The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-03-12
From the New York Herald.

From the New York Herald.
The earth, as is known to every body,
is subject to extreme cold at both of
p its poles. This cold is evidence in both
hemispheres by icebergs, glaciers and
icefelds, and by a host of other feat
ureS ii is unnecessary to mention, in
Guiding the intense coldnesS of the air
and water. But the South Pole has the
greatest tendency to glacIation, for the
SimpltS reason that il is the coolest.
Just why it is the coolest has been eX-
planned in various ways by biologists.
The clearest statement yet given to the
world on the subject is that of Dr..
James Croll C'Climate and Time" page
92), who says that the extreme refrig-
Grafton of the south polar regions is
caused by the fact that such limited
heat as they get is carried off into the
northern hemisphere by the great
ocean currents. Be that as it may. all
naVigatOrs and geoiogists-all scientists
of every descripuon-agree that the
antarctic continent is nothing more or
less than an awful desert of ice.
The so-called antarctic continent"
says Prof. G. Frederick Wright C'The
Great Ice Age of North America" page
1879. would seem to be covered with
one vast sheet of ice pressing outward
and breaking off in immense icebergs."
Everywhere within 1,500 miles of the
South Pole the temperature Of the
water of the surrounding oceans is al
ways several degrees below the freezing
pcint. We have found the degree of
cold at the surface of the sea, even in
summer" says Capt. Cook, the famous
circumnavigator C'Second Voyage'O.
Ito be two degrees below the freezing
y point; consequently nothing Kept it
from freezing but the salts it contains
and the agitation of its surface" The
South Pole is always frozen, and has
been gradually getting colder and cold
er from time immemorial until at the
present day there is a vast mountain of
ice all over the southern polar regions,
a mile or two in thickness at it's edges,
and rising higher and higher toward
the interior. or at every increase of
latitude. until al the pole it acquires a
thickness of many miles.
DR.. CroH C"Climate and Time" page
375) presents the facts concerning the
great antarctic Ice cap in the following
terms: In round numbers, we may
take the diameter of this continent at
$500 miles. The distance from the
edge of this ice cap to it's center, the
South Pole, will therefore be 1,400 miles.
The whole of this continent, like
Greenland, is undoubtedly covered with
one continuous sheet of ice, gradually
thickening inward from its edge UP
the center. \ slope of one degree con-
tinued for 1,460 miles will give twenty
four miles as the thickness of the ice at
the pole. But suppose the slope of the
upper surface of the ice cap to be only
one-haIf this amount-ViZ., a half de-
gree-and we have no evidence that
slope so small would be sufficient to
discharge the ice-still We have twelve
miles as the thickness of the cap at the
pole. To those who have not been &C
Sustomed to reflect on the physical con-
ditions of the problem. this estimate
may doubtless be regarded as some
what eXtravagant, but a slight consid-
Grafton will show that it would be even
more eXtravagant to assume that a
slope Of less than half a degree would
be sufficient to produce the necessary
outflow of the ice.' ..5.
AS to the formation of the ice cap. it.
is only too evident how it hasgroWn.
The first great cause behind it is the
excessive cold of the southern hemis-
pierre and the next is the abundance
land continuity of the snowfall through
out all those regions. Then, too, 1t
never rains or thaWs there.
zone thing we know says Sir wy
Vile Thomson CVoyage'O. and that is
that the precipitation throughout the
antarctic continent is very great, and
chat it is always in the form Of snow"
Lieut.. Wilkes, of the American eX-
plorins expedition, estimated the snow
fall at thirteen feet per annum, and
this means 5000 feet in a century, or
more than half a mile-subject, Of
course, TO the loss of such pCrtions-of
It as are carried off in the form of ice
bergs. Sir James Ross says that dur
ing a whole month he had only three
days free from snow.
And now that the antarctic ice cap
is seen to really exist, and we have
formed some idea of its extent and
growth. let US see what it has been do
ing during its long career. and note
why and how it has become to us
f4hing of sinister and deadly signifi-
canoe.