If now we incline the axis of this water-covered earth and introduce the complication of seasons, we shall not only have variation in the hours of sunshine, increasing as we go from the equator toward the poles, but, the capacity of air for moisture being less and less with falling temperature, we shall have downpours of rain as the summer slowly merges into fall and the latter into winter. Although the air will be saturated, there probably will be no rainfall from the time when the temperature begins to rise after midwinter until it reaches and passes the maximum heat of summer. It is fair to assume that during the rainy period there will be cyclonic storms with torrential precipitation, and that the anti-cyclones that are a necessary concomitant of cyclones, while they may cause a temporary cessation of precipitation in the area that they cover, by the dynamic heating of the air in their downward motions, will be ineffective in fully clearing away the clouds from a water-covered earth. It is doubtful if such an earth would be suitable for life,—certainly not for man. =The Real Earth of Land, Water, and Inclined Axis.= The different manner in which land and water surfaces absorb, radiate, and reflect the heat from the sun has a profound influence on climate, which also is modified by latitude, elevation above sea level, elevation above a valley or above a surrounding plane, direction of wind, height and trend of direction of hills and mountains, the position of lakes and inland seas, the relative position and magnitude of continents and oceans, storm tracks, and ocean currents. =Influence of Continents and Oceans on Climate.= Charts 1 and 2 (pages 99 and 100), constructed from observations taken on ships and on land, for a long series of years, show certain Highs and Lows of vast extent, sometimes called “Centers of Action”, because they do not travel across continents and oceans, as do the migrating Highs and Lows that cause weather. Rather do they slowly reverse their relative positions between winter and summer. Continents cool by radiation in winter more rapidly than do oceans; the air contracts, settles down and grows denser and air flows in at the top from the oceans and outward at the surface of the earth toward the oceans; thus is built up the winter Highs, or centers of action, on continents. Continents heat up by absorption in summer more rapidly than do oceans; the air expands, rises, and flows away in the upper levels to oceans and flows in at the bottom from the oceans; and thus are the Lows, or centers of action, established on continents in summer. It is apparent that these processes must be reversed for the oceans, and that the Highs will be found there in the summer and the Lows in the winter. Carefully follow the illustrations of these principles by examining the whole region north of the equator on Charts 1 and 2.