To-day the Empire of Human Greatness is centered over the United States, that is to say, greatness as expressed in material wealth, population, and homogeneously knit political institutions. Will it continue its westward migration, or will it remain here indefinitely for the working out of a civilization higher than yet has come to any of the nations of the past, or to other of those of the present? So far as atmospheric activities have to do with its translation from place to place, we may derive comfort from the fact that storm tracks do not cross the Pacific Ocean as freely as they do the Atlantic. In fact our Rocky Mountains are a barrier to the passage of summer storms (Chart 10) and a reference to Chart 11 will show that of ninety-five winter storms that crossed our continent during the ten Januaries of which the chart is a record only twenty-two came into our area from the Pacific; and we know that these twenty-two largely originated off our coast somewhere between Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands. Let us hope that the center of earthly power has reached the end of its westward journey and that here it shall remain, always to exercise a just and beneficent influence upon the less favored portions of the earth. Enough has been said to indicate that climate is nearly as important to animal life as it is to the vegetable existence, and that a cold climate, if it be not so extreme as to limit the production of cereal crops, and has frequent changes in temperature, pressure, sunshine, and cloud, favors the development of hardy and resourceful races of men; in fact, that no dominating race can exist without such stimulating conditions of climate. CHAPTER XIII HAS OUR CLIMATE CHANGED? POPULAR OPINION ERRONEOUS, AS THERE IS NO CHANGE WITHIN THE PERIOD OF AN INDIVIDUAL LIFE, BUT MOMENTOUS CHANGES HAVE OCCURRED SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA