Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1907-04-05
NORTH AMERICAS CLIMATE.
Would Il be Changed BY Opening
Channel In Arctic.

Snannel III FTVHO'
Undo the awful work of Noah's
flood: change North America into
semi-tropical paradise; make Mime
sofa and North Dakota and Manitoba
and Winnepeg like to California and
the Carolinas; destroy our winters
within five years.
That Is the legislation before the
Canadian parliament today. 1t isn't
the dream of lunatic. 1t is as hard
headed a proposition as ever legisla-
/ tors considered. The scheme, in a
word, is for the United States and
Canada to unite to destroy the rigors
of the North American winter by blast
ing out the channel between the Arc
tic and the Atlantic, melt the long
sunken ice and allow the warm cur
rent from the milder Atlantic to per-
meate the frozen Businesses Of the
Arctic.
The plan is R. A. McLennan's.
He lives at Russell, Manitoba,
where it is nothing to see the mercu-
nv down to forty below zero on a cold
winters morning He Is farmer on
large scale, one Of Canada's rich
est men. His hobby is to make all
North America a continent with very
mild winters and less torrid summers.
The plan has just been presented to
the Canadian parliament. 1t involves
the aid Of the United States as well.
IT is now in the hands Of the Hon.
Frank E. oliver, minister of the In
terror for the Dominion of Canada.
He has gone over 1t very carefully
and as proof Of his own conviction
that 1t is possible, he has communica-
ted the details to several scientists OF
world wide fame, with a request for
an opinion.
Lord Kelvin has been consulted and
will report later. Minister oliver has
communicated with Mr.. McLennan
and has informed him that he may
be encouraged in his scheme and ask
ling for more particulars.
Once upon a time, as geology plain
ly proves, North America enjoyed as
balmy a climate as there was In the
world. The remains of mammoths
and trees and semi-tropic shrubbery
are to be found all along the edge OF
the Arctic circle, and in Northern ST.
IBERIA.
The great flood of Noah's time un-
did all this. 1t made North America
a land of bleak winters and scorching
summers. 1t blocked up the channel
to the Arctic and kept the warm wa
ters of the Atlantic from laving those
ice-locked northern shores. All this
and more-has been Mr.. McLen-
mans life study.
He speaks about 1t frankly. His
arguments seem unanswerable. AS he
talked about his plan with writer
for the World Magazine he grew en-
thusiastic.
Now what caused the mild winter
in which these fossil trees once liV-
ed ?" he asked, and he answered the
question himself.
Undoubtedly" he said, "it was
caused by a greater stretch OF open
ocean to the north than now exists.
Labrador is in the same latitude as
the British Isles; the south Of Green
land corresponds in this particular to
Norway, and Newfoundland to the
north of France. Were 1t not for the
modifying influences Of this great
stretch Of open ocean, the winters In
Europe would be of Arctic severity.
.-"What caused the once open ocean
to the north Of Canada to be turned
into an ice field? Beyond doubt, the
fact that the great ocean current
which at one time flowed from the
Atlantic into the Arctic became I'M
peded by some barrier.
1T Is a scientific fact, which you
can verify by consulting any geogra-
nher. that in the bed Of the Atlantic
there is a channel on the east side ex-
tending from south Of the equator,
northward and passing between the
Fargo and Shetland islands at depth
of go fathoms. This passage Is about
$50 miles wide, and believe that 1t Is
through this channel that the current
between the Atlantic and the Arctic
oceans formerly flowed.
Now, precise scientific calculations
will show you that current foWing
through this channel at the rate OF
four miles an hour, and at a temper
ature ten degrees above freezing point
would allow of sufficient water to pass
through to melt 1000 cubic miles OF
ice per day.
"That Is to say, in four or five years
this would melt all the ice In the Arc
tic ocean, and Canada, from being
country of vigorous winters, would
become almost semi-tropical, and all
the land which stretches in such vast
areas to the north of us would share
in that climate and become habita-
ble."
By means Of much mental applica-
ton, poring over maps, charts, ana
scientific works, Mr.. McLennan has,
he believes, found out what the bar
rler Is WHICH SloppCu SiS
tween the two oceans. More than
that. he has, he declares, solved the
problem of removing that barrier.
He works 1t out this way:
After the glacial period" he said,
there was a time when the Arctic
was a great open ocean. with quite
large cake near the Pole. Ice was
then gradually disappearing just as 1t
is now. But in time this cake became
detached from its moorings. and drift
ed here and there over the Arctic
| ocean.
After drifting about for long
time, this ice cake became stranded
in the Atlantic and Arctic channel
blocking it just as ice will temporari-
w block our Canadian rivers In the
spring of the year. To block this
channel would, l calculate, have re-
uuired an ice cake 500 or 900 miles
across, probably one-twelfth of the
% ha