The record-union., 1898-12-27

and far-reaching in their consequences
that a failure to explain these causes
and their mode of action constitutes
a. serious defect in those branches OF
science to which a study of these
causes appertains. In the present stage
of physical geography and geology, the
student is offered a mass of facts in
terpreted along various lines, each IN
depreciation disputed by high author
ties, and finally the results are
summed up in the broad conclusion
that 1--WE must be content to work and
watt
SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM.
The problem of explaining this sue
cession of climatic variations is so at
tractiVe that there is perhaps none 9TH
err to which deeper thought has been
directed, nor upon which such diverse
views are held In it's entirety 1t con-
StituteS one of the most far-reachlng
and grandest problems of terrestrial
physics. Nor is the scope of this prob
lem bounded by it's relations to the
earth. The principles and laws in
volved in it's solution must be general.
The development now reached by
each one of the planets cannot be the
same and we find each in that par
ticular phase which it's mass, environ
ment, and exposure have permitted 1T
to reach. When we trace the climatic
history of the earth backward, the
line of research must lead into condi-
tions now apparently existing upon
planets in a less advanced stage. If
we can predicate the conditions toward
which present climatic developments
are tending, these must be the appar-
ent conditions of a more advanced
planet Thus the stages of climatic
development reached by other planets
should afford evidence as to the ac-
curacy of our interpretations. In other
words, the past and future stages of
the earth's climatic development must
be represented in a general way by the
various stages now attained by one or
the other of the planets of the solar
system.
LAWS OF CLIMATIC EVOLUTION.
The principal laws of climatic evolu-
ton are presented in the form of a
series of postulates and corollaries.
Cd Heat rays cannot pass through
fogs and clouds. formed by the vapors
of a fluid having the physical proper
ties of water, except in very greatly di-
minished intensity
% A hot spheroid rotating in space
and holding water and air Cor fluids
of similar properties) within the sphere
of it's control, gives off and receives
heat subject to its passage through
clouds. The sDheroid must lose heat
principally by the expansion of water
into vapor and by radiation from the
cool outer surface of its cloud en-
velope, which envelope is maintained
by the evaporation of water by the
heat of the spheroid, and conserved by
heat reaching it from exterior sources:
during it's existence it acts as a con-
servator of the heat of the spheroid
(3) That in the stages of cooling sub
sequent to the formation of oceans,
land surfaces must, by reason of their
low specific heat, cool faster than
oceans; and that heat reaching the
planetary surface by the circulation of
meteoric or included water or by con-
vection, or set free by foundations,
faults and fractures. is principally
taken up by water in it's fluid and
vaporous form. and conserved by water
in the form of clouds.
(4) The surface temperatures of such
spheroid must be practically inde-
pendent of exterior sources of heat un-
til the greater portion of the water sur
rounding it be reduced to its point OF
maximum density or converted into ice
and that prior to this stage of it's eli
matte evolution, its surface tempera-
lures are practically controlled by in
terror Cor planetary heat, and are
practically independent Of latitude;