Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-04-10
The Antarctic REGIONS.

A hundred Etnas would not produce
the thousandth part of the indraught
which Maury ascribes to Antarctic vol
canoes. Assuredly we may say with
Maury, but more significantly, that
Noiences are not a meteorological ne
cesslty." GIVE cannot say that they
are, he proceeds, "yet the force and
regularity of the winds remind us that
their presence there would not be incon-
slstent with known laws" He believes.
IN fact, that the steady winds may be
partly formed as an indraught feeding
volcanic fires. It is as well to remem-
Der, when ideas so wild are mooted, that,
as Maury himself remarks, s'we know,
ocularly, but little more of the topo-
graphical features of Antarctic regions
than we do of those of one of the planets"
=" Ii they be continental, " as he proceeds,
eve may, indeed, without any unwar-
rantable stretch of the imagination, re-
heve the face of nature there with snow
clad mountains, and diversity the land
scape with flaming volcanoes ;" but we
must not forget that this is work of
imagination, not theory which can be
insisted upon as though it represented a
geographical fact.
| While on this subject, however, we
cannot refrain from quoting very strik-
ing passage from letter by Capt. Howes,
of the Southern Cross, because, although
it relates in reality to the phenomena of
an Aurora Australis, it presents scene
such as we might conceive to accord with
the conception of an Antarctic region
covered with volcanoes, whose combined
action made the whole continent at times
as one vast furnace. Apart from fancies
such as these, the description is full of
interest /:
about half-past one, he says, son
the second of last September, the rare
phenomena of the Aurora Australis
manifested itself in most magnificent
manner. Our ship was off Cape Horn,
IN violent gale, plunging furiously into
a heavy sea, flooding her decks, and
sometimes burying her whole bows be-
meath the waves. The heavens were as
black as death not star was to be seen
when the brilliant spectacle first APP
peared. [ cannot describe the awful
grandeur of the scene the heavens
gradually changed from murky blackness
till they became like Gvid fire, rejecting
lurld, glowing brilliancy over every
thing. The ocean appeared like sea of
vermilion, dashed into fury by the storm;
the waves, dashing furiously over our
side, ever and anonon rushed to leeward
In crimson torrents. Our whole ship
sails, spars, and all-seemed to partake
of the same ruddy hues. They were as
if lighted up by some terrible confagra-
ton. Taking all together, the bowling,
shrieking storm, the noble ship plunging
fearlessly beneath the crimson-crested
waves, the furious squalls OF hail, snow
and sleet, driving over the vessel and
falling to leeward in rudy showers, the
mysterious balls of electric fire resting
on our mast-heads, yard-arms, ETC., and
) above all the awful subGmity of the
heavens, through which corruscations of
auroral light would often shoot in spiral
streaks and with meteoric brilEancy, al
together presented scene of grandeur
and subllmlty SURPRISING the widest
dreams of fancy"
The enormous icebergs which came
from out the Antarctic seas suggest in
teresting conclusions respecting regions
! as yet unexplored. This will be under
stood when it is remembered that all the
larger and loftier icebergs have in reality
had their origin in vast glaciers. Vast
masses of ice are formed, indeed, in the
open sea. Each winter the seas which
have been open during the summer
months December, January and Feb
ruary) are covered over with ice of enor-
nous thickness, and when summer re-
turns the ice fields thus formed are
, broken kup, and the fragments. borne
against each other during storms, be-
come piled into gigantic masses. But
the agglomerations thus formed, vast
though they be, are far exceeded in
. magnitude by the true icebergs
Among the drifting masses of fiat
sea-ice, says Tyndall, "vaster masses
sail, which spring from a totally differ
eRt source. These are the icebergs of
: the polar seas. They rise sometimes to
l an elevation of hundreds of feet above
the water, while the height of ice sub
merged is about seven times that seen
above" "What is their origin ?" he
proceeds, speaking of those met with in
the northern seas. ''The Arctic glaciers.
From the mountains in the interior the
indurated SHOWS slide into the valleys,
and fill them with ice The glaciers
thus formed move, like the Swiss ones,
. necessarily downward. But the Arctic
glaciers reach the sea, and enter it, often
blowing up its bottom into submarine
noraines. Undermined by the tapping
of the waves, and unable to resist the
strain imposed by their own weight, they
break across, and discharge vast masses
into the ocean. Some of these RUIZ
aground on the adjacent shores, and
often maintain themselves for years.
Others escape, to be finally dissolved in
! the warm waters of the ocean. Corn
hill.
: Lindeman on Gregarine in ChignOns.
The British Medical Journal pub
fishes an abstract of an article by DR..