Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-05-11
sTEFANssON DISCOVERY
REEVES OLD DISCUSSION
Exports Disagree on Cause Of Former
Genial Weather In Polar
Region.
MAs1IoTHs FROZEN IN ICE
Some Authorities Declare That Great
Animals Were Struck by Sudden
Change of Temperature Which
Affected Entire World.
BY GARRETT p. sERvIss.

Referring to the question OF the
cause OF tho former genial climate in
the Polar regions. which has been re-
vived by Stefanssons discovery Of coal
on new land within the Arctic Circle,
two correspondents simultaneously
champion the theory that the great
climatic change was due to an altera-
ton in the position OF the earth's axis
| OF rotation. And both find support for
the theory in the story OF the disap-
pearance OF the mammoths. One OF
them says:
The a4ial change was undoubtedly
due to cosmic accident, because what
apparently occurred was violent.
sudden change. as evidenced by the
overwhelming of the large animals
feeding on tropical vegetation by an
caused them to be frozen solid and TO
be 80 completely incased in ice as to
preserve their flesh and stomach con-
tents 1or many thousands OF years
Deny Tropical Climate.
Now. whatever may have been the
case millions of years ago. when the
coalbeds were deposited. 1t is certain
that there has been no tropical climate
in the Arctic regions and no great and
sudden change in the earth's axis
within the period OF time in which
mammoths--lived in Siberia and Alaska.
They seem to have reached their
meridian In the Pleistocene epoch dur
Ing which the great glacial inyasions
occurred. and they were contemporary
with early man in Europe. Whatever
bods- w.r se and Id so.sn
tundra. it cannot have been due to a
because the mammoth was distinctly
acoid,weathcr animal, specially clothed
w, ,s t tSnI n nsdsy aar supplemented
ne Was used to an Arctic climate.
and so fond of the cold that when the
ice during the glacial epoch advanced
southward these huge mammals fol-
ments Of hair and wool with them. as
that the men OF the old Stone Age lett
on cavern walls and elsewhere OF their
gigantic elcphantine contemporaries.
Due to Local Causes.
1t is probable that the preservation
OF so many, bodies Of mammals in the
frozen mud sinks along Siberian and
Alaskan rivers was due TO local causes.
such az thaws and foods. instead of
TO any vast and sudden climatic change
affecting a whole hemisphere. AS to
the supposition that they fed on tropi-
written in lsi5 BY sA Dr.. W. We D. ' Sat,ne9
a. foremost authority on this subject
He IL speaking Of the bodies Of nam
Tho contents OF the stomach show
that these animals fed upon the same
vegetation. grasses and scdges. blrchcs
in the far north
In a word, the mammoth belonged
to much later age than that when
genial climates prevailed nearly all
over the Garth. even including tho Arc
tic and Antarctic lands. To return to
what seems to be the most popular
period and Of its DISAPPEARANCE. viz,
a change in the earth's axis OF rota-
ton. We may take up Professor w. c..
Pickering's suggestion that all the
planets formed By tho hrea kim n
condensation OF rings left OF during
the contration OF the original ncbula
reioped. would, at first. rotate on their
axes In rctrograde direction. l. G.,
! contrary TO their revolution around the
sun.
II Never Fable Result.
This. appears TO be an inevitable re-
suit OF tho inverse square law APP
piled to the velocity OF PARTICLES re-
volvinE at slightly different distances
from their common center of motion.
Tho outer particles of a ring travelling
slower than the inner ones, when the
I enec, Of this differences in Velocity
would be Backward rotation.
Blu: the tides produced in the un-
solicited planets by the attraction Of
the. sun would. ~ a manner the de-
tails which cannot he entered upon
the direction o: rotation by tipping
the axis over. The end OF this process
would be reached when the axis, hav-
ing been tipped over end for end. was
brought into position at right an
giles to the plane of the planets revo-
luton around the sun. the planet then
rotating in a forward direction, after
which there would be no change.
Now 1t is fact of observation that
the outermost planet of the solar sys-
tenn: Neptune. still rotates backward,
while the neSt nearer one. Uranus, APP
pears to be approaching the point Of
channe from backward to a forward
rotation. That Saturn and Jupiter once
rotated backward seems to be indi-
Gated by the retrogrado .nerolution
OF their most distant satellites. The
earth has passed into the state Of for
ward or direct rotation. but it's axis
is still more than % degrees from per-
pendicularity TO the ecliptic.
Extremely interesting possibilities
depend upon these considerations. but
they relate TO an immense antiquity
and there is no room to discuss them
here. Another time they may be taken
up.