LIFE AROUND THE POLES

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4313, 23 March 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

LIFE AROUND THE POLES

M. Dastre contributes to the “Revue des Deux Mondes’-' one of his informing articles on life and all things diving in the vast, regions ;which surround both the Berth and. South. Poles. To M. Dast-re’s mind,i the principal - interest of Arctic and Antarctic exploration is not the solving of certain scientific problems as much as the study of the animal and vegetable life of the Polar zones: In both PolaV regions there are four different variations of the landscape—the main ice-floe,’, the .inland seas, the mainland! and the', ocean: . In, these four spheres is; abundant room for thei habitation of animals' and plants. Of the two Poles the Antarctic zone is the most simple;: it is ah immense expanse, perpetually frozen, of which the centre is occupied by a vast continent, and the circumfer; enceds girdled; yith ice,- which forms, the ice-floe- The main continent is covered with a, jiuautio'--'of snow,-, which drifts round the rocky summits and smooths the sharp angles of the configuration of the soil. The spectacle is that of a. colossal glacier which disgorges, itself.into flic sea or ort the ice-floe. , REMARKABLE FAUNA AND. ’ ; FLORA. : ■ If this .vielw. of dhe Antarctic continent is correct,- the wonder is that or vegetable life:should be:maintained iri so uninhabitable-a region. As a matter of fact, - however, the ice-floe, at any rate, presents remarkable fauna and flora: Thp geographical conditions of. the. -Arctic zone are quite different from those pf. the Antarctic; it.is,certain'that a deiap.-sea occupies the centre. A characteristic of the Arctic zone ,is. the continuity of the ice-floo with the .lands .which are nob al - ways.-frozen over; this is a-.-matter of great importance from the point of vie.V of the distribution of animals’and plants. The-ice-floe is a very poor substitute for the : solid earth; it' is continually breaking up into crevases/.grinding itsrlf, into chasms, ahd rciunitmg, apparently capriciously, : but really in ; obedience, to the forces of winds and- submarine, currents. • It follows that the ice-floe can only furnish- a -very- precarious habitation for terrestrial animals, and its fauna is -therefore practically a marine bne-T ’ It is the principal glory of Nansen' to have realised the supremely important fact . that the ice-floe moves in obedience to. definite laws,-and - that its direction can be pretty; accurately, foretold., . • A FLOATING PRAIRIE. But it is time to pass on to thel ani-. mals. Curiously enough, the ice-floo in the Polar regions rests upon a relatively warm sea; the -waters of .-which are favourable -to certain; forms; of- submarine life., The depths of the Arctic, sea are actually a; little r. warmer," if anything, than those,of the oceans further" south. Even under the ice may be found "a kind of green moss,-which exhibits the elementary life related to the most simple idnds of seaweed. -Under the. nn-„ croscopo the tiny atoms" which make ip.tho whole Jayer ; reveals, the most qeautiful cells and" granulations.,,. ‘.Light, which is an almost essential condition of vegetable, existence, is obtained in summer when the'impenetrable layers of frozen snow, formed. during the winter disappear.. Thanks to this curious kind of moss, the ice-rfloe, in place of a horrible desert, becomes an immense float- - ing prairie, oa which.» prodigious quad-

tity of little animals find nourishmen’. Tfaeso creatures include jelly-fish, molluscs, and Crustacea, which, in their turn, furnish food to animals of greater size, such as members of the seal tribe!, whales and various birds. We thus have a chain of organised life depending ultimately upon millions of tiny points of albuminous seaweed.