North and South Polar Regions.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVII, Issue 156, 4 July 1896, Page 2 (Supplement)

North and South Polar Regions.

The climate of the Southern Polar regions is much more severe than ab the North Pole, tho ico fields extending 10 degrees nearer the Equator from the south .than from the north. Within tho arctic circle there are tribes of living men on the borders of (ho icy ocean on both the east and wesb hemisphere, but within tha antarctic all is one dreary and uninhabitable waste. In the extreme north the reindeer and musk ox are found in numbers, bub nob a single land quadruped exists Joeyond 50 degrees of south latitude. Flowers are seen in Bummer by the arctic navigator as far as 78 degrees north, bub'no planb of any description, nob even a moss or lichen, has been observed beyond Cockburn Island, in 64 dagrees 12 minutes south latitude. In Spitzbergen, 79 degrees north, vegetation ascends the mountain slope to a height of 3,000 feet, bub on every land within the antarctic circle the snow line descends to the water's edge. The highest) latitude over reached ab the south is 78 degrees 10 minutes, while the north navigators have penetrated to 84 degrees. The reason for this remarkable difference ia the predominance of large tracts of land in the northern regions, while in the south there is a vasb expanse of ocean. In the north continental masses form an almost continuous belt around tho icy sea, while in the southern hemisphere the continents taper down into a broad extent of frigid waters. In the north the plains of Siberia and of the Hudson's Bay territories, warmed by the sunbeams of summer, bocome ab thab season centres of radiating heab, while the antarctic lands, of small extent, isolated in the midst of a polar ocean and chilled by the cold sea winds, etc., act) ab every season as refrigerators of the atmosphere. Further, ia the north the cold currents of bhe polar sea, having but two openings of any extent through which they can convey drift ice, have their chilly influence confined to comparatively narrow limits, but tho cold currents of the antarctic seas have scope to branch out freely on all sides and carry their ice even into temperate waters. Finally, in the northern hemisphere, the Gulf Stream conveys warmth even to tha shores of Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, while in the oppoaito regions of tho globe no traces of warm currents have been observed beyond 55 degrees of south latitude.