The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1904-01-07
NO PERPETUAL SNOW
Even In Iceland There Il But L tile
in Summer.
Only the Loftiest Mountain Peaks
May he Said to Have an Ever
Iassins$ Coat OF
White.

recent writer mage the mistake of
relerrmg 10 ali arctic LANDS as tucked
IL uh0tr their everlasting blanket OF
SLOW. We know, however, OF no land
area lying near the sea level that is per-
p,Jually covered with seow. says a Chi
case paper.
Mr teary, the only visitor 10 the most
northern land yet disco,ered, found
MOVERS and grass there, anu KILLED arctic
game that nad fattened on the herbage
Oh the ISLANDS lying north OF the ex-
II, me coasts of Greenland. Spitzbergen
Is one OF the bieakest parts OF the world,
yet during the Ions ,ummtr DAY, when
the sun is continually above the hori-
zCh, all the winter SHOWS along the
southern valleys melt away up TO 1900
feet above the sea.
Very little snow can be found in Ice
lanG in summer, the line OF perpetual
SLOW being about 1000 feet on the north
eTn and 1000 feet on the southern side
ot the mountains. Along the coast {
west Greenland the white mantle OF
winter disappears in summer and grass
and flowers are found to height OF
400 feet.
AS for the great arctic plains of the
northern part of this continent they are,
oi course. entirely free from snow our
ing the summer months. Vegetable life
thus has chance In all parts of the
world. uHiess the elevation is so high
above the ca that winter polar tondi-
tions are maintained the year round.
There are, OF course, lofty elevations,
such as mountains and the ice cap OF
Greenland, that are perpetually COW
erd With snow. Geogrdphers have
C!.cn -Gch attention to what is called
the snow line, or the line which marks
the limit Of perpetual sEow. It's posi-
tion is chiefly GepeL.ent upon the sum-
ncr temperEtCre and the depth of the
winter snCaiall. The line along which
the sun CEASES TO melt the snow is the
snow line.
The snow line extends very irregu- !
larry along most surfaces because many
mountain valleys, canyons and slopes
are shielded from the sun, and so are
snow covered the year around far be- |
low the general snow line This is hot |
the case, however, in tropical regions, |
where there is little difference in tenn |
p, rature throughout the year below the |
attitudes where frost always reigns |
The result is that In the tropics the snow |
line on the mountains is a comparative
ly straight line.
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 $500 feet above sea
level, while farther south, in the region
OF the Selkirks, British Columbia, the
snow line is at An elevaticl of $500
feet.
In the Bernese Alps the limit of per-,
petual snow is $500 feet; on Mount
Etna, some hundreds of miles nearer
to the equator, it is 9,9l2 feet; on Po-
pocatepetl, in Mexico, it is 1900 feet,
and on Aconcagua, in Argentina, it is
14,S00 feet. And as we continue south
the snow line sinks again nearer to the
sea leyel-3,600 feet at Magellan straits
and $500 feet in TERRA del Fuego.
In the northern hemisphere, where the
|
ceiye the lions share of the suns rays,
the snow line lies lower on the northern
slopes. Thus the line of perpetual snow
on the northern slope OF Mont Blanc
is about 5000 feet, while on the south
ern slope, overlooking Italy, 1t is 10 600
feet above the sea. For this reason the
hamlets of the natives are built higher
n har hap he |
slopes of the Himalayas.
On Mount Kilimanjaro, little south
of the equator in East Africa, where
the sun Is almost vertical over It, the
snow line on the southern and western
sides is $1,000 feet above sea level, while
on the northern and eastern sides it is
over $4,000 feet.
AS ice melts 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 the polar regions.
In Iceland no glaciers descend lower
than 65 feet above the sea-
In the temperate regions glaciers de-
scend far below the snow line. Thus the
lower limit of glaciers on Mont Blanc is
5000 feet; among the Canadian Rock
les, 5000 feet; on Acancagua, 1900 feet,
and on the southern island OF New Zea-
land the glacier ends are only $50 feet
above the sea, while the snow line Is
7 500 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 limitlof perpetual
snow. Life in many forms is very ten
acious, and is bound to exist wherever
there is the slightest chance for it.
Publishing Business.