The St. Mary banner. (Franklin, Parish of St. Mary, La.) 1889-1931, 1905-05-20
The PERPETUAL SNOW Line.
NEVER DOES IT COME ALL THE
WAY DOWN TO THE SEA.
No Area Of Land in the World Lying
Near the Level Of the Ocean That
is Covered in an Everlasting
Blanket Of Snow.

A recent writer made the mistake
of referring 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 per
petually covered with snow, declares
the New York Sun.
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
the bleakest parts Of the world; yet,
during the long summer day, when
the sun is continually above the hori-
ZOn, all the winter SHOWS along the
southern valleys melt away up to
l,5OO feet above the sea.
Very little snow can be found in
Iceland in summer, the line Of per-
petual 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
summer and grass and flowers are
found to a height of 1000 feet.
AS for the great Arctic plains of
the northern 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 ele-
walton is so high above the sea that
winter polar conditions are main
tained the year round.
There are, of course. lofty eleva-
tiOns, such as mountains and the ice
cap of Greenland, that are perpetual
ly covered with snow. Geographers
have given much attention to what is
called the snow line, or the line which
marks the limit Of perpetual snow.
Its position is chiefly dependent up
on 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 irreg- |
ularly along most surfaces because
many mountain valleys, canons and |
slopes are shielded from the sun and
so are snow covered the year around |
far below the general snow line. This
Is not the case, however, in tropical
regions where there is little differ
ence in the temperature throughout
the year below the attitudes where
frost always reigns. The result is
that in the tropics the snow line on
he mountains is . comparatively
straight line.
OF course, the perpetual boundary
# snow approaches nearer to sea
evel the farther north or south we go
rom the tropics. The snow line on
Mount St. Elias in Alaska is 1900
eet above sea level, while farther
outh. in the region of the selkirks,
British Columbia, the snow line is
t an elevation of $500 feet.
In the Bernese Alps the limit of {
snow is $500 feet; on I
lount Etna, some hundreds of miles I
carer to the equator, it is 1912 feet; t
n Popocatepetl in Mexico it is 49,
90 feet, and on Aconcagua in Argen- s
ma it is 14,SO0 feet. And as we con-
nue. south the snow line sinks again
carer to the sea level; 5000 feet at {
[agellan Straits and $500 feet in $
Terra del Fuego. ]
In the northern hemisphere, where n
e southern slopes of the mountains E
'ceive the lions share Of the suns b
VS., the snow line lies lower on the /
,rthern slopes. Thus the line of I
,rpetual snow on the northern r
ope of Mount Blanc is about 5000 t,
ct, while on the southern slope. =
'erlooking Italy, it is 10000 feet O
'ove the sea. For this reason the D
lmlets Of the natives are built D.
CHER on the southern than on the
rthern slopes of the Himalayas. c,
On Mount Kilimanjaro, a little Il
nth of the equator in East Africa, e
lere the sun Is almost vertical over t,
the snow line on the southern and 81
'0ICAA oIuCS 40 Ac,VVO 1CCL dUOVC oCo | ~
rel, while on the northern and east il
q sides it is over $4,000 feet. A
AS ice melts much more slowly bj
IN snow, many glaciers move down fiji
the sea, while the snow line no te
ere reaches the ocean. This is the IL
se in Spitzbergen, Greenland, at th
unit st. Elias, and, in fact, in near of
all lands within or quite near the
ar regions. In Iceland no glaciers
scend lower than sixty-five feet
I'VE the sea.
n the temperate regions glaciers 'e
'cend far below the snow line. W.
us the lower limit of glaciers on
unit Blanc is $500 feet; among the
ladian Rockies, $500 feet; on I'M
,ncagua, 1900 feet; and on the ]al
thern island of New Zealand the
cier ends are only 600 feet above sh
sea, while the snow line is 1900
t.
Tut just as we see plants strug- en-
lg for life in almost every crack da
crevice Of the rocks. SO the hard sh'
specimens Of vegetation cling to
mountain sides to the very limit sal
perpetual snow. Life iD many Cn