The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1885-12-09
GETTING COLDER.
Prospect for Long winters and short
Summers.


That the climate of more than one
region near or within the Arctic Cir
Gle Is growing more and more inhos-
pitabie, Is indicated by several circum-
stances For several years past there
has been considerable immigration
OF the people of Iceland into that part
OF North America which lies just north
OF Minnesota. If the winters of that
hyperborean section are more merciful
than those of their own country, it can
be no cause for wonder that the people
OF Iceland are so eager to quit their ma
tive land. For a thousand years their
ancestors had lived on that lonely
northern isle. and got along comforta-
bly,, so lar as is known; but the increas-
ing rigors of the climate for the past
twenty or thirty years appear to have
disheartened even the native Iceland
ers. DR.. Kane speaks of similar
state OF things existing among the Es-
quimaux along the shores of Buffin's
Bay and Smiths Sound; he saws these
poor people are rapidly andssurely dy-
ing out, and VIII soon be eXterminated.
Once there We're thousands where
there are now but a few scores. The
same thing seems to be killing off, or
driving of, the people of the Labrador
coast. These poor fishermen, whose
huts are perched among the rocks on
the desolate northern shore of the Gulf
of St. Lawrence. have suffered series
of years OF famine. Every spring, for
some years past, the report has come
that they were dying of starvation.
Their fisheries have failed. On these
they have relied for subsistence, since
the cold and rocky shore, with its sum-
mer frosts, affords no chance for farms
and gardens. The fish (mostly cod
and mackereD seem to have been
driven out of that part of the gulf by
the increasing coldness of the water;
at all events they have disappeared,
and the fisheries have failed miserably
this year. People are obliged to beg
Tor living, of the few who have the
means to give. A government steamer
left Quebec last Saturday, loaded with
fuel and flour to alleviate the suffer-
ings of the poor fishermen and their
families on the Labrador coast 1t is
bidding as the shores of Greenland,
though in summer without their snow.
In Greenland itself the climate is
known to be far more severe than it
was when the Mortimer discovered
and named that country for verdure
and its vines. That, to be sure, was
in the south part of that vast island I;
but, even there, all now is desolation.
As to the poor people of Labrador a
Quebec dispatch says:
Their supply OF flour has been en-
tirely exhausted, and, to add to their
sufferings and privations, scurvy has
made its appearance. and many have
died of it. The sutferings of women
and children beggar description. Lit
tie ones are dying in the arms of their
mothers, who have no nourishment to
give them"
New England lies far enough to the
north for winter habitation. That
angle of 232 degrees which is called
''the obliquity of the ecliptic" gives us
about all the winter we want-and a
little more than is always agreeable.
After the sun has left our Northern
hemisphere, it is pleasanter to think
of isles and shores that he still viii
brighten and warm, even when these
Northern lands are dark in shadow
and buried in snow, or shivering in
polar blasts. The climatic changes we
have referred to do not seem to be linn
tied to the far Northern regions; they
affect the more temperate parts of the
globe. 1t is known that the climate of
ancient Greece was much more salu-
brious 2, 500 years ago than it is now;
and the same thing seems to be true of
many other countries. Is the planet
slowly entering upon another of its
cold cycles? HdrJ0rt Times.