or Clime, in geography, a part of the surface of the earth, bounded by two circles parallel to the equator; and of such a breadth, as that the longest day in the parallel nearer the pole exceeds the longest day in that next the equator by some certain spaces; viz. half an hour. The word comes from the Greek κλίμαξ, "inclinationum," an inclination.

The beginning of the climate, is a parallel circle wherein the day is the shortest. The end of the climate, is that wherein the day is the longest. The climates therefore are reckoned from the equator to the pole; and are so many bands, or zones, terminated by lines parallel to the equator: though, in strictness, there are several climates in the breadth of one zone. Each climate only differs from its contiguous ones, in that the longest day in summer is longer or shorter by half an hour in the one place than in the other. As the climates commence from the equator, the first climate at its beginning has its longest day precisely 12 hours long; at its end, 12 hours and an half: the second, which begins where the first ends, viz. at 12 hours and an half, ends at 13 hours; and so of the rest, as far as the polar circles, where, what the geographers call hour-climates terminate, and month-climates commence. As an hour-climate is a space comprised between two parallels of the equator, in the first of which the longest day exceeds that in the latter by half an hour; so the month-climate is a space terminated between two circles parallel to the polar circles, whose longest day is longer or shorter than that of its contiguous one by a month or 30 days.

The ancients, who confined the climates to what they imagined the habitable parts of the earth, only allowed of seven. The first they made to pass through Meroe, the second through Sienna, the third through Alexandria, the fourth through Rhodes, the fifth through Rome, the sixth through Pontus, and the seventh through the mouth of the Bosphorus. The moderns, who have sailed further toward the poles, make 30 climates on each side; and, in regard the obliquity of the sphere makes a little difference in the length of the longest day, instead of half an hour, some of them only make the difference of climates a quarter.

Vulgarly the term climate is bestowed on any country or region differing from another either in respect of the seasons, the quality of the soil, or even the manners of the inhabitants; without any regard to the length of the longest day. Abulfeda, an Arabic author, distinguishes the first kind of climates by the term real climates, and the latter by that of ap- parent climates. Varenius gives us a table of 30 cli- mates; but without any regard to the refraction.

Ricciolus furnishes a more accurate one, wherein the refractions are allowed for; an abstract of which follows:

| Middle | Longest | Latit. | Middle | Longest | Latit. | Middle | Latit. | Cont. | North | Cont. | South | |--------|---------|-------|--------|---------|-------|--------|-------|-------|-------|-------|-------| | Clim. | Day. | | Clim. | Day. | | Clim. | Light.| Night.| Light.| Night.| Night.| | I | 12th | 30° | VIII | 16th | 48° | XV | 66° | 53° | 31° | 27° | 30° | | II | 13 | 15° | IX | 17° | 53° | XVI | 69° | 30° | 62° | 58° | 60° | | III | 13 | 30° | X | 18° | 57° | XVII | 73° | 0 | 93° | 87° | 89° | | IV | 14 | 29° | XI | 19° | 60° | XVIII | 78° | 6 | 124° | 117° | 120° | | V | 14 | 30° | XII | 20° | 62° | XIX | 84° | 0 | 156° | 148° | 150° | | VI | 15 | 40° | XIII | 22° | 65° | XX | 90° | 0 | 188° | 180° | 178° | | VII | 15 | 30° | XIV | 24° | 65° | | | | | | |