ONE’S LIFE WOULD BE PROLONGED IF, LIKE THE BIRDS, ONE COULD MIGRATE ANNUALLY WITH THE TEMPERATURE—CHRISTMAS IN MANY CLIMES—THE HOTTEST AND COLDEST PLACES IN THE WORLD
From what has gone before it is apparent that the regions of the earth where man is at his best estate, so far as climate can determine his environment, may be broadly defined in this country as southern New England, southern and central New York, the Middle Atlantic States, the Ohio Valley, the southern Lake Region and westward to the middle of Kansas and Nebraska; in Europe it includes the British Isles, France, Switzerland, extreme northern Italy, Austria, Germany, Belgium, Holland, and the extreme southern parts of Norway and Sweden. But in none of these regions is the climate equally good during all seasons. In fact there are two short seasons in each year when it is debilitating.
The great majority of the people, like galley slaves chained to their oars, must remain in the same place throughout the year, others may have a vacation of several weeks, and still others are free to change their location as often as fancy calls them. The latter might well learn from the birds, and by migrating with the temperature, going far north in summer and far south in winter, maintain themselves throughout the entire year in the most perfect atmospheric conditions for health, happiness, and long life. Many a man of fifty, having accumulated enough to modestly supply his wants, could add ten to thirty years to his life, or might even double the period of his existence, by ceasing to strive after riches, and by giving himself up to a healthful movement about this beautiful world. His principal companions should be good books,—the study of which will enlarge his mental horizon and increase his capacity to see, comprehend, and enjoy, and fit him to speak, act, and think in ways that will inure to the public good. If he has not had the benefits of a college education, now is the golden opportunity to read, and have pleasure in the reading, popular books on Geology, Botany, Biology, Astronomy, and Physics, and to become familiar with the history of his own country and of the world. It need not be a period of idleness but one of beautiful growth and of appreciation of the wonders of creation. And thus will his spirit be lifted up and fitted for a higher realm of existence in the world to come.
To those who must remain at home during heat spells, the advice is given to close not only the shutters but the windows on the east side of the house during the forenoon and do the same on the west side in the afternoon. The best night’s sleep will be gained in a room facing north on any floor that is not next the roof; this room will be cooler if it is protected by another room on its east and one on its west side.
Long Life in the Open Air and the Sunshine. It is difficult to decide which most conduces to health and longevity: cheerfulness of mind and kindness of thought, or life in the open air and in the blessed sunshine. If one can enjoy both of these beneficent conditions they should live as long as they desire to remain on earth. Most people live as long as they deserve to live. It has facetiously been said that old age is a bad habit. The writer is disposed to agree with the humorist. Certain it is that few persons who believe in the limitation of life to three score and ten ever live beyond that period, while one should be possessed of a sound body and a superior mind at that age, with just anticipations of a third of a century of usefulness and happiness yet to come. As a man thinketh, so is he. We are just beginning to comprehend something of the wonderful power with which the Creator has invested us in the development and the care of our bodies. Anger, hatred, malice, jealousy, selfishness, fear, and worry create poisons that may bring on disease and death, but they certainly create a morbidity in the body that shortens life.
Sunshine destroys molds, bacteria, and other enemies of the human race that lurk in the darkness. It strikes dead the tubercle bacillus, which is such a scourge to mankind. Its remedial power comes largely from invisible light—the ultra-violet and the supra-red rays. You are blind to these rays but your skin and blood are not; they need the sunshine to give them vitality—not quack medicines or medical tonics for which, through the venal partnership of the Press, millions of the afflicted are induced not only to part with the money so much needed by their families and themselves, but to aggravate their sufferings. The sunshine of a high region is beneficial to those ill with coughs, colds, bronchitis, tuberculosis, anæmia, or other wasting diseases, because the upper altitudes are rich in many rays that are beneficial, some of which are absorbed by the higher air and do not penetrate to the earth, or only reach the earth in minute quantities. There on the mountain the sun’s rays are unpolluted by the dust and the bacteria of lower levels and the cities. But one does not need extreme altitudes. Two to three thousand feet may be sufficient.
Mountain and Sea Air and the Injury from Over-bathing. The seashore is properly a great national playground during the heat of summer. Evaporated spray leaves a trace of salt in the air which, with the salt of the ocean, seems to be beneficial to many. Likewise there is no condition of life that is not benefited by the pure air of the wooded mountains. Those of moderate vigor may build up and maintain high vitality by continuous bathing in the cool, pure waters of mountain lakes and streams, but to many daily swimming in either fresh or salt water, except that it be for a mere dip and right out again, that is so cold as to be painful to the delicate sensations of the skin, is extremely debilitating to all bodily functions. Be moderate.
How to Find the Climate You Seek. At sea level in the tropics heat and moisture combine to produce great physical discomfort. But even under the equator it is possible to escape the tropical heat of low levels by ascending four to six thousand feet, as can be done in some places in Porto Rico and Cuba. Most of the capitals of South American countries are located at altitudes of five to ten thousand feet; and Brazil is planning to abandon her capital at sea level and move the administrative machinery of government from the splendid city of Rio de Janeiro to a mountain location in the interior.
Any region of the Alleghany system of mountains above a thousand feet elevation possesses climatic conditions of therapeutic value. Illustration of this fact is seen in the success of the noted sanitaria in the Adirondacks, and in the mountain regions of North Carolina and Virginia, and in the northern part of New England. These sections are especially frequented by persons suffering from pulmonary diseases, or from nervous exhaustion, many of whom find not only relief but cure. Cool and healthful conditions of temperature may be found during the summer along the ridges and on the peaks of the entire mountain system that extends from North Carolina northward through Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, and New England. The advice of one’s physician should be sought, if one is ailing, before determining between the seashore and the mountains, but in general those suffering from diseases of the respiratory organs are better located in the high levels, remote from the humid air of the ocean.
In winter Bermuda, Florida, Porto Rico, Cuba, the southern part of the Gulf States, much of Southern California, and Hawaii have balmy climates that permit of outdoor life without temperatures too high to be comfortable. Hawaii and Bermuda have mild climates not only during winter but throughout the entire year. The Riviera on the Gulf of Genoa and the beautiful Lake region of Italy enjoy the balmy air of the Mediterranean and are protected from the cold winter winds by the Alps.
From October to May that portion of the Rocky Mountain plateau that includes Arizona, New Mexico, and the northern interior of Old Mexico has one of the finest climates in the world for those afflicted with pulmonary diseases, as the sunshine is abundant and the day and night temperatures such as to permit an almost continuous out-of-doors existence. But the heat and the extreme dryness of the air in June, July, August, and the first half of September is irritating to the nerves and debilitating in general. Fortunately, when the conditions are not favorable in the extreme southwest part of the country, they are at their best in the mountains of the Middle Atlantic States and New England, which offer to the pleasure or the health seeker a cool, pure air unsurpassed by any other region of the earth.
For an all-the-year climate for the health seeker, it only can be said that the ideal conditions do not continue at any place throughout the entire year. Possibly it is well that it is so, as a change may be beneficial for no reason except that it is a change. There is one great caution ever to be borne in mind, and that is that the health seeker must not continue or repeat the same unhygienic life in his new climate that brought on the disease in the old.
Climate of Cuba. The climate of one tropical country may differ materially from that of another in the same latitude as a result of difference in altitude, proximity to large bodies of water, and position with respect to the prevailing winds. Cuba being in the region of the northeast trade winds, more rain falls on the north side of its mountains than on the south side. The temperature of the southeast coast is higher than it is on the northern and western coasts, and the range of temperature everywhere between night and day is small, rarely ten degrees and usually much less. It therefore has a warm, humid, and monotonous climate, except in the high levels of its mountains. The winter tourist will find the conditions of the greater part of the island somewhat similar to those in the region of Miami, Florida, but warmer. Havana is not so hot as Santiago. The highest temperature ever recorded at Havana is 101° and the lowest 50°. A fairly pleasant temperature always can be found within a short ride to the mountains. As in most tropical countries, Cuba has a dry and a wet season. The rainy season is May to October. In the early part of September, 1900, over thirty-six inches of rain fell within thirty-six hours at Santiago. As a rule the precipitation is in the shape of heavy showers, the clouds clearing as soon as the rain ceases; the showers usually occur in the afternoon. Cuba, in common with all the islands of the West Indies, occasionally is visited by destructive hurricanes; these storms mainly are confined to the period August to October. Frequent terrific thunderstorms occur in summer.
Climate of Porto Rico. Its mountainous character gives it a marked diversity of climate, torrential rains falling on the windward side of its mountains, while the leeward sides are comparatively dry. The highest temperature in San Juan since 1876 is 101° and the lowest 57°. In this city a cool breeze, known as the “briza”, adds to the comfort of the late afternoon and evening. The wet season begins a month earlier than in Cuba and lasts a month longer. San Juan is probably the most healthful city in the West Indies, but those reared in northern climates invariably suffer from its enervating influence after several years of continuous residence. Water is abundant, there being some seventy rivers and over a thousand small streams. The mountains are clothed in vegetation to their tops, and frost of a killing nature is practically unknown in the island.
Climate of the Hawaiian Islands. Much has been written about the charm of the Hawaiian Islands, their mountains, volcanoes, tropical verdure, and delightful climate. It is indeed a garden spot, and its soil and climate make it so. Nowhere in the islands does the temperature reach 90° at any time of the year, while at Honolulu, the largest city and the capital, a temperature lower than 60° is rarely experienced. Of course, as one ascends the high mountains for which the group is noted, much lower temperatures are encountered, while snow is not infrequent near the tops. July and August are the warmest months and January the coldest. The climate is soothing and dreamy and doubtless would prolong the life of many who are aged and slowly passing to their end, and that of others of low vitality but no organic disease. Most of the rain falls November to May, but some falls in every month of the year. At Honolulu the amount is about that which falls in Wisconsin, but at a station in the Kohala Mountains one hundred and fifty-four inches have been measured as the rainfall for seven months, and forty-two inches for one month, the latter being a larger amount than the annual rainfall for the State of Iowa.
Climate of the Philippines. The highest temperature so far recorded at Manila is 100° and the lowest 60°. It is therefore warmer than either Havana or Porto Rico. The hottest months are April, May, and June, but the cool months are but a trifle cooler than the warm months, the annual range of temperature being but three degrees. The humidity is high at all seasons, and therefore the heat is oppressive and debilitating. The greater part of the rainfall of Manila is from June to October. Some relief may be gained from the low-level heat by retreat to the mountains of some of the islands. It will require several generations before the white man can become acclimated to this region. The islands lie between latitude 6° and 18° North. White children born of American parents and raised there never will have the energy or ambition of their progenitors. If it were not for the invigorating air of the mountain resort at Baquio, many American officials could not continue a residence in the Philippines.
Climate of Bermuda in Comparison with the Popular Winter Resorts of Florida and California. It is a mistake to represent the climate of Bermuda as one of balmy sunshine during winter months. It has some glorious days, but a large proportion are cloudy, rainy, cool, and windy, and too cold for comfortable or healthful bathing from the middle of December to the first of May. And yet, its climate is healthful as a whole for nine months of the year and more stimulating than is that of Florida in winter. If one wishes sunshine and sea bathing in midwinter, it is better to go to Palm Beach, St. Petersburg, or Miami, Florida; but if one desires to have a moderately cool climate with a temperature of but little variation between midday and midnight, and occasionally a day with sufficient warmth and sunshine to justify a dip in the ocean or in the many land-locked bays with which the islands abound, one well may come to Bermuda. Such winter clothing as one naturally would wear in Philadelphia or Washington is what one will need in order to be comfortable. Bermuda is no place for Palm Beach suits, outing shirts, and Panama hats in winter. Many tourists are mislead by the advertisements of steamship lines and bring clothing which is suitable only for early fall and late spring.
From the first of November to the middle of May the author occupied a room on the ground floor, facing the waters of Hamilton Harbor, and only fifty feet from the shore line. Here the diurnal range of temperature is much less than at Prospect Hill, where the Government’s observations are made. From the middle of December to the middle of March, a thermometer in this room sluggishly ranged from 60° at night to 64° during the day, and days when the wind was high and rain falling—as occurs about one third of the time in winter—the thermometer would not vary a degree from 60° during the entire twenty-four hours. During April the range each day was from 68° at night to 70° at midday, and during November and May from 70° to 76°.
The selection of the best winter climate for health and for pleasure is so important that comparative data are here given of the most popular places that are easy of access to the people of the United States.
Bermuda has a wind velocity much greater than that of any of the resorts named in the tables, and its relative humidity is about that of Florida.
The charm of Bermuda is that the flowers bloom, vegetables grow, and the trees remain green the year round. Even though frequent short showers may fall each twenty-four hours more than half of the days during winter, the soil is so porous that there is little or no mud, and life is largely one of the open air, with a winter temperature that conduces to activity; in fact, the temperature is such that one requires heavy clothing all the time if one is to sit inactive in the open. There is neither frost, fog, nor malaria, nor snakes.
Bermuda lies 666 miles south of New York City and about 700 miles due east from Charleston, S. C., and 293 miles from the southern edge of the Gulf Stream, which, if the truth must be told, exercises no such influence on the climate of Bermuda as highly colored advertising circulars would have one believe. It is the great ocean, upon whose surface the islands make the most infinitesimal dot, that controls the climate of the Bermudas. The Gulf Stream, wonderful phenomenon that it is, is a sort of bug-a-boo to some who never have intelligently studied ocean meteorology. Travelers tell of the superheated atmosphere they encountered on crossing the Stream, and educators who should know better teach that the entire climate of Europe is markedly influenced by it. The fact is that there is no distortion whatever of the isothermal lines as they enter and leave the Gulf stream in any region north of Bermuda. (See Chart 14.) The climate of Bermuda and of Europe is controlled largely by the great Atlantic Ocean, not by this small river of warm water, which broadens out and loses its identity long before the coast of Europe is reached, and whose influence is soon dissipated in the vast expanse of ocean air. The ocean has a great circulating system, northward on the western and southward on its eastern side. This circulation pushes the isothermal lines northward on one side and southward on the other.
The islands of Bermuda rise some 15,000 feet from the floor of the ocean, and project above the water to heights varying from 50 to 260 feet above sea level. Like jewels nestling upon the bosom of a sub-tropical ocean these islands, from one half to three miles wide, are strung along so close that one almost can hop over from one to the other. They lie in the form of a fish-hook; from the hole where the line of the fisherman would be tied to the point of the hook is about twenty-six miles. The topography is irregular and picturesque. On land there are caves and grottoes and subterranean lakes. January to May rose borders are abloom. In April the oleander is showing pink and crimson along every roadside, and the hedges hold these beautiful flowers for months; at Easter time lilies carpet the ground and perfume the air. Here morning glories have many forms and colors, which, with pendent bells, climb wide-spreading cedar trees, and wild passion flowers cover rocky cliffs.
The sea is so transparent that many feet below the surface the eye may follow the movements of marine life housed about by coral formations of strange devices. The colors of the sea are as changeable as the opal. Over shallow bottoms the colors are delicate shades of light green, over the shoals brownish hues, and beyond the dangerous reefs, which have sent many a sailor to his long home, and behind which numerous pirates of old have taken refuge, the waters vary from the light blue of the sapphire to deep green. The prismatic colors are forever laughing and dancing to the eye of the beholder. The shadow of a cloud, a ripple of the surface, a different angle to the fall of sunshine as the day advances, deepen or brighten the tints through a wide range of color.
Through the glass bottom of a boat one may look into the gardens. Rising from the bottom and waving gracefully with the movements of the waters, like tree ferns moved by gentle zephyrs, are purple sea fans and tall black rods. Beautifully colored fishes dart about, or lazily bask in the sun that illumines their coral grottoes; weeds of many colors; green and scarlet sponges; vegetable growths delicate in formation and brilliant anemones cling to ledges of rock that here and there are tinted with pink.
Rival champions of the east and the west coasts of Florida may fortify themselves by a study of the tables. It may be noted that Miami and Tampa have the same midday temperature, but that Tampa has a greater range, the night temperature on the average falling five degrees lower than Miami; also that Tampa, which can be taken as typical of St. Petersburg, has but twenty-one rainy days on an average from December to March inclusive, while Miami has thirty-four. Bermuda has sixty-five days with rain during the period, with much wind. From these data one may select the climate that best suits him and he may know that the data are accurate and put forth by some one not interested in advancing the interest of one place over another. No country in the world has more delightful and healthful climates for winter and for summer than can be found in the wide domain of the United States.