The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1903-10-10
ICE In THE TROPICS.
WRITER SAYS IT Is PLENTIFUL
ON THE EQUATOR. r.,
Its Presence Simply a Question Of the
1 Operation Of Natural LaW-7oth
Snow and Ice Shrink and Expand as
the Seasons Wane.

It must be almost inconceivable,
even to many people who have been
to the equator, that within the swell
tering barbarism of the tropics there
are places where there is any guam
tity of ice and snow. Natural ice,
moreover, and not the dirty apology
for it which is manufactured, and re-
garded now as a necessity by the
white people who are gradually crowd
ing into the languid warmth perennial;
" filing the equatorial portions Oh
the earth. Right on the equator there
is both ice and snow covering wide
districts, where, as on an English Jan
uary midnight, the air bites shreWdiy
and it is very cold" The law that as
we ascend the air gets cooler and
cooler about a degree for every huh-
dred feet, holds good in the tropics
as we'll as in temperate climates, and
thus it is merely question of the ex-
istence of sufficiently high land any:
where to insure the presence of BOTH
frost and snow.
AS a matter of fact, if we look at n
spherical map of the earth, or globe,
the line where snow lies perpetually
rises in great curve, which beglns|
at the sea level within the arctic cir
cles and rises and rises over the equa-
tor to a height OF between $4,000 and
$4,000 feet. In the British Isles this
line passes but few hundred feet,
above the tops of the Scotch noun
tains, and it strikes the Alps about T.
900 feet above the sea. The Alps and
the Caucasus, the Pyrennees and the,
Himalayas and the desolate arctic
wastes are always covered with Ice
and snow above certain heights and|
above certain ATTITUDES; but in all
these extra-tropical regions the snow!
and the ice shrink and expand as the
seasons wax, and wane, the snow or
the arctic extending during the wins
tiers over wide areas in the temperate
regions, while from the high moun4
tains the snow fields invade the deep
forests and the cultivated areas In the
valleys every time the winter, sets In
The occasional oscillation of the snow
lines on the mountains, and In tha
winter spreading over the arctic SHOWS
and ice, have each of them far7reachj;
ing effects upon the vegetation OF tenn.
perature climates, which affect the for!
ests as we'll as the flowers that grow
under them, for they are both covered
up with snow, or frozen out, for many
months in the year. -.
tits on account of this circumstance
that we get, in the great ranges north
and south of. the equator, what are
termed Alpine lorae, or plants, the
welfare Of which depends upon their
being covered up in deep snow for half
the year, their structure having be-
come specially adapted to it. At first
sight we should perhaps expect that
the snow and ice upon the mountains
in the tropics should oscillate in the
same way, but, as a matter of fact.
it is perhaps the most marked chaE'
acteristic of the sweltering tropics that
they continue to swelter, without let
or hindrance, throughout the year, the
seasons being simply marked by hts
of hot drought and fits of equally hot
rain.-J. E. S. Moore in Pearson's Mag
aZine.