THE

PREFACE

'HE preparation of a volume on Climate for The Science Series was suggested to me by the Editors in October, 1904. I was asked to prepare a book" which can be read by an intelligent person who has not had special or extended training in the technicalities of the science, the book to be such as would not compete with strictly meteorological text-books, but to handle the broad questions of climate." It so happened that it was then already in my mind to prepare a book dealing with certain large relations of climate, which might serve as supplementary reading for the students in my course on General Climatology in Harvard University. The present volume is an attempt on my part to write a book which shall meet the wishes of the Editors of The Science Series and at the same time fit the needs of my students.

Climate is based on lecture-notes which have been accumulating for the past ten years. It does not attempt to present any very new or original material, but it does aim to co-ordinate and to set forth clearly and systematically the broader facts of climate in such a way that, as desired by the Editors, the general reader, although not trained "in the technicalities of the science," may find it easy to appreciate

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