STRANGE DISCOVERY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 20044, 6 September 1920, Page 2

STRANGE DISCOVERY.

TROPICAL OASIS IN ARCTIC. Tl\<i war interrupted, exploration--of nnrl^’iT 1 p oUntl ' v west and LvS ? f th ? River. Yukon terntoiy, where there-is reason to believe that an astonishing oasis of tropical warmth will bo found in the » n ; toys a writer, in Ale World s Work,' comes From a. discovery of sudden and unexpected t af,?° of climate made in 1912 bv C. J M Intyre and two companions travelling north of the Porcupine by do> r Sledge with the thermometer at 40 groes,, below zero. It was cold going, but that was to be expected; what wasn’t to bo expected was that it began to turn warm. “It seemed.” says M’ In tyre, “as though we were suddenly passing from winter into spring.” In two hours the travellers bad discarded their Arctic coats and were marching in soft snow; presently they came to a hot spring and then to others; the siiow disappeared and : the stunted growth of an Arctic landscape gave way to dense vegetation. They were in fact on the outskirts of a considerable region where the climate was warn and the land supported bear, baribou. duck, wild geese, pheasant and Other game. The' little company of three, however, was not equipped for an extended exploration and the war came_ in time to postpone the second trio into the territory. Now an expedition is preparing which will bring back more specific data. Rumours of such a tropical oasis have come out of the North in the past and the actual discoverv of the remains of mastadons lends likelihood to the thought that there is really about to be found and mapped a. section of the Arctic where the local conditions create a tropical environment _ for living creatures.—“ Christian Science Monitor.”