LIFE AT THE POLE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 772, 22 March 1910, Page 2

LIFE AT THE POLE.

H0W ;j THINGS LOOK AT NlNErii" : ■■■ /X/ ■.If a man could live.at the North Pole! through one. hundred days, he wojild be one .hundred;-years.,old, .for..a year at! , the Pole: is ' made up of.' just , one- dayr and one night. ■..,.. ~ . V About March'.l thel'suri peeps, ajwvei the horizon; but.not in the east, for the man.on the Pole; there;is no east, nor west, nor north; there is nowhere!' to go but 'south;'-. A few days later sun is .apparently rolling-round on the. horizon ..for.;. the , entire twenty-four hours. Without a .timepiece .the, .man. at the Pole could not distinguish the 29th day of, March from : ihe 30tt ofMarch. -To paraphrase a popular'song,, all days in the calendar look alike toi him;,.:; ■../.. .. ■: . ; ■ ..' After apparently rolling over .the horizon.for sixty or seventy hours,"the .sun,..always in full view, .begins. ..aslowly, ascending spiral until it reaches , ' an altitude of 23 \ degrees;■ There are' 90 degrees from the horizon to , the zenith, aiid 23J are considerably less i than a third of 90 degrees; so the man at the Pole, doesn't have to lean;backf< ward to gaze at the midday sun.". , : .After somo two.or three days at greatest altitude, the .sun begins "a slowly, descending spiral course, and;, about the middle of September it i?' agaiii rolling round the horizon, anda..' few hours later, as the last edge of it. ' disappears below the horizon, nightf ensues—a night lasts from Septemi ber 21 until the following March 21'. . The man at the Pole sees all.the stars iiiithe northern half of the celee- .. tial firmament at one time; he,does not have to wait for the" revolution ol * the earth on its,axis to bring any of them.into view., The moon'.visits'him and keeps him company, for weeks, cir« '■' cling the horizon just as the sun. didjbut at; a lower altitude. '. : . j . ; Thb north star, Polaris, is almost directly overhead—it is- a degree' and.-, a fraction, you know, out of true north.

At the Pole all meridians of longitude meet; so to describe one's position there no ■ longitude is necessary—only latitude. 90; degrees. .'.. .. .. The north pole of the compass points, south at the North Pole; so, indeed does the south pole of the compass, for south is the only direction away from the North.Pole. ; ; ; ! " V -. , Thei stars appear brighter, a star, of one magnitude less: than can be seen in the United States- being' easily visible in the Arctic regions. ... . • ;; No. rotation of the earth takes place at the Pole. So while the man at the Equator is turning with the earth a-t the rate of over a ■ thousand ! miles ail hour,. at the exact Pole he would not turn at all—or .at most,., if: he stood stock still for twenty-four.' hours, , he himself would rotate just once. ■-■■■■■ ■■ The Pole is the;-nearest point on the surface of the earth to the centro of the earth;. consequently, on leaving the; Pole, one would have to ; be continually marching uphill. For this same reason, things weigh more at,the Pole thai anywhere else' on the surface of the earth. '; L ';' ' ' ; : : ■ ■■:•