World-power and evolution / by Ellsworth Huntington.

  • Ellsworth Huntington
Date:
1919
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: World-power and evolution / by Ellsworth Huntington. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Scandinavia, including England on the west and Austria propel on the east. In our own country similar temperatures prevail only on the Atlantic Coast in a small region centering around New York, and in a larger area on the Pacific Coast of Oregon and Washington. Elsewhere either one season or the other is too cold or too warm. In Asia only the central part of the main island of Japan falls within these limits. The southern hemisphere contains almost no regions of this kind. A small area in New Zealand where the two islands approach each other conforms to our limits of temperature, while Patagonia in latitude 45° approaches them closely without actually reaching them. It must be clearly under¬ stood that our figures are elastic. In the first place we do not know exactly where man’s mind developed most rapidly; in the second place, we do not know at exactly what time this most rapid development took place; and in the third place, we do not know exactly what conditions of temperature prevailed at any paiticu- lar place at any particular time. Thus with three unknown variables it is obvious that the best we can do is to make a rough approximation. This much is clear, however, the conditions of temperature in the general region where man developed most rapidly were approximately the same as in the regions where today he is most advanced. By far the largest of the favorable areas is in northwestern Europe, the next largest is in the eastern and western parts of the United States, the next in Japan, the next probably in New Zealand and Australia, and probably the smallest in South America. Africa appears to contain no such area. This result agrees with that which has been set forth in “Civilization and Climate” on quite different grounds. When we have stated the temperature under which man evolved most rapidly we have by no means fully described the climate. We must know the conditions of storminess. At times of increased solar activity it will be remembered that there is also an increase both in the number and intensity of storms. This applies to both storm belts. In the northern belt it leads to three conditions
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