the king. She returned to England just before Charles’s death in 1685. In July 1705 her husband, the earl of Castlemaine, whom she had left in 1662, died; and in the same year the duchess was married to Robert (Beau) Feilding (d. 1712), a union which was declared void in 1707, as Feilding had a wife living. She died at Chiswick on the 5th of October 1709.
Bishop Burnet describes her as “a woman of great beauty, but most enormously vicious and ravenous, foolish but imperious, ever uneasy to the king, and always carrying on intrigues with other men, while yet she pretended she was jealous of him.” Dryden addressed Lady Castlemaine in his fourth poetical Epistle in terms of great adulation, and Wycherley dedicated to her his first play, Love in a Wood. Her portrait was frequently painted by Sir Peter Lely and others, and many of these portraits are now found in various public and private collections. By Charles II. she had three sons and either one or two daughters. She had also in 1686 a son by the actor Cardonnell Goodman (d. 1699), and one or two other daughters.
Her eldest son, Charles Fitzroy (1662-1730), was created in 1675 earl of Chichester and duke of Southampton, and became duke of Cleveland and earl of Southampton on his mother’s death. Her second son, Henry (1663-1690), was created earl of Euston in 1672 and duke of Grafton in 1675; by his wife Isabella, daughter of Henry Bennet, earl of Arlington, he was the direct ancestor of the later dukes of Grafton; he was the most popular and the most able of the sons of Charles II., saw a considerable amount of military service, and met his death through a wound received at the storming of Cork. Her third son, George (1665-1716), was created duke of Northumberland in 1683, and died without issue, after having served in the army. Her daughters were Anne (1661-1722), married in 1674 to Thomas Lennard, Lord Dacre (d. 1715), who was created earl of Sussex in 1684; Charlotte (1664-1718), married in 1677 to Edward Henry Lee, earl of Lichfield (d. 1716); and Barbara (1672-1737), the reputed daughter of John Churchill, who entered a nunnery in France, and became by James Douglas, afterwards 4th duke of Hamilton (1658-1712), the mother of an illegitimate son, Charles Hamilton (1691-1754).
The first husband of the duchess, Roger Palmer, earl of Castlemaine (1634-1705), diplomatist and author, was an ardent Roman Catholic, who defended his co-religionists in several publications. Having served in the war against Holland in 1665-67, he wrote in French an account of this struggle, which was translated into English and published by T. Price in London in 1671. Having been denounced by Titus Oates as a Jesuit, he was tried and acquitted, afterwards serving James II. as ambassador to Pope Innocent XI., a mission which led to a brief imprisonment after the king’s flight from England. Subsequently his Jacobite sympathies caused him to be suspected by the government, and his time was mainly spent either in prison or in exile. The earl died at Oswestry on the 21st of July 1705.
The title of duke of Cleveland, which had descended in 1709 to Charles Fitzroy, together with that of duke of Southampton, became extinct when Charles’s son William, the 2nd duke, died without issue in 1774. One of the first duke’s daughters, Grace, was married in 1725 to Henry Vane, 3rd Baron Barnard, afterwards earl of Darlington (d. 1758), and their grandson William Henry Vane (1766-1842) was created duke of Cleveland in 1833. The duke was succeeded in the title in turn by three of his sons, who all died without male issue; and consequently when Harry George, the 4th duke, died in 1891 the title again became extinct.
Previous to the creation of the dukedom of Cleveland there was an earldom of Cleveland which was created in 1626 in favour of Thomas, 4th Baron Wentworth (1591-1667), and which became extinct on his death.
See the article [Charles II.] and the bibliography thereto; G.S. Steinmann, Memoir of Barbara, duchess of Cleveland (London, 1871), and Addenda (London, 1874); and the articles (“Villiers, Barbara” and “Palmer, Roger”) in the Dictionary of National Biography, vols. xliii. and lviii. (London, 1895-1899).
CLEVELAND (or Cleiveland), JOHN (1613-1658), English poet and satirist, was born at Loughborough, where he was baptized on the 20th of June 1613. His father was assistant to the rector and afterwards vicar of Hinckley. John Cleveland was educated at Hinckley school under Richard Vines, who is described by Fuller as a champion of the Puritan party. In his fifteenth year he was entered at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and in 1634 was elected to a fellowship at St John’s. He took his M.A. degree in 1635, and was appointed college tutor and reader in rhetoric. His Latinity and oratorical powers were warmly praised by Fuller, who also commends the “lofty fancy” of his verse. He eagerly opposed the candidature of Oliver Cromwell as M.P. for Cambridge, and when the Puritan party triumphed there Cleveland, like many other Cambridge students, found his way (1643) to Oxford. His gifts as a satirist were already known, and he was warmly received by the king, whom he followed (1645) to Newark. In that year he was formally deprived of his Cambridge fellowship as a “malignant.” He was judge-advocate in the garrison at Newark, and under the governor defended the town until in 1646 Charles I. ordered the surrender of the place to Leslie; when there is a curious story that the Scottish general contemptuously dismissed him as a mere ballad-monger. He saw Charles’s error in giving himself into the hands of the Scots, and his indignation when they surrendered the king to the Parliament is expressed in the vigorous verses of “The Rebel Scot,” the sting of which survives even now. Cleveland wandered over the country depending on the alms of the Royalists for bread. He at length found a refuge at Norwich in the house of Edward Cooke, but in 1655 he was arrested as being of no particular occupation, and moreover a man whose great abilities “rendered him able to do the greater disservice.” He spent three months in prison at Yarmouth, but was released by order of Cromwell, to whom he addressed a manly appeal, in which he declared his fidelity to the royal house, pointing out at the same time that his poverty and inoffensiveness were sufficient assurance that his freedom was no menace to Cromwell’s government. He was released early in 1656, and seems to have renewed his wanderings, finding his way eventually to Gray’s Inn, where Aubrey says he and Samuel Butler had a “club” every night. There he died on the 29th of April 1658.
Cleveland’s poems were more highly esteemed than Milton’s by his contemporaries, and his popularity is attested by the very numerous editions of his works. His poems are therefore of great value as an index to the taste of the 17th century. His verse is frequently obscure and full of the far-fetched conceits of the “metaphysical” poets, none of whom surpassed the ingenuity of “Fuscara, or the Bee Errant.” His satires are vigorous personal attacks, the interest of which is, from the nature of the subject, often ephemeral; but the energy of his invective leaves no room for obscurity in such pieces as “Smectymnuus, or the Club Divines,” “Rupertismus” and “The Rebel Scot.”
Cleveland’s works are: “Character of a London Diurnal,” a broadside; Monumentum regale ... (1649), chiefly by Cleveland, containing three of his elegies on the king; “The King’s Disguise” (1646); “On the Memory of Mr Edward King,” in the collection of verse which also included Milton’s “Lycidas,” and many detached poems.
For a bibliographical account of Cleveland’s peoms see J.M. Berdan, The Poems of John Cleveland (New York, 1903), in which there is a table of the contents of twenty-three editions, of which the chief are: The Character of a London Diurnal, with Several Select Poems (1647); Poems. By John Cleavland. With additions, never before printed (1659); J. Cleaveland Revived ... (1659), in which the editor, E. Williamson, says he inserted poems by other authors, trusting to the critical faculty of the readers to distinguish Cleveland’s work from the rest; Clievelandi Vindiciae ... (1677), edited by two of Cleveland’s former pupils, Bishop Lake and S. Drake, who profess to take out the spurious pieces; and a careless compilation, The Works of John Cleveland ... (1687), containing poems taken from all these sources. A prefatory note by Williamson makes it clear that only a small proportion of Cleveland’s political poems have survived, many of them having been dispersed in MS. among his friends and so lost, and that he refused to authenticate an edition of his works, although most of the earlier collections were genuine.
CLEVELAND, STEPHEN GROVER (1837-1908), president of the United States from 1885 to 1889, and again from 1893 to 1897, was born, the fifth in a family of nine children, in the village of Caldwell, Essex county, New Jersey, on the 18th of March 1837. His father, Richard F. Cleveland, a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church, was of good colonial stock, a descendant of Moses Cleveland, who emigrated from Ipswich, England, to Massachusetts in 1635. The family removed to Fayetteville, N.Y., and afterwards to Clinton, N.Y. It was intended that young Grover should be educated at Hamilton College, but this was prevented by his father’s death in 1852. A few years later he drifted westward with twenty-five dollars in his pocket, and the autumn of 1855 found him in a law office in the city of Buffalo. At the end of four years (1859), he was admitted to the bar.
In 1863 he was appointed assistant district attorney of Erie county, of which Buffalo is the chief city. This was his first public office, and it came to him, like all later preferments, without any solicitation of his own. Two years later (1865) he was the Democratic candidate for district attorney, but was defeated. In 1869 Cleveland was nominated by the Democratic party for the office of sheriff, and, despite the fact that Erie county was normally Republican by a decisive majority, was elected. The years immediately succeeding his retirement from the office of sheriff in 1873 he devoted exclusively to the practice of law, coming to be generally recognized as one of the leaders of the western New York bar. In the autumn of 1881 he was nominated by the Democrats for mayor of Buffalo. The city government had been characterized by extravagance and maladministration, and a revolt of the independent voters at the polls overcame the usual Republican majority and Cleveland was elected. As mayor he attracted wide attention by his independence and business-like methods, and under his direction the various departments of the city government were thoroughly reorganized. His ability received further recognition when in 1882 he was nominated by his party as its candidate for governor. The Republican party in the state was at that time weakened by the quarrels between the “Stalwart” and “Halfbreed” factions within its ranks; and the Democrats were thus given an initial advantage which was greatly increased by the Republicans’ nomination for governor of Charles J. Folger (1818-1884), then secretary of the treasury. Secretary Folger was a man of high character and ability, who had been chief justice of the New York supreme court when placed in control of the treasury department by President Arthur in 1881. But the cry of Federal interference was raised as a result of the methods employed in securing his nomination, and this, together with the party division and the popularity of Cleveland, brought about Cleveland’s election by the unprecedented plurality of 192,854. As governor Cleveland’s course was marked by the sterling qualities that he had displayed in his other public positions. His appointees were chosen for their business qualifications. The demands of party leaders were made subordinate to public interests. He promoted the passage of a good civil service law. All bills passed by the legislature were subjected to the governor’s laborious personal scrutiny, and the veto power was used without fear or favour.
In 1884 the Democratic party had been out of power in national affairs for twenty-three years. In this year, however, the generally disorganized state of the Republican party seemed to give the Democrats an unusual opportunity. Upon a platform which called for radical reforms in the administrative departments, the civil service, and the national finances, Cleveland was nominated for president, despite the opposition of the strong Tammany delegation from his own state. The nominee of the Republican party, James G. Blaine (q.v.) of Maine, had received the nomination only after a contest in which violent personal animosities were aroused. The campaign that followed was one of the bitterest political contests in American history. The Republican party was still further weakened by the defection of a large body of independents, known as “Mugwumps.” The result was close, but Cleveland carried New York, and was elected, obtaining a majority in the electoral college of 219 to 182.
Cleveland’s first term was uneventful, but was marked by firmness, justice and steady adherence on his part to the principles which he deemed salutary to the nation. He was especially concerned in promoting a non-partisan civil service. Congress in 1883 had passed the “Pendleton Bill” (introduced by Senator George H. Pendleton) to classify the subordinate places in the service, and to make entrance to it, and promotion therein, depend upon competitive examination of applicants, instead of mere political influence. The first test of the efficiency and permanence of this law came with the shifting of political power at Washington. The new president stood firmly by the new law. It applied only to places of the rank of clerkships, but the president was authorized to add others to the classified service from time to time. He added 11,757 during his first term.
President Cleveland made large use of the veto power upon bills passed by Congress, vetoing or “pocketing” during his first term 413 bills, more than two-thirds of which were private pension bills. The most important bill vetoed was the Dependent Pension Bill, a measure of extreme profligacy, opening the door, by the vagueness of its terms, to enormous frauds upon the treasury. In 1887 there was a large and growing surplus in the treasury. As this money was drawn from the channels of business and locked up in the public vaults, the president looked upon the condition as fraught with danger to the commercial community and he addressed himself to the task of reducing taxation. About two-thirds of the public revenue was derived from duties on imports, in the adjustment of which the doctrine of protection to native industry had a large place. Cleveland attacked the system with great vigour in his annual message of 1887. He did not propose the adoption of free trade, but the administration tariff measure, known as the Mills Bill, from its introducer Congressman Roger Q. Mills (b. 1832) of Texas, passed the House, and although withdrawn owing to amendments in the Republican Senate, it alarmed and exasperated the protected classes, among whom were many Democrats, and spurred them to extraordinary efforts to prevent his re-election.
In the following year (1888), however, the Democrats renominated Cleveland, and the Republicans nominated Benjamin Harrison of Indiana. The campaign turned on the tariff issue, and Harrison was elected, receiving 233 electoral votes to 168 for Cleveland, who however received a popular plurality of more than 100,000. Cleveland retired to private life and resumed the practice of the law in New York. He had married on the 2nd of June 1886 Miss Frances Folsom, a daughter of a former law partner in Buffalo.
Congress had passed a law in 1878 requiring the treasury department to purchase a certain amount of silver bullion each month and coin it into silver dollars to be full legal tender. As no time had been fixed for this operation to cease, it amounted to an unlimited increase of a kind of currency that circulated at a nominal value much above its real value. Both political parties were committed to this policy, and strong passions were aroused whenever it was called in question. Cleveland had written a letter for publication before he became president, saying that a financial crisis of great severity must result if this coinage were continued, and expressing the hope that Congress would speedily put an end to it. In 1890 Congress, now controlled by the Republican party, passed the McKinley Bill, by which the revenues of the government were reduced by more than $60,000,000 annually, chiefly through a repeal of the sugar duties. At the same time expenditures were largely increased by liberal pension legislation, and the government’s purchase of silver bullion almost doubled by the provisions of the new Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890.
In 1892 Cleveland was nominated for president a third time in succession. President Harrison was nominated by the Republicans. Cleveland received 277 electoral votes and Harrison 145, and 22 were cast for James B. Weaver (b. 1833) of Iowa, the candidate of the “People’s” party. Cleveland’s second term embraced some notable events. The most important was the repeal of the silver legislation, which had been a growing menace for fifteen years. Nearly $600,000,000 of “fiat money” had been thrust into the channels of commerce in addition to $346,000,000 of legal tender notes that had been issued during the Civil War. A reserve of $100,000,000 of gold had been accumulated for the redemption of these notes. In April 1893 the reserve fell below this sum. President Cleveland called an extra session of Congress to repeal the Silver Law. The House promptly passed the repealing act. In the Senate there was a protracted struggle. The Democrats now had a majority of that body and they were more decidedly pro-silver than the Republicans. The president had undertaken to coerce his own party to do something against its will, and it was only by the aid of the Republican minority that the passage of the repealing bill was at last made possible (October 30th). The mischief, however, was not ended. The deficit in the treasury made it inevitable that the gold reserve should be used to meet current expenses. Holders of the government’s legal tender notes anticipating this fact presented them for redemption. Borrowing was resorted to by the government. Bonds were issued and sold to the amount of $162,000,000. The business world was in a state of constant agitation. Bank failures were numerous and commercial distress widespread. Among the consequences of the panic was a reduction of wages in many employments, accompanied by labour troubles more or less serious. The centre of disturbance was the Pullman strike at Chicago (q.v.), whence the disorder extended to the Pacific coast, causing riot and bloodshed in many places. President Cleveland waited a reasonable time, as he conceived, for Governor Altgeld of Illinois to put an end to the disorder in that state. On the 6th of July 1894, despite Governor Altgeld’s protest, he directed the military forces of the United States to clear the way for trains carrying the mails. The rioters in and around Chicago were dispersed in a single day, and within a week the strike was broken.
Another important event was the action of the government as regards the question of arbitration between Great Britain and Venezuela (q.v.), in which Richard Olney, the secretary of state, played a somewhat aggressive part. On the 17th of December 1895 President Cleveland sent to Congress a special message calling attention to Great Britain’s action in regard to the disputed boundary line between British Guiana and Venezuela, and declaring the necessity of action by the United States to prevent an infringement of the Monroe Doctrine. Congress at once appropriated funds for an American commission to investigate the matter. The diplomatic situation became for the moment very acute, but after a short period of bellicose talk the common-sense of both countries prevailed. Negotiations with Great Britain ensued, and before the American special commission finished its work, Great Britain had agreed, November 1896, to arbitrate on terms which safeguarded the national dignity on both sides.
Cleveland’s independence was nowhere more strikingly shown during his second term than in his action in regard to the tariff legislation of his party in Congress. A tariff bill introduced in the House by William Lyne Wilson (1843-1900), of West Virginia, chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, was so amended in the Senate, through the instrumentality of Senator Arthur Pue Gorman and a coterie of anti-administration democratic senators, that when the bill eventually came before him, although unwilling to veto it, the president signified his dissatisfaction with its too high rates by allowing it to become a law without his signature. Cleveland’s second administration began by vigorous action in regard to Hawaii; he at once withdrew from the Senate the annexation treaty which President Harrison had negotiated.
During his second term Cleveland added 44,004 places in the civil service to the classified list, bringing them within the rules of the merit system. This was a greater number than all that had been placed in the list before, and brought the whole number up to 86,932. Toward the end of his second term the president became very much out of accord with his party on the free-silver question, in consequence of which the endorsement of the administration was withheld by the Democratic national convention at Chicago in 1896. In the ensuing campaign the president and his cabinet, with the exception of Hoke Smith (b. 1855), secretary of the interior, who resigned, gave their support to Palmer and Buckner, the National, or “Sound Money” Democratic nominees.
Cleveland’s second term expired on the 4th of March 1897, and he then retired into private life, universally respected and constantly consulted, in the university town of Princeton, New Jersey, where he died on the 24th of June 1908. He was a trustee of Princeton University and Stafford Little lecturer on public affairs. Chosen in 1905 as a member of a committee of three to act as trustees of the majority of the stock of the Equitable Life Assurance Company, he promoted the reorganization and the mutualization of that company, and acted as rebate referee for it and for the Mutual and New York Life insurance companies. He published Presidential Problems (New York, 1904), made up in part of lectures at Princeton University, and Fishing and Hunting Sketches (1906).
A large amount of magazine literature has been devoted to President Cleveland’s career. W.O. Stoddard’s Grover Cleveland (1888; “Lives of the Presidents” series) and J. Lowry Whittle’s Grover Cleveland (1896; “Public Men of To-day” series) are judicious volumes; and “Campaign Biographies” (1884) were written by W. Dorsheimer, F.E. Goodrich, P. King and D. Welch. See articles by Woodrow Wilson (Atlantic Monthly, vol. 79; “Cleveland as President”); Carl Schurz (McClure’s Magazine, vol. ix.; “Second Administration of Grover Cleveland”); William Allen White (McClure’s, vol. 18, “Character Sketch of Cleveland”), and Henry L. Nelson (North American Review, vol. 188). Also Jesse L. Williams, Mr Cleveland: A Personal Impression (1909), and G.W. Parker, Recollections of Grover Cleveland (1909).
(H. Wh.)
CLEVELAND, a city and port of entry in the state of Ohio, U.S.A., and the county-seat of Cuyahoga county, the sixth largest city in the United States. It is on Lake Erie at the mouth of Cuyahoga river, about 260 m. N.E. of Cincinnati, 357 m. E. of Chicago, and 623 m. W. by N. of New York. Pop. (1890) 261,353; (1900) 381,768, of whom 124,631 were foreign-born, 288,591 were of foreign parentage (i.e. having one or both parents foreign-born), and 5988 were negroes; (1910) 560,663. Of the 124,631, who in 1900 were foreign-born, Germans were greatly predominant (40,648, or 32.6%), with the Bohemians (13,599, or 10.9%) and Irish (13,120, or 10.6%) next in importance, the Bohemians being later comers than the Irish.
The city commands pleasant views from its position on a plateau, which, at places on bluffs along the shore, has elevations of about 75 ft. above the water below, and rises gradually toward the S.E. to 115 ft. and on the extreme E. border to more than 200 ft. above the lake, or about 800 ft. above sea-level; the surface has, however, been cut deeply by the Cuyahoga, which here pursues a meandering course through a valley about ½ m. wide, and is also broken by several smaller streams. The city’s shore-line is more than 12 m. long. The city varies considerably in width, and occupies a total area of about 41 sq. m., much the greater part of which is E. of the river. The streets are of unusual width (varying from 60 ft. to 132 ft.); are paved chiefly with Medina dressed stone, brick and asphalt; and, like the parks, are so well shaded by maples, elms and other trees, that Cleveland has become known as the “Forest City.” The municipality maintains an efficient forestry department. About ½ m. from the lake and the same distance E. of the river is the Public Square, or Monumental Park, in the business centre of the city. Thence the principal thoroughfares radiate. The river is spanned with bridges, and its valley by two viaducts, the larger of which (completed in 1878 at a cost of more than $2,000,000), 3211 ft. long, 64 ft. wide, and 68 ft. above water, connects Superior Avenue on the E. with Detroit Avenue on the W. The Central Viaduct, finished in 1888, extends from Central Avenue to W. 14th Street, and there connects with a smaller viaduct across Walworth Run, the combined length of the two being about 4000 ft. Another viaduct (about 830 ft. long) crosses Kingsbury Run a short distance above its mouth. Lower Euclid Avenue (the old country road to Euclid, O., and Erie, Pa.) is given up to commercial uses; the eastern part of the avenue has handsome houses with spacious and beautifully ornamented grounds, and is famous as one of the finest residence streets in the country. Sections of Prospect Avenue, E. 40th, E. 93rd, E. 75th, E. 55th, W. 44th and E. 79th streets also have many fine residences. The principal business thoroughfares are Superior Avenue (132 ft. wide), the W. part of Euclid Avenue, and Ontario St. The manufacturing quarters are chiefly in the valley of the Cuyahoga, and along the railway tracks entering the city, chiefly on the E. side. In 1902 the city arranged for grouping its public buildings—in the so-called “Group Plan”—at a cost of $25,000,000. The court-house and city hall are on the bluff overlooking Lake Erie; 1000 ft. south are the Federal post-office and the public library. The Mall connecting the court-house and city hall with the post-office and library is 600 ft. wide; on one side of it is the grand music-hall, on the other a fine art gallery. The six granite buildings forming this quadrangle were built under the supervision of Arnold Brunner, a government architect, and of John M. Carrere and D. H. Burnham, who planned the buildings at the Pan-American Exposition and the Chicago World’s Fair respectively. The city has, besides, numerous fine office buildings, including that of the Society for Savings (an institution in which each depositor is virtually a stockholder), the Citizens’, Rose, Williamson, Rockefeller, New England and Garfield buildings; and several beautiful churches, notably the Roman Catholic and Trinity cathedrals, the First Presbyterian (“Old Stone”), the Second Presbyterian, the First Methodist and Plymouth (Congregational) churches. The Arcade, between Euclid and Superior avenues, and the Colonial Arcade, between Euclid and Prospect avenues, are office and retail store buildings worthy of mention. The former, finished in 1889, is 400 ft. long, 180 ft. wide, and 140 ft. high, with a large interior court, overlooked by five balconies. The Colonial Arcade contains a hotel as well; it was finished in 1898. In the Public Square is a soldiers’ and sailors’ monument consisting of a granite shaft rising from a memorial room to a height of 125 ft., and surmounted with a figure of Liberty; in the same park, also, is a bronze statue of Moses Cleaveland, the founder of the city. On a commanding site in Lake View Cemetery is the Garfield Memorial (finished in 1890) in the form of a tower (165 ft. high), designed by George Keller and built mostly of Ohio sandstone; in the base is a chapel containing a statue of Garfield and several panels on which are portrayed various scenes in his life; his remains are in the crypt below the statue. A marble statue of Commodore Oliver H. Perry, erected in commemoration of his victory on Lake Erie in 1813, is in Wade Park, where there is also a statue of Harvey Rice (1800-1891), who reformed the Ohio public school system and wrote Pioneers of the Western Reserve (1882) and Sketches of Western Life (1888).
The parks contain altogether more than 1500 acres. A chain of parks connected by driveways follows the picturesque valley of Doan Brook on the E. border of the city. At the mouth of the brook and on the lake front is the beautiful Gordon Park of 122 acres, formerly the private estate of William J. Gordon but given by him to the city in 1893; from this extends up the Doan Valley the large Rockefeller Park, which was given to the city in 1896 by John D. Rockefeller and others, and which extends to and adjoins Wade Park (85 acres; given by J. H. Wade) in which are a zoological garden and a lake. Lake View Park along the lake shore contains only 10½ acres, but is a much frequented resting-place near the business centre of the city, and affords pleasant views of the lake and its commerce. Monumental Park is divided into four sections (containing about 1 acre each) by Superior Avenue and Ontario Street. Of the several cemeteries, Lake View (about 300 acres), on an elevated site on the E. border, is by far the largest and most beautiful, its natural beauty having been enhanced by the landscape gardener. Besides Garfield, John Hay and Marcus A. Hanna are buried here.
Education.—Cleveland has an excellent public school system. A general state law enacted in 1904 placed the management of school affairs in the hands of an elective council of seven members, five chosen at large and two by districts. This board has power to appoint a school director and a superintendent of instruction. The superintendent appoints the teaching force, the director all other employés; appointments are subject to confirmation by the board, and all employés are subject to removal by the executive officials alone. The “Cleveland plan,” in force in the public schools, minimizes school routine, red tape and frequent examinations, puts great stress on domestic and manual training courses, and makes promotion in the grammar schools depend on the general knowledge and development of the pupil, as estimated by a teacher who is supposed to make a careful study of the individual. In 1909 there were 8 high schools and 90 grammar schools in the city; more than $2,500,000 is annually expended by Cleveland on its public schools. Besides the public school system there are many parochial schools; the University school, with an eight years’ course; the Western Reserve University, with its medical school (opened in 1843), the Franklin T. Backus Law School (1892), the dental department (1892), Adelbert College (until 1882 the Western Reserve College, founded in 1826, at Hudson, Ohio), the College for Women (1888), and the Library school (1904); St Ignatius College (Roman Catholic, conducted by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus; incorporated 1890), which has an excellent meteorological observatory; St Mary’s theological seminary (Roman Catholic); the Case School of Applied Science, founded in 1880 by Leonard Case (1820-1880), and opened in 1881; the Cleveland College of Physicians and Surgeons (founded in 1863; from 1869 until 1896 the medical department of the University of Wooster; since 1896 a part of Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio), the Cleveland Homeopathic Medical College, the Cleveland School of Pharmacy, the Cleveland Art School, and a school for the deaf, dumb and blind. In 1907-1908 Western Reserve University had 193 instructors and 914 students (277 in Adelbert College; 269 in College for Women; 20 in graduate department; and 102 in medical, 133 in law, 75 in dental and 51 in Library school); and the Case School of Applied Science 40 instructors and 440 students. The public library contained 330,000 volumes in 1908, the Case library (subscription) 65,000 volumes, the Hatch library of Adelbert College about 56,000 volumes, the library of the Western Reserve Historical Society 22,500 volumes, and the Cleveland law library, in the court house, 20,000 volumes.
The city has a highly developed system of charitable and corrective institutions. A farm of more than 1600 acres, the Cleveland Farm Colony, 11 m. from the city, takes the place of workhouses, and has many cottages in which live those of the city’s poor who were formerly classed as paupers and were sent to poorhouses, and who now apply their labour to the farm and are relieved from the stigma that generally attaches to inmates of poorhouses. On the “farm” the city maintains an “infirmary village,” a tuberculosis sanatorium, a detention hospital, a convalescent hospital and houses of correction. On a farm 22 m. from the city is the Boyville Home (maintained in connexion with the juvenile court) for “incorrigible” boys. The “cottage” plan has been adopted; each cottage is presided over by a man and wife whom the boys call father and mother. The boys have a government of their own, elect their officials from among themselves, and inflict such punishment on any of their number as the boys deem merited. Besides the city, there are the Northern Ohio (for the insane, founded in 1855), the Cleveland general. Lake Side (endowed), St Alexis and the Charity hospitals (the last managed by Sisters of Charity). The Goodrich House (1897), the Hiram House and the Alta House are among the best equipped and most efficient social settlements in the country. Cleveland has also its orphan asylums, homes for the aged, homes for incurables, and day nurseries, besides a home for sailors, homes for young working women, and retreats for unfortunate girls. The various charity and benevolent institutions are closely bound together on a co-operative basis by the agency of the associated charities.
The principal newspapers of the city are the Plain Dealer (1841, independent), the Press (1878, independent), the Leader (1847, Republican), and the News (1889, Republican). Bohemian, Hungarian and German dailies are published.
Municipal Enterprise.—Municipal ownership has been a greater issue in Cleveland than in any other large city in the United States, chiefly because of the advocacy of Tom Loftin Johnson (born 1854), a street-railway owner, iron manufacturer, an ardent single-taxer, who was elected mayor of the city in 1901, 1903, 1905 and 1907. The municipality owns the water-works, a small electric-light plant, the garbage plant and bath houses. The city water is pumped to reservoirs, through a tunnel 9 ft. in diameter 60 ft. below the bottom of the lake, from an intake situated a distance of 26,500 ft. from the shore. The system has a delivery capacity of 80,000,000 gallons daily. The department serves about 70,000 consumers. All water is metered and sells for 40 cents per thousand cub. ft., or 5 barrels for 1 cent. The municipal electric-lighting plant does not seriously compete with the private lighting company. The municipal garbage plant (destructor) collects and reduces to fertilizer 100 tons of garbage per day. The sale of the fertilizer more than pays for the cost of reduction, and the only expense the city has is in collecting it. In the city’s six bath houses the average number of baths per day, per house, in 1906, was 1165. The municipal street cleaning department cleans all streets by the wet process. To do this the city maintained (1906) 24 flushing wagons working 2 shifts of 8 hours each per day. A new street car company began operations on the 1st of November 1906, charging a 3 cent fare. The grants of this company were owned by the Forest City Railway Company and the property was leased to the Municipal Traction Company (on behalf of the public—the city itself not being empowered to own and operate street railways). In 1908 the Cleveland Electric Street Railway Corporation (capital $23,000,000), which owned most of the electric lines in the city, was forced to lease its property to the municipality’s holding company, receiving a “security franchise,” providing that under certain circumstances (e.g. if the holding company should default in its payment of interest) the property was to revert to the corporation, which was then to charge not more than twenty-five cents for six tickets. In October 1908, at a special election, the security franchise was invalidated, and the entire railway system was put in the hands of receivers. In 1909 Johnson was defeated. In 1910 a 25-year franchise was granted to the Cleveland Railway Company, under which a 3-cent fare is required if the company can earn 6% on that basis, and 4 cents (7 tickets for 25 cents) is the maximum fare, with a cent transfer charge, returned when the transfer is used.
Commerce.—To meet the demands of the rapidly increasing commerce the harbour has been steadily improved. In 1908 it consisted of two distinct parts, the outer harbour being the work of the federal government, and the inner harbour being under the control of the city. The outer harbour was formed by two breakwaters enclosing an area of 2 m. long and 1700 ft. wide; the main entrance, 500 ft. wide, lying opposite the mouth of the Cuyahoga river, 1350 ft. distant. The depth of the harbour ranges from 21 to 26 ft.; and by improving this entrance, so as to make it 700 ft. wide, and 1000 ft. farther from the shore, and extending the east breakwater 3 m., the capacity of the outer harbour has been doubled. The inner harbour comprises the Cuyahoga, the old river bed, and connecting slips. The channel at the mouth of the river (325 ft. wide) is lined on the W. side by a concrete jetty 1054 ft. long, and on the E. side by commercial docks. The river and old river bed furnish about 13 m. of safe dock frontage, the channel having been dredged for 6 m. to a depth of 21 ft. The commerce of the harbour of Cleveland in 1907 was 12,872,448 tons.
Cleveland’s rapid growth both as a commercial and as a manufacturing city is due largely to its situation between the iron regions of Lake Superior and the coal and oil regions of Pennsylvania and Ohio. Cleveland is a great railway centre and is one of the most important ports on the Great Lakes. The city is served by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern; the New York, Chicago & St Louis; the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St Louis; the Pennsylvania; the Erie; the Baltimore & Ohio; and the Wheeling & Lake Erie railways; by steamboat lines to the principal ports on the Great Lakes; and by an extensive system of inter-urban electric lines. Cleveland is the largest ore market in the world, and its huge ore docks are among its most interesting features; the annual receipts and shipments of coal and iron ore are enormous. It is also the largest market for fresh-water fish in America, and handles large quantities of lumber and grain. The most important manufactures are iron and steel, carriage hardware, electrical supplies, bridges, boilers, engines, car wheels, sewing machines, printing presses, agricultural implements, and various other commodities made wholly or chiefly from iron and steel. Other important manufactures are automobiles (value, 1905, $4,256,979) and telescopes. More steel wire, wire nails, and bolts and nuts are made here than in any other city in the world (the total value for iron and steel products as classified by the census was, in 1905, $42,930,995, and the value of foundry and machine-shop products in the same year was $18,832,487), and more merchant vessels than in any other American city. Cleveland is the headquarters of the largest shoddy mills in the country (value of product, 1905, $1,084,594), makes much clothing (1905, $10,426,535), manufactures a large portion of the chewing gum made in the United States, and is the site of one of the largest refineries of the Standard Oil Company. The product of Cleveland breweries in 1905 was valued at $3,986,059, and of slaughtering and meat-packing houses in the same year at $10,426,535. The total value of factory products in 1905 was $172,115,101, an increase of 36.4% since 1900; and between 1900 and 1905 Cleveland became the first manufacturing city in the state.
Government.—Since Cleveland became a city in 1836 it has undergone several important changes in government. The charter of that year placed the balance of power in a council composed of three members chosen from each ward and as many aldermen as there were wards, elected on a general ticket. From 1852 to 1891 the city was governed under general laws of the state which entrusted the more important powers to several administrative boards. Then, from 1891 to 1903, by what was practically a new charter, that which is known as the “federal plan” of government was tried; this centred power in the mayor by making him almost the only elective officer, by giving to him the appointment of his cabinet of directors—one for the head of each of the six municipal departments—and to each director the appointment of his subordinates. The federal plan was abandoned in 1903, when a new municipal code went into effect, which was in operation until 1909, when the Paine Law established a board of control, under a government resembling the old federal plan. (For laws of 1903 and 1909 see [Ohio].) Few if any cities in the Union have, in recent years, been better governed than Cleveland, and this seems to be due largely to the keen interest in municipal affairs which has been shown by her citizens. Especially has this been manifested by the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce and by the Municipal Association, an organization of influential professional and business men, which, by issuing bulletins concerning candidates at the primaries and at election time, has done much for the betterment of local politics. The Cleveland Chamber of Commerce, an organization of 1600 leading business men, is a power for varied good in the city; besides its constant and aggressive work in promoting the commercial interests of the city, it was largely influential in the federal reform of the consular service; it studied the question of overcrowded tenements and secured the passage of a new tenement law with important sanitary provisions and a set minimum of air space; it urges and promotes home-gardening, public baths and play-grounds, and lunch-rooms, &c., for employés in factories; and it was largely instrumental in devising and carrying out the so-called “Group Plan” described above.
History.—A trading post was established at the mouth of the Cuyahoga river as early as 1786, but the place was not permanently settled until 1796, when it was laid out as a town by Moses Cleaveland (1754-1806), who was then acting as the agent of the Connecticut Land Company, which in the year before had purchased from the state of Connecticut a large portion of the Western Reserve. In 1800 the entire Western Reserve was erected into the county of Trumbull and a township government was given to Cleveland; ten years later Cleveland was made the seat of government of the new county of Cuyahoga, and in 1814 it was incorporated as a village. Cleveland’s growth was, however, very slow until the opening of the Ohio canal as far as Akron in 1827; about the same time the improvement of the harbour was begun, and by 1832 the canal was opened to the Ohio river. Cleveland thus was connected with the interior of the state, for whose mineral and agricultural products it became the lake outlet. The discovery of iron ore in the Lake Superior region made Cleveland the natural meeting-point of the iron ore and the coal from the Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia mines; and it is from this that the city’s great commercial importance dates. The building of railways during the decade 1850-1860 greatly increased this importance, and the city grew with great rapidity. The growth during the Civil War was partly due to the rapid development of the manufacturing interests of the city, which supplied large quantities of iron products and of clothing to the Federal government. The population of 1076 in 1830 increased to 6071 in 1840, to 17,034 in 1850, to 43,417 in i860, to 92,829 in 1870 and to 160,146 in 1880. Until 1853 the city was confined to the E. side of the river, but in that year Ohio City, which was founded in 1807, later incorporated as the village of Brooklyn, and in 1836 chartered as a city (under the name Ohio City), was annexed. Other annexations followed: East Cleveland in 1872, Newburg in 1873, West Cleveland and Brooklyn in 1893, and Glenville and South Brooklyn in 1905. In recent history the most notable events not mentioned elsewhere in this article were the elaborate celebration of the centennial of the city in 1896 and the street railway strike of 1899, in which the workers attempted to force a redress of grievances and a recognition of their union. Mobs attacked the cars, and cars were blown up by dynamite. The strikers were beaten, but certain abuses were corrected. There was a less violent street car strike in 1908, after the assumption of control by the Municipal Traction Company, which refused to raise wages according to promises made (so the employees said) by the former owner of the railway; the strikers were unsuccessful.
Authorities.—Manual of the City Council (1879); Annuals of the Cleveland Chamber of Commerce (1894- ); E. M. Avery, Cleveland in a Nutshell: An Historical and Descriptive Ready-reference Book (Cleveland, 1893); James H. Kennedy, A History of the City of Cleveland (Cleveland, 1896); C. A. Urann, Centennial History of Cleveland (Cleveland, 1896); C. Whittlesey, The Early History of Cleveland (Cleveland, 1867); C. E. Bolton, A Few Civic Problems of Greater Cleveland (Cleveland, 1897); “Plan of School Administration,” by S. P. Orth, in vol. xix. Political Science Quarterly (New York, 1904); Charles Snavely, A History of the City Government of Cleveland (Baltimore, 1902); C. C. Williamson, The Finances of Cleveland (New York, 1907); “The Government of Cleveland, Ohio,” by Lincoln Steffens, in McClure’s Magazine, vol. xxv. (New York, 1905); and C. F. Thwing, “Cleveland, the Pleasant City,” in Powell’s Historic Towns of the Western States (New York, 1901).
CLEVER, an adjective implying dexterous activity of mind or body, and ability to meet emergencies with readiness and adroitness. The etymology and the early history of the word are obscure. The earliest instance quoted by the New English Dictionary is in the Bestiary of c. 1200 (An Old English Miscellany, ed. R. Morris, 1872, E.E.T.S. 49)—“On the clothed the neddre (adder) is cof (quick) and the devel cliver on sinnes,” i.e. quick to seize hold of; this would connect the word with a M. Eng. “cliver” or “clivre,” a talon or claw (so H. Wedgwood, Dict. of Eng. Etym.). The ultimate original would be the root appearing in “claw,” “cleave,” “cling,” “clip,” &c., meaning to “stick to.” This original sense probably survives in the frequent use of the word for nimble, dexterous, quick and skilful in the use of the hands, and so it is often applied to a horse, “clever at his fences.” The word has also been connected with O. Eng. gléaw, wise, which became in M. Eng. gleu, and is cognate with Scottish gleg, quick of eye. As to the use of the word, Sir Thomas Browne mentions it among “words of no general reception in English but of common use in Norfolk or peculiar to the East Angle countries” (Tract. viii. in Wilkins’s ed. of Works, iv. 205). The earlier uses of the word seem to be confined to that of bodily dexterity. In this sense it took the place of a use of “deliver” as an adjective, meaning nimble, literally “free in action,” a use taken from Fr. delivre (Late Lat. deliberare, to set free), cf. Chaucer, Prologue to Cant. Tales, 84, “wonderly deliver and grete of strength,” and Romaunt of the Rose, 831, “Deliver, smert and of gret might.” It has been suggested that “clever” is a corruption of “deliver” in this sense, but this is not now accepted. The earliest use of the word for mental quickness and ability in the New English Dictionary is from Addison in No. 22 of The Freeholder (1716).
CLEVES (Ger. Cleve or Kleve), a town of Germany in the kingdom of Prussia, formerly the capital of the duchy of its own name, 46 m. N.W. of Düsseldorf, 12 m. E. of Nijmwegen, on the main Cologne-Amsterdam railway. Pop. (1900) 14,678. The town is neatly built in the Dutch style, lying on three small hills in a fertile district near the frontier of Holland, about 2 m. from the Rhine, with which it is connected by a canal (the Spoykanal). The old castle of Schwanenburg (formerly the residence of the dukes of Cleves), has a massive tower (Schwanenturm) 180 ft. high. With it is associated the legend of the “Knights of the Swan,” immortalized in Wagner’s Lohengrin. The building has been restored in modern times to serve as a court of justice and a prison. The collegiate church (Stiftskirche) dates from about 1340, and contains a number of fine ducal monuments. Another church is the Annexkirche, formerly a convent of the Minorites; this dates from the middle of the 15th century. The chief manufactures are boots and shoes, tobacco and machinery; there is also some trade in cattle. To the south and west of the city a large district is laid out as a park, where there is a statue to the memory of John Maurice of Nassau-Siegen (1604-1679), who governed Cleves from 1650 to 1679, and in the western part there are mineral wells with a pump room and bathing establishment. Owing to the beautiful woods which surround it and its medicinal waters Cleves has become a favourite summer resort.
The town was the seat of the counts of Cleves as early as the 11th century, but it did not receive municipal rights until 1242. The duchy of Cleves, which lay on both banks of the Rhine and had an area of about 850 sq. m., belonged before the year 1000 to a certain Rutger, whose family became extinct in 1368. It then passed to the counts of La Marck and was made a duchy in 1417, being united with the neighbouring duchies of Jülich and Berg in 1521. The Reformation was introduced here in 1533, but it was not accepted by all the inhabitants. The death without direct heirs of Duke John William in 1609 led to serious complications in which almost all the states of Europe were concerned; however, by the treaty of Xanten in 1614, Cleves passed to the elector of Brandenburg, being afterwards incorporated with the electorate by the great elector, Frederick William. The French held Cleves from 1757 to 1762 and in 1795 the part of the duchy on the left bank of the Rhine was ceded to France; the remaining portion suffered a similar fate in 1805. After the conclusion of peace in 1815 it was restored to Prussia, except some small portions which were given to the kingdom of Holland.
See Char, Geschichte des Herzogtums Kleve (Cleves, 1845); Velsen, Die Stadt Kleve (Cleves, 1846); R. Scholten, Die Stadt Kleve (Cleves, 1879-1881). For [Anne of Cleves] see that article.
CLEYNAERTS (Clenardus or Clénard), NICOLAS (1495-1542), Belgian grammarian and traveller, was born at Diest, in Brabant, on the 5th of December 1495. Educated at the university of Louvain, he became a professor of Latin, which he taught by a conversational method. He applied himself to the preparation of manuals of Greek and Hebrew grammar, in order to simplify the difficulties of learners. His Tabulae in grammaticen hebraeam (1529), Institutiones in linguam graecam (1530), and Meditationes graecanicae (1531) appeared at Louvain. The Institutiones and Meditationes passed through a number of editions, and had many commentators. He maintained a principle revived in modern teaching, that the learner should not be puzzled by elaborate rules until he has obtained a working acquaintance with the language. A desire to read the Koran led him to try to establish a connexion between Hebrew and Arabic. These studies resulted in a scheme for proselytism among the Arabs, based on study of the language, which should enable Europeans to combat the errors of Islam by peaceful methods. In prosecution of this object he travelled in 1532 to Spain, and after teaching Greek at Salamanca was summoned to the court of Portugal as tutor to Don Henry, brother of John III. He found another patron in Louis Mendoza, marquis of Mondexas, governor-general of Granada. There with the help of a Moorish slave he gained a knowledge of Arabic. He tried in vain to gain access to the Arabic MSS. in the possession of the Inquisition, and finally, in 1540, set out for Africa to seek information for himself. He reached Fez, then a flourishing seat of Arab learning, but after fifteen months of privation and suffering was obliged to return to Granada, and died in the autumn of 1542. He was buried in the Alhambra palace.
See his Latin letters to his friends in Belgium, Nicolai Clenardi, Peregrinationum ac de rebus machometicis epistolae elegantissimae (Louvain, 1550), and a more complete edition, Nic. Clenardi Epistolarum libri duo (Antwerp, 1561), from the house of Plantin; also Victor Chauvin and Alphonse Roersch, “Étude sur la vie et les travaux de Nicolas Clénard” in Mémoires couronnés (vol. lx., 1900-1901) of the Royal Academy of Belgium, which contains a vast amount of information on Cleynaerts and an extensive bibliography of his works, and of notices of him by earlier commentators.
CLICHTOVE, JOSSE VAN (d. 1543), Belgian theologian, received his education at Louvain and at Paris under Jacques Lefèbvre d’Etaples. He became librarian of the Sorbonne and tutor to the nephews of Jacques d’Amboise, bishop of Clermont and abbot of Cluny. In 1519 he was elected bishop of Tournai, and in 1521 was translated to the see of Chartres. He is best known as a distinguished antagonist of Martin Luther, against whom he wrote a good deal. When Cardinal Duprat convened his Synod of Paris in 1528 to discuss the new religion, Clichtove was summoned and was entrusted with the task of collecting and summarizing the objections to the Lutheran doctrine. This he did in his Compendium veritatum ... contra erroneas Lutheranorum assertiones (Paris, 1529). He died at Chartres on the 22nd of September 1543.
CLICHY, or Clichy-la-Garenne, a town of northern France, in the department of Seine, on the right bank of the Seine, immediately north of the fortifications of Paris, of which it is a manufacturing suburb. Pop. (1906) 41,516. Its church was built in the 17th century under the direction of St Vincent de Paul, who had previously been curé of Clichy. Its industries include the manufacture of starch, rubber, oil and grease, glass, chemicals, soap, &c. Clichy, under the name of Clippiacum, was a residence of the Merovingian kings.
CLIFF-DWELLINGS, the general archaeological term for the habitations of primitive peoples, formed by utilizing niches or caves in high cliffs, with more or less excavation or with additions in the way of masonry. Two special sorts of cliff-dwelling are distinguished by archaeologists, (1) the cliff-house, which is actually built on levels in the cliff, and (2) the cavate house, which is dug out, by using natural recesses or openings. A great deal of attention has been given to the North American cliff-dwellings, particularly among the canyons of the south-west, in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado, some of which are still used by Indians. There has been considerable discussion as to their antiquity, but modern research finds no definite justification for assigning them to a distinct primitive race, or farther back than the ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians. The area in which they occur coincides with that in which other traces of the Pueblo tribes have been found. The niches which were utilized are often of considerable size, occurring in cliffs of a thousand feet high, and approached by rock steps or log-ladders.
See the article, with illustrations and bibliography, in the Handbook of American Indians (Washington, 1907).
CLIFFORD, the name of a famous English family and barony, taken from the village of Clifford in Herefordshire, although the family were mainly associated with the north of England.
Robert de Clifford (c. 1275-1314), a son of Roger de Clifford (d. 1282), inherited the estates of his grandfather, Roger de Clifford, in 1286; then he obtained through his mother part of the extensive land of the Viponts, and thus became one of the most powerful barons of his age. A prominent soldier during the reigns of Edward I. and Edward II., Clifford was summoned to parliament as a baron in 1299, won great renown at the siege of Carlaverock Castle in 1300, and after taking part in the movement against Edward II.’s favourite, Piers Gaveston, was killed at Bannockburn. His son Roger, the 2nd baron (1299-1322), shared in the rebellion of Thomas, earl of Lancaster, and was probably executed at York on the 23rd of March 1322. Robert’s grandson Roger, the 5th baron (1333-1389), and the latter’s son Thomas, the 6th baron (c. 1363-c. 1391), served the English kings on the Scottish borders and elsewhere. The same is true of Thomas, the 8th baron (1414-1455), who was killed at the first battle of St Albans in May 1455.
Thomas’s son John, the 9th baron (c. 1435-1461), was more famous. During the Wars of the Roses he fought for Henry VI., earning by his cruelties the name of the “butcher”; after the battle of Wakefield in 1460 he murdered Edmund, earl of Rutland, son of Richard, duke of York, exclaiming, according to the chronicler Edward Hall, “By God’s blood thy father slew mine; and so will I do thee and all thy kin.” Shakespeare refers to this incident in King Henry VI., and also represents Clifford as taking part in the murder of York. It is, however, practically certain that York was slain during the battle, and not afterwards like his son. Clifford was killed at Ferrybridge on the 28th of March 1461, and was afterwards attainted. His young son Henry, the 10th baron (c. 1454-1523), lived disguised as a shepherd for some years, hence he is sometimes called the “shepherd lord.” On the accession of Henry VII. the attainder was reversed and he received his father’s estates. He spent a large part of his time at Barden in Lancashire, being interested in astronomy and astrology. Occasionally, however, he visited London, and he fought at the battle of Flodden in 1513. This lord, who died on the 23rd of April 1523, is celebrated by Wordsworth in the poems “The white doe of Rylstone” and “Song at the feast of Brougham Castle.” Henry, the 11th baron, was created earl of Cumberland in 1525, and from this time until the extinction of the title in 1643 the main line of the Cliffords was associated with the earldom of Cumberland (q.v.).
Richard Clifford, bishop of Worcester and London under Henry IV. and Henry V., was probably a member of this family. This prelate, who was very active at the council of Constance, died on the 20th of August 1421.
On the death of George, 3rd earl of Cumberland, in 1605, the barony of Clifford, separated from the earldom, was claimed by his daughter Anne, countess of Dorset, Pembroke and Montgomery; and in 1628 a new barony of Clifford was created in favour of Henry, afterwards 5th and last earl of Cumberland. After Anne’s death in 1676 the claim to the older barony passed to her daughter Margaret (d. 1676), wife of John Tufton, 2nd earl of Thanet, and her descendants, whose title was definitely recognized in 1691. After the Tuftons the barony was held with intervening abeyances by the Southwells and the Russells, and to this latter family the present Lord De Clifford belongs.[1]
When the last earl of Cumberland died in 1643 the newer barony of Clifford passed to his daughter Elizabeth, wife of Richard Boyle, 2nd earl of Cork, and from the Boyles it passed to the Cavendishes, falling into abeyance on the death of William Cavendish, 6th duke of Devonshire, in 1858.
The barony of Clifford of Lanesborough was held by the Boyles from 1644 to 1753, and the Devonshire branch of the family still holds the barony of Clifford of Chudleigh, which was created in 1672.
See G. E. C(okayne), Complete Peerage (1887-1898); and T. D. Whitaker, History of Craven (1877).
[1] The original writ of summons (1299) was addressed in Latin, Roberto domino de Clifford, i.e. Robert, lord of Clifford, and subsequently the barons styled themselves indifferently Lords Clifford or de Clifford, until in 1777 the 11th lord definitively adopted the latter form. The “De” henceforth became part of the name, having quite lost its earliest significance, and with unconscious tautology the barony is commonly referred to as that of De Clifford.
CLIFFORD, JOHN (1836- ), British Nonconformist minister and politician, son of a warp-machinist at Sawley, Derbyshire, was born on the 16th of October 1836. As a boy he worked in a lace factory, where he attracted the notice of the leaders of the Baptist community, who sent him to the academy at Leicester and the Baptist college at Nottingham to be educated for the ministry. In 1858 he was called to Praed Street chapel, Paddington (London), and while officiating there he attended University College and pursued his education by working at the British Museum. He matriculated at London University (1859), and took its B.A. degree (1861), B.Sc. (1862), M.A. (1864), and LL.B. (1866), and in 1883 he was given the honorary degree of D.D. by Bates College, U.S.A., being known therefrom as Dr Clifford. This degree, from an American college of minor academic status, afterwards led to sarcastic allusions, but Dr Clifford had not courted it, and his London University achievements were evidence enough of his intellectual equipment. At Praed Street chapel he gradually obtained a large following, and in 1877 Westbourne Park chapel was opened for him. As a preacher, writer, propagandist and ardent Liberal politician, he became a power in the Nonconformist body. He was president of the London Baptist Association in 1879, of the Baptist Union in 1888 and 1899, and of the National Council of Evangelical Churches in 1898. His chief prominence in politics, however, dates from 1903 onwards in consequence of his advocacy of “passive resistance” to the Education Act of 1902. Into this movement he threw himself with militant ardour, his own goods being distrained upon, with those of numerous other Nonconformists, rather than that any contribution should be made by them in taxation for the purpose of an Education Act which in their opinion was calculated to support denominational religious teaching in the schools. The “passive resistance” movement, with Dr Clifford as its chief leader, had a large share in the defeat of the Unionist government in January 1906, and his efforts were then directed to getting a new act passed which should be undenominational in character. The rejection of Mr Birrell’s bill in 1906 by the House of Lords was accordingly accompanied by denunciations of that body from Dr Clifford and his followers; but as year by year went by, up to 1909, with nothing but failure on the part of the Liberal ministry to arrive at any solution of the education problem,—failure due now not to the House of Lords but to the inherent difficulties of the subject (see [Education]),—it became increasingly clear to the public generally that the easy denunciations of the act of 1902, which had played so large a part in the elections of 1906, were not so simple to carry into practice, and that a compromise in which the denominationalists would have their say would have to be the result. Meanwhile “passive resistance” lost its interest, though Dr Clifford and his followers continued to protest against their treatment.
CLIFFORD, WILLIAM KINGDON (1845-1879), English mathematician and philosopher, was born on the 4th of May 1845 at Exeter, where his father was a prominent citizen. He was educated at a private school in his native town, at King’s College, London, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was elected fellow in 1868, after being second wrangler in 1867 and second Smith’s prizeman. In 1871 he was appointed professor of mathematics at University College, London, and in 1874 became fellow of the Royal Society. In 1875 he married Lucy, daughter of John Lane of Barbados. In 1876 Clifford, a man of high-strung and athletic, but not robust, physique, began to fall into ill-health, and after two voyages to the South, died during the third of pulmonary consumption at Madeira, on the 3rd of March 1879, leaving his widow with two daughters. Mrs W. K. Clifford soon earned for herself a prominent place in English literary life as a novelist, and later as a dramatist. Her best-known story, Mrs Keith’s Crime (1885), was followed by several other volumes, the best of which is Aunt Anne (1893); and the literary talent in the family was inherited by her daughter Ethel (Mrs Fisher Dilke), a writer of some charming verse.
Owing to his early death, Professor Clifford’s abilities and achievements cannot be fairly judged without reference to the opinion formed of him by his contemporaries. He impressed every one as a man of extraordinary acuteness and originality; and these solid gifts were set off to the highest advantage by quickness of thought and speech, a lucid style, wit and poetic fancy, and a social warmth which made him delightful as a friend and companion. His powers as a mathematician were of the highest order. It harmonizes with the concrete visualizing turn of his mind that, to quote Professor Henry Smith, “Clifford was above all and before all a geometer.” In this he was an innovator against the excessively analytic tendency of Cambridge mathematicians. In his theory of graphs, or geometrical representations of algebraic functions, there are valuable suggestions which have been worked out by others. He was much interested, too, in universal algebra, non-Euclidean geometry and elliptic functions, his papers “Preliminary Sketch of Bi-quaternions” (1873) and “On the Canonical Form and Dissection of a Riemann’s Surface” (1877) ranking as classics. Another important paper is his “Classification of Loci” (1878). He also published several papers on algebraic forms and projective geometry.
As a philosopher Clifford’s name is chiefly associated with two phrases of his coining, “mind-stuff” and the “tribal self.” The former symbolizes his metaphysical conception, which was suggested to him by his reading of Spinoza. “Briefly put,” says Sir F. Pollock, “the conception is that mind is the one ultimate reality; not mind as we know it in the complex forms of conscious feeling and thought, but the simpler elements out of which thought and feeling are built up. The hypothetical ultimate element of mind, or atom of mind-stuff, precisely corresponds to the hypothetical atom of matter, being the ultimate fact of which the material atom is the phenomenon. Matter and the sensible universe are the relations between particular organisms, that is, mind organized into consciousness, and the rest of the world. This leads to results which would in a loose and popular sense be called materialist. But the theory must, as a metaphysical theory, be reckoned on the idealist side. To speak technically, it is an idealist monism.” The other phrase, “tribal self,” gives the key to Clifford’s ethical view, which explains conscience and the moral law by the development in each individual of a “self,” which prescribes the conduct conducive to the welfare of the “tribe.” Much of Clifford’s contemporary prominence was due to his attitude towards religion. Animated by an intense love of truth and devotion to public duty, he waged war on such ecclesiastical systems as seemed to him to favour obscurantism, and to put the claims of sect above those of human society. The alarm was greater, as theology was still unreconciled with the Darwinian theory; and Clifford was regarded as a dangerous champion of the anti-spiritual tendencies then imputed to modern science.
His works, published wholly or in part since his death, are Elements of Dynamic (1879-1887); Seeing and Thinking, popular science lectures (1879); Lectures and Essays, with an introduction by Sir F. Pollock (1879); Mathematical Papers, edited by R. Tucker, with an introduction by Henry J. S. Smith (1882); and The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences, completed by Professor Karl Pearson (1885).
CLIFFORD OF CHUDLEIGH, THOMAS CLIFFORD, 1st Baron (1630-1673), English lord treasurer, a member of the ancient family of Clifford, descended from Walter de Clifford of Clifford Castle in Herefordshire, was the son of Hugh Clifford of Ugbrook near Exeter, and of Mary, daughter of Sir George Chudleigh of Ashton, Devonshire. He was born on the 1st of August 1630, matriculated in 1647 at Exeter College, Oxford, where he showed distinguished ability, supplicated for the B.A. degree in 1650, and entered the Middle Temple in 1648. He represented Totnes in the convention parliament and in that of 1661; and he joined the faction of young men who spoke “confidently and often,” and who sought to rise to power by attacking Clarendon. The chancellor, according to Burnet, had repulsed his advances on account of his Romanism, and Clifford accordingly offered his services to Arlington, whose steady supporter he now became.
On the 16th of February 1663 Clifford obtained the reversion of a tellership in the exchequer, and in 1664, on the outbreak of the Dutch war, was appointed commissioner for the care of the sick, wounded and prisoners, with a salary of £1200. He was knighted, and was present with James at the victory off Lowestoft over the Dutch on the 3rd of June 1665, was rewarded with the prize-ship “Patriarch Isaac,” and in August, under the earl of Sandwich, took a prominent part in the unsuccessful attempt to capture the Dutch East India fleet in Bergen harbour. In August he was appointed by Arlington’s influence ambassador with Henry Coventry to the north of Europe. Subsequently he served again with the fleet, was present with Albemarle at the indecisive fight on the 1st to the 4th of June 1666, and at the victory on the 25th of July. In October 1667 he was one of those selected by the Commons to prepare papers concerning the naval operations. He showed great zeal and energy in naval affairs, and he is described by Pepys as “a very fine gentleman, and much set by at court for his activity in going to sea and stoutness everywhere and stirring up and down.” He became the same year controller of the household and a privy councillor, in 1667 a commissioner for the treasury, and in 1668 treasurer of the household. In the Commons he supported the court, opposing the bill for frequent parliaments in 1668 and the Coventry Act (see [Coventry, Sir John]) in 1670.
Clifford was an ardent Roman Catholic, a supporter of the royal prerogative and of the French alliance. He regarded with favour the plan of seeking French assistance in order to force Romanism and absolute government upon the country, and his complete failure to understand the real political position and the interests of the nation is reflected in the advice he was said to have given to Charles, to accept the pension from Louis, and “be the slave of one man rather than of 500.” As one of the Cabal ministry, therefore, he co-operated very zealously with the king in breaking through the Triple Alliance and in effecting the understanding with France. He was the only minister besides Arlington entrusted with the secret treaty of Dover of 1670, signing both this agreement and also the ostensible treaty imparted to all the members of the Cabal, and did his utmost to urge Charles to join France in the attack upon the Dutch, whom he detested as republicans and Protestants. In 1672, during the absence of Arlington and Coventry abroad, Clifford acted as principal secretary of state, and was chiefly responsible for the “stop of the exchequer,” and probably also for the attack upon the Dutch Smyrna fleet. He was appointed this year a commissioner to inquire into the settlement of Ireland. On the 22nd of April he was raised to the peerage as Baron Clifford of Chudleigh, and on the 28th of November, by the duke of York’s interest, he was made lord treasurer; his conduct to Arlington, whose claims to the office he had pretended to press, was, according to Evelyn, the only act of “real ingratitude” in his career. Arlington, however, quickly discovered a means of securing Clifford’s fall. The latter was strongly in favour of Charles’s policy of indulgence, and supported the declaration of this year, urging the king to overcome the resistance of parliament by a dissolution. Arlington advocated the contrary policy of concession, and after Charles’s withdrawal of the declaration gave his support to the Test Act of 1673. Clifford spoke with great vehemence against the measure, describing it as “monstrum horrendum ingens,” but his speech only increased the anti-Roman Catholic feeling in parliament and ensured the passing of the bill. In consequence Clifford, as a Roman Catholic, followed the duke of York into retirement. His resignation caused considerable astonishment, since he had never publicly professed his religion, and in 1671 had even built a new Protestant chapel at his home at Ugbrook. According to Evelyn, however, his conduct was governed by a promise previously given to James. He gave up the treasuryship and his seat in the privy council in June. On the 3rd of July 1673 he received a general pardon from the king. In August he said a last farewell to Evelyn, and in less than a month he died at Ugbrook. In Evelyn’s opinion the cause of death was suicide, but his suspicions do not appear to have received any contemporary support. Clifford was one of the worst advisers of Charles II., but a sincere and consistent one. Evelyn declares him “a valiant, uncorrupt gentleman, ambitious, not covetous, generous, passionate, a most constant, sincere friend.” He married Elizabeth, daughter of William Martin of Lindridge, Devonshire, by whom he had fifteen children, four sons and seven daughters surviving him. He was succeeded as 2nd baron by Hugh, his fifth, but eldest surviving son, the ancestor of the present Lord Clifford of Chudleigh.
(P. C. Y.)
CLIFTON, a suburb and residential district of Bristol, England, adjoining it on the west; 122 m. W. of London by the Great Western railway. The river Avon (q.v.) here runs in a gorge, followed closely by a railway on either side, and having several quarries, which have in a measure spoiled the beauty of its hanging woods. At a height of 245 ft. above high water Isambard Brunel’s famous suspension bridge bestrides this gorge. It was begun in 1832 and completed in 1864. It has a span of 702 ft., and its total weight is 1500 tons, and it is calculated to bear a burden of 9 tons per sq. in. The long famous hot springs of Clifton, to which, in fact, the town was indebted for its rise, issue from an aperture at the foot of St Vincent’s Rock, in the portion of Clifton known as Hotwells. The water has a temperature of about 76° F. A hydropathic establishment is attached to them. Immediately above the suspension bridge the Clifton Rocks railway ascends from the quays by the river-side to the heights above. The Clifton and Durdham Downs (both on the Gloucestershire side of the river), form the principal pleasure-grounds of Bristol. They lie high above the river, extend for some 5000 acres, and command a beautiful prospect over the city, with its picturesque irregular site and many towers, and over the surrounding well-wooded country.
Three ancient British earthworks bear witness to an early settlement on the spot, and a church was in existence as far back as the time of Henry II., when it was bestowed by William de Clyfton on the abbot of the Austin canons in Bristol; but there are no longer any architectural vestiges of an earlier date than the 18th century. Clifton gives name to a Roman Catholic bishopric. Of the churches the most important are St Andrew’s parish church; All Saints, erected in 1863 after the designs of G. E. Street, and remarkable for the width of its nave and the narrowness of its aisles; and the Roman Catholic pro-cathedral church of the Holy Apostles, with a convent and schools attached. Clifton College, a cluster of buildings in Gothic style, was founded in 1862 by a limited liability company, and takes rank among the principal modern English public schools. Down the river from Clifton is Shirehampton, a favourite resort from Bristol.
CLIM (or Clym) OF THE CLOUGH, a legendary English archer, a supposed companion of the Robin Hood band. He is commemorated in the ballad Adam Bell, Clym of the Cloughe and Wyllyam of Cloudeslee. The three were outlaws who had many adventures of the Robin Hood type. The oldest printed copy of this ballad is dated 1550.
CLIMACTERIC (from the Gr. κλιμακτήρ, the rung or step of a κλῖμαξ or ladder), a critical period in human life; in a medical sense, the period known as the “change of life,” marked in women by the menopause. Certain ages, especially those which are multiples of seven or nine, have been superstitiously regarded as particularly critical; thus the sixty-third and the eighty-first year of life have been called the “grand climacteric.” The word is also used, generally, of any turning-point in the history of a nation, a career or the like.
CLIMATE AND CLIMATOLOGY. The word clima (from Gr. κλίνειν, to lean or incline; whence also the English “clime,” now a poetical term for this or that region of the earth, regarded as characterized by climate), as used by the Greeks, probably referred originally either to the supposed slope of the earth towards the pole, or to the inclination of the earth’s axis. It was an astronomical or a mathematical term, not associated with any idea of physical climate. A change of clima then meant a change of latitude. The latter was gradually seen to mean a change in atmospheric conditions as well as in length of day, and clima thus came to have its present meaning. “Climate” is the average condition of the atmosphere. “Weather” denotes a single occurrence, or event, in the series of conditions which make up climate. The climate of a place is thus in a sense its average weather. Climatology is the study or science of climates.
Relation of Meteorology and Climatology.—Meteorology and climatology are interdependent. It is impossible to distinguish sharply between them. In a strict sense, meteorology deals with the physics of the atmosphere. It considers the various atmospheric phenomena individually, and seeks to determine their physical causes and relations. Its view is largely theoretical. When meteorology (q.v.) is considered in its broadest meaning, climatology is a subdivision of it. Climatology is largely descriptive. It aims at giving a clear picture of the interaction of the various atmospheric phenomena at any place on the earth’s surface. Climatology may almost be defined as geographical meteorology. Its main object is to be of practical service to man. Its method of treatment lays most emphasis on the elements which are most important to life. Climate and crops, climate and industry, climate and health, are subjects of vital interest to man.
The Climatic Elements and their Treatment.—Climatology has to deal with the same groups of atmospheric conditions as those with which meteorology is concerned, viz. temperature (including radiation); moisture (including humidity, precipitation and cloudiness); wind (including storms); pressure; evaporation, and also, but of less importance, the composition and chemical, optical and electrical phenomena of the atmosphere. The characteristics of each of these so-called climatic elements are set forth in a standard series of numerical values, based on careful, systematic, and long-continued meteorological records, corrected and compared by well-known methods. Various forms of graphic presentation are employed to emphasize and simplify the numerical results. In Hann’s Handbuch der Klimatologie, vol i., will be found a general discussion of the methods of presenting the different climatic elements. The most complete guide in the numerical, mathematical and graphic treatment of meteorological data for climatological purposes is Hugo Meyer’s Anleitung zur Bearbeitung meteorologischer Beobachtungen für die Klimatologie (Berlin, 1891).
Climate deals first of all with average conditions, but a satisfactory presentation of a climate must include more than mere averages. It must take account, also, of regular and irregular daily, monthly and annual changes, and of the departures, mean and extreme, from the average conditions which may occur at the same place in the course of time. The mean minimum and maximum temperatures or rainfalls of a month or a season are important data. Further, a determination of the frequency of occurrence of a given condition, or of certain values of that condition, is important, for periods of a day, month or year, as for example the frequency of winds according to direction or velocity; or of different amounts of cloudiness; or of temperature changes of a certain number of degrees; the number of days with and without rain or snow in any month, or year, or with rain of a certain amount, &c. The probability of occurrence of any condition, as of rain in a certain month; or of a temperature of 32°, for example, is also a useful thing to know.
Solar Climate.—Climate, in so far as it is controlled solely by the amount of solar radiation which any place receives by reason of its latitude, is called solar climate. Solar climate alone would prevail if the earth had a homogeneous land surface, and if there were no atmosphere. For under these conditions, without air or ocean currents, the distribution of temperature at any place would depend solely on the amount of energy received from the sun and upon the loss of heat by radiation. And these two factors would have the same value at all points on the same latitude circle.
The relative amounts of insolation received at different latitudes and at different times have been carefully determined. The values all refer to conditions at the upper limit of the earth’s atmosphere, i.e. without the effect of absorption by the atmosphere. The accompanying figure (fig. 1), after Davis, shows the distribution of insolation in both hemispheres at different latitudes and at different times in the year. The latitudes are given at the left margin and the time of year at the right margin. The values of insolation are shown by the vertical distance above the plane of the two margins.
At the equator, where the day is always twelve hours long, there are two maxima of insolation at the equinoxes, when the sun is vertical at noon, and two minima at the solstices when the sun is farthest off the equator. The values do not vary much through the year because the sun is never very far from the zenith, and day and night are always equal. As latitude increases, the angle of insolation becomes more oblique and the intensity decreases, but at the same time the length of day rapidly increases during the summer, and towards the pole of the hemisphere which is having its summer the gain in insolation from the latter cause more than compensates for the loss by the former. The double period of insolation above noted for the equator prevails as far as about lat. 12° N. and S.; at lat. 15° the two maxima have united in one, and the same is true of the minima. At the pole there is one maximum at the summer solstice, and no insolation at all while the sun is below the horizon. On the 21st of June the equator has a day twelve hours long, but the sun does not reach the zenith, and the amount of insolation is therefore less than at the equinox. On the northern tropic, however, the sun is vertical at noon, and the day is more than twelve hours long. Hence the amount of insolation received at this latitude is greater than that received on the equinox at the equator. From the tropic to the pole the sun stands lower and lower at noon, and the value of insolation would steadily decrease with latitude if it were not for the increase in the length of day. Going polewards from the northern tropic on the 21st of June, the value of insolation increases for a time, because, although the sun is lower, the number of hours during which it shines is greater. A maximum value is reached at about lat. 43½° N. The decreasing altitude of the sun then more than compensates for the increasing length of day, and the value of insolation diminishes, a minimum being reached at about lat. 62°. Then the rapidly increasing length of day towards the pole again brings about an increase in the value of insolation, until a maximum is reached at the pole which is greater than the value received at the equator at any time. The length of day is the same on the Arctic circle as at the pole itself, but while the altitude of the sun varies during the day on the former, the altitude at the pole remains 23½° throughout the 24 hours. The result is to give the pole a maximum. On the 21st of June there are therefore two maxima of insolation, one at lat. 43½° and one at the north pole. From lat. 43½° N., insolation decreases to zero on the Antarctic circle, for sunshine falls more and more obliquely, and the day becomes shorter and shorter. Beyond lat. 66½° S. the night lasts 24 hours. On the 21st of December the conditions in southern latitudes are similar to those in the northern hemisphere on the 21st of June, but the southern latitudes have higher values of insolation because the earth is then nearer the sun.
| From Davis’s Elementary Meteorology. |
| Fig. 1.—Distribution of Insolation over the Earth’s Surface. |
At the equinox the days are equal everywhere, but the noon sun is lower and lower with increasing latitude in both hemispheres until the rays are tangent to the earth’s surface at the poles (except for the effect of refraction). Therefore, the values of insolation diminish from a maximum at the equator to a minimum at both poles.
The effect of the earth’s atmosphere is to weaken the sun’s rays. The more nearly vertical the sun, the less the thickness of atmosphere traversed by the rays. The values of insolation at the earth’s surface, after passage through the atmosphere, have been calculated. They vary much with the condition of the air as to dust, clouds, water vapour, &c. As a rule, even when the sky is clear, about one-half of the solar radiation is lost during the day by atmospheric absorption. The great weakening of insolation at the pole, where the sun is very low, is especially noticeable. The following table (after Angot) shows the effect of the earth’s atmosphere (coefficient of transmission 0.7) upon the value of insolation received at sea-level.
Values of Daily Insolation at the Upper Limit of the Earth’s Atmosphere and at Sea-Level.
| Lat. | Upper Limit of Atmosphere. | Earth’s Surface. | ||||
| Equator. | 40°. | N. Pole. | Equator. | 40°. | N. Pole. | |
| Winter solstice | 948 | 360 | 0 | 552 | 124 | 0 |
| Equinoxes | 1000 | 773 | 0 | 612 | 411 | 0 |
| Summer solstice | 888 | 1115 | 1210 | 517 | 660 | 494 |
The following table gives, according to W. Zenker, the relative thickness of the atmosphere at different altitudes of the sun, and also the amount of transmitted insolation:
Relative Distances traversed by Solar Rays through the Atmosphere, and Intensities of Radiation per Unit Areas.
| Altitude of sun | 0° | 5° | 10° | 20° | 30° | 40° | 50° | 60° | 70° | 80° | 90° |
| Relative lengths of path through the atmosphere | 44.7 | 10.8 | 5.7 | 2.92 | 2.00 | 1.56 | 1.31 | 1.15 | 1.06 | 1.02 | 1.00 |
| Intensity of radiation on a surface normal to the rays | 0.0 | 0.15 | 0.31 | 0.51 | 0.62 | 0.68 | 0.72 | 0.75 | 0.76 | 0.77 | 0.78 |
| Intensity of radiation on a horizontal surface | 0.0 | 0.01 | 0.05 | 0.17 | 0.31 | 0.44 | 0.55 | 0.65 | 0.72 | 0.76 | 0.78 |
Physical Climate.—The distribution of insolation explains many of the large facts of temperature distribution, for example, the decrease of temperature from equator to poles; the double maximum of temperature on and near the equator; the increasing seasonal contrasts with increasing latitude, &c. But the regular distribution of solar climate between equator and poles which would exist on a homogeneous earth, whereby similar conditions prevail along each latitude circle, is very much modified by the unequal distribution of land and water; by differences of altitude; by air and ocean currents, by varying conditions of cloudiness, and so on. Hence the climates met with along the same latitude circle are no longer alike. Solar climate is greatly modified by atmospheric conditions and by the surface features of the earth. The uniform arrangement of solar climatic belts, arranged latitudinally, is interfered with, and what is known as physical climate results. According to the dominant control we have solar, continental and marine, and mountain climates. In the first-named, latitude is the essential; in the second and third, the influence of land or water; in the fourth, the effect of altitude.
Classification of the Zones by Latitude Circles.—It is customary to classify climates roughly into certain broad belts. These are the climatic zones. The five zones with which we are most familiar are the so-called torrid, the two temperate, and the two frigid zones. The torrid, or better, the tropical zone, naming it by its boundaries, is limited on the north and south by the two tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the equator dividing the zone into two equal parts. The temperate zones are limited towards the equator by the tropics, and towards the poles by the Arctic and Antarctic circles. The two polar zones are caps covering both polar regions, and bounded on the side towards the equator by the Arctic and Antarctic circles.
These five zones are classified on purely astronomical grounds. They are really zones of solar climate. The tropical zone has the least annual variation of insolation. It has the maximum annual amount of insolation. Its annual range of temperature is very slight. It is the summer zone. Beyond the tropics the contrasts between the seasons rapidly become more marked. The polar zones have the greatest variation in insolation between summer and winter. They also have the minimum amount of insolation for the whole year. They may well be called the winter zones, for their summer is so short and cool that the heat is insufficient for most forms of vegetation, especially for trees. The temperate zones are intermediate between the tropical and the polar in the matter of annual amount and of annual variation of insolation. Temperate conditions do not characterize these zones as a whole. They are rather the seasonal belts of the world.
| From Grundzüge der physischen Erdkunde, by permission of Veit & Co. |
| Fig. 2.—Supan’s Temperature Zones. |
Temperature Zones.—The classification of the zones on the basis of the distribution of sunshine serves very well for purposes of simple description, but a glance at any isothermal chart shows that the isotherms do not coincide with the latitude lines. In fact, in the higher latitudes, the former sometimes follow the meridians more closely than they do the parallels of latitude. Hence it has been suggested that the zones be limited by isotherms rather than by parallels of latitude, and that a closer approach be thus made to the actual conditions of climate. Supan[1] (see fig. 2) has suggested limiting the hot belt, which corresponds to, but is slightly greater than, the old torrid zone, by the two mean annual isotherms of 68°—a temperature which approximately coincides with the polar limit of the trade-winds and with the polar limit of palms. The hot belt widens somewhat over the continents, chiefly because of the mobility of the ocean waters, whereby there is a tendency towards an equalization of the temperature between equator and poles in the oceans, while the stable lands acquire a temperature suitable to their own latitude. Furthermore, the unsymmetrical distribution of land in the low latitudes of the northern and southern hemispheres results in an unsymmetrical position of the hot belt with reference to the equator, the belt extending farther north than south of the equator. The polar limits of the temperate zones are fixed by the isotherm of 50° for the warmest month. Summer heat is more important for vegetation than winter cold, and where the warmest month has a temperature below 50°, cereals and forest trees do not grow, and man has to adjust himself to the peculiar climatic conditions in a very special way. The two polar caps are not symmetrical as regards the latitudes which they occupy. The presence of extended land masses in the high northern latitudes carries the temperature of 50° in the warmest month farther poleward there than is the case in the corresponding latitudes occupied by the oceans of the southern hemisphere, which warm less easily and are constantly in motion. Hence the southern cold cap, which has its equatorial limits at about lat. 50° S., is of much greater extent than the northern polar cap. The northern temperate belt, in which the great land areas lie, is much broader than the southern, especially over the continents. These temperature zones emphasize the natural conditions of climate more than is the case in any subdivision by latitude circles, and they bear a fairly close resemblance to the old zonal classification of the Greeks.
Classification of the Zones by Wind Belts.—The heat zones however, emphasize the temperature to the exclusion of such important elements as wind and rainfall. So distinctive are the larger climatic features of the great wind belts of the world, that a classification of climates according to wind systems has been suggested.[2] As the rain-belts of the world are closely associated with these wind systems, a classification of the zones by winds also emphasizes the conditions of rainfall. In such a scheme the tropical zone is bounded on the north and south by the margins of the trade-wind belts, and is therefore larger than the classic torrid zone. This trade-wind zone is somewhat wider on the eastern side of the oceans, and properly includes within its limits the equable marine climates of the eastern margins of the ocean basins, even as far north as latitude 30° or 35°. Most of the eastern coasts of China and of the United States are thus left in the more rigorous and more variable conditions of the north temperate zone. Through the middle of the trade-wind zone extends the sub-equatorial belt, with its migrating calms, rains and monsoons. On the polar margins of the trade-wind zone lie the sub-tropical belts, of alternating trades and westerlies. The temperate zones embrace the latitudes of the stormy westerly winds, having on their equator-ward margins the sub-tropical belts, and being somewhat narrower than the classic temperate zones. Towards the poles there is no obvious limit to the temperate zones, for the prevailing westerlies extend beyond the polar circles. These circles may, however, serve fairly well as boundaries, because of their importance from the point of view of insolation. The polar zones in the wind classification, therefore, remain just as in the older scheme.
Need of a Classification of Climates.—A broad division of the earth’s surface into zones is necessary as a first step in any systematic study of climate, but it is not satisfactory when a more detailed discussion is undertaken. The reaction of the physical features of the earth’s surface upon the atmosphere complicates the climatic conditions found in each of the zones, and makes further subdivision desirable. The usual method is to separate the continental (near sea-level) and the marine. An extreme variety of the continental is the desert; a modified form, the littoral; while altitude is so important a control that mountain and plateau climates are always grouped by themselves.
Marine or Oceanic Climate.—Land and water differ greatly in their behaviour regarding absorption and radiation. The former warms and cools readily, and to a considerable degree; the latter, slowly and but little. The slow changes in temperature of the ocean waters involve a retardation in the times of occurrence of the maxima and minima, and a marine climate, therefore, has a cool spring and a warm autumn, the seasonal changes being but slight. Characteristic, also, of marine climates is a prevailingly higher relative humidity, a larger amount of cloudiness, and a heavier rainfall than is found over continental interiors. All of these features have their explanation in the abundant evaporation from the ocean surfaces. In the middle latitudes the oceans have distinctly rainy winters, while over the continental interiors the colder months have a minimum of precipitation. Ocean air is cleaner and purer than land air, and is generally in more active motion.
Continental Climate.—Continental climate is severe. The annual temperature ranges increase, as a whole, with increasing distance from the oceans. The coldest and warmest months are usually January and July, the times of maximum and minimum temperatures being less retarded than in the case of marine climates. The greater seasonal contrasts in temperature over the continents than over the oceans are furthered by the less cloudiness over the former. Diurnal and annual changes of nearly all the elements of climate are greater over continents than over oceans; and this holds true of irregular as well as of regular variations. Fig. 3 illustrates the annual march of temperature in marine and continental climates. Bagdad, in Asia Minor (Bd.), and Funchal on the island of Madeira (M.) are representative continental and marine stations for a low latitude. Nerchinsk in eastern Siberia (N.) and Valentia in south-western Ireland (V.) are good examples of continental and marine climates of higher latitudes in the northern hemisphere. The data for these and the following curves were taken from Hann’s Lehrbuch der Meteorologie (1901).
Owing to the distance from the chief source of supply of water vapour—the oceans—the air over the larger land areas is naturally drier and dustier than that over the oceans. Yet even in the arid continental interiors in summer the absolute vapour content is surprisingly large, and in the hottest months the percentages of relative humidity may reach 20% or 30%. At the low temperatures which prevail in the winter of the higher latitudes the absolute humidity is very low, but, owing to the cold, the air is often damp. Cloudiness, as a rule, decreases inland, and with this lower relative humidity, more abundant sunshine and higher temperature, the evaporating power of a continental climate is much greater than that of the more humid, cloudier and cooler marine climate. Both amount and frequency of rainfall, as a rule, decrease inland, but the conditions are very largely controlled by local topography and by the prevailing winds. Winds average somewhat lower in velocity, and calms are more frequent, over continents than over oceans. The seasonal changes of pressure over the former give rise to systems of inflowing and outflowing, so-called continental, winds, sometimes so well developed as to become true monsoons. The extreme termperature changes which occur over the continents are the more easily borne because of the dryness of the air; because the minimum temperatures of winter occur when there is little or no wind, and because during the warmer hours of the summer there is the most air-movement.
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| Fig. 3.—Annual March of Air Temperature.Influence of Land and Water. (After Angot.) | |
| M, Madeira. | V, Valentia. |
| Bd, Bagdad. | N, Nerchinsk. |
Desert Climate.—An extreme type of continental climate is found in deserts. Desert air is notably free from micro-organisms. The large diurnal temperature ranges of inland regions, which are most marked where there is little or no vegetation, give rise to active convectional currents during the warmer hours of the day. Hence high winds are common by day, while the nights are apt to be calm and relatively cool. Travelling by day is unpleasant under such conditions. Diurnal cumulus clouds, often absent because of the excessive dryness of the air, are replaced by clouds of blowing dust and sand. Many geological phenomena, and special physiographic types of varied kinds, are associated with the peculiar conditions of desert climate. The excessive diurnal ranges of temperature cause rocks to split and break up. Wind-driven sand erodes and polishes the rocks. When the separate fragments become small enough they, in their turn, are transported by the winds and further eroded by friction during their journey. Curious conditions of drainage result from the deficiency in rainfall. Rivers “wither” away, or end in sinks or brackish lakes.
Desert plants protect themselves against the attacks of animals by means of thorns, and against evaporation by means of hard surfaces and by a diminished leaf surface. The life of man in the desert is likewise strikingly controlled by the climatic peculiarities of strong sunshine, of heat, and of dust.
Plate I
| ANNUAL DISTRIBUTION OF TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE. [(Click to enlarge.)] |
Plate II
| SEASONAL DISTRIBUTION OF TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE. [(Click to enlarge.)] |
Coast or Littoral Climate.—Between the pure marine and the pure continental types the coasts furnish almost every grade of transition. Prevailing winds are here important controls. When these blow from the ocean, the climates are marine in character, but when they are off-shore, a somewhat modified type of continental climate prevails, even up to the immediate sea-coast. Hence the former have a smaller range of temperature; their summers are more moderate and their winters milder; extreme temperatures are rare; the air is damp, and there is much cloud. All these marine features diminish with increasing distance from the ocean, especially when there are mountain ranges near the coast. In the tropics, windward coasts are usually well supplied with rainfall, and the temperatures are modified by sea breezes. Leeward coasts in the trade-wind belts offer special conditions. Here the deserts often reach the sea, as on the western coasts of South America, Africa and Australia. Cold ocean currents, with prevailing winds along-shore rather than on-shore, are here hostile to rainfall, although the lower air is often damp, and fog and cloud are not uncommon.
Monsoon Climate.—Exceptions to the general rule of rainier eastern coasts in trade-wind latitudes are found in the monsoon regions, as in India, for example, where the western coast of the peninsula is abundantly watered by the wet south-west monsoon. As monsoons often sweep over large districts, not only coast but interior, a separate group of monsoon climates is desirable. In India there are really three seasons—one cold, during the winter monsoon; one hot, in the transition season; and one wet, during the summer monsoon. Little precipitation occurs in winter, and that chiefly in the northern provinces. In low latitudes, monsoon and non-monsoon climates differ but little, for summer monsoons and regular trade-winds may both give rains, and wind direction has slight effect upon temperature.
The winter monsoon is off-shore and the summer monsoon on-shore under typical conditions, as in India. But exceptional cases are found where the opposite is true. In higher latitudes the seasonal changes of the winds, although not truly monsoonal, involve differences in temperature and in other climatic elements. The only well-developed monsoons on the coast of the continents of higher latitudes are those of eastern Asia. These are off-shore during the winter, giving dry, clear and cold weather; while the on-shore movement in summer gives cool, damp and cloudy weather.
Mountain and Plateau Climate.—Both by reason of their actual height and because of their obstructive effects, mountains influence climate similarly in all the zones. Mountains as contrasted with lowlands are characterized by a decrease in pressure, temperature and absolute humidity; an increased intensity of insolation and radiation; usually a greater frequency of, and up to a certain altitude more, precipitation. At an altitude of 16,000 ft., more or less, pressure is reduced to about one-half of its sea-level value. The highest human habitations are found under these conditions. On high mountains and plateaus the pressure is lower in winter than in summer, owing to the fact that the atmosphere is compressed to lower levels in the winter and is expanded upwards in summer.
The intensity of insolation and of radiation both increase aloft in the cleaner, purer, drier and thinner air of mountain climates. The great intensity of the sun’s rays attracts the attention of mountain-climbers at great altitudes. The vertical decrease of temperature, which is also much affected by local conditions, is especially rapid during the warmer months and hours; mountains are then cooler than lowlands. The inversions of temperature characteristic of the colder months, and of the night, give mountains the advantage of a higher temperature then—a fact of importance in connexion with the use of mountains as winter resorts. At such times the cold air flows down the mountain sides and collects in the valleys below, being replaced by warmer air aloft. Hence diurnal and annual ranges of temperature on the mountain tops of middle and higher latitudes are lessened, and the climate in this respect resembles a marine condition. The times of occurrence of the maximum and minimum temperature are also much influenced by local conditions. Elevated enclosed valleys, with strong sunshine, often resemble continental conditions of large temperature range, and plateaus, as compared with mountains at the same altitude, have relatively higher temperatures and larger temperature ranges. Altitude tempers the heat of the low latitudes. High mountain peaks, even on the equator, can remain snow-covered all the year round.
No general law governs the variations of relative humidity with altitude, but on the mountains of Europe the winter is the driest season, and the summer the dampest. At well-exposed stations there is a rapid increase in the vapour content soon after noon, especially in summer. The same is true of cloudiness, which is often greater on mountains than at lower levels, and is usually at a maximum in summer, while the opposite is true of the lowlands in the temperate latitudes. One of the great advantages of the higher Alpine valleys in winter is their small amount of cloud. This, combined with their low wind velocity and strong insolation, makes them desirable winter health resorts. Latitude, altitude, topography and winds are the determining factors in controlling the cloudiness on mountains. In the rare, often dry, air of mountains and plateaus evaporation is rapid, the skin dries and cracks, and thirst is increased.
Rainfall usually increases with increasing altitude up to a certain point, beyond which, owing to the loss of water vapour, this increase stops. The zone of maximum rainfall averages about 6000 to 7000 ft. in altitude, more or less, in intermediate latitudes, being lower in winter and higher in summer. Mountains usually have a rainy and a drier side; the contrast between the two is greatest when a prevailing damp wind crosses the mountain, or when one slope faces seaward and the other landward. Mountains often provoke rainfall, and local “islands,” or better, “lakes,” of heavier precipitation result.
Mountains resemble marine climates in having higher wind velocities than continental lowlands. Mountain summits have a nocturnal maximum of wind velocity, while plateaus usually have a diurnal maximum. Mountains both modify the general, and give rise to local winds. Among the latter the well-known mountain and valley winds are often of considerable hygienic importance in their control of the diurnal period of humidity, cloudiness and rainfall, the ascending wind of daytime tending to give clouds and rain aloft, while the opposite conditions prevail at night.
Supan’s Climatic Provinces.—The broad classification of climates into the three general groups of marine, continental and mountain, with the subordinate divisions of desert, littoral and monsoon, is convenient for purposes of summarizing the interaction of the climatic elements under the controls of land, water and altitude. But in any detailed study some scheme of classification is needed in which similar climates in different parts of the world are grouped together, and in which their geographic distribution receives particular consideration. An almost infinite number of classifications might be proposed; or we may take as the basis of subdivision either the special conditions of one climatic element, or similar conditions of a combination of two or more elements. Or we may take a botanical or a zoological basis. Of the various classifications which have been suggested, that of Supan gives a very rational, simple and satisfactory scheme of grouping. In this scheme there are thirty-five so-called climatic provinces.[3] It emphasizes the essentials of each climate, and serves to impress these essentials upon the mind by means of a compact, well-considered verbal summary in the case of each province described. Obviously, no classification of climates which is at all complete can approach the simplicity of the ordinary classification of the zones.
The Characteristics of the Torrid Zone.
General: Climate and Weather.—The dominant characteristic of the torrid zone is the simplicity and uniformity of its climatic features. The tropics lack the proverbial uncertainty and changeableness of the weather of higher latitudes. Weather and climate are essentially synonymous terms. Periodic phenomena, depending upon the daily and annual march of the sun, are dominant. Non-periodic weather changes are wholly subordinate. In special regions only, and at special seasons, is the regular sequence of weather temporarily interrupted by an occasional tropical cyclone. These cyclones, although comparatively infrequent, are notable features of the climate of the areas in which they occur, generally bringing very heavy rains. The devastation produced by one of these storms often affects the economic condition of the people in the district of its occurrence for many years.
Temperature.—The mean temperature is high, and very uniform over the whole zone. There is little variation during the year. The mean annual isotherm of 68° is a rational limit at the polar margins of the zone, and the mean annual isotherm of 80° encloses the greater portion of the land areas, as well as much of the tropical oceans. The warmest latitude circle for the year is not the equator, but latitude 10° N. The highest mean annual temperatures, shown by the isotherm of 85°, are in Central Africa, in India, the north of Australia and Central America, but, with the exception of the first, these areas are small. The temperatures average highest where there is little rain. In June, July and August there are large districts in the south of Asia and north of Africa with temperatures over 90°.
Over nearly all of the zone the mean annual range of temperature is less than 10°, and over much of it, especially on the oceans, it is less than 5°. Even near the margins of the zone the ranges are less than 25°, as at Calcutta, Hong-Kong, Río de Janeiro and Khartum. The mean daily range is usually larger than the mean annual. It has been well said that “night is the winter of the tropics.” Over an area covering parts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans from Arabia to the Caroline Islands and from Zanzibar to New Guinea, as well as on the Guiana coast, the minimum temperatures do not normally fall below 68°. Towards the margins of the zone, however, the minima on the continents fall to or even below 32°. Maxima of 115° and even over 120° occur over the deserts of northern Africa. A district where the mean maxima exceed 113° extends from the western Sahara to north-western India, and over Central Australia. Near the equator the maxima are therefore not as high as those in many so-called “temperate” climates. The tropical oceans show remarkably small variations in temperature. The “Challenger” results on the equator showed a daily range of hardly 0.7° in the surface water temperature, and P. G. Schott determined the annual range as 4.1° on the equator, 4.3° at latitude 10°, and 6.5° at latitude 20°.
The Seasons.—In a true tropical climate the seasons are not classified according to temperature, but depend on rainfall and the prevailing winds. The life of animals and plants in the tropics, and of man himself, is regulated very largely, in some cases almost wholly, by rainfall. Although the tropical rainy season is characteristically associated with a vertical sun, that season is not necessarily the hottest time of the year. It often goes by the name of winter for this reason. Towards the margins of the zone, with increasing annual ranges of temperature, seasons in the extra-tropical sense gradually appear.
Physiological Effects of Heat and Humidity.—Tropical heat is associated with high relative humidity except over deserts and in dry seasons. The air is therefore muggy and oppressive. The high temperatures are disagreeable and hard to bear. The “hot-house air” has an enervating effect. Energetic physical and mental action are often difficult or even impossible. The tonic effect of a cold winter is lacking. The most humid districts in the tropics are the least desirable for persons from higher latitudes; the driest are the healthiest. The most energetic natives are the desert-dwellers. The monotonously enervating heat of the humid tropics makes man sensitive to slight temperature changes. The intensity of direct insolation, as well as of radiation from the earth’s surface, may produce heat prostration and sunstroke. “Beware of the sun” is a good rule in the tropics.
Pressure.—The uniform temperature distribution in the tropics involves uniform pressure distribution. Pressure gradients are weak. The annual fluctuations are slight, even on the continents. The diurnal variation of the barometer is so regular and so marked that, as von Humboldt said, the time of day can be told within about twenty minutes if the reading of the barometer be known.
Winds and Rainfall.—Along the barometric equator, where the pressure gradients are weakest, is the equatorial belt of calms, variable winds and rains—the doldrums. This belt offers exceptionally favourable conditions for abundant rainfall, and is one of the rainiest regions of the world, averaging probably about 100 in. Here the sky is prevailingly cloudy; the air is hot and oppressive; heavy showers and thunderstorms are frequent, chiefly in the afternoon and evening. Here are the dense tropical forests of the Amazon and of equatorial Africa. This belt of calms and rains shifts north and south of the equator after the sun. In striking contrast are the easterly trade winds, blowing between the tropical high pressure belts and the equatorial belt of low pressure. Of great regularity, and contributing largely to the uniformity of tropical climates, the trades have long been favourite sailing routes because of the steadiness of the wind, the infrequency of storms, the brightness of the skies and the freshness of the air. The trades are subject to many variations. Their northern and southern margins shift north and south after the sun; at certain seasons they are interrupted, often over wide areas near their equatorward margins, by the migrating belt of equatorial rains and by monsoons; near lands they are often interfered with by land and sea breezes; in certain regions they are invaded by violent cyclonic storms. The trades, except where they blow on to windward coasts or over mountains, are drying winds. They cause the deserts of northern Africa and of the adjacent portions of Asia; of Australia, South Africa and southern South America. The monsoons on the southern and eastern coasts of Asia are the best known winds of their class. In the northern summer the south-west monsoon, warm and sultry, blows over the latitudes from about 10° N. to and beyond the northern tropic, between Africa and the Philippines, giving rains over India, the East Indian archipelago and the eastern coasts of China. In winter, the north-east monsoon, the normal cold-season outflow from Asia combined with the north-east trade, and generally cool and dry, covers the same district, extending as far north as latitude 30°. Crossing the equator, these winds reach northern Australia and the western islands of the South Pacific as a north-west rainy monsoon, while this region in the opposite season has the normal south-east trade. Other monsoons are found in the Gulf of Guinea and in equatorial Africa. Wherever they occur, they control the seasonal changes.
Tropical rains are in the main summer rains, coming when the normal trade gives way to the equatorial belt of rains, or when the summer monsoon sets in. There are, however, many cases of a rainy season when the sun is low, expecially on windward coasts in the trades. Tropical rains come usually in the form of heavy downpours and with a well-marked diurnal period, the maximum varying with the locality between noon and midnight. Local influences are, however, very important, and in many places night rainfall maxima are found.
Land and Sea Breezes.—The sea breeze is an important climatic feature on many tropical coasts. With its regular occurrence, and its cool, clean air, it serves to make many districts habitable for white settlers, and has deservedly won the name of “the doctor.” On not a few coasts, the sea breeze is a true prevailing wind. The location of dwellings is often determined by the exposure of a site to the sea breeze.
Thunderstorms.—Local thunderstorms are frequent in the humid portions of the tropics. They have a marked diurnal periodicity, find their best opportunity in the equatorial belt of weak pressure gradients and high temperature, and are commonly associated with the rainy season, being most common at the beginning and end of the regular rains. In many places, thunderstorms occur daily throughout their season, with extraordinary regularity and great intensity.
Cloudiness.—Taken as a whole, the tropics are not favoured with such clear skies as is often supposed. Cloudiness varies about as does the rainfall. The maximum is in the equatorial belt of calms and rains, where the sky is always more or less cloudy. The minimum is in the trade latitudes, where fair skies as a whole prevail. The equatorial cloud belt moves north and south after the sun. Wholly clear days are very rare in the tropics generally, especially near the equator, and during the rainy season heavy clouds usually cover the sky. Wholly overcast, dull days, such as are common in the winter of the temperate zone, occur frequently only on tropical coasts in the vicinity of cold ocean currents, as on the coast of Peru and on parts of the west coast of Africa.
Intensity of Sky-Light and Twilight.—The light from tropical skies by day is trying, and the intense insolation, together with the reflection from the ground, increases the general dazzling glare under a tropical sun. During much of the time smoke from forest and prairie fires (in the dry season), dust (in deserts), and water-vapour give the sky a pale whitish appearance. In the heart of the trade-wind belts at sea the sky is of a deeper blue. Twilight within the tropics is shorter than in higher latitudes, but the coming on of night is less sudden than is generally assumed.
| Fig. 4.—Annual march of temperature: equatorial type. A, Africa, interior; B, Batavia; J, Jaluit, Marshall Islands. |
Climatic Subdivisions.—The rational basis for a classification of the larger climatic provinces of the torrid zone is found in the general wind systems, and in their control over rainfall. Following this scheme there are: (1) the equatorial belt; (2) the trade-wind belts; (3) the monsoon belts. In each of these subdivisions there are modifications due to marine and continental influences. In general, both seasonal and diurnal phenomena are more marked in continental interiors than on the oceans, islands and windward coasts. Further, the effect of altitude is so important that another group should be added to include (4) mountain climates.
1. The Equatorial Belt.—Within a few degrees of the equator, and when not interfered with by other controls, the annual curve of temperature has two maxima following the two zenithal positions of the sun, and two minima at about the time of the solstices. This equatorial type of annual march of temperature is illustrated in the three curves for the interior of Africa, Batavia and Jaluit (fig. 4). The greatest range is shown in the curve for the interior of Africa; the curve for Batavia illustrates insular conditions with less range, and the oceanic type for Jaluit, Marshall Islands, gives the least range. This double maximum is not a universal phenomenon, there being many cases where but a single maximum occurs.
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| Fig. 5.—Annual march of rainfall in the tropics. | |
| S.A, South Africa. | M, Mexico. |
| Q, Quito. | H, Hilo. |
| S.P., São Paulo. | P.D., Port Darwin. |
As the belt of rains swings back and forth across the equator after the sun, there should be two rainy seasons with the sun vertical, and two dry seasons when the sun is farthest from the zenith, and while the trades blow. These conditions prevail on the equator, and as far north and south of the equator (about 10°-12°) as sufficient time elapses between the two zenithal positions of the sun for the two rainy seasons to be distinguished from one another. In this belt, under normal conditions, there is therefore no dry season of any considerable duration. The double rainy season is clearly seen in equatorial Africa and in parts of equatorial South America. The maxima lag somewhat behind the vertical sun, coming in April and November, and are unsymmetrically developed, the first maximum being the principal one. The minima are also unsymmetrically developed, and the so-called “dry seasons” are seldom wholly rainless. This rainfall type with double maxima and minima has been called the equatorial type, and is illustrated in the following curves for South Africa and Quito (fig. 5). The monthly rainfalls are given in thousandths of the annual mean. The mean annual rainfall at Quito is 42.12 in. These double rainy and dry seasons are easily modified by other conditions, as by the monsoons of the Indo-Australian area, so that there is no rigid belt of equatorial rains extending around the world. In South America, east of the Andes, the distinction between rainy and dry seasons is often much confused. In this equatorial belt the cloudiness is high throughout the year, averaging .7 to .8, with a relatively small annual period. The curve following, E (fig. 6), is fairly typical, but the annual period varies greatly under local controls.
| Fig. 6.—Annual march of cloudiness in the tropics. E, Equatorial type; M, Monsoon type. |
At greater distances from the equator than about 10° or 12° the sun is still vertical twice a year within the tropics, but the interval between these two dates is so short that the two rainy seasons merge into one, in summer, and there is also but one dry season, in winter. This is the so-called tropical type of rainfall, and is found where the trade belts are encroached upon by the equatorial rains during the migration of these rains into each hemisphere. It is illustrated in the curves for São Paulo, Brazil, and for the city of Mexico (fig. 5). The mean annual rainfall at São Paulo is 54.13 in. and at Mexico 22.99 in. The districts of tropical rains of this type lie along the equatorial margins of the torrid zone, outside of the latitudes of the equatorial type of rainfall. The rainy season becomes shorter with increasing distance from the equator. The weather of the opposite seasons is strongly contrasted. The single dry season lasts longer than either dry season in the equatorial belt, reaching eight months in typical cases, with the wet season lasting four months. The lowlands often become dry and parched during the long dry trade-wind season (winter) and vegetation withers away, while grass and flowers grow in great abundance and all life takes on new activity during the time when the equatorial rainy belt with its calms, variable winds and heavy rains is over them (summer). The Sudan lies between the Sahara and the equatorial forests of Africa. It receives rains, and its vegetation grows actively, when the doldrum belt is north of the equator (May-August). But when the trades blow (December-March) the ground is parched and dusty. The Venezuelan llanos have a dry season in the northern winter, when the trade blows. The rains come in May-October. The campos of Brazil, south of the equator, have their rains in October-April, and are dry the remainder of the year. The Nile overflow results from the rainfall on the mountains of Abyssinia during the northward migration of the belt of equatorial rains.
| Fig. 7.—Annual march of temperature: tropical type. W, Wadi Halfa; A, Alice Springs; H, Honolulu; J, Jamestown, St Helena; N, Nagpur. |
The so-called tropical type of temperature variation, with one maximum and one minimum, is illustrated in the accompanying curves for Wadi Halfa, in upper Egypt; Alice Springs, Australia; Nagpur, India; Honolulu, Hawaii; and Jamestown, St Helena (fig. 7). The effect of the rainy season is often shown in a displacement of the time of maximum temperature to an earlier month than the usual one.
2. Trade-Wind Belts.—The trade belts near sea-level are characterized by fair weather, steady winds, infrequent light rains or even an almost complete absence of rain, very regular, although slight, annual and diurnal ranges of temperature, and a constancy and regularity of weather. The climate of the ocean areas in the trade-wind belts is indeed the simplest and most equable in the world, the greatest extremes over these oceans being found to leeward of the larger lands. On the lowlands swept over by the trades, beyond the polar limits of the equatorial rain belt (roughly between lats. 20° and 30°), are most of the great deserts of the world. These deserts extend directly to the water’s edge on the leeward western coasts of Australia, South Africa and South America.
The ranges and extremes of temperature are much greater over the continental interiors than over the oceans of the trade-wind belts. Minima of 32° or less occur during clear, quiet nights, and daily ranges of over 50° are common. The midsummer mean temperature rises above 90°, with noon maxima of 110° or more in the non-cloudy, dry air of a desert day. The days, with high, dry winds, carrying dust and sand, with extreme heat, accentuated by the absence of vegetation, are disagreeable, but the calmer nights, with active radiation under clear skies, are much more comfortable. The nocturnal temperatures are even not seldom too low for comfort in the cooler season, when thin sheets of ice may form.
While the trades are drying winds as long as they blow strongly over the oceans, or over lowlands, they readily become rainy if they are cooled by ascent over a mountain or highland. Hence the windward (eastern) sides of mountains or bold coasts in the trade-wind belts are well watered, while the leeward sides, or interiors, are dry. Mountainous islands in the trades, like the Hawaiian islands, many of the East and West Indies, the Philippines, Borneo, Ceylon, Madagascar, Teneriffe, &c., show marked differences of this sort. The eastern coasts of Guiana, Central America, south-eastern Brazil, south-eastern Africa, and eastern Australia are well watered, while the interiors are dry. The eastern highland of Australia constitutes a more effective barrier than that in South Africa; hence the Australian interior has a more extended desert. South America in the south-east trade belt is not well enclosed on the east, and the most arid portion is an interior district close to the eastern base of the Andes where the land is low. Even far inland the Andes again provoke precipitation along their eastern base, and the narrow Pacific coastal strip, to leeward of the Andes, is a very pronounced desert from near the equator to about lat. 30° S. The cold ocean waters, with prevailing southerly (drying) winds alongshore, are additional factors causing this aridity. Highlands in the trade belts are therefore moist on their windward slopes, and become oases of luxuriant plant growth, while close at hand, on the leeward sides, dry savannas or deserts may be found. The damp, rainy and forested windward side of Central America was from the earliest days of European occupation left to the natives, while the centre of civilization was naturally established on the more open and sunny south-western side.
The rainfall associated with the conditions just described is known as the trade type. These rains have a maximum in winter, when the trades are most active. In cases where the trade blows steadily throughout the year against mountains or bold coasts, as on the Atlantic coast of Central America, there is no real dry season. The curve for Hilo (mean annual rainfall 145.24 in.) on the windward side of the Hawaiian Islands, shows typical conditions (see fig. 5). The trade type of rainfall is often much complicated by the combination with it of the tropical type and of the monsoon type. In the Malay archipelago there are also complications of equatorial and trade rains; likewise in the West Indies.
3. Monsoon Belts.—In a typical monsoon region the rains follow the vertical sun, and therefore have a simple annual period much like that of the tropical type above described. This monsoon type of rainfall is well illustrated in the curve for Port Darwin (mean annual rainfall 62.72 in.), in Australia (see fig. 5). This summer monsoon rainfall results from the inflow of a body of warm, moist air from the sea upon a land area; there is a consequent retardation of the velocity of the air currents, as the result of friction, and an ascent of the air, the rainfall being particularly heavy where the winds have to climb over high lands. In India, the precipitation is heaviest at the head of the Bay of Bengal (where Cherrapunji, at the height of 4455 ft. in the Khasi Hills, has a mean annual rainfall of between 400 and 500 in.), along the southern base of the Himalayas (60 to 160 in.), on the bold western coast of the peninsula (80 to 120 in. and over), and on the mountains of Burma, (up to 160 in.). In the rain-shadow of the Western Ghats, the Deccan often suffers from drought and famine unless the monsoon rains are abundant and well distributed. The prevailing direction of the rainy monsoon wind in India is south-west; on the Pacific coast of Asia, it is south-east. This monsoon district is very large, including the Indian Ocean, Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal, and adjoining continental areas; the Pacific coast of China, the Yellow and Japan seas, and numerous islands from Borneo to Sakhalin on the north and to the Ladrone Islands on the east. A typical temperature curve for a monsoon district is that for Nagpur, in the Indian Deccan (fig. 7), and a typical monsoon cloudiness curve is given in fig. 6, the maximum coming near the time of the vertical sun, in the rainy season, and the minimum in the dry season.
In the Australian monsoon region, which reaches across New Guinea and the Sunda Islands, and west of Australia, in the Indian Ocean, over latitudes 0°-10° S., the monsoon rains come with north-west winds in the period between November and March or April.
The general rule that eastern coasts in the tropics are the rainiest finds exceptions in the case of the rainy western coasts in India and other districts with similar monsoon rains. On the coast of the Gulf of Guinea, for example, there is a small rainy monsoon area during the summer; heavy rains fall on the seaward slopes of the Cameroon Mountains. Gorée, lat. 15° N., on the coast of Senegambia, gives a fine example of a rainy (summer) and a dry (winter) monsoon. Numerous combinations of equatorial, trade and monsoon rainfalls are found, often creating great complexity. The islands of the East Indian archipelago furnish many examples of such curious complications.
4. Mountain Climate.—In the torrid zone altitude is chiefly important because of its effect in tempering the heat of the lowlands, especially at night. If tropical mountains are high enough, they carry snow all the year round, even on the equator, and the zones of vegetation may range from the densest tropical forest at their base to the snow on their summits. The highlands and mountains within the tropics are thus often sharply contrasted with the lowlands, and offer more agreeable and more healthy conditions for white settlement. They are thus often sought by residents from colder latitudes as the most attractive resorts. In India, the hill stations are crowded during the hot months by civilian and military officials. The climate of many tropical plateaus and mountains has the reputation of being a “perpetual spring.” Thus on the interior plateau of the tropical Cordilleras of South America, and on the plateaus of tropical Africa, the heat is tempered by the altitude, while the lowlands and coasts are very hot. The rainfall on tropical mountains and highlands often differs considerably in amount from that on the lowlands, and other features common to mountain climates the world over are also noted.
The Characteristics of the Temperate Zones.
General.—As a whole, the “temperate zones” are temperate only in that their mean temperatures and their physiological effects are intermediate between those of the tropics and those of the polar zones. A marked changeableness of the weather is a striking characteristic of these zones. Apparently irregular and haphazard, these continual weather changes, although they are essentially non-periodic, nevertheless run through a fairly systematic series. Climate and weather are by no means synonymous over most of the extra-tropical latitudes.
Temperature.—The mean annual temperatures at the margins of the north temperate zone differ by more than 70°. The ranges between the mean temperatures of hottest and coldest months reach 120° at their maximum in north-eastern Siberia, and 80° in North America. A January mean of -60° and a July mean of 95°, and maxima of over 120° and minima of -90°, occur in the same zone. Such great ranges characterize the extreme land climates. Under the influence of the oceans, the windward coasts have much smaller ranges. The annual ranges in middle and higher latitudes exceed the diurnal, the conditions of much of the torrid zone thus being exactly reversed. Over much of the oceans of the temperate zones the annual range is less than 10°. In the south temperate zone there are no extreme ranges, the maxima, slightly over 30°, being near the margin of the zone in the interior of South America, South Africa and Australia. In these same localities the diurnal ranges rival those of the north temperate zone.
The north-eastern Atlantic and north-western Europe are about 35° too warm for their latitude in January, while north-eastern Siberia is 30° too cold. The lands north of Hudson Bay are 25° too cold, and the waters of the Alaskan Bay 20° too warm. In July, and in the southern hemisphere, the anomalies are small. The lands which are the centre of civilization in Europe average too warm for their latitudes. The diurnal variability of temperature is greater in the north temperate zone than elsewhere in the world, and the same month may differ greatly in its character in different years. The annual temperature curve has one maximum and one minimum. In the continental type the times of maximum and minimum are about one month behind the dates of maximum and minimum insolation. In the marine type the retardation may amount to nearly two months. Coasts and islands have a tendency to a cool spring and warm autumn; continents, to similar temperatures in both spring and fall.
Pressure and Winds.—The prevailing winds are the “westerlies,” which are much less regular than the trades. They vary greatly in velocity in different regions and in different seasons, and are stronger in winter than in summer. They are much interfered with, especially in the higher northern latitudes, by seasonal changes of temperature and pressure over the continents, whereby the latter establish, more or less successfully, a system of obliquely outflowing winds in winter and of obliquely inflowing winds in summer. In summer, when the lands have low pressure, the northern oceans are dominated by great oval areas of high pressure, with outflowing spiral eddies, while in winter, when the northern lands have high pressure, the northern portions of the oceans develop cyclonic systems of inflowing winds over their warm waters. All these great continental and oceanic systems of spiralling winds are important climatic controls.
The westerlies are also much confused and interrupted by storms, whence their designation of stormy westerlies. So common are such interruptions that the prevailing westerly wind direction is often difficult to discern without careful observation. Cyclonic storms are most numerous and best developed in winter. Although greatly interfered with near sea-level by continental changes of pressure, by cyclonic and anticyclonic whirls, and by local inequalities of the surface, the eastward movement of the atmosphere remains very constant aloft. The south temperate zone being chiefly water, the westerlies are but little disturbed there by continental effects. Between latitudes 40° and 60° S. the “brave west winds” blow with a constancy and velocity found in the northern hemisphere only on the oceans, and then in a modified form. Storms, frequent and severe, characterize these southern hemisphere westerlies, and easterly wind directions are temporarily noted during their passage. Voyages to the west around Cape Horn against head gales, and in cold wet weather, are much dreaded. South of Africa and Australia, also, the westerlies are remarkably steady and strong. The winter in these latitudes is stormier than the summer, but the seasonal difference is less than north of the equator.
Rainfall.—Rainfall is fairly abundant over the oceans and also over a considerable part of the lands (30-80 in. and more). It comes chiefly in connexion with the usual cyclonic storms, or in thunderstorms. So great are the differences, geographic and periodic, in rainfall produced by differences in temperature, topography, cyclonic conditions, &c., that only the most general rules can be laid down. The equatorward margin of the temperate zone rains is clearly defined on the west coasts, at the points where the coast deserts are replaced by belts of light or moderate rainfall. Bold west coasts, on the polar side of lat. 40°, are very rainy (100 in. and more a year in the most favourable situations). The hearts of the continents, far from the sea, and especially when well enclosed by mountains, or when blown over by cool ocean winds which warm while crossing the land, have light rainfall (less than 10-20 in.). East coasts are wetter than interiors, but drier than west coasts. Winter is the season of maximum rainfall over oceans, islands and west coasts, for the westerlies are then most active, cyclonic storms are most numerous and best developed, and the cold lands chill the inflowing damp air. At this season, however, the low temperatures, high pressures, and tendency to outflowing winds over the continents are unfavourable to rainfall, and the interior land areas as a rule then have their minimum. The warmer months bring the maximum rainfall over the continents. Conditions are then favourable for inflowing damp winds from the adjacent oceans; there is the best opportunity for convection; thunder-showers readily develop on the hot afternoons; the capacity of the air for water vapour is greatest. The marine type of rainfall, with a winter maximum, extends in over the western borders of the continents, and is also found in the winter rainfall of the sub-tropical belts. Rainfalls are heaviest along the tracks of most frequent cyclonic storms.
For continental stations the typical daily march of rainfall shows a chief maximum in the afternoon, and a secondary maximum in the night or early morning. The chief minimum comes between 10 A.M. and 2 P.M. Coast stations generally have a night maximum and a minimum between 10 A.M. and 4 P.M.
Humidity and Cloudiness.—S.A. Arrhenius gives the mean cloudiness for different latitudes as follows:—
| 70° N. | 60° | 50° | 40° | 30° | 20° | 10° | Eq. | 10° | 20° | 30° | 40° | 50° | 60° S. |
| 59 | 61 | 48 | 49 | 42 | 40 | 50 | 58 | 57 | 48 | 46 | 56 | 66 | 75 |
The higher latitudes of the temperate zones thus have a mean cloudiness which equals and even exceeds that of the equatorial belt. The amounts are greater over the oceans and coasts than inland. The belts of minimum cloudiness are at about lat. 30° N. and S. Over the continental interiors the cloudiest season is summer, but the amount is never very large. Otherwise, winter is generally the cloudiest season and with a fairly high mean annual amount.
The absolute humidity as a whole decreases as the temperature falls. The relative humidity averages 90%, more or less, over the oceans, and is high under the clouds and rain of cyclonic storms, but depends, on land, upon the wind direction, winds from an ocean or from a lower latitude being damper, and those from a continent or from a colder latitude being drier.
Seasons.—Seasons in the temperate zones are classified according to temperature; not, as in the tropics, by rainfall. The four seasons are important characteristics, especially of the middle latitudes of the north temperate zone. Towards the equatorial margins of the zones the difference in temperature between summer and winter becomes smaller, and the transition seasons weaken and even disappear. At the polar margins the change from winter to summer, and vice versa, is so sudden that there also the transition seasons disappear.
These seasonal changes are of the greatest importance in the life of man. The monotonous heat of the tropics and the continued cold of the polar zones are both depressing. Their tendency is to operate against man’s highest development. The seasonal changes of the temperate zones stimulate man to activity. They develop him, physically and mentally. They encourage higher civilization. A cold, stormy winter necessitates forethought in the preparation during the summer of clothing, food and shelter. Development must result from such conditions. In the warm, moist tropics life is too easy; in the cold polar zones it is too hard. Near the poles, the growing season is too short; in the moist tropics it is so long that there is little inducement to labour at any special time. The regularity, and the need, of outdoor work during a part of the year are important factors in the development of man in the temperate zones.
Weather.—An extreme changeableness of the weather, depending on the succession of cyclones and anticyclones, is another characteristic. For most of the year, and most of the zone, settled weather is unknown. The changes are most rapid in the northern portion of the north temperate zone, especially on the continents, where the cyclones travel fastest. The nature of these changes depends on the degree of development, the velocity of progression, the track, and other conditions of the disturbance which produces them. The particular weather types resulting from this control give the climates their distinctive character.
The types vary with the season and with the geographical position. They result from a combination, more or less irregular, of periodic diurnal elements, under the regular control of the sun; and of non-periodic cyclonic and anticyclonic elements. In summer, on land, when the Cyclonic element is weakest and the solar control is the strongest, the dominant types are associated with the regular changes from day to night. Daytime cumulus clouds; diurnal variation in wind velocity; afternoon thunderstorms, with considerable regularity, characterize the warmest months over the continents and present an analogy with tropical conditions. Cyclonic and anticyclonic spells of hotter or cooler, rainy or dry, weather, with varying winds differing in the temperatures and the moisture which they bring, serve to break the regularity of the diurnal types. In winter the non-periodic, cyclonic control is strongest. The irregular changes from clear to cloudy, from warmer to colder, from dry air to snow or rain, extend over large areas, and show little diurnal control. Spring and fall are transition seasons, and have transition weather types. The south temperate zone oceans have a constancy of non-periodic cyclonic weather changes through the year which is only faintly imitated over the oceans of the northern hemisphere. Winter types differ little from summer. The diurnal control is never very strong. Stormy weather prevails throughout the year although the weather changes are more frequent and stronger in the colder months.
Climatic Subdivisions.—There are fundamental differences between the north and south temperate zones. The latter zone is sufficiently individual to be given a place by itself. The marginal sub-tropical belts must also be considered as a separate group by themselves. The north temperate zone as a whole includes large areas of land, stretching over many degrees of latitude, as well as of water. Hence it embraces so remarkable a diversity of climates that no single district can be taken as typical of the whole. The simplest and most rational scheme for a classification of these climates is based on the fundamental differences which depend upon land and water, upon the prevailing winds, and upon altitude. Thus there are the ocean areas and the land areas. The latter are then subdivided into western (windward) and eastern (leeward) coasts, and interiors. Mountain climates remain as a separate group.
South Temperate Zone.—Because of the large ocean surface, the whole meteorological régime in the south temperate zone is more uniform than in the northern. The south temperate zone may properly be called “temperate.” Its temperature changes are small; its prevailing winds are stronger and steadier than in the northern hemisphere; its seasons are more uniform; its weather is prevailingly stormier, more changeable, and more under cyclonic control. The uniformity of the climatic conditions over the far southern oceans is monotonously unattractive. The continental areas are small, and develop to a limited degree only the more marked seasonal and diurnal changes which are characteristic of lands in general. The summers are less stormy than the winters, but even the summer temperatures are not high. Such an area as that of New Zealand, with its mild climate and fairly regular rains, is really at the margins of the zone, and has much more favourable conditions than the islands farther south. These islands, in the heart of this zone, have dull, cheerless and inhospitable climates. The zone enjoys a good reputation for healthfulness, which fact has been ascribed chiefly to the strong and active air movement, the relatively drier air than in corresponding northern latitudes, and the cool summers. It must be remembered, also, that the lands are mostly in the sub-tropical belt, which possesses peculiar climatic advantages, as will be seen.
Sub-tropical Belts: Mediterranean Climates.—At the tropical margins of the temperate zones are the so-called sub-tropical belts. Their rainfall regime is alternately that of the westerlies and of the trades. They are thus associated, now with the temperate and now with the torrid zones. In winter the equatorward migration of the great pressure and wind systems brings these latitudes under the control of the westerlies, whose frequent irregular storms give a moderate winter precipitation. These winter rains are not steady and continuous, but are separated by spells of fine sunny weather. The amounts vary greatly.[4] In summer, when the trades are extended polewards by the outflowing equatorward winds on the eastern side of the ocean anticyclones, mild, dry and nearly continuous fair weather prevails, with general northerly winds.
The sub-tropical belts of winter rains and dry summers are not very clearly defined. They are mainly limited to the western coasts of the continents, and to the islands off these coasts in latitudes between about 28° and 40°. The sub-tropical belt is exceptionally wide in the old world, and reaches far inland there, embracing the countries bordering on the Mediterranean in southern Europe and northern Africa, and then extending eastward across the Dalmatian coast and the southern part of the Balkan peninsula into Syria, Mesopotamia, Arabia north of the tropic, Persia and the adjacent lands. The fact that the Mediterranean countries are so generally included has led to the use of the name “Mediterranean climate.” Owing to the great irregularity of topography and outline, the Mediterranean province embraces many varieties of climate, but the dominant characteristics are the mild temperatures, except on the higher elevations, and the sub-tropical rains.
On the west coasts of the two Americas the sub-tropical belt of winter rains is clearly seen in California and in northern Chile, on the west of the coast mountain ranges. Between the region which has rain throughout the year from the stormy westerlies, and the districts which are permanently arid under the trades, there is an indefinite belt over which rains fall in winter. In southern Africa, which is controlled by the high pressure areas of the South Atlantic and south Indian oceans, the south-western coastal belt has winter rains, decreasing to the north, while the east coast and adjoining interior have summer rains, from the south-east trade. Southern Australia is climatically similar to South Africa. In summer the trades give rainfall on the eastern coast, decreasing inland. In winter the westerlies give moderate rains, chiefly on the south-western coast.
The sub-tropical climates follow the tropical high pressure belts across the oceans, but they do not retain their distinctive character far inland from the west coasts of the continents (except in the Mediterranean case), nor on the east coasts. On the latter, summer monsoons and the occurrence of general summer rains interfere, as in eastern Asia and in Florida.
| Fig. 8.—Annual March of Rainfall: Sub-tropical Type. W.A, Western Australia: M, Malta. |
Strictly winter rains are typical of the coasts and islands of this belt. The more continental areas have a tendency to spring and autumn rains. The rainy and dry seasons are most marked at the equatorward margins of the belt. With increasing latitude, the rain is more evenly distributed through the year, the summer becoming more and more rainy until, in the continental interiors of the higher latitudes, the summer becomes the season of maximum rainfall. The monthly distribution of rainfall in two sub-tropical regions is shown in the accompanying curves for Malta and for Western Australia (fig. 8). In Alexandria the dry season lasts nearly eight months; in Palestine, from six to seven months; in Greece, about four months. The sub-tropical rains are peculiarly well developed on the eastern coast of the Atlantic Ocean.
The winter rains which migrate equatorward are separated by the Sahara from the equatorial rains which migrate poleward. An unusually extended migration of either of these rain belts may bring them close together, leaving but a small part, if any, of the intervening desert actually rainless. The Arabian desert occupies a somewhat similar position. Large variations in the annual rainfall may be expected towards the equatorial margins of the sub-tropical belts.
The main features of the sub-tropical rains east of the Atlantic are repeated on the Pacific coasts of the two Americas. In North America the rainfall decreases from Alaska, Washington and northern Oregon southwards to lower California, and the length of the summer dry season increases. At San Diego, six months (May-October) have each less than 5% of the annual precipitation, and four of these have 1%. The southern extremity of Chile, from about latitude 38°S. southward, has heavy rainfall throughout the year from the westerlies, with a winter maximum. Northern Chile is persistently dry. Between these two there are winter rains and dry summers. Neither Africa nor Australia extends far enough south to show the different members of this system well. New Zealand is almost wholly in the prevailing westerly belt. Northern India is unique in having summer monsoon rains and also winter rains, the latter from weak cyclonic storms which correspond with the sub-tropical winter rains.
| Fig. 9.—Annual March of Temperature for selected Sub-tropical Stations. C, Cordoba; A, Auckland; Ba, Bermuda; Bd, Bagdad. |
From the position of the sub-tropical belts to leeward of the oceans, and at the equatorial margins of the temperate zones, it follows that their temperatures are not extreme. Further, the protection afforded by mountain ranges, as by the Alps in Europe and the Sierra Nevada in the United States, is an important factor in keeping out extremes of winter cold. The annual march and ranges of temperature depend upon position with reference to continental or marine influences. This is seen in the accompanying data and curves for Bagdad, Cordoba (Argentina), Bermuda and Auckland (fig. 9). The Mediterranean basin is particularly favoured in winter, not only in the protection against cold afforded by the mountains but also in the high temperature of the sea itself. The southern Alpine valleys and the Riviera are well situated, having good protection and a southern exposure. The coldest month usually has a mean temperature well above 32°. Mean minimum temperatures of about, and somewhat below, freezing occur in the northern portion of the district, and in the more continental localities minima a good deal lower have been observed. Mean maximum temperatures of about 95° occur in northern Italy, and of still higher degrees in the southern portions. Somewhat similar conditions obtain in the sub-tropical district of North America. Under the control of passing cyclonic storm areas, hot or cold winds, which often owe some of their special characteristics to the topography, bring into the sub-tropical belts, from higher or lower latitudes, unseasonably high or low temperatures. These winds have been given special names (mistral, sirocco, bora, &c.).
These belts are among the least cloudy districts in the world. The accompanying curve, giving an average for ten stations shows the small annual amount of cloud, the winter maximum and the marked summer minimum, in a typical sub-tropical climate (fig. 10). The winter rains do not bring continuously overcast skies, and a summer month with a mean cloudiness of 10% is not exceptional in the drier parts of the sub-tropics.
| Fig. 10.—Annual March of Cloudiness in a Sub-tropical Climate (Eastern Mediterranean). |
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| Fig. 11.—Annual March of Temperature for Selected Stations inthe Temperate Zones. | |
| S. I., Scilly Isles. | B, Blagovyeshchensk. |
| P, Prague. | Sa, Sakhalin. |
| C, Charkow. | T, Thorshavn. |
| S, Semipalatinsk. | Y, Yakutsk. |
| K, Kiakta. | |
With prevailing fair skies, even temperatures, and moderate rainfall, the sub-tropical belts possess many climatic advantages which fit them for health resorts. The long list of well-known resorts on the Mediterranean coast, and the shorter list for California, bear witness to this fact.
North Temperate Zone: West Coasts.—Marine climatic types are carried by the prevailing westerlies on to the western coasts of the continents, giving them mild winters and cool summers, abundant rainfall, and a high degree of cloudiness and relative humidity. North-western Europe is particularly favoured because of the remarkably high temperatures of the North Atlantic Ocean. January means of 40° to 50° in the British Isles and on the northern French coast occur in the same latitudes as those of 0° and 10° in the far interior of Asia. In July means 60° to 70° in the former contrast with 70° to 80° in the latter districts. The conditions are somewhat similar in North America. Along the western coasts of North America and of Europe the mean annual ranges are under 25°—actually no greater than some of those within the tropics. Irregular cyclonic temperature changes are, however, marked in the temperate zone, while absent in the tropics. The curves for the Scilly Isles and for Thorshavn, Faröe Islands, illustrate the insular type of temperature on the west coasts (fig. 11). The annual march of rainfall, with the marked maximum in the fall and winter which is characteristic of the marine regime, is illustrated in the curve for north-western Europe (fig. 12). On the northern Pacific coast of North America the distribution is similar, and in the southern hemisphere the western coasts of southern South America, Tasmania and New Zealand show the same type. The cloudiness and relative humidity average high on western coasts, with the maximum in the colder season.
| Fig. 12.—Annual March of Rainfall: Temperate Zone. C.E. Central Europe; A. Northern Asia; N.A. Atlantic coast of North America; N.W.E. North-west Europe. |
The west coasts therefore, including the important climatic province of western Europe, and the coast provinces of north-western North America, New Zealand and southern Chile, have as a whole mild winters, equable temperatures, small ranges, and abundant rainfall, fairly well distributed through the year. The summers are relatively cool.
Continental Interiors.—The equable climate of the western coasts changes, gradually or suddenly, into the more extreme climates of the interiors. In Europe, where no high mountain ranges intervene, the transition is gradual, and broad stretches of country have the benefits of the tempering influence of the Atlantic. In North America the change is abrupt, and comes on crossing the lofty western mountain barrier. The curves in fig. 11 illustrate well the gradually increasing continentality of the climate with increasing distance inland in Eurasia.
The continental interiors of the north temperate zone have the greatest extremes in the world. Towards the Arctic circle the winters are extremely severe, and January mean temperatures of -10° and -20° occur over considerable areas. At the cold pole of north-eastern Siberia a January mean of -60° is found. Mean minimum temperatures of -40° occur in the area from eastern Russia, over Siberia and down to about latitude 50° N. Over no small part of Siberia minimum temperatures below -70° may be looked for every winter. Thorshavn and Yakutsk are excellent examples of the temperature differences along the same latitude line (see fig. 11). The winter in this interior region is dominated by a marked high pressure. The weather is prevailingly clear and calm. The ground is frozen all the year round below a slight depth over wide areas. The extremely low temperatures are most trying when the steppes are swept by icy storm winds (buran, purga), carrying loose snow, and often resulting in loss of life. In the North American interior the winter cold is somewhat less severe. North American winter weather in middle latitudes is often interrupted by cyclones, which, under the steep poleward temperature gradient then prevailing, cause frequent, marked and sudden changes in wind direction and temperature over the central and eastern United States. Cold waves and warm waves are common, and blizzards resemble the buran or purga of Russia and Siberia. With cold northerly winds, temperatures below freezing are carried far south towards the tropic.
The January mean temperatures in the southern portions of the continental interiors average about 50° or 60°. In summer the northern continental interiors are warm, with July means of 60° and thereabouts. These temperatures are not much higher than those on the west coasts, but as the northern interior winters are much colder than those on the coasts, the interior ranges are very large. Mean maximum temperatures of 86° occur beyond the Arctic circle in north-eastern Siberia, and beyond latitude 60° in North America. In spite of the extreme winter cold, agriculture extends remarkably far north in these regions, because of the warm, though short, summers, with favourable rainfall distribution. The summer heat is sufficient to thaw the upper surface of the frozen ground, and vegetation prospers for its short season. At this time great stretches of flat surface become swamps. The southern interiors have torrid heat in summer, temperatures of over 90° being recorded in the south-western United States and in southern Asia. In these districts the diurnal ranges of temperature are very large, often exceeding 40°, and the mean maxima exceed 110°.
The winter maximum rainfall of the west coasts becomes a summer maximum in the interiors. The change is gradual in Europe, as was the change in temperature, but more sudden in North America. The curves for central Europe and for northern Asia illustrate these continental summer rains (see fig. 12). The summer maximum becomes more marked with the increasing continental character of the climate. There is also a well-marked decrease in the amount of rainfall inland. In western Europe the rainfall averages 20 to 30 in., with much larger amounts (reaching 80-100 in. and even more) on the bold west coasts, as in the British Isles and Scandinavia, where the moist Atlantic winds are deflected upwards, and also locally on mountain ranges, as on the Alps. There are small rainfalls (below 20 in.) in eastern Scandinavia and on the Iberian peninsula. Eastern Europe has generally less than 20 in., western Siberia about 15 in., and eastern Siberia about 10 in. In the southern part of the great overgrown continent of Asia an extended region of steppes and deserts, too far from the sea to receive sufficient precipitation, shut in, furthermore, by mountains, controlled in summer by drying northerly winds, receives less than 10 in. a year, and in places less than 5 in. In this interior district of Asia population is inevitably small and suffers under a condition of hopeless aridity.
The North American interior has more favourable rainfall conditions than Asia, because the former continent is not overgrown. The heavy rainfalls on the western slopes of the Pacific coast mountains correspond, in a general way, with those on the west coast of Europe, although they are heavier (over 100 in. at a maximum). The close proximity of the mountains to the Pacific, however, involves a much more rapid decrease of rainfall inland than is the case in Europe, as may be seen by comparing the isohyetal lines[5] in the two cases. A considerable interior region is left with deficient rainfall (less than 10 in.) in the south-west. The eastern portion of the continent is freely open to the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, so that moist cyclonic winds have access, and rainfalls of over 20 in. are found everywhere east of the 100th meridian. These conditions are much more favourable than those in eastern Asia. The greater part of the interior of North America has the usual warm-season rains. In the interior basin, between the Rocky and Sierra Nevada mountains, the higher plateaus and mountains receive much more rain than the desert lowlands. Forests grow on the higher elevations, while irrigation is necessary for agriculture on the lowlands. The rainfall here comes largely from thunderstorms.
In South America the narrow Pacific slope has heavy rainfall (over 80 in.). East of the Andes the plains are dry (mostly less than 10 in.). The southern part of the continent is very narrow, and is open to the east, as well as more open to the west owing to the decreasing height of the mountains. Hence the rainfall increases somewhat to the south, coming in connexion with passing cyclones. Tasmania and New Zealand have most rain on their western slopes.
| Fig. 13.—Annual March of Cloudiness: Temperate Zones. E, Central Europe; A, Eastern Asia; M, mountain. |
In a typical continental climate the winter, except for radiation fogs, is very clear, and the summer the cloudiest season, as is well shown in the accompanying curve for eastern Asia (A, fig. 13). In a more moderate continental climate, such as that of central Europe (E, fig. 13), and much of the United States, the winter is the cloudiest season. In the first case the mean cloudiness is small; in the second there is a good deal of cloud all the year round.
East Coasts.—The prevailing winds carry the continental climates of the interiors off over the eastern coasts of the temperate zone lands, and even for some distance on to the adjacent oceans. The east coasts therefore have continental climates, with modifications resulting from the presence of the oceans to leeward, and are necessarily separated from the west coasts, with which they have little in common. On the west coasts of the north temperate lands the isotherms are far apart. On the east coasts they are crowded together. The east coasts share with the interiors large annual and cyclonic ranges of temperature. A glance at the isothermal maps of the world will show at once how favoured, because of its position to leeward of the warm North Atlantic waters, is western Europe as compared with eastern North America. A similar contrast, less marked, is seen in eastern Asia and western North America. In eastern Asia there is some protection, by the coast mountains, against the extreme cold of the interior, but in North America there is no such barrier, and severe cold winds sweep across the Atlantic coast states, even far to the south. Owing to the prevailing offshore winds, the oceans to leeward have relatively little effect.
As already noted, the rainfall increases from the interiors towards the east coasts. In North America the distribution through the year is very uniform, with some tendency to a summer maximum, as in the interior (N.A, fig. 12).
In eastern Asia the winters are relatively dry and clear, under the influence of the cold offshore monsoon, and the summers are warm and rainy. Rainfalls of 40 in. are found on the east coasts of Korea, Kamchatka and Japan, while in North America, which is more open, they reach farther inland. Japan, although occupying an insular position, has a modified continental rather than a marine climate. The winter monsoon, after crossing the water, gives abundant rain on the western coast, while the winter is relatively dry on the lee of the mountains, on the east. Japan has smaller temperature ranges than the mainland.
Mountain Climates.—The mountain climates of the temperate zone have the usual characteristics which are associated with altitude everywhere. If the altitude is sufficiently great the decreased temperature gives mountains a polar climate, with the difference that the summers are relatively cool while the winters are mild owing to inversions of temperature in anticyclonic weather. Hence the annual ranges are smaller than over lowlands. At such times of inversion the mountain-tops often appear as local areas of higher temperature in a general region of colder air over the valleys and lowlands. The increased intensity of insolation aloft is an important factor in giving certain mountain resorts their deserved popularity in winter (e.g. Davos and Meran). Of Meran it has been well said that from December to March the nights are winter, but the days are mild spring. The diurnal ascending air currents of summer usually give mountains their maximum cloudiness and highest relative humidity in the warmer months, while winter is the drier and clearer season. This is shown in curve M, fig. 13. The clouds of winter are low, those of summer are higher. Hence the annual march of cloudiness on mountains is usually the opposite of that on lowlands.
Characteristics of the Polar Zones.
General.—The temperate zones merge into the polar zones at the Arctic and Antarctic circles, or, if temperature be used as the basis of classification, at the isotherms of 50° for the warmest month, as suggested by Supan. The longer or shorter absence of the sun gives the climate a peculiar character, not found elsewhere.
Beyond the isotherm of 50° for the warmest month forest trees and cereals do not grow. In the northern hemisphere this line is well north of the Arctic circle in the continental climate of Asia, and north of it also in north-western North America and in northern Scandinavia, but falls well south in eastern British America, Labrador and Greenland, and also in the North Pacific Ocean. In the southern hemisphere this isotherm crosses the southern extremity of South America, and runs fairly east and west around the globe there. The conditions of life are necessarily very specialized for the peculiar climatic features which are met with in these zones. There is a minimum of life, but more in the north polar than the south polar zone. Plants are few and lowly. Land animals which depend upon plant food must therefore likewise be few in number. Farming and cattle-raising cease. Population is small and scattered. There are no permanent settlements at all within the Antarctic circle. Life is a constant struggle for existence. Man seeks his food by the chase on land, but chiefly in the sea. He lives along, or near, the sea-coast. The interior lands, away from the sea, are deserted. Gales and snow and cold cause many deaths on land, and, especially during fishing expeditions, at sea. Under such hard conditions of securing food, famine is a likely occurrence.
In the arctic climate vegetation must make rapid growth in the short, cool summer. In the highest latitudes the summer temperatures are not high enough to melt snow on a level. Exposure is therefore of the greatest importance. Arctic plants grow and blossom with great rapidity and luxuriance where the exposure is favourable, and where the water from the melting snow can run off. The soil then dries quickly, and can be effectively warmed. Protection against cold winds is another important factor in the growth of vegetation. Over great stretches of the northern plains the surface only is thawed out in the warmer months, and swamps, mosses and lichens are found above eternally frozen ground. Direct insolation is very effective in high latitudes. Where the exposure is favourable, snow melts in the sun when the temperature of the air in the shade is far below freezing.
Arctic and antarctic zones differ a good deal in the distribution and arrangement of land and water around and in them. The southern zone is surrounded by a wide belt of open sea; the northern, by land areas. The northern is therefore much affected by the conditions of adjacent continental masses. Nevertheless, the general characteristics are apparently much the same over both, so far as is now known, the antarctic differing from the arctic chiefly in having colder summers and in the regularity of its pressure and winds. Both zones have the lowest mean annual temperatures in their respective hemispheres, and hence may properly be called the cold zones.
Temperature.—At the solstices the two poles receive the largest amounts of insolation which any part of the earth’s surface ever receives. It would seem, therefore, that the temperatures at the poles should then be the highest in the world, but as a matter of fact they are nearly or quite the lowest. Temperatures do not follow insolation in this case because much of the latter never reaches the earth’s surface; because most of the energy which does reach the surface is expended in melting the snow and ice of the polar areas; and because the water areas are large, and the duration of insolation is short.
A set of monthly isothermal charts of the north polar area, based on all available observations, has been prepared by H. Mohn and published in the volume on Meteorology of the Nansen expedition. In the winter months there are three cold poles, in Siberia, in Greenland and at the pole itself. In January the mean temperatures at these three cold poles are -49°, -40° and -40° respectively. The Siberian cold pole becomes a maximum of temperature during the summer, but the Greenland and polar minima remain throughout the year. In July the temperature distribution shows considerable uniformity; the gradients are relatively weak. A large area in the interior of Greenland, and one of about equal extent around the pole, are within the isotherm of 32°. For the year a large area around the pole is enclosed by the isotherm of -4°, with an isotherm of the same value in the interior of Greenland, but a local area of -7.6° is noted in Greenland, and one of -11.2° is centred at lat. 80° N. and long. 170° E.
The north polar chart of annual range of temperature shows a maximum range of about 120° in Siberia; of 80° in North America; of 75.6° at the North Pole, and of 72° in Greenland. The North Pole obviously has a continental climate. The minimum ranges are on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The mean annual isanomalies show that the interior of Greenland has a negative anomaly in all months. The Norwegian sea area is 45° too warm in January and February. Siberia has +10.8° in summer, and -45° in January. Between Bering Strait and the pole there is a negative anomaly in all months. The influence of the Gulf Stream drift is clearly seen on the chart, as it is also on that of mean annual ranges.
For the North Pole Mohn gives the following results, obtained by graphic methods:—
Mean Temperatures at the North Pole.
| Jan. | Feb. | Mar. | Apr. | May. | June. | July. | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. | Nov. | Dec. | Year. |
| -41.8° | -41.8° | -31.0° | -18.4° | 8.6° | 28.4° | 30.2° | 26.6° | 8.6° | -11.2° | -27.4° | -36.4° | -8.9° |
It appears that the region about the North Pole is the coldest place in the northern hemisphere for the mean of the year, and that the interior ice desert of Greenland, together with the inner polar area, are together the coldest parts of the northern hemisphere in July. In January, however, Verkhoyansk, in north-eastern Siberia, just within the Arctic circle, has a mean temperature of about -60°, while the inner polar area and the northern interior of Greenland have only -40°. Thus far no minima as low as those of north-eastern Siberia have been recorded in the Arctic.
For the Antarctic our knowledge is still very fragmentary, and relates chiefly to the summer months. Hann has determined the mean temperatures of the higher southern latitudes as follows:—[6]
Mean Temperatures of High Southern Latitudes.
| S. Lat. | 50° | 60° | 70° | 80° |
| Mean Annual | 41.9 | 28.4 | 11.3 | -3.6 |
| January | 46.9 | 37.8 | 30.6 | 20.3 |
| July | 37.2 | 18.3 | -8.0 | -24.7 |
From lat. 70° S. polewards, J. Hann finds that the southern hemisphere is colder than the northern. Antarctic summers are decidedly cold. The mean annual temperatures experienced have been in the vicinity of 10°, and the minima of an ordinary antarctic winter go down to -40° and below, but so far no minima of the severest Siberian intensity have been noted. The maxima have varied between 35° and 50°.
The temperatures at the South Pole itself furnish an interesting subject for speculation. It is likely that near the South Pole will prove to be the coldest point on the earth’s surface for the year, as the distribution of insolation would imply, and as the conditions of land and ice and snow there would suggest. The lowest winter and summer temperatures in the southern hemisphere will almost certainly be found in the immediate vicinity of the pole. It must not be supposed that the isotherms in the antarctic region run parallel with the latitude lines. They bend polewards and equatorwards at different meridians, although much less so than in the Arctic.
The annual march of temperature in the north polar zone, for which we have the best comparable data, is peculiar in having a much-retarded minimum in February or even in March—the result of the long, cold winter. The temperature rises rapidly towards summer, and reaches a maximum in July. Autumn is warmer than spring.
The continents do not penetrate far enough into the arctic zone to develop a pure continental climate in the highest latitudes. Verkhoyansk, in lat. 67° 6′ N., furnishes an excellent example of an exaggerated continental type for the margin of the zone, with an annual range of 120°. One-third as large a range is found on Novaya Zemlya. Polar climate as a whole has large annual and small diurnal ranges, but sudden changes of wind may cause marked irregular temperature changes within twenty-four hours, especially in winter. The smaller ranges are associated with greater cloudiness, and vice versa. The mean diurnal variability is very small in summer, and reaches its maximum in winter, about 7° in February, according to Mohn.
Pressure and Winds.—Owing to the more symmetrical distribution of land and water in the southern than in the northern polar area, the pressures and winds have a simpler arrangement in the former, and may be first considered. The rapid southward decrease of pressure, which is so marked a feature of the higher latitudes of the southern hemisphere on the isobaric charts of the world, does not continue all the way to the South Pole. Nor do the prevailing westerly winds, constituting the “circumpolar whirl,” which are so well developed over the southern portions of the southern hemisphere oceans, blow all the way home to the South Pole. The steep poleward pressure gradients of these southern oceans end in a trough of low pressure, girdling the earth at about the Antarctic circle. From here the pressure increases again towards the South Pole, where a permanent inner polar anticyclonic area is found, with outflowing winds deflected by the earth’s rotation into easterly and south-easterly directions. These easterly winds have been observed by the recent expeditions which have penetrated far enough south to cross the low-pressure trough. The limits between the prevailing westerlies and the outflowing winds from the pole (“easterlies”) vary with the longitude and migrate with the seasons. The change in passing from one wind system to the other is easily observed. This south polar anticyclone, with its surrounding low-pressure girdle, migrates with the season, the centre apparently shifting polewards in summer and towards the eastern hemisphere in winter. The outflowing winds from the polar anticyclones sweep down across the inland ice. Under certain topographic conditions, descending across mountain ranges, as in the case of the Admiralty Range in Victoria Land, these winds may develop high velocity and take on typical föhn characteristics, raising the temperature to an unusually high degree. Föhn winds are also known on both coasts of Greenland, when a passing cyclonic depression draws the air down from the icy interior. These Greenland föhn winds are important climatic elements, for they blow down warm and dry, raising the temperature even 30° or 40° above the winter mean, and melting the snow.
In the Arctic area the wind systems are less clearly defined and the pressure distribution is much less regular, on account of the irregular distribution of land and water. The isobaric charts published in the report of the Nansen expedition show that the North Atlantic low-pressure area is more or less well developed in all months. Except in June, when it lies over southern Greenland, this tongue-shaped trough of low pressure lies in Davis strait, to the south-west or west of Iceland, and over the Norwegian Sea. In winter it greatly extends its limits farther east into the inner Arctic Ocean, to the north of Russia and Siberia. The Pacific minimum of pressure is found south of Bering Strait and in Alaska. Between these two regions of lower pressure the divide extends from North America to eastern Siberia. This divide has been called by Supan the “Arktische Wind-scheide.” The pressure gradients are steepest in winter. At the pole itself pressure seems to be highest in April and lowest from June to September. The annual range is only about 0.20 in.
The prevailing westerlies, which in the high southern latitudes are so symmetrically developed, are interfered with to such an extent by the varying pressure controls over the northern continents and oceans in summer and winter that they are often hardly recognizable on the wind maps. The isobaric and wind charts show that on the whole the winds blow out from the inner polar basin, especially in winter and spring.
Rain and Snow.—Rainfall on the whole decreases steadily from equator to poles. The amount of precipitation must of necessity be comparatively slight in the polar zones, chiefly because of the small capacity of the air for water vapour at the low temperatures there prevailing; partly also because of the decrease, or absence, of local convectional storms and thunder-showers. Locally, under exceptional conditions, as in the case of the western coast of Norway, the rainfall is a good deal heavier. Even cyclonic storms cannot yield much precipitation. The extended snow and ice fields tend to give an exaggerated idea of the actual amount of precipitation. It must be remembered, however, that evaporation is slow at low temperatures, and melting is not excessive. Hence the polar store of fallen snow is well preserved: interior snowfields, ice sheets and glaciers are produced.
The commonest form of precipitation is naturally snow, the summer limit of which, in the northern hemisphere, is near the Arctic circle, with the exception of Norway. So far as exploration has yet gone into the highest latitudes, rain falls in summer, and it is doubtful whether there are places where all the precipitation falls as snow. The snow of the polar regions is characteristically fine and dry. At low polar temperatures flakes of snow are not found, but precipitation is in the form of ice spicules. The finest glittering ice needles often fill the air, even on clear days, and in calm weather, and gradually descending to the surface, slowly add to the depth of snow on the ground. Dry snow is also blown from the snowfields on windy days, interfering with the transparency of the air.
Humidity, Cloudiness and Fog.—The absolute humidity must be low in polar latitudes, especially in winter, on account of the low temperatures. Relative humidity varies greatly, and very low readings have often been recorded. Cloudiness seems to decrease somewhat towards the inner polar areas, after passing the belt of high cloudiness in the higher latitudes of the temperate zones. In the marine climates of high latitudes the summer, which is the calmest season, has the maximum cloudiness; the winter, with more active wind movement, is clearer. The curve here given illustrates these conditions (fig. 14). The summer maximum is largely due to fogs, which are produced where warm, damp air is chilled by coming in contact with ice. They are also formed over open waters, as among the Faeroe Islands, for example, and open water spaces, in the midst of an ice-covered sea, are commonly detected at a distance by means of the “steam fog” which rises from them. Fogs are less common in winter, when they occur as radiation fogs, of no great thickness. The small winter cloudiness, which is reported also from the antarctic zone, corresponds with the low absolute humidity and small precipitation. The coasts and islands bathed by the warm waters of the Gulf Stream drift usually have a higher cloudiness in winter than in summer. The place of fog is in winter taken by the fine snow crystals, which often darken the air like fog when strong winds raise the dry snow from the surfaces on which it is lying. Cumulus cloud forms are rare, even in summer, and it is doubtful whether the cloud occurs at all in its typical development. Stratus is probably the commonest cloud of high latitudes, often covering the sky for days without a break. Cirrus cloud forms probably decrease polewards.
| Fig. 14.—Annual March of Cloudiness in Polar Latitudes (marine type). |
Cyclones and Weather.—The prevailing westerlies continue up into the margins of the polar zones. Many of their cyclonic storms also continue on to the polar zones, giving sudden and irregular pressure and weather changes. The inner polar areas seem to be beyond the reach of frequent and violent cyclonic disturbance. Calms are more common; the weather is quieter and fairer; precipitation is less. Most of the observations thus far obtained from the Antarctic come from this marginal zone of great cyclonic activity, violent winds, and wet, disagreeable, inhospitable weather, and therefore do not show the features of the actual south polar climate.
During the three years of the “Fram’s” drift depressions passed on all sides of her, with a preponderance on the west. The direction of progression averaged nearly due east, and the hourly velocity 27 to 34 m., which is about that in the United States. For the higher latitudes, most of the cyclones must pass by on the equatorial side of the observer, giving “backing” winds in the northern hemisphere. The main cyclonic tracks are such that the wind characteristically backs in Iceland, and still more so in Jan Mayen and on the eastern coast of Greenland, these districts lying on the north and west of the path of progression. Frightful winter storms occasionally occur along the east coast of Greenland and off Spitzbergen.
For much of the year in the polar zones the diurnal control is weak or absent. The successive spells of stormy or of fine weather are wholly cyclonically controlled. Extraordinary records of storm and gale have been brought back from the far south and the far north. Wind direction and temperature vary in relation to the position of the cyclone. During the long dreary winter night the temperature falls to very low readings. Snowstorms and gales alternate at irregular short intervals with calmer spells of more extreme cold and clearer skies. The periods of greatest cold in winter are calm. A wind from any direction will bring a rise in temperature. This probably results from the fact that the cold is the result of local radiation, and a wind interferes with these conditions by importing higher temperatures, or by mixing upper and lower strata. During the long summer days the temperature rises well above the winter mean, and under favourable conditions certain phenomena, such as the diurnal variation in wind velocity, for example, give evidence of the diurnal control. But the irregular cyclonic weather changes continue, in a modified form. There is no really warm season. Snow still falls frequently. The summer is essentially only a modified winter, especially in the Antarctic. In summer clear spells are relatively warm, and winds bring lower temperatures. In spite of its lack of high temperatures, the northern polar summer, near the margins of the zone, has many attractive qualities in its clean, pure, crisp, dry air, free from dust and impurities; its strong insolation; its slight precipitation.
Twilight and Optical Phenomena.—The monotony and darkness of the polar night are decreased a good deal by the long twilight. Light from moon and stars, and from the aurora, also relieves the darkness. Optical phenomena of great variety, beauty and complexity are common. Solar and lunar haloes, and coronae, and mock suns and moons are often seen. Auroras seem to be less common and less brilliant in the Antarctic than in the Arctic. Sunset and sunrise colours within the polar zones are described as being extraordinarily brilliant and impressive.
Physiological Effects.—The north polar summer, as has been pointed out, in spite of its drawbacks, is in some respects a pleasant and healthful season. But the polar night is monotonous, depressing, repelling. Sir W. E. Parry said that it would be difficult to conceive of two things which are more alike than two polar winters. An everlasting uniform snow covering; rigidity; lifelessness; silence—except for the howl of the gale or the cracking of the ice. Small wonder that the polar night has sometimes unbalanced men’s minds. The first effects are often a strong desire for sleep, and indifference. Later effects have been sleeplessness and nervousness, tending in extreme cases to insanity; anaemia, digestive troubles. Extraordinarily low winter temperatures are easily borne if the air be dry and still. Zero weather seems pleasantly refreshing if clear and calm. But high relative humidity and wind—even a light breeze—give the same degree of cold a penetrating feeling of chill which may be unbearable. Large temperature ranges are endured without danger in the polar winter when the air is dry. When exposed to direct insolation the skin burns and blisters; the lips swell and crack. Thirst has been much complained of by polar explorers, and is due to the active evaporation from the warm body into the dry, relatively cold air. There is no doubt that polar air is singularly free from micro-organisms—a fact which is due chiefly to lack of communication with other parts of the world. Hence many diseases which are common in temperate zones, “colds” among them, are rare.
Changes of Climate.
Popular Belief in Climatic Change.—Belief in a change in the climate of one’s place of residence, within a few generations, and even within the memory of living men, is widespread. Evidence is constantly being brought forward of apparent climatic variations of greater or less amount which are now taking place. Thus we have many accounts of a gradual desiccation which seems to have been going on over a large region in Central Asia during historical times. In northern Africa certain ancient historical records have been taken by different writers to indicate a general decrease of rainfall during the last 3000 or more years. In his crossing of the Sahara between Algeria and the Niger, E. F. Gautier found evidence of a former large population. A gradual desiccation of the region is therefore believed to have taken place, but to-day the equatorial rain belt seems to be again advancing farther north, giving an increased rainfall. Farther south, several lakes have been reported as decreasing in size, e.g. Chad and Victoria; and wells and springs as running dry. In the Lake Chad district A. J. B. Chevalier reports the discovery of vegetable and animal remains which indicate an invasion of the Sudan by a Saharan climate. It is often held that a steady decrease in rainfall has taken place over Greece, Syria and other eastern Mediterranean lands, resulting in a gradual and inevitable deterioration and decay of their people.
What Meteorological Records show.—As concerns the popular impression regarding change of climate, it is clear at the start that no definite answer can be given on the basis of tradition or of general impression. The only answer of real value must be based on the records of accurate instruments, properly exposed and carefully read. When such instrumental records are carefully examined, from the time when they were first kept, which in a few cases goes back about 150 years, there is found no good evidence of any progressive change in temperature, or in the amount of rain and snow. Even when the most accurate instrumental records are available, care must be taken to interpret them correctly. Thus, if a rainfall or snowfall record of several years at some station indicates an apparent increase or decrease in the amount of precipitation, it does not necessarily follow that this means a permanent, progressive change in climate, which is to continue indefinitely. It may simply mean that there have been a few years of somewhat more precipitation, and that a period of somewhat less precipitation is to follow.
Value of Evidence concerning Changes of Climate.—The body of facts which has been adduced as evidence of progressive changes of climate within historical times is not yet sufficiently large and complete to warrant any general correlation and study of these facts as a whole. But there are certain considerations which should be borne in mind in dealing with this evidence before any conclusions are reached. In the first place, changes in the distribution of certain fruits and cereals, and in the dates of the harvest, have often been accepted as undoubted evidence of changes in climate. Such a conclusion is by no means inevitable, for many changes in the districts of cultivation of various crops have naturally resulted from the fact that these same crops are in time found to be more profitably grown, or more easily prepared for market, in another locality. In France, C. A. Angot has made a careful compilation of the dates of the vintage from the 14th century down to the present time, and finds no support for the view so commonly held there that the climate has changed for the worse. At the present time, the average date of the grape harvest in Aubonne is exactly the same as at the close of the 16th century. After a careful study of the conditions of the date tree, from the 4th century, B.C., D. Eginitis concludes that the climate of the eastern portion of the Mediterranean basin has not changed appreciably during twenty-three centuries.
Secondly, a good many of the reports by explorers from little-known regions are contradictory. This shows the need of caution in jumping at conclusions of climatic change. An increased use of water for irrigation may cause the level of water in a lake to fall. Periodic oscillations, giving higher and then lower water, do not indicate progressive change in one direction. Many writers have seen a law in what was really a chance coincidence.
Thirdly, where a progressive desiccation seems to have taken place, it is often a question whether less rain is actually falling, or whether the inhabitants have less capacity and less energy than formerly. Is the change from a once cultivated area to a barren expanse the result of decreasing rainfall, or of the emigration of the former inhabitants to other lands? The difference between a country formerly well irrigated and fertile, and a present-day sandy, inhospitable waste may be the result of a former compulsion of the people, by a strong governing power, to till the soil and to irrigate, while now, without that compulsion, no attempt is made to keep up the work. A region of deficient rainfall, once thickly settled and prosperous, may readily become an apparently hopeless desert, even without the intervention of war and pestilence, if man allows the climate to master him. In many cases the reports of increasing dryness really concern only the decrease in the water supply from rivers and springs, and it is well known that a change in the cultivation of the soil, or in the extent of the forests, may bring about marked changes in the flow of springs and rivers without any essential change in the actual amount of rainfall.
Lastly, a region whose normal rainfall is at best barely sufficient for man’s needs may be abandoned by its inhabitants during a few years of deficient precipitation, and not again occupied even when, a few years later, normal or excessive rainfall occurs.
Periodic Oscillations of Climate: Sun-spot Period.—The discovery of a distinct eleven-year periodicity in the magnetic phenomena of the earth naturally led to investigations of similar periods in meteorology. The literature on this subject has assumed large proportions. The results, however, have not been satisfactory. The problem is difficult and obscure. Fluctuations in temperature and rainfall, occurring in an eleven-year period, have been made out for certain stations but the variations are slight, and it is not yet clear that they are sufficiently marked, uniform and persistent over large areas to make practical application of the periodicity in forecasting possible. In some cases the relation to sun-spot periodicity is open to debate; in others, the results are contradictory.
W. P. Köppen has brought forward evidence of a sun-spot period in the mean annual temperature, especially in the tropics, the maximum temperatures coming in the years of sun-spot minima. The whole amplitude of the variation in the mean annual temperatures, from sun-spot minimum to sun-spot maximum, is, however, only 1.3° in the tropics and a little less than 1° in the extra-tropics. More recently Nordmann (for the years 1870-1900) has continued Köppen’s investigation.
In 1872 C. Meldrum, then Director of the Meteorological Observatory at Mauritius, first called attention to a sun-spot periodicity in rainfall and in the frequency of tropical cyclones in the South Indian Ocean. The latter are most numerous in years of sun-spot maxima, and decrease in frequency with the approach of sun-spot minima. Poëy found later a similar relation in the case of the West Indian hurricanes. Meldrum’s conclusions regarding rainfall were that, with few exceptions, there is more rain in years of sun-spot maxima. S. A. Hill found it to be true of the Indian summer monsoon rains that there seems to be an excess in the first half of the cycle, after the sun-spot maximum. The winter rains of northern India, however, show the opposite relation; the minimum following, or coinciding with, the sun-spot maximum. Particular attention has been paid to the sun-spot cycle of rainfall in India, because of the close relation between famines and the summer monsoon rainfall in that country. Sir Norman Lockyer and Dr W. J. S. Lockyer have recently studied the variations of rainfall in the region surrounding the Indian Ocean in the light of solar changes in temperature. They find that India has two pulses of rainfall, one near the maximum and the other near the minimum of the sun-spot period. The famines of the last fifty years have occurred in the intervals between these two pulses, and these writers believe that if as much had been known in 1836 as is now known, the probability of famines at all the subsequent dates might have been foreseen.
Relations between the sun-spot period and various other meteorological phenomena than temperature, rainfall and tropical cyclones have been made the subject of numerous investigations, but on the whole the results are still too uncertain to be of any but a theoretical value. Some promising conclusions seem, however, to have been reached in regard to pressure variations, and their control over other climatic elements.
Brückner’s 35-Year Cycle.—Of more importance than the results thus far reached for the sun-spot period are those which clearly establish a somewhat longer period of slight fluctuations or oscillations of climate, known as the Brückner cycle, after Professor Brückner of Bern, who has made a careful investigation of the whole subject of climatic changes and finds evidence of a 35-year periodicity in temperature and rainfall. In a cycle whose average length is 35 years, there comes a series of years which are somewhat cooler and also more rainy, and then a series of years which are somewhat warmer and drier. The interval in some cases is twenty years; in others it is fifty. The average interval between two cool and moist, or warm and dry, periods is about 35 years. The mean amplitude of the temperature fluctuation, based on large numbers of data, is a little less than 2°. The fluctuations in rainfall are more marked in interiors than on coasts. The general mean amplitude is 12%, or, excluding exceptional districts, 24%. Regions whose normal rainfall is small are most affected.
The following table shows the dates and characters of Brückner’s periods:—
| Warm | 1746-1755 | 1791-1805 | 1821-1835 | 1851-1870 | .. |
| Dry | 1756-1770 | 1781-1805 | 1826-1840 | 1856-1870 | .. |
| Cold | 1731-1745 | 1756-1790 | 1806-1820 | 1836-1850 | 1871-1885 |
| Wet | 1736-1755 | 1771-1780 | 1806-1825 | 1841-1855 | 1871-1885 |
Interesting confirmation of Brückner’s 35-year period has been found by E. Richter in the variations of the Swiss glaciers, but as these glaciers differ in length, they do not all advance and retreat at the same time. The advance is seen during the cold and damp periods. Brückner has found certain districts in which the phases and epochs of the climatic cycle are exactly reversed. These exceptional districts are almost altogether limited to marine climates. There is thus a sort of compensation between oceans and continents. The rainier periods on the continents are accompanied by relatively low pressures, while the pressures are high and the period dry over the oceans and vice versa. The cold and rainy periods are also marked by a decrease in all pressure differences. It is obvious that changes in the general distribution of atmospheric pressures, over extended areas, are closely associated with fluctuations in temperature and rainfall. These changes in pressure distribution must in some way be associated with changes in the general circulation of the atmosphere, and these again must depend upon some external controlling cause or causes. W. J. S. Lockyer has called attention to the fact that there seems to be a periodicity of about 35 years in solar activity, and that this corresponds with the Brückner period.
It is clear that the existence of a 35-year period will account for many of the views that have been advanced in favour of a progressive change of climate. A succession of a few years wetter or drier than the normal is likely to lead to the conclusion that the change is permanent. Accurate observations extending over as many years as possible, and discussed without prejudice, are necessary before any conclusions are drawn. Observations for one station during the wetter part of a cycle should not be compared with observations for another station during the drier part of the same, or of another cycle.
There are evidences of longer climatic cycles than eleven or 35 years. Brückner calls attention to the fact that sometimes two of his periods seem to merge into one. E. Richter shows much the same thing for the Alpine glaciers. Evidence of considerable climatic changes since the last glacial period is not lacking. But as yet nothing sufficiently definite to warrant general conclusions has been brought forward.
Geological Changes in Climate.—Changes of climate in the geological past are known with absolute certainty to have taken place: periods of glacial invasion, as well as periods of more genial conditions. The evidence, and the causes of these changes have been discussed and re-discussed, by writers almost without number, and from all points of view. Changes in the intensity of insolation; in the sun itself; in the conditions of the earth’s atmosphere; in the astronomical relations of earth and sun; in the distribution of land and water; in the position of the earth’s axis; in the altitude of the land; in the presence of volcanic dust;—now cosmic, now terrestrial conditions—have been suggested, combated, put forward again. None of these hypotheses has prevailed in preference to others. No actual proof of the correctness of this or that theory has been brought forward. No general agreement has been reached.
Conclusion.—Without denying the possibility, or even the probability, of the establishment of the fact of secular changes, there is as yet no sufficient warrant for believing in considerable permanent changes over large areas. Dufour, after a thorough study of all available evidence, has concluded that a change of climate has not been proved. There are periodic oscillations of slight amount. A 35-year period is fairly well established, but is nevertheless of considerable irregularity, and cannot as yet be practically applied in forecasting. Longer periods are suggested, but not made out. As to causes, variations in solar activity are naturally receiving attention, and the results thus far are promising. But climate is a great complex, and complete and satisfactory explanations of all the facts will be difficult, perhaps impossible, to reach. At present, indeed, the facts which call for explanation are still in most cases but poorly determined, and the processes at work are insufficiently understood. Climate is not absolutely a constant. The pendulum swings to the right and to the left. And its swing is as far to the right as to the left. Each generation lives through a part of one, or two, or even three oscillations. A snapshot view of these oscillations makes them seem permanent. As Supan has well said, it was formerly believed that climate changes locally, but progressively and permanently. It is now believed that oscillations of climate are limited in time, but occur over wide areas.
Literature.—Scientific climatology is based upon numerical results, obtained by systematic, long continued, accurate meteorological observations. The essential part of its literature is therefore found in the collections of data published by the various meteorological services. The only comprehensive text-book of climatology is the Handbuch der Klimatologie of Professor Julius Hann, of the university of Vienna (Stuttgart, 1897). This is the standard book on the subject, and upon it is based much of the present article, and of other recent discussions of climate. The first volume deals with general climatology, and has been translated into English (London and New York, 1903). Reference should be made to this book for further details than are here given. The second and third volumes are devoted to the climates of the different countries of the world. Woeikof’s Die Klimate der Erde (Jena, 1887) is also a valuable reference book. The standard meteorological journal of the world, the Meteorologische Zeitschrift (Braunschweig, monthly), is indispensable to any one who wishes to keep in touch with the latest publications. The Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (London), Symons’s Monthly Meteorological Magazine (London), and the Monthly Weather Review (Washington, D.C.) are also valuable. The newest and most complete collection of charts is that in the Atlas of Meteorology (London, 1899), in which also there is an excellent working bibliography. For the titles of more recent publications reference may be made to the International Catalogue of Scientific Literature (Meteorology).
(R. De C. W.)
Climate in the Treatment of Disease.—The most important qualities of the atmosphere in relation to health are (i.) the chemical composition, (ii.) the solids floating in it, (iii.) the mean and extreme temperatures, (iv.) the degree of humidity, (v.) the diathermancy, (vi.) the intensity of light, (vii.) the electrical conditions, (viii.) the density and pressure, and (ix.) the prevailing winds. Generally speaking, the relative purity of the air—i.e. absence of septic solid particles—is an important consideration; while cold acts as a stimulant and tonic, increasing the amount of carbon dioxide exhaled in the twenty-four hours. Different individuals, however, react both to heat and cold very differently. At health resorts, where the temperature may vary between 55° and 70° F., strong individuals gradually lose strength and begin to suffer from various degrees of lassitude; whereas a delicate person under the same conditions gains vigour both of mind and body, puts on weight, and is less liable to disease. And a corresponding intensity of cold acts in the reverse manner in each case. Thus a health resort with a moderate degree of heat is very valuable for delicate or elderly people, and those who are temporarily weakened by illness. Cold, however, when combined with wind and damp must be specially avoided by the aged, the delicate, and those prone to gouty and rheumatic affections. The moisture of the atmosphere controls the distribution of warmth on the earth, and is closely bound up with the prevailing winds, temperature, light and pressure. In dry air the evaporation from both skin and lungs is increased, especially if the sunshine be plentiful and the altitude high. In warm moist air strength is lost and there is a distinct tendency to intestinal troubles. In moist cold air perspiration is checked, and rheumatic and joint affections are very common. The main differences between mountain air and that of the plains depend on the former being more rarefied, colder, of a lower absolute humidity, and offering less resistance to the sun’s rays. As the altitude is raised, circulation and respiration are quickened, probably as an effort on the part of the organism to compensate for the diminished supply of oxygen, and somewhat more gradually the number of red blood corpuscles increases, this increase persisting for a considerable time after a return to lower ground. In addition to these changes there is a distinct tendency to diminished proteid metabolism, resulting in an increase of weight owing to the storage of proteid in the tissues. Thus children and young people whose development is not yet complete are especially likely to benefit by the impetus given to growth and the blood-forming organs, and the therapeutic value in their case rarely fails. For older people, however, the benefit depends on whether their organs of circulation and respiration are sufficiently vigorous to respond to the increased demands on them. For anaemia, pulmonary tuberculosis, pleural thickening, deficient expansion of the lungs, neurasthenia, and the debility following fevers and malaria, mountain air is invaluable. But where there is valvular disease of the heart, or rapidly advancing disease of the lungs, it is to be avoided. Light, especially direct sunlight, is of primary importance, the lack of it tending to depression and dyspeptic troubles. Probably its germicidal power accounts for the aseptic character of the air of the Alps, the desert and other places.
Sir Hermann Weber has defined a “good” climate as that in which all the organs and tissues of the body are kept evenly at work in alternation with rest. Thus a climate with constant moderate variations in its principal factors is the best for the maintenance of health. But the best climate for an invalid depends on the particular weakness from which he may suffer. Pulmonary tuberculosis stands first in the importance of the effects of climate. The continuous supply of pure fresh air is the main desideratum, a cool climate being greatly superior to a tropical one. Exposure to strong winds is harmful, since it increases the tendency to cough and thus leads to loss of body temperature, which is in its turn made up at the expense of increased metabolism. A high altitude, from the purity and stimulating properties of the air, is of value to many mild or very early cases, but where the disease is extensive, where the heart is irritable, or where there is any tendency to insomnia, high altitudes are contra-indicated, and no such patient should be sent higher than some 1500 ft. Where the disease is of long standing, with much expectoration, or accompanied by albuminuria, the patient appears to do best in a humid atmosphere but little above the sea-level. The climate of Egypt is especially suitable for cases complicated with bronchitis or bronchiectasis, but is contra-indicated where there is attendant diarrhoea. Madeira and the Canaries are useful when emphysema is present or where there is much irritability of constitution. Bronchitis in young people is best treated by high altitudes, but in older patients by a moist mild climate, except where much expectoration is present.
The influence of atmospheric conditions on the functions of the nose is very marked. Within the ordinary ranges of humidity and temperature the nasal mucous membrane completely saturates the air with aqueous vapour before it reaches the pharynx. In cold and dry mountain climates there is a very free nasal secretion, far beyond what is needed for the saturation of the air; and at low levels the reverse action takes place, the nose becoming “stuffy.” The mechanism on which this depends is found in the erectile tissue, and anything favouring the engorgement of the veins, such as weak heart action, chronic bronchitis or kidney troubles, &c, leads to a corresponding turgidity of the nose and sinuses. In addition to barometric and other influences, it has been found that light produces collapse of this tissue, smoke having a similar effect. On this latter effect probably depends the fact that many asthmatics are better in a city like London than elsewhere, the smoke relieving the turgescence of the inferior turbinals of the nose. In the treatment of pathological nasal conditions, all cases of obstruction from whatsoever cause are best in a dry atmosphere, and where there is atrophy and a deficient flow of mucus in a moist atmosphere. If the mucous membrane is irritable a dry sheltered spot on a sandy soil and in the neighbourhood of pine trees is by far the best.
Scrofulous children, namely, those in whom the resistance to micro-organisms and their products is low, pre-eminently require sea air, and had better be educated at some seaside place. Where the child is very delicate, with small power of reaction, the winter should be passed on some mild coast resort. Gouty and rheumatic affections require a dry soil and warm dry climate, cold and moist winds being especially injurious.
For heart affections high altitudes are to be avoided, though some physicians make an exception of mitral cases where the compensation is good. Moderate elevations of 500 to 1500 ft. are preferable to the sea-level.
In diseases of the kidneys, a warm dry climate, by stimulating the action of the skin, lessens the work to be done by these organs, and thus is the most beneficial. Extremes of heat and cold and elevated regions are all to be avoided.
[1] A. Supan, Grundzüge der physischen Erdkunde (Leipzig, 1896), 88-89. Also Atlas of Meteorology, Pl. 1.
[2] W.M. Davis, Elementary Meteorology (Boston, 1894), pp. 334-335.
[3] A. Supan, Grundzüge der physischen Erdkunde (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1903), pp. 211-214. Also Atlas of Meteorology, Pl. 1.
[4] Approximately Lisbon has 28.60 in.; Madrid, 16.50; Algiers, 28.15; Nice, 33.00; Rome, 29.90; Ragusa, 63.90.
[5] i.e. lines drawn on a map to connect all places having an equal rainfall.
[6] Nature, lxxi. (Jan. 5, 1905), p. 221.
CLIMAX, JOHN (c. 525-600 A.D.), ascetic and mystic, also called Scholasticus and Sinaïtes. After having spent forty years in a cave at the foot of mount Sinai, he became abbot of the monastery. His life has been written by Daniel, a monk belonging to the monastery of Raithu, on the Red Sea. He derives his name Climax (or Climacus) from his work of the same name (Κλῖμαξ τοῦ Παραδείσου, ladder to Paradise), in thirty sections, corresponding to the thirty years of the life of Christ. It is written in a simple and popular style. The first part treats of the vices that hinder the attainment of holiness, the second of the virtues of a Christian.
Editions.—J. P. Migne, Patrologia graeca, lxxxviii. (including the biography by Daniel); S. Eremites (Constantinople, 1883); see also C. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897); Gass-Krüger in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie, Bd. 9 (1901). The Ladder has been translated into several foreign languages—into English by Father Robert, Mount St Bernard’s Abbey, Leicestershire (1856).
CLIMBING[1] FERN, the botanical genus Lygodium, with about twenty species, chiefly in the warmer parts of the Old World, of interest from its climbing habit. The plants have a creeping stem, on the upper face of which is borne a row of leaves. Each leaf has a slender stem-like axis, which twines round a support and bears leaflets at intervals; it goes on growing indefinitely. It is a favourite warm greenhouse plant.
[1] The word “climb” (O.E. climban), meaning strictly to ascend (or similarly descend) by progressive self-impulsion, with some apparent degree of laborious effort and by means of contact with the surface traversed, is connected with the same root as in “cleave” and “cling.” For Alpine climbing, &c., see [Mountaineering].
CLINCHANT, JUSTIN (1820-1881), French soldier, entered the army from St Cyr in 1841. From 1847 to 1852 he was employed in the Algerian campaigns, and in 1854 and 1855 in the Crimea. At the assault on the Malakoff (Sept. 8th, 1855) he greatly distinguished himself at the head of a battalion. During the 1859 campaign he won promotion to the rank of lieut.-colonel, and as a colonel he served in the Mexican War. He was made general of brigade in 1866, and led a brigade of the Army of the Rhine in 1870. His troops were amongst those shut up in Metz, and he passed into captivity, but soon escaped. The government of national defence made him general of division and put him at the head of the 20th corps of the Army of the East. He was under Bourbaki during the campaign of the Jura, and when Bourbaki attempted to commit suicide he succeeded to the command (Jan. 23rd, 1871), only to be driven with 84,000 men over the Swiss frontier at Pontarlier. In 1871 Clinchant commanded the 5th corps operating against the Commune. He was military governor of Paris when he died in 1881.


