Having seen that the loess was probably formed during the retreat of the ice, we are now ready to inquire what conditions the cyclonic hypothesis would postulate in the loess areas during the various stages of a glacial cycle. Fig. 2, in Chapter IV, gives the best idea of what would apparently happen in North America, and events in Europe would presumably be similar. During the nine maximum years on which Fig. 2 is based the sunspot numbers averaged seventy, while during the nine minimum years they averaged less than five. It seems fair to suppose that the maximum years represent the average conditions which prevailed in the past at times when the sun was in a median stage between the full activity which led to glaciation and the mild activity of the minimum years which appear to represent inter-glacial conditions. This would mean that when a glacial period was approaching, but before an ice sheet had accumulated to any great extent, a crescent-shaped strip from Montana through Illinois to Maine would suffer a diminution in storminess ranging up to 60 per cent as compared with inter-glacial conditions. This is in strong contrast with an increase in storminess amounting to 75 or even 100 per cent both in the boreal storm belt in Canada and in the subtropical belt in the Southwest. Such a decrease in storminess in the central United States would apparently be most noticeable in summer, as is shown in _Earth and Sun_. Hence it would have a maximum effect in producing aridity. This would favor the formation of loess, but it is doubtful whether the aridity would become extreme enough to explain such vast deposits as are found throughout large parts of the Mississippi Basin. That would demand that hundreds of thousands of square miles should become almost absolute desert, and it is not probable that any such thing occurred. Nevertheless, according to the cyclonic hypothesis the period immediately before the advent of the ice would be relatively dry in the central United States, and to that extent favorable to the work of the wind. As the climatic conditions became more severe and the ice sheet expanded, the dryness and lack of storms would apparently diminish. The reason, as has been explained, would be the gradual pushing of the storms southward by the high-pressure area which would develop over the ice sheet. Thus at the height of a glacial epoch there would apparently be great storminess in the area where the loess is found, especially in summer. Hence the cyclonic hypothesis does not accord with the idea of great deposition of loess at the time of maximum glaciation.