What are the facts? When the statements above quoted were written few regular records of the weather had been maintained for any length of time in this country. The earliest instrumental record was begun at Charleston, S. C., in 1730. Much information was, however, available concerning the dates of harvest, of the formation and breaking up of ice in rivers and harbors, and other events dependent upon the weather, which, if anybody had taken the trouble to collect and analyze it, would have dispelled the universal belief that marked changes of climate had recently taken place. Nowadays it is much easier to refute the common assertion that the climate has changed within the memory of living men. The meteorological history of our country for more than three-quarters of a century has been recorded from day to day by a host of careful observers in every State of the Union. The records show that, while the weather of one year has often differed strikingly from that of the next, there has been no real change in climate. “Old-fashioned” winters, for example, were neither more nor less common half a century ago than they are to-day. Our memories of past weather mislead us, chiefly because we remember the exceptional weather and forget that which commonly prevailed. Other circumstances may contribute to the illusion. Thus many people who now live in cities, where modern appliances make them more or less independent of the weather, passed their childhood under the more primitive conditions of the country. If climates were not fairly constant for long periods of years, it would be a waste of time to compile the climatic statistics that, as we have seen, are wanted by so many different kinds of people for so many different purposes. Such statistics are based upon past events, but their practical value depends upon the fact that, within certain limits, they are a safe guide to the future. The climatic data for any place are a sort of digest of the meteorological observations that have been made there, special emphasis being given to those features of the meteorological record that bear important relations to the life and activities of mankind. Temperature and rainfall are the leading elements of climate; others are wind, humidity, evaporation, cloudiness, etc. We have not space to enumerate here all the kinds of data found in elaborate climatic tables; but in order to illustrate how the records of a meteorological station are utilized in compiling climatic statistics and to show what complications may arise in this process, we shall consider the question of temperature alone.