Chapter I: Front Matter

[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: Spelling maintained as closely as possible to the
original document, while obvious typos have been corrected. Emdashes
in original text for negative temperatures changed to minus signs to
standardize temperatures.]

CLIMATIC CHANGES

THEIR NATURE AND CAUSES

PUBLISHED ON THE FOUNDATION
ESTABLISHED IN MEMORY OF
THEODORE L. GLASGOW

OTHER BOOKS BY THE SAME AUTHORS

ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON

A. _Four books showing the development of knowledge as to Historical
Pulsations of Climate._

The Pulse of Asia. Boston, 1907. Explorations in Turkestan.
Expedition of 1903. Washington, 1905.
Palestine and Its Transformation. Boston, 1911.
The Climatic Factor, as Illustrated in Arid America. Washington,
1914.

B. _Two books illustrating the effect of climate on man._

Civilization and Climate. New Haven, 1915.
World Power and Evolution. New Haven, 1919.

C. _Four books illustrating the general principles of Geography._

Asia: A Geography Reader. Chicago, 1912.
The Red Man's Continent. New Haven, 1919.
Principles of Human Geography (with S. W. Cushing). New York,
1920.
Business Geography (with F. E. Williams). New York, 1922.

D. _A companion to the present volume._

Earth and Sun: An Hypothesis of Weather and Sunspots. New Haven.
In press.

STEPHEN SARGENT VISHER

Geography, Geology and Biology of Southern Dakota. Vermilion, 1912.
The Biology of Northwestern South Dakota. Vermilion, 1914.
The Geography of South Dakota. Vermilion, 1918.
Handbook of the Geology of Indiana (with others). Indianapolis, 1922.
Hurricanes of Australia and the South Pacific. Melbourne, 1922.

CLIMATIC CHANGES

THEIR NATURE AND CAUSES

BY

ELLSWORTH HUNTINGTON
Research Associate in Geography in Yale University

AND

STEPHEN SARGENT VISHER
Associate Professor of Geology in Indiana University

NEW HAVEN
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON: HUMPHREY MILFORD: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MDCCCCXXII

COPYRIGHT 1922 BY
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Published 1922.

THE THEODORE L. GLASGOW MEMORIAL
PUBLICATION FUND

The present volume is the fifth work published by the Yale
University Press on the Theodore L. Glasgow Memorial Publication
Fund. This foundation was established September 17, 1918, by an
anonymous gift to Yale University in memory of Flight Sub-Lieutenant
Theodore L. Glasgow, R.N. He was born in Montreal, Canada, and was
educated at the University of Toronto Schools and at the Royal
Military College, Kingston. In August, 1916, he entered the Royal
Naval Air Service and in July, 1917, went to France with the Tenth
Squadron attached to the Twenty-second Wing of the Royal Flying
Corps. A month later, August 19, 1917, he was killed in action on
the Ypres front.

TO

THOMAS CHROWDER CHAMBERLIN

OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

WHOSE CLEAR AND MASTERLY DISCUSSION OF THE GREAT PROBLEMS
OF TERRESTRIAL EVOLUTION HAS BEEN ONE OF THE MOST INSPIRING
FACTORS IN THE WRITING OF THIS BOOK

_There is a toy, which I have heard, and I would not have it given
over, but waited upon a little. They say it is observed in the Low
Countries (I know not in what part), that every five and thirty
years the same kind and suit of years and weathers comes about
again; as great frosts, great wet, great droughts, warm winters,
summers with little heat, and the like, and they call it the prime;
it is a thing I do the rather mention, because, computing backwards,
I have found some concurrence._

FRANCIS BACON