The St. Louis Republic., 1901-10-20

loose ice fills the whole space between Aus
| tralia, Montevideo and the Cape of Good
Hope, ranging northward from the pole
through almost fifty degrees OF latitude and
| upon the whole circuit of the earth. Its
| thickness at the edge may be put at two
miles. At Robertson Bay. Balleny Island.
| for instance, Mr.. Borchgrevink STRAND
Magazine for October. 1900 found the ice
| wall 12.0o0 feet high and 80 steep that there
| was no possibility OF reaching the interior.
which no man has ever seen or will see.
and where there is neither animal nor
! vegetable life Of any description.
From a thickness Of two or three miles at
its edges. the slope Of this ice continent as
cends gradually to the center at the pole,
| where. it is estimated by Doctor Croll and
| many others, the ice Is at least twelve
| miles thick. and is more like fifteen or
twenty. The total bulk Of this great accu-
mutation. therefore, cannot be less than
/ fifty million cubic miles of ice.
And now a word as to what this great
mass of ice has been doing.
During the whole period of It's growth. say
25,000 years, or ever since the latest OF these
recurrent floods. this vast Ice continent has
been drawing the ocean from the Northern
Hemisphere across the Equator into the
Southern. This movement, says Mr.. Lewis.
accounts for the present situation of affairs
, the land in the Northern Hemisphere and
the Southern Hemisphere and the draining
of the Northern.
This movement Of the waters southwark
their migration. as he calls it-has kept pace
perfectly with the growth of the ice cap.
and the consequence Is that three-fifths OF
the waters Of the globe have been drawn
almost a mile to the southwark of the
earth's former center a gravity. and are
held in this precarious position by the gravi-
fof "prl1f' nf tho {ro rorf NJ
suspended almost mile above our heads
in readiness to be let back upon our low
lying lands at any moment.
II.
THE BREAKING UP OF THE ICE CAP
A CERTAINTY.
AS will be seen at a glance, our situation
as residents of the Northern Hemisphere is
not merely precarious-it is one of the most
perilous that can ever MANAGE us.
All there In between ms and destruc-
tion. says Mr.. Lewis, In the cohesion
of those hfty millioH cubic miles of
ice.
Just so long as the great ice cap at the
South Pole remains whole, just SO long
will things remain as they now are. with
the present distribution Of land and sea.
But the instant the ice cap is broken up.
that instant we are lost
The disruption Of the Ice cap will cause
the pull Of gravitation to be instantly
transferred to the northern half of our
globe. and the fragments of the ice cap.
with all the water which has been drawn
around 1t. will enter Immediately upon a
wild rush for the North Pole via the At
lantic.
The present order Of things, It thus ap-
pears, can be perpetuated only during the
time the ice cap retains its cohesion. But
how uncertain this time must be. AS we'll
count upon the perpetuation of an icicle
hanging from your roof! The cohesion OF
the ice cap cannot possibly be prolonged
beyond certain point
There is sure to come time soon when
the cohesion Of this great ice mountain will
be subjected to a strain 1t cannot possibly
resist. No one can say how soon the event
will take place, but It Is just as sure to
come In our near future, says Mr.. Lewis as
that two and two make four.