The Arctic Home in the Vedas c6.4

c6.4

As regards climate, we have seen that during the Inter-Glacial period there were cool summers and warm winters even within the Arctic circle. Sir Robert Ball gives us a good idea of the genial character of this climate by reducing to figures the distribution of heat-units over summers and winters. A longer summer, with 229 heat-units spread over it, and a shorter winter of 136 heat-units, would naturally produce a climate, which, according to Hershel, would be ‘an approach to perpetual spring.’ If the Palæolithic man, therefore, lived in these regions during the Inter-Glacial period, he must have found it very pleasant, in spite of the fact that the sun went below his horizon for a number of days in a year according to the latitude of the place. The present inclement climate of the Arctic regions dates from the Post-Glacial period, and we must leave it out of consideration in dealing with earlier ages.