"Yes, one is reminded by it of the humorous argument that the sun must emit cold instead of heat, because when we are at the point of the earth's orbit which is nearest the sun it is winter, and the higher one ascends upon mountains toward the sun, the colder he finds it. But this nearness of the sun while south of the equator would naturally give the southern hemisphere a warmer summer than the northern. For this there is a beautiful compensation. The earth passes through her orbit more rapidly when nearer the sun, and that half of her orbit is also smaller, so that, as the result of this, the sun remains north of the equator about eight days longer than in the southern hemisphere. The sun is nearer while in the southern hemisphere, but the summer is shorter. That which the southern hemisphere gains in distance it loses in time, and that which the northern loses in distance it gains in time. "The nearness of the sun while south of the equator, the shortness of the summer, and the corresponding distance of the sun and length of the winter would tend to give the southern hemisphere great extremes of heat and cold, a short and hot summer and a long and cold winter. For this also there is a most interesting compensation in the comparative amount of land and water north and south of the equator. Much more than one-half of the dry land lies in the northern hemisphere. This would tend to give the northern hemisphere extremes of heat and cold. South of the equator there is comparatively little land and much water, which tends to give the southern hemisphere evenness of temperature. The inequalities of the earth's orbit and the earth's motion in its orbit we find counterbalanced by the arrangement of land and water upon the earth's surface.