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I.—On Variations of the Climate

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Extract

How often do we not hear old people assert that when they were young the climate was quite different; that the weather was warmer or colder, etc.; and even comparatively young people are sometimes of the same opinion. It is most natural to assume that these observers have been misled by the more intense impressions of youth, which cause, for instance, a hot summer, bringing with it more rural pleasures and open-air sports, to be engraved on the mind for life. On the other hand, should the early years be accompanied by much wet weather and storms, these years are perhaps more easily forgotten, as the monotonous and tedious life within four walls to which one is then confined does not leave that distinct impression upon the youthful mind as that of a glorious summer spent out-of-doors. However, the importance of the question and its great general interest demand an investigation of the problem ; the more so as certain scientific theories and hypotheses tend to prove that a change in the climate must necessarily take place.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1890

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References

page 434 note 1 Vide Stanley's report as to the changes of water-level in the Great Lakes since his last visit.—Ed.

page 437 note 1 See on this subject a most valuable and suggestive memoir “On a Possible Cause of Climatal Changes,” by Dr. Evans, John, F.R.S., F.S.A., Sec. Geol. Soc. (1866)Google Scholar; Proc. Royal Society, March 15th; also, Geol. Mag. 1866, Vol. III. pp. 171–174, in which a change in the axis of rotation is advocated, not only as best suited to explain the discoveries of an abundant animal- and plant-life in high northern latitudes, demanding great climatal changes; but also those changes due to upheaval, depression, and denudation of the earth's surface which must affect the earth's equilibrium. Also that astronomical observations tend to show “that the ground itself shifts, with respect to the general earth, or that the axis of rotation changes its position.