The sun., 1903-12-06
LINE or PERPETUAL SNOW.
In No Part OF the World Docs It Como
All tho way Down to the Sec.

A recent writer made the mistake OF 70
ferring to all Arctic lands as tucked In
under their everlasting blanket Of snow,
We know, however, OF no land area lying
near the sea level that is perpetually COW
cred with snow.
Mr.. Peary, the only visitor to the most
northern land yet discovered, found flowers
and grass there and killed Arctic game that
had fattened on the herbage of the islands
lying north of the extreme northern coasts
Of Greenland. Spitzbergen is one OF he
bleakest parts of the world; yet. during
the long summer day, when the sun is con-
tinually above the horizon, all the winter
SHOWS along the southern valleys melt
away up to 1900 feet above the sea.
Very little snow can be found in Iceland In
summer, the line of perpetual snow being
about 1000 feet on the northern and 1000
feet on the southern side Of the mountains.
Along the coast of west Greenland the
white mantle of winter disappears in sum
mer and grass and flowers are found to
height of 600 feet.
A. for the great Arctic plains OF the
mort hern part of this continent they are OF
course entirely free from snow during the
summer months. Vegetable life thus has a
chance In all parts of the world, unless the
elevation is 30 high above the sea that win
ter polar conditions are maintained the
year round.
There are, of course, lofty elevations,
such as mountains and the ice cap Of Green
lana. that are perpetually covered with
snow Geographers have given much at
tention to what is called the snow line, or
the line which rks the limit of perpetual
snow. Its position is chiefly dependent
upon the summer temperature and the
depth Of the winter snowfall. The line
along which the sun ceases TO melt the snow
Is the snow line.
The snow line extends very irregularlv
along most surfaces because many mountain
valleys, caflons and slopes are shielded
from the sun and 80 are snow covered the
year around far below the general snow
line. This is not the case, however,, III
tropical regions where there is little differ
ence in temperature throughout the year
below the attitudes where frost always
reigns. The result is that in the tropics
the snow line on the mountains is COM
parativey straight line. 8
OF course, the perpetual boundary OF
snow approaches nearer to sea level the
farther north or south we go from the tropics.
The snow line on Mount st. Elias in Alaska
is 1900 feet above sea level while farther
south, in the region OF the Selkirks, British
Columbia, the snow line Is at an elevation
Of $500 feet.
In the Bernese Alps the limit of perpetual
snow is $500 feet; on Mount Etna, some
hundreds of miles nearer to the equator, 1t
is 89l2 feet on Popocatepetl in Mexico it
is 13, 700 feet, and on Aconcagua in Argen-
tina it is 14,sOO feet. And as we continue
south the snow line sinks again nearer to
the sea level: 5000 feet at Meg Han Straits
and $500 feet in TERRA del Fuego
In the northern hemisphere, where the
southern slopes of the mo ountains receive
the lions share Of the suns rays, the snow
line lies lower on the northern slopes. Thus
slope of Mont Blanc is about 8 600 feet, while
on the southern slope, overlooking Italy,
1t Is 10000 feet above the sea. For this
reason the hamlets Of the natives are built
higher on the southern than on the northern
slopes OF the Himalayas.
On Mount Kilimanjaro, little south of
the equator in East Africa, where the sun
Is almost vertical over 1t, the snow line
on the southern and western sides Is 1900
feet above sea level. while on the mort hern
and eastern sides it is over $4,000 feet.
As ice mets much more slowly than
snow, many glaciers move down to the sea,
while the snow line nowhere reaches the
ocean. This is the case in Spitzbergen.
Greenland, at Mount st. Elias, and, in fact,
in nearly all lands within or quite near
descend lower than sixty-five feet above
the sea.
In the temperate regions glaciers descend
far below the snow Line. Thus the lower
limit of glaciers on Mont Blanc is 5000
feet; among the Canadian Rockies, 6,6OO
feet; On Aconcagua, 1900 feet; and on the
southern island Of New Zealand the glacier
ends are only 800 feet above the sea, while
the snow line ia 1900 feet
But Just as we see plants struggling for
life in almost every crack and crevice of
the rocks, so the hardest specimens of
vegetation cling to the mountain sides up
to the very limit of perpetual snow. Life
in many forms is very tenaci ious, and is
bound to exist wherever there is the slight