Climate, considered especially in relation to man / by Robert DeCourcy Ward.

  • Robert DeCourcy Ward
Date:
[1908], [©1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Climate, considered especially in relation to man / by Robert DeCourcy Ward. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University Libraries/Information Services, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library at Columbia University and Columbia University.

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    of his immediate surroundings. It remains a fact, nevertheless, that one of the most important controls iij determining the location of modern industries, next to nearness to materials and markets and water- power, is climate. The Steppes, In the intermediate belts, between the heavier rainfall of the forested districts and the deficient rainfall of the deserts, come the grass-lands of the temperate zones, commonly known as steppes (unwooded tracts in middle latitudes, of consider- able extent and covered with useful vegetation). These are found where the rainfall is small because of distance from the sea, or by reason of the rain- shadow effect of enclosing mountains, and over broad, more or less level topographic areas, of fairly uniform climatic conditions. The general severity of the climate, the small rainfall, the shortness of the growing season, and other factors, such as high winds, favour grass rather than tree growth. The central Asiatic plateau, except where so arid as to be a true desert, with uniformity of climate and of popu- lation, is the great steppe region of the world. Southern Siberia, southern Russia and Hungary, and parts of Arabia, Persia, and Asia ]Minor belong to this same area. The Great Plains between the Rocky JNIountains and the 100th meridian are classed as steppes, as are the grass-lands of eastern temper- ate South America. The Asiatic steppe is extremely unfavourable, so far as occupation and development by man are concerned. At the centre of a great 19