Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1892-03-16
M,LpER WINTERS.
4 GFANaal Modification OF Cold for the
Next Nine Hundred Years.


Next Nine Hundred TeaHS,
Every now and then some weather
sage predicts extremely cold winteTs.
and another ventures to say. that, the
sun is gradually losing heat and Ia time
arctic cold will prevail over the globe.
Whatever may have been the changes
during the vast cycles of time prior to the
advent Of man, or whatever may be the
changes in the time TO come. one thing
is quite certain. says Joseph Wallace in
Popular Science News, that our climate
las been much modified within the last
two thousand or three thousand years.
There have been fifteen climatic
changes since the beginning of the gla-
cial age, each change lasting ten thou-
sand five hundred years. and each
change reversing the seasons in the two
hemispheres, the pole which had en-
joyed perpetual summer being doomed
to undergo perpetual winter for ten
thousand FIVE hundred years, and then
passing to its former state for an equal
term. The physical changes upon the
earth's surface during the last eighty
thousand years modified the changes of
climate even in the arctic regions, so
that the intense cold of the former
epochs was much modified during the
latter epochs." '-'z
? Reckoning these climatic changes In
their order, we had entered the epoch
OF more genial temperature about
fifteen hundred years ago., and If no
disturbing change takes place during
the present epoch, we may reasonably
expect q gradual modification of our
winters for nine Thousand years to
come Tho oh Trrra m iufnY1ca cold R-or,,
perpetual summer during the greater
part of the glacial period is supposed
To have been caused by the high ten1
perature of the north pole as compared
To that of the south pole, owing to the
distribution of land around the two.
the south having almost none. DIR.
Croll thinks it was caused by the vary
ing inclination of the earth's axis.
which produced the relative position of
the two poles toward the sun to be-
periodically reversed at distant periods.
DIR. James Geilzie agrees with Croll on
the reverse of seasons every fifteen
hundred years during certain periods
of nigh ellipticity of earth's. orbit. But
it may be asked: "How could the
fnuna and fora propagate themselves
under such conditioner The hora
itself at the qpaternary age was OF ex-
treme visor. We know this from the
little which is left us, but more especial
fy from the presence of large number
of herbivoGuHs; animals-~stags, horses,
elephants, rhinoceri, etc.--which ani-
mated the plains and valleys of Europe
and America at that time. Evidently
they could not have lived and propa-
gated themselves. without abundant
vegetation for nourishment and devel-
opment. ..!,
That which has deceived the adj
hcrents of the glacial theory, as under
stood in its absolute sense, is, they have
generally plnced q too high estimate on
its extent and intensity. It Reeds but q
little effort Of the reasoning powers TO
come to tho conclusion that the earth
had cooled to the degree that all animal
and vegetable life should exist upon it.
and that a portion of the earth's sur
face permanently covered with snow
and ice was absolutely indispensable to
the existence, perpetuity and well-be-
ing Of animal and vegetable life. There
is everything to show modification of
climate in our own days. If this goes
ON in the future as in the past there
will be marked difference in the tenn
perature two hundred OF, three hundred
years from now. Even degree in. one
thousand years would effect. o, great
change in the course of time. The low
criRg of four degrees established the
ancient extension of glaciers. though il
did not interrupt animal or vegetable
life. Fifty-four of the fifty-seven species
of mollusca have outlivcd the glacial
age, and all our, savage animals--even
Il certain number which have. disap-
peured-date equally from the quater-
nary, and we're contemporary with the
great extension of the glaciers.