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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    Arctic natives. But the reindeer must wander far and wide in search of their moss. And many rein- deer are needed to provide sustenance for one man. Population is small and scattered. There are no permanent settlements at all within the Antarctic circle. And the few scattering islands in the im- mediately surrounding, vast ocean area of the south temperate zone are likewise uninhabited, except tem- porarily by shipwrecked seamen or, lately, by mem- bers of scientific parties. In the Arctic area human settlements are fairly well scattered over a consider- able range near the margins of the zone, but with increasing latitude man is more and more rarely seen, and finally he disappears entirely. There will never be permanent human settlements at the poles. Life is hard; a constant struggle for existence. INIan seeks his food by the chase on land, but chiefly in the sea. Hardly a tenth of Greenland's population could live there without food from the sea. It has been w^ell said that with every degree of higher latitude man is more forced to obtain his food supply from the sea. He lives along, or near, the sea coast. The interior lands, away from the sea, are deserted. Gales, and snow, and cold, cause many deaths on land, and also at sea, especially during fishing expeditions. It has been estimated that about one twent^^-fifth of the ]3opulation of Iceland perishes through being lost in snowstorms, by freezing, or by drowning. In the Faroe Islands about 8%, and in Greenland 77^ of the deaths have been reported as due to drowning