Chapter III: Climate (1)

_The Elements of Climate_

North America, embracing as it does essentially a quadrant of the earth's surface, presents a variety of climatic conditions ranging from those characteristic of the equatorial belt to those normal to polar regions, as well as every gradation due to variations in elevation from sea-level and even below that horizon in Death Valley, California, to the summits of high plateaus and lofty mountains.

The principal elements of the weather which go to make up the conditions of the atmosphere embraced in the broader term _climate_ are temperature, precipitation, and the winds. On the accompanying map, Plate II, the mean annual temperature of the continent is represented by _isotherms_, or lines drawn through localities having the same average temperature for the year. On the same map is also shown in blue the average depth of precipitation, including both rains and melted snow. On Fig. 24 lines are drawn through points having the same average barometrical pressure (_isobars_) for the months of January and July, together with arrows indicating the general direction of the surface winds during each of these months, which may be considered as representative of the summer and winter seasons. The data shown on these maps have been compiled mainly from the reports of the weather bureaus of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, and indicate, at least in a general way, a summary of what is known concerning the main meteorological elements which determine the climatic conditions in North America. An examination of these maps will suggest certain general conclusions in reference to the leading characteristics of the climate in various portions of the continent and the changes they undergo from season to season.

_Distribution of Heat and Light._--The distribution over the earth's surface of the heat and light received from the sun is not only of fundamental importance as respects climate, but furnishes a part of the essential conditions on which depend the presence and distribution of living organisms. The heat and light, or more accurately, the radiant energy of the sun, the full significance of which is probably not thoroughly understood, we term, for convenience, _insolation_. The intensity and seasonal distribution of insolation are prime factors on which many important results hinge.

Owing to the inclination of the axis about which the earth rotates (23 deg. 27') to the plane in which the earth travels about the sun, or the plane of the ecliptic, the northern end of the axis is turned towards the sun in summer and away from it in winter--that is, the axis of rotation of the earth at all times is parallel to the same imaginary straight line. As a result, the sun appears to migrate northward in the heavens during the spring-time of each year, being vertical over the equator on March 21st, and to an observer in north latitude 23 deg. 27' rises higher and higher each moon, until on June 21st it is vertically overhead; and then returns southward. The latitude in which the sun is in the zenith at the time of its greatest northward migration determines the position of an imaginary line on the earth's surface, named the Tropic of Cancer. This line, as shown on the accompanying maps, crosses the Bahama Islands, passes about 40 miles to the northward of Havana, divides Mexico into two approximately equal parts, and cuts the peninsula of Lower California near its southern end. The portion of the continent to the south of the Tropic of Cancer lies within the torrid zone.

When the sun is vertical over the equator, as it is about March 21st and September 23d each year, its rays, not allowing for refraction, are tangent to the earth's surface at the poles, and the hours of light and darkness are equal the world over. During the winter season the sun appears to migrate southward of the equator until December 21st, when it is vertical at noon at all points situated in south latitude 23 deg. 27', which is termed the Tropic of Capricorn. Its rays are then tangent to the earth's surface in the northern hemisphere in latitude 66 deg. 33', which defines the position of the arctic circle. This imaginary line on the earth's surface, as is indicated on the accompanying maps, crosses Canada to the north of Hudson Bay, and passes through Alaska near where the Porcupine River joins the Yukon. To the north of the arctic circle lies the frigid zone. Between the torrid and frigid zones is situated the temperate zone, within which is included about seven-eighths of North America, exclusive of Greenland. The relation of the continent to the three great zones of climate into which the northern hemisphere is divided is thus most fortunate so far as man's activities are concerned.

The climatic zones just referred to, while based on precise astronomical data and representing important facts, are not separated one from another by tangible lines, and might easily pass undiscovered by one who studied only the surface characteristics of the earth. Each summer a wave of heat and light sweeps northward over the continent and reaches beyond the pole; and each winter a counteracting wave of cold and darkness moves southward, the influence of which is marked even well within the torrid zone. A comparison of the isothermal lines drawn on the map forming Plate II with the parallels of latitude shows at a glance that there is only a general relationship between the two. In order to understand this discrepancy between what might be expected from astronomical considerations in reference to the distribution of solar energy and the actual conditions as learned by observation, it is necessary to take a more critical view of the manner in which insolation is received by the continent, and also to consider secondary conditions which exert far-reaching influences on its distribution.

The amount of heat, or to avoid objections, the distribution of insolation over North America, depends on three primary conditions: First, the angle at which the sun's rays strike the earth, the range being from zero to 90 deg.; second, the length of time a particular locality is exposed to sunlight; and third, variations in the distance of the earth from the sun. Each of these conditions varies from day to day for every locality throughout the continent. The sun is highest in the heavens in the torrid zone, being twice vertically overhead each year at every locality, and the hours of light and darkness each day are approximately equal throughout the year. North of the torrid zone, however, the rays of the sun become more and more oblique to the earth's surface, and hence insolation becomes weaker and weaker for a given period of sunshine as one travels from south to north. But the hours of sunlight each day undergo marked variations, lengthening from December 21st to June 21st, and shortening as the sun makes its southward migration. At the north pole, as all know, there are six months of light and six months of darkness each year. The amount of insolation reaching the northern portion of the continent each day increases with the lengthening of the hours of light, and during midsummer is greater for a given area in a single day (twenty-four hours) than the amount received by a similar area in the torrid zone. The almost magical springing into life and bloom of the vegetation over the northern portion of the continent with the lengthening of the hours of sunshine each summer is thus explained. In the portion of the continent within the temperate zone, more especially within the continental basin, the large number of hours of sunshine during a summer's day is frequently accompanied by a temperature as great as is usually experienced in the torrid zone. It is the high summer temperature of this region, together with the lengthened duration of sunshine in the growing season, that makes the Mississippi basin and the adjacent region on the east and north so favourable for agriculture when the requisite amount of moisture is present.

The distribution of heat over the earth's surface depends not only on the direct influence of insolation, but on its transfer from one locality to another through the agency of the winds and ocean currents. The movements of the waters of the ocean, it will be remembered, are largely under the control of the winds, so that the essential factor in the transfer of heat from place to place is atmospheric circulation. The primary causes of movements in the air, as is a matter of current knowledge, are the differences that arise in temperature at various localities. In regions where the air becomes more highly heated than over adjacent areas it expands, and in consequence becomes lighter, volume for volume, than the air over neighbouring areas, and is forced upward and overflows aloft. The overflow or dispersion of the warmer and lighter air above gives origin to a reduction in barometric pressure, the column of mercury in a barometer being counterbalanced by the pressure of the air above it. Briefly stated, the air near the earth's surface flows towards regions of low, and away from regions of high barometric pressure, and winds are established. The directions taken by the winds are influenced or controlled in various ways.

_The Planetary Winds._--The great movements in the atmosphere originate from differences in temperature between the warm equatorial and cold polar regions. This alone would cause the cold air from either pole to flow towards the equator as surface winds, and the warm air in the equatorial belt to ascend and overflow aloft towards either pole. The earth's rotation, however, influences the direction of these winds and causes them to be deflected from the lines of longitude which they would otherwise follow. In the northern hemisphere the air-currents are deflected to the right and in the southern hemisphere to the left of their initial directions. The best known examples of these planetary winds, as they are termed, are the trade-winds, which blow from the northeast in the northern and from the southeast in the southern hemisphere. Between these two belts of converging winds lies the equatorial belt of calm, some 300 miles wide, which also encircles the earth and is termed the doldrums.

In the quadrant of the earth's surface occupied by North America the climatic conditions are controlled in a large measure by the planetary winds. In the equatorial belt of calms the barometric pressure is lower than on either side, the temperature is uniformly high, the air is heavily charged with moisture, and torrential rains are frequent. In the belt of the northeast trades the weight of the air for a given area is greater than in the doldrums, the wind blows with remarkable uniformity both of direction and force, the sky is normally clear, and rain infrequent except when the warm moist air is forced upward either by local storms or on coming in contact with high land. The trade-winds blow across the West Indies, Mexico, and much of Central America. To the north of the trade-wind belt is a belt of prevailingly high barometrical pressure, light variable winds, narrower and less well defined than the doldrums, which encircles the earth in the region of the Tropic of Cancer. This belt of calms, although familiar to sailors, to whom it is known as the "horse latitudes," is ill-defined on the land, where its presence is masked by changes due to local conditions. To the north of the tropical calm belt the prevailing surface winds are from the westward, and owe their direction to the constant flow of the upper air-currents in their poleward journey, under the influence of the earth's rotation. This great belt of winds from the westward crosses the portion of North America including the United States and southern Canada, but it is subject to many disturbances. The northern portion of the continent extends into the little known polar region of prevailingly low barometrical pressure, where midsummer and midwinter calms normally prevail.

The great world-encircling currents of the atmosphere, namely, the trade-winds, blowing towards the southwest or west across the Caribbean and Mexican region, and the prevailing westerlies, or winds blowing in an easterly direction, over the broad temperate portion of North America, exert the main control on the climate of the continent.

_The Seasons._--Of primary importance to the inhabitants of North America is the fact that the climatic belts determined by the inclination of the earth's axis to the plane of the ecliptic are subject to annual migration towards the north and south. In the torrid zone the equatorial belt of calms, with its humid and oppressively hot atmosphere, prevailing cloudiness, and heavy rains, and the belt of the northeast trades, with its prevailingly clear skies and refreshing breezes, do not occupy the same positions throughout the year, but migrate with the sun. The migration of these two strongly contrasted climatic belts brings to the otherwise remarkably uniform conditions of the atmosphere over the West Indies, Central America, and Mexico, two, in general well-defined, periods each year, namely, a wet and a dry season, the former occurring in the summer and the latter in the winter. It is to be borne in mind that between the tropics there are, with certain local exceptions, but two seasons each year, the leading contrasts of which are determined by differences in rainfall.

To the north of the Tropic of Cancer the seasonal changes are more varied than in the torrid zone, and contrasts in temperature become the most marked climatic feature; while precipitation, although in general somewhat evenly distributed throughout the year, is more abundant in winter than in summer. On account, however, of the greater diversity in the climatic changes experienced each year within the temperate zone, four seasons are recognised, the most distinctive features of which depend on changes in both temperature and humidity.

In the northern portion of the temperate zone, and extending over the arctic zone, the seasons are again reduced to two, summer and winter, the contrasted conditions pertaining mainly to temperature and light.

A marked variation, which has an important bearing not only on climate, but on the distribution of life encountered in passing from equatorial to polar regions, is found in the distribution of light. Between the tropics the number of hours of light and darkness each day is approximately equal; in the temperate zone there is considerable diversity from season to season, which increases with increase in latitude; and uniformity, of a different character than at the far south, again becomes prominent in the frigid zone, where the number of hours of light each day is greatly prolonged during the summer and correspondingly decreased during the winter. The extreme contrast occurs in the neighbourhood of the pole, where during the summer season the sun is continuously above, and in winter continuously below the horizon, or in familiar language, there is a six-months day (light) and a six-months night (darkness).

In going from the equatorial to north polar regions there is a general decrease in mean annual temperature, and in general a decrease also in precipitation, but great variations in these gradual changes, with increase in latitude, occur which are both continental and local in character. In winter the interior portions of the continent, and especially the plateaus and mountains, are colder than the lands in corresponding latitudes near the oceans; while in summer the reverse is true, the margin of the continent being cooler than the broad interior.

In this general view of the climatic zones and the normal changes they undergo we may note that the torrid zone is characterized by its simplicity and monotony of climatic conditions, although disturbed at times, especially in the West Indies, by occasional great cyclonic storms, termed hurricanes, which occur, however, at quite definite seasons. The temperate belt is equally well marked by its complex and frequently changing atmospheric conditions, the winds being subject to numerous and great variations, and storms of diverse character being frequent. The frigid zone, again, is without conspicuous variations except during the change from its monotonous summer to its still more uniform winter weather, and the reverse change six months later. The disturbances in the balance of atmospheric conditions at the far north, or the storms, are of a much less varied character than in the fickle temperate zone--thunder-storms and tornadoes, for example, being unknown.

It is the summer migration of a heated belt from the south northward across the temperate zone, and the equally conspicuous winter advances of cold from the north southward across the same broad region, which gives to the United States and the southern portion of Canada a conspicuously changeable climate. The temperate zone, so far at least as North America is concerned, deserves its name only when the mean of the yearly changes in temperature is considered, as much of it is hotter in summer than equal areas between the tropics, and in winter over all of its northern half the cold is, at times, nearly or quite as intense as during the same season in the far north. As a whole, the portion of the continent embraced in the temperate zone is characterized by its pronounced seasonal changes, including wide extremes of heat and cold over large areas, and by its frequently sudden and strongly marked weather changes during short periods of time. It is a highly suggestive fact that of all the great climatic zones the one having the most changeable climate, the greatest extremes of heat and cold, and the most frequent storms should be the one in which man has reached the highest development both of body and mind. Evidently it is the _struggle_ for existence, when not too severe, which insures advancement. The part of North America most densely inhabited by descendants of Europeans, and the portion of the continent where intellectual development has made the greatest advance, is the east-central portion, where not only the variation of climate from season to season, but the weather changes from week to week and day to day are the most conspicuous.

_Secondary Conditions influencing Climate._--While the primary conditions controlling the climate of North America in common with all other portions of the earth's surface depend on the relation of the earth to the sun, there are many secondary conditions to be considered. First in importance among these, so far as the broader features of the climate of the continent are concerned, is the unequal heating of land and water areas. During summer, more especially in the temperate zone, the land becomes more highly heated than the adjacent oceans, and an inflow of the cooler and moister air from the sea over the land occurs. In winter the land cools more quickly and to a greater degree than the adjacent waters, and the tendency of the heavier air over the land is to flow outward as surface winds. Continental winds are thus generated, similar in their origin to the familiar land and sea breezes of the ocean shore in summer, but on a large scale, which have an important bearing on the seasonal changes. The influence of the continental winds is sufficiently well marked to give North America two general classes of climate. One pertains to inland regions, is characterized by great contrasts in temperature and humidity between summer and winter, and is termed continental. The other pertains to the border of the land where, on account of the equalizing influence of large water borders, the contrast between the climate of summer and winter is less pronounced, and has received the general title of oceanic climate. The climate of the Dakotas, for example, is of the continental type, while that of New Jersey is of the oceanic type.

The unequal heating and cooling of adjacent portions of land areas also produces important atmospheric movements, as, for instance, when broad, treeless plains become more highly heated in summer than adjacent forested areas; or on account of rapid radiation become excessively cold in winter and lower the temperature of the air above them. In the first instance an inflow of cooler and heavier air from adjacent regions would be established; and in the second example the chilled air would tend to flow outward, thus, in each instance, establishing winds which usually acquire a more or less well-pronounced circular motion. The Prairie plains and the Great plateaus to the east of the Rocky Mountains become highly heated in summer, and together with several other similar regions in North America, meet the first of the conditions just considered; while the higher portions of the Great plateau, especially at the north, and the still more elevated mountains of Montana, Colorado, etc., become excessively cold in winter and illustrate the other extreme.

Mountains serve to deflect the winds blowing against them either to one side or upward, the former frequently producing important changes in direction of the surface air-currents, and the latter, by causing the air to rise, permits of its expansion and consequent cooling, thus favouring precipitation. For this and other reasons precipitation increases with elevation, at least until an altitude of many thousands of feet is reached, and the mountains are cooler and more humid than the adjacent valleys. The air-currents on passing over a mountain range and descending are warmed by compression, and having lost a part and in many observed instances a large percentage of the moisture they previously contained, become warm, drying winds. The chinook winds, as they are termed in America, are marked examples of the influence exerted by mountains on climatic conditions.

What are termed above the secondary conditions, tending to modify climate, produce such great changes in the distribution of rainfall, temperature, etc., and in the influence of the planetary winds, that the subdivision of the northern hemisphere into torrid, temperate, and frigid zones, while based on astronomical data, does not serve to represent actual conditions, except in a general way, in reference even to the single element of temperature expressed in these names. A comparison of the isotherms and of the distribution of precipitation as indicated on the preceding maps, with the parallels of latitude, shows at once that these two most important elements of climate are conspicuously independent of distance from the equator. A logical basis for subdividing the continent into _climatic provinces_ must therefore be sought in other directions.

CLIMATIC PROVINCES

In order to obtain a comprehensive idea of the climate of a continent, it is obviously desirable to subdivide it into areas having more or less similar and distinct atmospheric conditions. The leading difficulty in making such subdivisions is the well-known fact that the climate of any region which may be chosen passes by insensible gradations into that of adjacent regions, and any boundaries that may be drawn are to a considerable extent artificial and arbitrary. While the true basis on which to establish climatic areas or provinces is the resultant of all the weather elements which go to make up the atmospheric conditions recognised under the broader term climate, so many factors have to be considered that it is extremely difficult to arrive at a general acceptable conclusion. The principal elements of the weather to be considered are, approximately, in the order of their importance, beginning with the one which exerts almost universal control--temperature, precipitation, the winds, absolute and relative humidity of the air, and evaporation.

In North America there are voluminous records in reference to each of these elements of the weather, embracing considerable lengths of time, and relating mainly to the United States and southeastern Canada, but not sufficient to enable one to subdivide the entire continent into climatic provinces. The lack of weather records embracing the entire continent may be supplied in part by what may be termed the natural records of atmospheric conditions as expressed by the flora and fauna, as well as by soil conditions and topography. In recognition of this principle, the climatic provinces of North America here adopted have been made to conform to its life-zones.

The major climatic divisions of North America here provisionally adopted are, in their general order from south to north, the _Tropical_, _Lower Austral_, _Upper Austral_, _Transition_, _Boreal_, and _Arctic_ (Plate III). These several divisions are termed climatic provinces, and are assumed to coincide with those of the life-regions as mapped by C. Hart Merriam. The basis for classification is mainly temperature. In the main, the northern boundaries of the provinces and their higher limits in mountainous regions are determined by the temperature of the season of growth and reproduction among plants and animals; while their southern boundaries or lower limits on the mountains are determined by the temperature of a brief period during the hottest portion of the year. A more definite account of the reasons for choosing these limitations will be given later in discussing life areas. While the principal basis for establishing climatic provinces is temperature, many other conditions are also recognised, chief among which is precipitation. Several of the climatic provinces have two divisions, namely, a _humid_ and an _arid_, the dividing line being approximately the one hundredth meridian. These are well defined and important in the tropical, austral, and transitional, but less definite and less well known in the boreal and arctic provinces. The regions embraced in the several climatic provinces named above, as well as their humid and arid divisions, so far as now understood, are shown on the accompanying map.

_The Tropical Province_ (Plate III).--This is the most southern of the climatic provinces which it is convenient to recognise in North America, and includes the West Indies, Central America, and southern Mexico, together with a narrow strip on each coast of northern Mexico and the extreme southern ends of the peninsulas of Florida and of Lower California. While the land areas in this widely extended province present conspicuous differences, their climate in general is characterized by a high mean annual temperature with but moderate seasonal or daily variations, and by the occurrence in general of a wet and a dry season each year. The prevailing winds are the northeast trades. While the average yearly temperature is high, being in general about 80 deg. F., the heat in summer is less intense than in many portions of the austral provinces. In winter the temperature does not fall sufficiently to produce frost, except on the higher mountains, which, in fact, belong to one or more of the other provinces named above. On ascending the mountains a rapid change to cooler and even to frigid zones is experienced. Snow occurs on the higher portions of the mountains of Central America and Mexico, and in a few instances, as on the great volcanic cones in sight from the City of Mexico, is perennial. On the mountains just referred to all of the several climatic provinces are represented by well-characterized zones, arranged one above another, and presenting in epitome the general changes one would experience in travelling from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean.

In marked contrast to the prevailing uniformity of temperature at corresponding elevations throughout the tropical provinces is the inequality in rainfall in reference to both seasonal periods and differences in geographical position. Of the annual changes, the most pronounced and characteristic is the alternation of wet and dry periods. During the summer season, or in general from May to October, the air is usually clouded for at least a portion of each day, and heavy downpours of rain occur. Throughout the remainder of the year the clear skies and refreshing breezes, such as on the ocean are normally characteristic of the trade-wind belt, prevail. The remarkable regularity with which these changes occur each year suggests at once that they are due to the migrations northward and southward with the sun of the great climatic belts encircling the equatorial region of the earth. In summer the equatorial belt of calms and heavy rainfall not only migrates northward and occupies a portion of Central America, bringing to Costa Rica and Nicaragua cloudy skies and abundant precipitation, but seems to be carried bodily still farther northward, so that the influence of the southeast trades of the southern hemisphere makes itself felt, and four somewhat well-marked annual changes occur, namely, two wet and two dry seasons. What is known of the climate of this extreme southern portion of the province under review indicates that the seasonal changes, especially on the Caribbean slope, are less well marked than in its central portion, and rain is frequently copious in nearly every month of the year. In the region just mentioned the mean annual precipitation, as at Greytown, for example, at the eastern extremity of the proposed Nicaragua Canal, is about 250 inches, and in exceptionally wet years reaches nearly or quite 300 inches. This is, so far as known, the heaviest annual precipitation in any portion of North America.

In the West Indies the rainy season begins, in general, in May and lasts until October. On the lowlands of eastern and south-central Mexico the wet season commences in June, and the rains increase until the end of July and end in November. This region lies to the north of the northern limit reached by the equatorial belt of calm, but the rains in the summer season are due to the same general influence, namely, the lowering of temperature in the northward-moving upper air-currents, and their effect on the trade-winds. In Cuba and along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico when the trade-wind belt migrates southward in winter the influences of the southward-moving storm from the Mississippi Valley and Atlantic States produces what are termed _northers_, which bring a chill and at times frost, more especially in Florida and on the higher portions of Cuba.

While the wide-reaching seasonal changes within the tropical province depend on the migrations of the planetary winds northward and southward with the sun, and are due primarily to astronomical conditions, there are equally well-marked variations in rainfall dependent on or regulated by geographical conditions. These are of two principal classes: First, elevation of the land; and second, the relation of broad land areas to the direction of the prevailing winds, each of which is abundantly illustrated in the tropical province.

The mountainous islands in the West Indies receive a heavy rainfall, especially on their windward or easterly slopes, while the low islands, and less markedly the southwestern border of the higher islands, are much less humid. The eastern side of Porto Rico, for example, has an abundant rainfall, and was originally clothed with a luxuriant native flora, including large forest-trees, while the lowlands on its southern and southwestern border are subject to drought, and irrigation is desirable to insure the growth of crops. Again, while the mountainous islands of the Lesser Antilles, with their luxuriantly forested slopes, present ideal pictures of tropical loveliness, low-lying Sombrero, Barbuda, St. Martin, and other similar islands are so arid that guano has accumulated on them to such an extent as to be of commercial importance. The reason for these striking contrasts within narrow geographical limits is readily seen in the influence of the highlands on the trade-winds. These air-currents blowing from the Atlantic are warm and contain a high percentage of moisture. As they advance, however, they invade regions that are progressively warmer and warmer, and the capacity of the air for moisture is correspondingly increased. For this reason the trade-winds in crossing low land become drying winds. When the warm humid air-currents are forced upward, however, they are cooled in part by contact with the land, but to a greater extent on account of expansion due to decreased pressure; the dew-point is thus lowered, and when saturation is reached precipitation follows. This explanation applies also to the low peninsula of Yucatan, which is within the trade-wind belt, and is exceptional among the lands of Central America, on account of its dearth of forests, but in this instance, and also in reference to the similar barren condition of the Bahama Islands, in addition to the lowness of the land, the influence of the underlying porous, limestone rocks on the vegetable growths should be considered. In the instances just mentioned the rain that falls is quickly absorbed by the cavernous rocks, and surface streams are rare.

In Central America the influence of mountains on the climate is much the same as in the West India islands; in fact, the narrow rugged belt of land connecting the two Americas may, from our present point of view, be considered as a great island situated mainly within the trade-wind belt, and similar to Jamaica, for example, in its influences on the winds blowing across it. The eastern slopes of the Central American mountains, together with the adjacent lowlands, with the exception, principally, of Yucatan, are well watered and clothed with dense vegetation, while on the western slopes, and especially over the narrow fringe of lowland adjacent to the Pacific, the rainfall is less than on the Caribbean coast, and the forests are open with many grass-covered areas which are favourable for agriculture. In the mountainous portions of the West Indies and of Central America, on account of the more healthy conditions on the leeward or drier sides, as compared with the windward or humid slopes of the mountains, the towns and the principal portion of the white inhabitants are located on their western borders. Owing to the great humidity and the long-continued high temperature during the hotter portion of the year throughout the tropical province, much of the lowland to the eastward of the high mountains is swampy and unhealthy. This low region in Mexico and Central America is known as the _tierra caliente_, or hot country; on the mountains and plateaus, or in general where the elevation is between 5,000 and 7,000 feet, is the cooler and remarkably salubrious _tierra templada_; and at still higher elevations occur the _tierra frie_. Owing to the decrease in temperature with elevation, and the fact that the moist warm air is forced to rise, and in consequence expands on passing over the highland, the rainfall probably increases with elevation through the three zones just referred to.

While the tropical province is characterized by the uniformity with which its atmospheric changes occur, it is nevertheless in part subject to occasional and exceedingly violent cyclonic storms termed hurricanes, which begin in the torrid zone, travel northward (Fig. 26, page 210), and make their influence felt in more than one of the climatic provinces into which North America is here divided. Thunder-storms, frequently of great violence, also occur, especially in the Central American region in summer, when the doldrums migrate northward.

The trade-wind belt broadens in crossing the southern portion of the North American continent, and on the west coast and during its greatest northward migration reaches to southern California. As we have seen, the lowlands not adjacent to mountains in the Caribbean region receive little or no rain from the trade-winds, for the reason that the prevailing air-currents are moving from cooler to warmer regions, and therefore have their capacity for moisture increased as they advance more rapidly than their thirst can be satiated. The trade-winds are thus normally drying winds. The same principle holds true for continents as well as islands. The trade-winds on reaching the eastern border of the Mexican plateau are forced upward and part with much of their moisture in the form of rain and snow, and on descending to the lower lands bordering the Pacific are desiccating winds. The conditions are thus much the same as on the lowlands situated to the leeward of the mountains of the West Indies. The narrow fringe of low-lying country on the west border of the main body of Mexico, together with the peninsula of Lower California and a portion of the southern extremity of California, are arid, although in immediate proximity to the ocean. The leading characteristics of the climate of this, the arid portion of the tropical province, are its small rainfall, clear atmosphere, high mean annual temperature, moderate seasonal changes, and active evaporation.

The most typical portion of the arid region bordering the Pacific from California southward lies in northwestern Mexico, where the mean annual precipitation on the western slope of the central table-land is from 15 to 20 inches, but gradually diminishes as one descends to the lower lands to the westward to 10 inches, and even to 5 inches or less. A great portion of the lowlands is practically a desert, although, as is common on the desert-like tracts of this continent, it is sparingly covered with detached clumps of cacti, yuccas, and other similar plants which live with the minimum of water.

The hot, arid lands of the southwest just referred to are similar in position, in reference to the relation of land areas to the trade-wind belts, as other trade-wind deserts, as they are termed, such as the Sahara, which occur on the leeward side of continents where they are crossed by these drying winds.

_The Lower Austral Province_ (Plate III).--This province embraces the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United States from Connecticut southward, with the exception of the tropical portion of southern Florida; the Mississippi basin south of the mouth of the Ohio; and includes also many of the valleys amid the Pacific mountains from the northern boundary of California to central Mexico. The larger geographical conditions on which the boundaries of the province depend are the warm currents in the Atlantic, which ameliorate the temperature of the adjacent land as well as supply it with abundant moisture; the low elevation of the central continental basin, which permits of great extension northward of the climatic conditions originating about the Gulf of Mexico; and the mountainous character of the western portion of the province, where the valleys have a markedly different temperature and rainfall from the highlands.

The most southern portions of the lower austral province within the border of the United States has a semitropical climate and is characterized by its high mean annual temperature, abundant rainfall, and uniformity of weather conditions throughout the year. The summers are hot, but tempered by winds from the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic, and the winters, although normally mild and without snow, are varied at intervals by periods of cold which bring occasional frosts. This semitropical division of the lower austral province embraces a narrow strip of coast-land extending from South Carolina to southeastern Texas, with the exception of the extreme southern end of Florida, and forms a transition between the hotter and more humid tropical province to the southward and the cooler and less humid region to the northward.

As the saying is, a tree is judged by its fruit; in a similar way we may judge of the climate of a region by its products. The Gulf strip of the lower austral province is the home of a number of plants and animals not found farther north, as, for example, the cabbage palmetto and Cuban pine, and several species of birds and small mammals. Among the agricultural products of this narrow coastal belt which are suggestive of its climate are rice, sugar-cane, and sea-island cotton; of fruits it produces, especially in Florida, oranges, mandarins, lemons, limes, shaddocks, and pineapples.

The humid portion of the lower austral province extends northward from the Gulf strip, and presents a transition in climatic conditions between the semitropical Gulf coast and the more markedly temperate climate of the upper austral. This eastern division of the lower austral, characterized by its mild winters, general absence of snow, long hot summers with abundant rain, extends from eastern Virginia southward about the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains, and in the Mississippi Valley broadens so as to reach the mouth of the Ohio River. Its western limit is in central Texas, where the mean annual rainfall decreases to less than 20 inches, and forests give place to treeless, grass-covered plains and plateaus.

Through this eastern portion of the lower austral the mean annual precipitation is in general between 50 and 60 inches, and is so distributed throughout the year that each month receives approximately an equal share. In general, however, the rainfall is greater in winter than in summer. The mean annual temperature of the humid portion of the lower austral is from 60 deg. to 68 deg. F., the mean winter temperature 40 deg. to 52 deg., and the mean summer temperature from 75 deg. to 80 deg. F. From these records it may be inferred that the conditions are favourable for the growth of trees. In its natural condition this entire region was clothed with a varied and beautiful forest, consisting largely of broad-leaved trees, but is also the home of the southern pine and the cypress. The characteristic crops are cotton and corn (maize).

The western or arid portion of the lower austral province embraces western Texas, a large area in northeastern Mexico, and circling about the southern extremity of the Pacific mountains in central Mexico, extends northward adjacent to the tropical border of the Pacific and the Gulf of Lower California, into Arizona and southern California. A detached area of this same province occupies the great Valley of California.

The leading feature in the climate of the extensive and irregular region just outlined is its aridity. The rainfall is too small to insure forest growths; the land is treeless, except along the streams, and irrigation is necessary for successful agriculture. With a sufficient amount of water for irrigation, a great variety of fruits, etc., may be raised, including many products usually considered as indicating tropical conditions, such as mangoes, dates, figs, citrus fruits, olives, pineapples, etc. Not only are the agricultural products numerous and varied, but the yield per acre under the most favourable conditions is far in excess of the best results reached in most regions where rain is relied on to furnish the requisite moisture. Under the prevailingly cloudless skies of the hot arid lands of the southwestern portion of the continent insolation is intense and the growth of vegetation phenomenal when the necessary amount of water is supplied. The land in its present condition presents great contrasts, ranging from desolate, sun-burned tracts which are almost absolute deserts, to the vivid green of irrigated fields and the deep shade of heavily fruit-laden orchards.

_The Upper Austral Province_ (Plate III).--The portion of North America embraced in this climatic province lies principally in the central part of the United States, but includes also a narrow strip in southern Ontario, adjacent to the north shore of Lake Erie, and a large irregular area in the central plateau of Mexico. A marked feature of its geography is its extreme irregularity in the portion occupied by the Pacific mountains in the United States and Mexico. The reasons for this lie mainly in the influence of the relief of the land on climate, the direction of the prevailing winds, and varying distances from the ocean. It is a familiar fact that boreal and even arctic climatic conditions are met with on high mountains. The attention that is given to changes in climate with increase in altitude is no doubt largely due to the fact that the mountains present conditions which are exceptional and more or less novel as seen from our accustomed point of view. A person living in an elevated region, on descending into a deep valley, would be impressed with the reverse order in which the climatic zones occur. In making such a descent he would pass in succession from a boreal or perhaps arctic climate, through a transitional or cold temperate, to the warm temperate or upper austral province, and might even reach the semitropical division of the lower austral. In the Pacific mountains within the border of the United States the valleys are sufficiently deep to have the climatic conditions here ascribed to the upper austral, and in the southwestern portion of the United States descents may be made--as in the Great Valley of California and in the arid basins of southern Nevada, Arizona, etc.--sufficiently great to reach the lower austral. The valleys amid the Pacific mountains, which fall in the upper austral province, are in general low at the north in reference to sea-level, and become higher and higher at the south. For example, the upper austral region in central Washington is but 400 or 500 feet above the sea, while in Mexico it lies in general at an altitude of between 4,000 and 6,000 feet.

The upper austral province may be termed warm temperate, with a marked contrast between the heat of summer and the cold of winter. The summers are long, with an average temperature of 70 deg. or 75 deg., while the winters are variable, with frequent cold periods when ice forms and snow-storms are not rare. The snow seldom remains on the ground for more than a few days at a time, however, except in the northeast, where the warm temperate climatic conditions of the province under review merge with those of the colder region to the northward embraced in the transition province.

The upper, like the lower austral, presents two well-marked divisions in reference to humidity--an eastern or humid and a western or semihumid portion; the dividing line is in the neighbourhood of the one hundredth meridian. In the eastern division the mean annual precipitation in the Piedmont region to the east of the Appalachians and on the coastal plain adjacent to the Atlantic in Maryland and New Jersey is from 40 to 80 inches, but decreases westward, and on the border of the Great plateaus in Kansas and Nebraska is about 20 inches. In the western division the annual precipitation is less than 20 inches, and agriculture without irrigation is uncertain and usually impossible. To the east of the one hundredth meridian the rain is somewhat evenly distributed throughout the year, although an increasing dryness of the summer is easily detected as one travels from east to west, but in the various upper austral valleys of the Pacific mountain region the precipitation is mostly during the winter, and the summers are practically rainless. The marked difference in precipitation between the humid and semihumid division of the upper austral province is recorded on the surface of the land by the vegetation. In the eastern division the entire region, with the exception of the prairies in the central part of the Mississippi basin, was originally clothed with a varied and beautiful forest, consisting mainly of broad-leaved trees, such as the hickory, maple, oak, etc., while the semihumid western division is treeless, except in immediate proximity to streams.

In the southern portion of the humid division of the upper austral province cotton is one of the staple products, but the northern limit of the region in which it can be successfully cultivated is soon reached as one travels northward. Tobacco is grown extensively in the southeastern and eastern portions of the province. The principal crop of the great central area in the Mississippi Valley is corn (maize). Successful wheat culture begins in the northern portion of the province, but the conditions favouring its cultivation increase to the northward and it becomes the characteristic and most valuable crop of the transition province.

In the western or semihumid division of the upper austral the variety of agricultural products that can be successfully cultivated with the aid of irrigation is greater than in its eastern portion, where irrigation is not generally practised. The northern limit at which tobacco, fruits, the vine, etc., may be advantageously cultivated in the west is greater than in the east. For example, in the east the northern limit at which tobacco is raised on a commercial scale is in Connecticut, while in the west it reaches a large size and excellent quality in central Washington. Various fruits, such as the peach, pear, plum, grape, etc., have their northern limit of successful cultivation in the east in western New York, southern Ontario, and southern Michigan, a region favourably influenced in this connection by the proximity of the Great Lakes; in the west these same fruits reach a high degree of perfection, and are produced in great abundance, with the aid of irrigation, in north-central Washington, fully 5 degrees of latitude farther northward.

On the whole, the upper austral province may be said to have a warm temperate climate, in which the summer season is longer and more pronounced in its characteristics than the winter season. It presents sufficient seasonal variations, however, to favour in a high degree both the physical and intellectual development of man.

_The Transition Province_ (Plate III).--This, the transition region between the austral and boreal provinces, includes the cool temperate portions of North America. Like the austral provinces, its outlines are irregular, and in places it occupies detached or island-like areas, on account of the influence of mountains on climatic conditions. Its largest continuous area is situated along the northern border of the United States, but includes the southern portions of Assiniboia, Ontario, and Quebec, and extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. From this main belt there is a marked extension southward along the Appalachian Mountains, which carries a cool temperate climate into northern Georgia, and another and much greater southward extension along the Pacific mountains, which reaches central Mexico. In the northern portion of the United States and adjacent parts of Canada, the region under consideration has, in general, an elevation of 1,000 feet or even less above the sea, but it rises when followed southward along the mountains, and in the southwestern portion of the United States and on the table-land of central Mexico attains an elevation of some 8,000 or 9,000 feet. On the higher portions of the mountains of Central America and the West Indies the climatic conditions are similar to those of the regions farther north here included in the transition climatic province, but these isolated areas are not sufficiently well known to be indicated on the accompanying map.

The mean annual temperature of the transition province is lower than that of the upper austral, and, although a precise average is not at present attainable, may be taken at about 45 deg. F. The winters are long and cold, especially in the northern part of the United States and adjacent portions of Canada, the mean temperature being approximately 20 deg. or 25 deg., but sudden and great variations are not uncommon. At times, and frequently for continuous periods of several days, the temperature falls to 20 deg. or more below zero of the Fahrenheit scale, then again rises above freezing, and the frozen soil thaws and possibly becomes entirely freed from ice.

In common with the austral provinces, the one under consideration is divided into two portions, an eastern and a western, in reference to precipitation, the dividing line being a little to the eastward of the one hundredth meridian. While the western portion of the province is characterized by its small rainfall, precipitation is greater, mainly on account of greater elevation, than in the adjacent portions of the austral provinces, and in Oregon and Washington there is a markedly humid area.

Snow falls throughout the entire transition province, at least during exceptional winters, and in general during every winter. There is great variation in the depth of the snow from winter to winter, and also with geographical position. It is greatest in the northeast--that is, from the Atlantic coast westward to Wisconsin and Minnesota--and least on the Pacific coast and the southern portion of the Pacific mountains. Over the northeastern portion of the province the snow frequently whitens the ground for weeks, and even for two or three months continuously. A deep accumulation which remains for a long time unmelted is welcome, as it protects the roots of plants from sudden changes of temperature and prevents alternate freezing and thawing of their sap, which is injurious to their tissues in numerous instances. Great variation in the amount of snow that falls annually in a given locality is of common occurrence. A large proportion of the yearly accumulation frequently occurs during one or two great storms. For example, in January and February, 1898, there were two severe storms, accompanied by an unusual depth of snow, the first being most pronounced over New England, and the second in the region of the Great Lakes. Other storms increased the amount of snow so that at the beginning of March the average depth in Maine was 40 to 70 inches, in New Hampshire and Vermont 10 to 40 inches, and in Massachusetts 10 to 20 inches, while in Michigan and Wisconsin the general depth on level ground was 1 to 2 feet, with many drifts 10 to 15 feet deep.