Aristotle, too, gave greater definiteness to the idea of zones conceived by Parmenides, who had pictured a torrid zone uninhabitable by reason of heat, two frigid zones uninhabitable by reason of cold, and two intermediate temperate zones fit for human occupation.
Indeed, some of the chief contrasts of the two continents arise not so much from geological unlikeness as from their unsymmetrical situation with respect to the equator, whereby the northern one lies mostly in the temperate zone, while the southern one lies mostly in the torrid zone.
The inhabitant of the torrid zone upon moving to a northern climate is severely affected by the chill of the atmosphere.
In virtue of these physical characteristics, the air over the land becomes much warmer in summer and much colder in winter than the air over the oceans in corresponding latitudes; hence the seasonal changes of temperature in the central United States are strong; the high temperatures appropriate to the torrid zone advance northward to middle latitudes in summer, and the low temperatures appropriate to the Arctic regions descend almost to middle latitudes in winter.
Climate,-In accordance with its southerly position and the variety in its superficial configuration, Spain presents within its borders examples of every kind of climate to be found on the northern hemisphere, with the sole exception of that of the torrid zone.