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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coming Ice Age, by C. A. M. Taber
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Coming Ice Age
-
-Author: C. A. M. Taber
-
-Release Date: August 29, 2019 [EBook #60195]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COMING ICE AGE ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Tim Lindell, Charlie Howard, and the Online
-Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
-file was produced from images generously made available
-by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
-
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-
-[Illustration: No. 1.
-
-THIS MAP SHOWS THE SPREAD OF GLACIERS AND ICEBERGS, AND THE EXTENSION
-OF SOUTHERN LANDS DURING ICE AGE AND ALSO THE DIRECTION OF WINDS AND
-OCEAN CURRENTS.]
-
-[Illustration: No. 2.
-
-THIS MAP SHOWS THE SPREAD OF GLACIERS AND ICEBERGS AND THE DIRECTION
-OF WINDS AND CURRENTS AT THIS DATE.]
-
-
-
-
- THE
- COMING ICE AGE.
-
-
- BY
- C. A. M. TABER.
-
-
- BOSTON:
- GEO. H. ELLIS, 141 FRANKLIN STREET.
- 1896.
-
-
-
-
- COPYRIGHT, 1896.
- BY C. A. M. TABER.
-
-
- GEO. H. ELLIS, PRINTER, 141 FRANKLIN STREET, BOSTON.
-
-
-
-
-PREFACE.
-
-
-The explanations given in the following pages, in which I have sought
-to show the manner in which an ice age is being brought about, is an
-extension of a treatise on “The Cause of Warm and Frigid Periods,”
-which I published in a small edition in 1894. And, from the small
-number of copies circulated, only a few came to the hands of persons
-particularly interested in such matter. Yet there were instances of
-its having proved of special interest to persons celebrated for their
-geological attainments, and also to instructors in physical geography.
-Besides, it received considerate notice in some of the leading reviews.
-Being thus somewhat encouraged, and thinking that the subject was too
-important to be neglected, I have given it further study during the
-last year, and meanwhile have obtained additional information from
-recent discoveries which has served to corroborate my views. Hence I
-have been able to be more explicit in my explanations in the present
-volume than in my earlier writings. Still, while acting as a pioneer in
-the matter, it will be seen that I have only attempted to expose the
-main outlines, as my age and failing health will not permit me to enter
-into the voluminous details necessary for a full explanation. In order
-to show why my attention has been turned to the great climatic changes
-which have taken place during past ages, and now threaten the future, I
-will repeat the introduction of my earlier publication, wherein I wrote
-that “the reason why I have undertaken to explain the causes which have
-brought about the warm and cold epochs is because of my being unable
-to harmonize the several theories that have been published with the
-general mode of action which nature pursues to-day. Having in the early
-part of my life been employed for a score of years in the whaling
-service, during which time my sea voyages were passed in cruising over
-the North and South Atlantic, and over the Indian Ocean, from latitudes
-north of the equator to the southern shores of Kerguelen Land, and
-along the seas of Southern Australia, I also, in my searching, cruised
-over the Pacific Ocean from the icy seas south of Cape Horn to the
-northern latitudes of Alaska, and, from New Zealand in the Western
-Pacific to the numerous islands in the tropical zone. And it may be
-said that among the chief things to be learned on such voyages was the
-direction of the prevailing winds and surface currents of the sea. Thus
-the impressions then received were in mind when, in after years, I had
-my attention drawn to the several theories advanced for explaining the
-causes which produced the warm and frigid epochs. But, so far as my
-marine experience goes, such theories have not harmonized with nature’s
-mode of operating at this age of the world. Therefore, I have conceived
-views which, to my mind, are more agreeable to the simple operations of
-nature of which I have long been witness. Consequently, I have written
-several short essays on climatic changes since 1880, and also letters
-relating to the same subject, which have been published in _Science_
-and _Scientific American_. But the space allowed for the introduction of
-such matter was necessarily too limited for so wide an explanation as
-the subject required. The views then advanced I have again repeated,
-with the addition of several facts pertaining to physical geography,
-which, so far as I know, have never before been published.”
-
- WAKEFIELD, MASS., U.S.A.
- June, 1896.
-
-
-
-
-CONTENTS.
-
-
- CHAPTER I.
-
- PAGE
-
- CAUSE OF COLD AND MILD PERIODS, 9–36
-
- Traces of ancient glaciers in temperate zones, 9;
- prevailing winds the main cause of the circulation of
- the ocean waters between the tropical and temperate
- zones, 10; general direction of prevailing winds, and
- how, in connection with continents, they circulate the
- surface waters of the sea, 11; high and low sea-levels;
- separation of antarctic lands from South America, 12;
- Captain Larsen’s discoveries in antarctic regions,
- 13; how low lands south of Cape Horn were submerged,
- 13; how the winds move more surface water southward
- than northward, 14; Dr. Croll’s views on winds and
- ocean currents, 16; under-currents of the ocean, and
- how caused, 16; Gulf Stream currents, 17; antarctic
- under-currents, 18; why the winds were able to force
- more of the ocean waters southward than northward
- at the close of the Tertiary age, 19; Mr. Alfred R.
- Wallace’s views on Tertiary seas, 20; how the Cape Horn
- channel affects the ocean currents, 21; cause of the
- increase of cold in southern latitudes, 22; how the
- Cape Horn channel is closed during ice age, and its
- effect on ocean currents and temperature of southern
- latitudes, 24; the melting of glaciers from southern
- lands, 27; a salt sea requisite for circulation during
- ice age, 28; direction of surface currents in southern
- seas, 29; Humboldt current, 30; Agulhas current, 32;
- temperature of arctic ice, 34; movement of southern
- icebergs, 35; glaciers south of Cape Horn, 36.
-
-
- CHAPTER II.
-
- HOW ICE PERIODS IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE ARE BROUGHT
- ABOUT, 37–54
-
- Northern seas during Tertiary age, 37; Gulf Stream during
- Tertiary times, 38; the origin of a cold period in the
- northern hemisphere, 38; remarks on Gulf Stream and
- arctic currents, 39; circulation of arctic waters, 40;
- arctic channels during ice age, 41; how the weight of
- glaciers in the northern hemisphere attracts the waters
- of the southern seas during ice age, 42; Professor
- Prestwich on the submergence of European lands, 43;
- the great Atlantic tide rips the head-waters of the
- Gulf Stream, 44; high sea-level of Atlantic calm
- region, 45; tropical Atlantic currents, 46; Sargasso
- Sea, 48; arctic and Gulf Stream currents, 49; Pacific
- Ocean currents, 50; slow growth of an ice period, 52;
- reduction of Cape Horn channel, 53; permanence of
- antarctic glaciers elevated above the snow-line during
- mild periods, 54.
-
-
- CHAPTER III.
-
- SPREAD OF GLACIERS DURING COLD EPOCHS, 54–61
-
- Spread of glaciers in tropical zone, 54; Professor Agassiz
- on the origin of Galapagos Islands, 55; the bowlders
- of Hood’s Island and rookery of Albatross, 56; alpine
- flora of Galapagos and tropical America, 57; Mr. J.
- Crawford on ancient glaciers in Nicaragua, 58; Cuba and
- Republic of Colombia during ice age, 58; destruction
- of animal life during glacial age, 59; temperature
- of North Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea during ice
- age, 60; temperature of ocean during warm epochs, 61;
- generative age ascribed to warm eras; Professor Wright
- on pre-glacial man, 61.
-
-
- CHAPTER IV.
-
- THE GLACIERS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONE, 62–75
-
- Professor Hitchcock on the early history of North America,
- 62; glacial deposits of Nantucket and Martha’s
- Vineyard, 63; Professor James Geikie on the glacial
- deposits of Northern Italy, 64; California coast ranges
- the work of Sierra glaciers, 65; ancient glaciers on
- the Pacific slope north of California, 67; Professor
- Geikie’s views on the ancient glaciers in the Salt
- Lake region, 68; Colorado Cañon, 69; the conglomerate
- deposits in the Appalachian district, 69; remarks on
- the glacial boundaries in United States during ice age,
- 70; sands of Florida, 71; ancient ice-sheets of the
- plains west of the Mississippi River, 73; the driftless
- region of Wisconsin, 74; tropical waters of North
- Atlantic chilled during ice age, 75; the drifted snow
- of British America and Siberia during ice age, 75.
-
-
- CHAPTER V.
-
- REMARKS ON THEORIES ADVANCED FOR EXPLAINING ICE PERIODS, 76–93
-
- Professor Geikie on supposed causes of the glacial period,
- 76; change in the relative level of the land and sea
- during glacial and post-glacial times, 77; submergence
- of northern lands at close of ice age, 78; the main
- cause of the movement of water from the northern seas
- at the close of glacial age, 79; why the earth-movement
- hypothesis should be rejected, 79; glaciers of Europe
- and Alaska, 80; North Pacific currents, 81; why the
- Pacific waters are growing cool, 82; the lowering
- temperature of the northern seas, 83; the increase of
- cold in Europe and Asia, 84; falling temperature of
- the Andean region, 85; General Drayson’s astronomical
- discoveries for explaining the cause of ice periods,
- 87; why the Gulf Stream was always confined to the
- North Atlantic, 89; the improbability of the Indian
- Ocean currents entering the arctic seas, 90; why the
- increase of glaciers must continue while the Cape Horn
- channel maintains its present capacity, 91; comments on
- the coming ice age, 92; tropical zone the abode of man
- during ice age, 93; preservation of the tropical ocean
- fauna through the glacial period, 93.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER I.
-
-CAUSE OF COLD AND MILD PERIODS.
-
-
-It is now generally conceded by those who have given the subject much
-attention that the greater portion of North America above the latitude
-of 39° north to the shores of the Arctic Ocean has been furrowed and
-scoured by the action of ice.
-
-Vast traces of ancient glaciers are also found in Europe; for it is
-reported that ice-sheets have left unmistakable marks of having overrun
-the greater part of the lands lying between the arctic seas and the
-latitude of the Pyrenees.
-
-In Asia evidences of glacial action have been noticed from Northern
-Siberia to the mountains of Syria.
-
-The great glaciers of Himalaya have in times past attained gigantic
-proportions. In Northern China huge bowlders are found scattered over
-the valleys, and a long distance from the mountains.
-
-The southern hemisphere, in proportion to the extent of its land
-surface, shows ample traces of former ice action. From the latitude of
-38° south to the southern extremity of the western continent there is
-said to be the clearest evidence of former glacial action in numerous
-bowlders scattered over the land.
-
-On the shores of the South Pacific, from the Island of Chiloe to
-Cape Horn, the coast is fringed with deep fiords, which appear to be
-channelled out by ice, like the fiords of Norway and Greenland. And at
-this date the mountains of that southern region are covered with snow,
-and the glaciers which flow down the valleys are said to reach the
-tide-water as far north as the latitude of 47° south. The glaciers of
-New Zealand, now of Alpine proportions, during the ice age descended
-to the sea, and channelled the deep fiords on its south-western coast;
-and certain traces of glacial action have been observed in Southern
-Australia, and also in the province of Natal, South Africa.
-
-Kerguelen Land is pierced with deep, narrow fiords, which have the
-appearance of having been the work of ancient glaciers.
-
-The lands south of the antarctic circle are to-day supposed to be
-covered by an ice-sheet, of which the great ice barrier surrounding
-that region furnishes ample proof.
-
-While impressed with the above reports of the work of ancient
-glaciers, in connection with my own observations along the shores of
-the several oceans, I have been led to seek for the physical causes
-which brought about the great climatic changes of past geological
-ages. And, while having the subject under consideration, I have had my
-attention directed to the manner in which the great prevailing winds in
-connection with continental lands are able to move the heated surface
-waters of the tropical oceans into the colder zones, and also transfer
-the cold waters of the higher latitudes into the tropical zones.
-
-And it is through this grand movement of the ocean waters that we are
-enabled to account for the difference in the temperature of places now
-lying in the same parallels of latitude.
-
-The natural methods for conveying tropical heat into the higher
-latitudes, and also for excluding it therefrom, are so simple and
-efficient that on due consideration we are able to conceive how epochs
-possessing mild climates have been succeeded by periods of frigidity.
-
-It has been admitted by several writers on climatic changes that,
-should the tropical surface waters of the ocean be moved into the
-high latitudes in large volume, thus adding their warmth to the heat
-imparted by the sun, such combined heat would cause a mild climate.
-And it has been estimated that the amount of equatorial heat moved
-into the temperate and polar regions of the northern hemisphere by
-the Gulf Stream alone is equal to one-fourth of all the heat received
-from the sun by the North Atlantic from the tropic of Cancer to the
-arctic circle. Still, it appears to me, while viewing the subject from
-a marine standpoint, that the explainers of climatic changes have never
-fully comprehended the manner in which the surface waters of the ocean
-are moved from the tropics into the high latitudes, and returned from
-the high latitudes to the tropics. Consequently, they have neglected
-necessary and efficient natural agents in their explanatory theories,
-and with much learning and ingenuity have laboriously sought to show
-how great changes of climate could be brought about through other
-causes.
-
-But when we notice the simple methods employed by nature to-day for
-transferring the heat of the tropics into the higher latitudes, and
-also the manner of excluding such heat therefrom, they appear to afford
-an explanation for the great changes of climate which have taken place
-during past ages; for it appears that the natural manner of proceeding
-by which heat is moved from the torrid zone into the high latitudes
-sufficient to cause a mild climate is through the ocean currents which
-are constantly set in motion by the great prevailing winds of the
-globe. These winds, as is well known, blow mostly from the east toward
-the west in the tropics, and from the west toward the east in the high
-latitudes.
-
-This counter-movement of the winds, in connection with a continent
-extending both northward and southward from the equator over many
-degrees of latitude, such as obtains on the western continent, is
-abundantly able to create extensive depressions and elevations on
-the ocean’s surface, and thus cause vast streams of water to move by
-gravity from the high sea-levels to the low sea-levels; and in this
-way the tropical waters have been moved during past ages, and to a
-considerable extent are now moved far into the northern and southern
-seas.
-
-This transfer of the ocean waters is the main cause of a temperate
-climate being enjoyed by countries situated in the high latitudes at
-this age.
-
-But, in order that the tropical currents should be able to flow into
-the high latitudes, in quantities sufficient to cause all lands and
-seas situated in such latitudes to enjoy a mild climate, it would be
-necessary that the land should extend unbroken, or nearly so, from
-the arctic to the antarctic circles. Thus, with a continent of such
-vast extent, the westerly winds would blow the surface waters of the
-ocean away from the eastern shores in the high latitudes, and so cause
-extensive low sea-levels; while the easterly winds of the torrid zone
-would heap the surface waters of the ocean against the eastern tropical
-shores of the continent. Consequently, the warm waters of the tropical
-high sea-level would be moved by gravity to the low sea-levels of the
-high latitudes, even to the arctic and antarctic regions, and thus
-afford them a mild climate. In this way we account for the mild climate
-enjoyed on lands and seas within the high latitudes during the warm
-epochs anterior to the glacial periods.
-
-As the western continent is the only land that extends unbroken from
-the equator to the cold latitudes of both hemispheres, thus affording
-an opportunity for the prevailing winds to move the tropical waters
-into the high latitudes, I will call attention to that portion of the
-continent which extends far southward into the southern ocean, where
-the winds and ocean currents have the greatest range and power to
-affect the climate on different parts of the globe. Here we see South
-America separated from the antarctic continent by a wide channel of
-deep water, where the westerly winds blow with great force. The space
-now covered by this interesting channel, owing to its being situated in
-the high southern latitudes, must have been occupied by a channel of
-comparatively small capacity, or else an isthmus of low land uniting
-the southern portion of South America with the antarctic continent
-during the warm epochs when the beds of the ancient seas of the
-northern hemisphere contained a considerable portion of the water now
-swelling the southern ocean.
-
-Therefore, the obstructions which separated the Pacific Ocean from
-the South Atlantic furnished opportunity for the westerly winds to
-force the surface waters of the sea away from the leeward side of such
-obstructions, causing a vast low sea-level, sufficient to attract the
-tropical waters heaped against Brazil by the trade winds into the
-southern seas in adequate quantity to cause a mild climate throughout
-the antarctic regions through long periods of time.
-
-Recent discoveries have proved that these high southern latitudes have
-been subject to great changes of climate. According to the reports
-from the Dundee whalers, while searching for seal in the icy seas that
-surround the South Shetlands, they met with the Norwegian ship “Jason,”
-Captain Larsen, who had traced the eastern shore of Graham Land to 68°
-south latitude, noting two active volcanoes.
-
-The same mariner brought from Seymour Island fossil shells and
-coniferous wood of the Tertiary epoch.
-
-These furnish sufficient evidence to show that a warmer climate once
-prevailed there.
-
-At the commencement of the glacial age the obstructions which separated
-the South Pacific from the South Atlantic had become deeply submerged
-by the sea, which may have been caused by a tendency of the ocean’s
-waters to move southward or by a comparative small movement in the
-earth’s crust. But, on account of the stability of the crust of the
-earth during times so late as the glacial epochs, the submergence of
-this southern region was probably owing to the movement of the ocean’s
-waters from the northern hemisphere into the southern hemisphere,
-which appears to have been brought about mostly through the agency of
-the great prevailing winds; for it seems to have happened that the
-prevailing winds on account of the disposition of the lands and seas
-were able to move more of the ocean waters southward than they moved
-northward during the age preceding the glacial periods. The waters
-thus slowly and gradually forced into the high southern latitudes
-must have deprived the northern hemisphere of their heaviness, and
-added their weight to the southern hemisphere. Therefore, the waters
-moved southward could not all be returned to the seas of the northern
-hemisphere by gravity, for the reason that the earth’s centre of
-attraction would change in accordance with the weight of water moved
-from the northern hemisphere into the southern. It will thus be seen
-that, while the northern seas were drained or became shallow, the
-augmented southern oceans deeply submerged the region south of Cape
-Horn, thus widely separating the western continent from the antarctic
-lands.
-
-Although the south-east trade winds on the eastern sides of the
-Atlantic and Pacific Oceans extend further northward than the
-north-east trade winds extend southward, owing to the heated tropical
-shores north of the equator being more extensive than such lands
-south of the equator, still, on account of the general weakness of
-the south-east trade winds at the equator, and also because of the
-obstructing northern lands, they have during remote times, and at this
-age, been largely prevented from impelling the surface waters of the
-sea into the northern latitudes in opposition to the brisk north-east
-trades. Furthermore, on account of the widening of the oceans as they
-extend southward, the surface currents setting in the latter direction
-have more broad and easy passages than the great currents setting
-northward.
-
-Moreover, the great currents setting southward on the western sides
-of the oceans south of the equator are also much assisted during the
-southern summer months by the strong north-east monsoons which prevail
-along the east coast of equatorial Africa and the east coast of South
-America as far as the latitude of 30° south.
-
-The South African current is impelled northward by the trade winds down
-the south-western coast of Africa; but it is debarred from entering
-the northern latitudes by the Guinea currents, and so turned away into
-the south equatorial current which flows into the Brazilian stream.
-
-The Gulf Stream is much obstructed in its northern movement by the
-narrow Florida channel and the opposing arctic currents, and also
-by the trend of the North American coast eastward; while its return
-current on the eastern side of the Atlantic has a much less obstructed
-passage in its southern movement, and, while on its way past the Azores
-and Madeira Islands, is largely assisted by the prevailing winds.
-
-The Brazil current, with the impelling force of a strong north-east
-monsoon during the summer season, has no obstruction whatever in its
-southern passage until it meets with an offshoot from the great drift
-current of the southern ocean.
-
-And the same favorable conditions are obtained by the great currents
-setting southward on the western sides of the South Pacific while on
-their way to the low sea-levels east of Southern Australia and New
-Zealand. That portion of the equatorial stream of the Pacific which
-continues west across the Indian Ocean finds no open passage to the
-northern seas. Consequently, it turns south along the east coast of
-Africa into the southern seas.
-
-Therefore, this current, in connection with the great currents setting
-southward east of Australia, offsets the great Humboldt current setting
-north along the coast of Peru.
-
-In the North Pacific the Japanese current setting northward is
-obstructed by the narrowing of the ocean; while its return current
-on the American side has a constantly widening ocean on its passage
-southward, and also favorable winds to impel the surface waters toward
-the equator. Still, with all the facilities above mentioned for the
-movement of the ocean waters into the southern latitudes, it is
-probable that since the shallow seas of the northern hemisphere were
-drained, or much diminished, the prevailing winds have not possessed
-sufficient force to further augment the southern seas, because of the
-superior weight of the land in the northern hemisphere compared with
-the lands south of the equator.
-
-It will appear to those who attribute the rotation of the earth as
-being the main cause of ocean currents that I am too much given
-over to the wind theory. But I have reason to believe, as Dr. Croll
-has asserted, that “the winds are the principal cause of the ocean
-currents, and are not due to the trade winds alone, but to the general
-impulse of the prevailing winds of the globe.”
-
-Dr. Croll also declares that “all of the principal currents of the
-globe are moving in the exact direction which they ought to move,
-assuming the winds to be the sole impelling cause.”
-
-Those who think that the rotation of the earth is the real cause of
-the movement of the great surface currents of the sea should explain
-in some reasonable way why the Agulhas current turns west into the
-Atlantic from the Mozambique stream, and why the Guinea current turns
-to the east from the main tropical current of the North Atlantic; for
-it seems that these two great currents move in direct opposition to the
-rotation theory, while at the same time many things go to show that
-they receive their motion from the winds. This view of the question
-will receive further attention in succeeding pages.
-
-It is the opinion of some writers that a difference of temperature
-and density between the waters of the polar latitudes and the torrid
-zone is the principal cause of the movement of the surface waters of
-the ocean from the equatorial latitudes toward the polar seas, and
-so returned in under-currents; and this is a favorable factor for
-assisting the winds on some parts of the sea, especially in aiding the
-Brazil current in moving the surface waters from the high sea-levels
-abreast Brazil, and the equatorial calm belt of the Atlantic into the
-southern ocean, and also for favoring the surface currents setting
-southward on the western sides of the South Pacific and Indian Oceans.
-
-Yet, whatever gravitating force it may possess for assisting the
-above-named currents, it would also act against the impelling force of
-the trade winds, while they were drifting the surface waters northward
-toward the equator on the eastern sides of the several oceans, and also
-to retard the returning surface currents, while being drifted by the
-winds southward on the eastern sides of the North Atlantic and North
-Pacific. Therefore, while it would seem to favor the winds in their
-work on the one hand, it would act as an opposing agent on other parts
-of the ocean. Still, the difference of temperature between the tropical
-and antarctic seas probably does act in opposition to the wide and
-brisk trade winds on the eastern sides of the great oceans south of the
-equator, and so prevents their impelling the surface waters northward
-to a great extent; and this seems to be one great cause of there being
-less surface water moved northward than southward over the greatest
-oceans of the globe.
-
-The theory that the difference of density caused by the difference
-of temperature between the polar seas and the equatorial oceans made
-under-currents to flow from the polar latitudes, and meet in the
-equatorial seas, can only be carried on in the Atlantic Ocean, and in a
-comparatively less perfect way in the Pacific Ocean, and not at all in
-the Indian Ocean.
-
-The North Atlantic being open to the Arctic Ocean, a portion of the
-Gulf Stream waters that enter it from the north-west of Europe do sink
-and return southward in under-currents; and the cold waters which pass
-down the east and west coast of Greenland also sink under the Gulf
-Stream while on their southern movement. The meeting of these arctic
-currents with the cold under-currents from the antarctic seas in the
-tropical zone is probably one cause of their cold waters rising near
-the surface of the sea in the torrid latitudes of the Atlantic; and
-the same conditions probably obtain in a somewhat less degree in the
-Pacific Ocean.
-
-Yet it appears that the cold waters of the Antarctic occupy the largest
-space in the tropical zone, even in the North Atlantic. Dr. Carpenter,
-in his lectures on Ocean Currents, speaks of meeting with antarctic
-water so far north as the latitudes of the West India Islands; and
-he also says that all of the Pacific Ocean at its depths is supplied
-from the Antarctic Ocean, as are the cold under-waters of the tropical
-Indian Ocean, which extend over twenty degrees north of the equator.
-
-Thus, from what we can learn of the antarctic under-currents, they seem
-to show that they are not wholly attracted northward on account of
-the difference of temperature between the antarctic and the tropical
-oceans, but partly because of more surface water being moved southward
-by the prevailing winds than they are able to move northward.
-
-And it appears that, if through the winds, combined with the difference
-of temperature between the antarctic seas and the equatorial waters,
-and also because of the oceans widening toward the south, more surface
-water is being carried southward than northward, the waters of the
-under-currents so caused must rise toward the surface in the latitudes
-from which they were first removed. Having called attention to the
-fact that the prevailing winds are not able at this date to augment
-the southern ocean waters from the scanty northern seas, because of
-the preponderance of northern lands, still there is reason to believe
-that even now, owing to the form of continents and oceans, and the
-attraction of the tropical surface waters into the Antarctic Ocean
-because of the difference of density between the warm and cold seas,
-the prevailing winds of this age are able to force more of the surface
-waters of the sea southward than they force northward; but, owing to
-the superior weight of the land in the northern hemisphere, the surplus
-surface water forced into the southern seas is returned by gravity
-after being cooled by the antarctic ice, and so adding to the deep
-under-currents which flow with a sluggish movement over the bottom of
-the sea into the tropical and northern temperate latitudes. And in this
-way the northern oceans are maintained at their present sea-level.
-
-The cold under-currents are probably assisted in their northern
-movement by whatever difference there may be in the density of the
-antarctic waters over the bottom waters of the equatorial seas. But,
-as such currents extend into the northern tropical latitudes of the
-northern hemisphere, it seems that the winds are the main cause of the
-under-currents which carry so much antarctic cold into the northern
-tropical seas, because the winds have forced an undue proportion
-of ocean surface water southward, to be attracted northward in
-under-currents by the preponderating northern lands.
-
-Yet, notwithstanding the superior weight of land in the northern
-hemisphere, it appears that there have been periods when there was
-somewhat more water in the oceans of the southern hemisphere than now;
-for it is reported that a portion of the low lands of Australia show
-traces of having been submerged during late geological times.
-
-This may have happened through an increased weight in the antarctic
-glaciers, which have in past ages, and probably may in future epochs,
-cause more of the ocean waters to be attracted southward than now
-obtains. But it is probable that an increase of southern ice would be
-largely counterbalanced by the accumulation of ice on northern lands.
-
-Yet it appears certain that since the Tertiary epoch the waters of
-vast shallow seas have been moved from the northern hemisphere into
-the southern. The dry beds of the ancient northern seas encourage this
-opinion, while the comparatively small area of southern lands serves to
-support such views.
-
-Still, during the ages prior to the glacial periods, while the low
-lands of the northern hemisphere were covered by the sea, the wide
-shoal channels which submerged the lower portion of North America
-afforded convenient passages for the surface waters of the ocean in
-their northern movement, and so prevented the oceans of the southern
-hemisphere from gaining undue preponderance.
-
-Hence long geological ages passed away before the winds were able
-to force more of the ocean waters southward than they could move
-northward, and thus augment the southern ocean from the waters of the
-northern seas. But the slow growth of such immense marine deposits
-in the shallow seas as are found in the Florida Peninsula and other
-portions of that region was at length sufficient to greatly obstruct
-the passage of the Gulf currents in their northern movement, and thus
-cause conditions which enabled the winds to force more of the ocean
-waters southward than they could move northward after the close of the
-Tertiary epoch.
-
-Mr. Alfred R. Wallace says in “Island Life” that the seas in the
-northern hemisphere during the Tertiary period covered a much larger
-area than now, and extended across Central Europe and portions of
-Western Asia, and the Arctic Ocean was enlarged.
-
-As it is not likely that any portion of the waters of the sea have been
-absorbed by the earth during the late epochs in the world’s history,
-therefore the ocean waters have not diminished except during cold
-periods, when the water evaporated from the sea was converted into ice,
-and, eventually, again returned to the sea.
-
-Thus it necessarily follows that, when the seas of the northern
-hemisphere contained a much larger portion of the waters of the globe
-than at this age, the seas of the southern hemisphere must have
-contained proportionally less. Consequently, during such times a
-portion of the shoal seas of the high southern latitudes must have been
-dry land. Therefore, this must have been the condition of the shallow
-sea basins in the region of Cape Horn.
-
-Mr. Wallace also says that “many peculiarities in the distribution of
-plants and some groups of animals in the southern hemisphere render it
-almost certain that there has sometimes been a greater extension of
-antarctic lands during Tertiary times.”
-
-And he also asserts that the great ocean basins have not changed, and
-that the form of continents has been permanent. It will thus be seen
-that it was through the movement of the ocean’s waters southward that
-the low lands south of Cape Horn were covered with water previous to
-the frigid periods, and so caused the wide separation between the
-western continent and the antarctic lands.
-
-The Cape Horn channel thus enlarged, the continuous mildness of the
-high southern latitudes which possessed the earlier ages came to an
-end, and gave place to alternate epochs of frigid and mild weather.
-For it appears that it is owing to the creation or enlargement of the
-Cape Horn channel that it is possible for frigid periods to be brought
-about, for the reason that its enlarged space of water prevents the
-westerly winds from maintaining a great low sea-level in the higher
-latitudes of the southern ocean; for, whenever the capacity of the Cape
-Horn channel is enlarged, the westerly winds, instead of maintaining a
-low sea-level on the South Atlantic, employ their force in impelling
-the surface water of the southern seas around the globe. And this work
-the strong westerly winds of the high southern latitudes have always
-accomplished whenever the Cape Horn channel was widely open, and this
-is what the winds are doing at this date.
-
-Therefore, such waters of the torrid zone as are moved southward from
-their high sea-level, caused by the trade winds abreast the Brazilian
-coast, are largely turned away from the high southern latitudes. It is
-true, even with an enlarged Cape Horn channel, they can always flow
-along the South American coast to an inferior low sea-level, caused by
-the westerly winds blowing the surface waters of the sea away from the
-coast of Argentine and Patagonia; but on gaining that region they meet
-the cold ice-bearing currents which turn away east of Cape Horn from
-the great southern drift current to gain the same low sea-level which
-attracts the Brazil water. Consequently, the ice-bearing currents from
-the south, which branch off from the great southern drift current, are
-able to largely turn away the warm Brazil current from the higher
-southern latitudes; and, furthermore, the great southern drift current
-which passes through the Cape Horn channel, and so onward around the
-globe, also partly turns away the Mozambique current as well as the
-East Australian current, and so largely prevents their waters from
-warming the southern seas.
-
-Therefore, it is evident that, whenever the Cape Horn channel obtains
-sufficient capacity to give an independent circulation to the southern
-ocean, the conditions are favorable for the increase of cold in the
-southern latitudes. For it is because of the large exclusion of the
-tropical waters from the southern seas that ice-sheets have been
-able to form in early periods and in later epochs on the antarctic
-lands, and store away the annual frosts for thousands of years, and
-at the same time furnish icebergs sufficient to chill the waters of
-the southern temperate oceans, and consequently make cold such of the
-surface waters of the sea as are forced into the southern latitudes by
-the winds in surface currents, and so returned to warmer seas in cold
-under-currents, and thus with such frigid combinations bring about cold
-periods.
-
-Thus it appears, as I have previously shown, that it is owing partly
-to there being more of the surface waters of the sea forced southward
-by the prevailing winds than they impel northward that the cold
-under-currents are maintained; but it also requires an independent
-circulation of the southern ocean, such as I have pointed out, to cool
-its surface waters before they can sink and form cold under-currents.
-
-And there is reason to believe that such cold under-currents are more
-efficient in lowering the temperature of the temperate and tropical
-oceans than even the icebergs which such under-currents move into the
-temperate seas. And, when it is considered that the cold antarctic
-under-currents fill the depths of the Pacific and Indian Oceans in the
-northern hemisphere, and also largely the tropical depths of the North
-Atlantic, I am led to believe that the frigid conditions of the ice
-age were concurrent in the northern and southern hemispheres. The main
-reasons for such belief I will explain in the following chapter.
-
-After the foregoing explanations, showing how frigid periods are
-brought about through the independent circulation of the southern ocean
-surface waters, it is evident that, whenever through a slow natural
-process the Cape Horn channel is closed, a great change is wrought in
-the circulation of the southern ocean.
-
-For instead of the westerly winds blowing the surface waters of the
-southern seas constantly around the globe, and so turning away and
-preventing the entrance of the tropical currents into the high southern
-latitudes, the strong westerly winds, whenever the Cape Horn channel
-is closed or greatly obstructed, would blow the surface waters away
-from the Atlantic side of the closed channel, and so cause a great low
-sea-level, sufficient to attract the ocean waters of the tropical high
-sea-level abreast Brazil well into the southern seas. Therefore, it is
-important to trace nature’s slow methods of closing the wide Cape Horn
-channel at the perfection of an ice age.
-
-In my previous explanations on the subject I have thought that, should
-the southern seas have remained at or near the same sea-level as now,
-through an ice period brought about in the manner I have described,
-ice-sheets would accumulate on the antarctic continent, and also on the
-southern lands of South America, sufficient to flow out into the sea
-and close the Cape Horn channel.
-
-But further consideration shows the impossibility of the southern seas
-having maintained their present sea-level during the growth of frigid
-epochs which have left such ample traces of glaciers having extended
-widely over the lands of the high latitudes of both the northern and
-southern hemispheres. For it appears that the larger areas of land in
-the northern latitudes, embracing wide continents and large islands,
-must, during the growth of a frigid age, have increased the spread of
-glaciers many times greater in extent than could be obtained on the
-smaller lands of the high latitudes of the southern hemisphere.
-
-For it is evident that the water evaporated from the sea and deposited
-in snow on the large continents and islands of the high northern
-latitudes during the growth of an ice period would, while thus
-diminishing the ocean waters, greatly increase the weight of northern
-lands. Therefore, the waters of the diminishing seas of the southern
-latitudes would be attracted into the northern oceans in opposition to
-the prevailing winds.
-
-Thus it appears that the Cape Horn channel would be too much reduced at
-the perfection of an ice age to afford an independent circulation for
-the southern ocean, even without being filled by glaciers to the extent
-I have pointed out in previous essays. Still, to whatever dimensions
-the Cape Horn channel might be reduced at the perfection of a frigid
-period, the enlarged shores bordering its diminished waters would be
-covered by heavy glaciers that would flow into the shrunken strait, and
-so close it effectually. Thus the reduction of the Cape Horn channel
-during the advance of an ice age seems, on close consideration, to be a
-simple operation of nature, which in the normal course of events must
-have taken place.
-
-As the closing of the Cape Horn channel has been considered by
-reviewers the weak and questionable point in preventing my views from
-gaining acceptance, it becomes necessary to be explicit concerning the
-manner in which the Cape Horn channel has in past ages been obstructed.
-
-According to the charts prepared by John James Wild, the middle portion
-of the strait is represented as being over a thousand fathoms in depth;
-but, as far as I know, its true soundings have never been determined.
-The deep portion of the mid-channel is described as being narrow
-when compared with its whole breadth from Cape Horn to the antarctic
-continent.
-
-And, when it is considered, with the growth of an ice age, how much of
-the ocean waters would be stored in the vast ice-sheets of the northern
-hemisphere, and consequently because of their weight a large portion of
-the diminished southern oceans would be attracted into the northern
-seas, it seems that the bottom of the shoaler waters of the Cape Horn
-channel, which now comprise so large a portion of its breadth, would be
-raised above the surface of the sea.
-
-The one-hundred-fathom depth south of Cape Horn, now supposed to extend
-from longitude 70° west to 55° west, and southward to the latitude of
-57°, would be a land supporting heavy glaciers for six hundred miles
-along the north side of the reduced channel during the advanced growth
-of a frigid age; and the same conditions would be obtained in the
-vicinity of the South Shetland. And when, in addition, we contemplate
-the great snow-fall of that region, and the consequent gathering of
-glaciers which would occur on the widened shores of the lessened
-channel, and the certainty of their flowing into the diminished strait,
-together with the immense icebergs of such an age grounding in the
-shoaled waters, it seems that the complete obstruction of the reduced
-channel would be accomplished.
-
-While contemplating the conditions that would obtain while the Cape
-Horn channel was being reduced, it will be seen that the independent
-circulation of the icy southern ocean would be carried on to a
-considerable extent even after the narrowing strait was no longer
-able to afford space for wide drift currents, for the reason of the
-strong current that would be caused on account of the high ocean-level
-maintained by the westerly winds on the Pacific side of the diminishing
-channel, and the great low sea-level that would take place on its
-Atlantic side.
-
-Still, as previously shown, it seems that during an advanced stage of
-the frigid epoch, the heavy glaciers from the enlarged northern and
-southern shores of the shrunken channel, together with the ponderous
-icebergs, blocking its waters, the closing process would at last be
-speedy and effective.
-
-And on further consideration it might be said that a channel of much
-less width and depth would not have been of sufficient capacity to
-have caused ice periods so wide-spread as those that have left their
-traces on the continents and islands of the globe, for the reason
-that the independent circulation of the southern ocean would not have
-been sufficiently complete and long continued to have brought such
-world-wide cold periods to perfection.
-
-With the Cape Horn channel closed, as above explained, there would be,
-as I have asserted, a great change wrought in the circulation of the
-southern ocean; for instead of the westerly winds blowing its surface
-waters constantly around the globe, and so turning away and preventing
-the entrance of tropical currents into the higher latitudes, the strong
-prevailing westerly winds would blow the surface waters of the sea from
-the Atlantic side of the closed Cape Horn channel, and so cause a great
-low sea-level, sufficient to attract the ocean waters of the tropical
-high sea-level abreast Brazil well into the southern seas.
-
-The winds of the southern westerly wind-belt being stronger in that
-region than on any other portion of the globe, consequently they are
-able to do nearly as much work while drifting surface water as the belt
-of westerly wind of greater width on other parts of the southern seas.
-Thus a person who has had a long experience with the forcible westerly
-winds of the southern ocean can well understand their ability for
-disturbing the ocean waters in the latitudes of the Cape Horn channel.
-
-The drift currents of this region are moved by the winds and waves
-from one to four miles an hour. Therefore, with the Cape Horn channel
-closed, there is nothing more certain than that the westerly winds
-would be able to cause a vast low sea-level on the Atlantic side of
-the closed Cape Horn strait, and that the waters of the high tropical
-sea-level abreast Brazil would be attracted to its wide depression, as
-shown on map No. 1.
-
-The tropical waters thus attracted far southward would be cooler
-than the tropical waters of to-day, owing to the great amount of
-cold imparted to the ocean by the numerous icebergs of a frigid age.
-Still, they would begin the slow process of raising the temperature
-of the southern ocean, and would in time carry sufficient heat into
-the southern regions to melt the ice from all southern lands; for, in
-addition to the Brazil currents, the waters of the high sea-level of
-the tropical Indian Ocean which pass southward down the Mozambique
-channel would reach a much higher latitude than during periods when the
-Cape Horn channel was open.
-
-The ice periods of the northern and southern hemispheres being
-concurrent, a condition which I shall explain in another chapter, makes
-it obvious that during the melting of the glaciers from the antarctic
-continent and other southern lands the depleted Cape Horn channel
-could not gain sufficient capacity to give an independent circulation
-to the southern ocean during the melting of the southern ice-sheets,
-on account of the diminishing heaviness of the antarctic ice and the
-greater weight of the extensive glaciers and augmented seas of the
-northern latitudes. Consequently, it seems that the southern seas would
-continue in a lessened state while the glaciers were being melted from
-the northern hemisphere, as was the case during the melting of the ice
-from the southern hemisphere; and, furthermore, during such times the
-glaciers which overrun all the low lands and shoal waters of the Cape
-Horn region would, on account of their position being to the windward
-of the tropical currents, be the last great mass of ice to melt from
-the southern hemisphere.
-
-Therefore, it seems that the Cape Horn channel would continue closed
-or greatly obstructed while the glaciers were being melted from the
-lands of both hemispheres. Thus at length a mild climate would extend
-over the globe, and so remain until the prevailing winds slowly forced
-the surface waters of the sea into the southern ocean in the manner
-explained in previous pages, thus filling the Cape Horn channel to its
-present capacity, and again restoring the independent circulation of
-the southern ocean.
-
-While contemplating the conditions that would obtain during the melting
-of the ice from the antarctic lands, it will be seen that the tropical
-waters attracted to the great low sea-level to the leeward of the
-closed Cape Horn channel would eventually enter the great bight of
-the antarctic continent to the eastward of Graham Land, where Captain
-Weddell sailed to the latitude of 74° south. This deep gulf, owing to
-its situation, would receive the full impact of the southern movement
-of the tropical currents; and, as the warm waters spread over the
-wide sea-level, the westerly winds would convert them into a drift
-current, and under such conditions would be driven along the shores
-of the antarctic continent, past the South Indian and Pacific Oceans,
-and eventually, after undergoing a cooling process from the long icy
-passage, be forced against the Pacific side of the closed Cape Horn
-channel and the western Patagonian coast.
-
-While regarding the circulation of the sea during an ice age, it may
-be said that the ocean’s being composed of brine was the cause of its
-waters being able to circulate in frigid latitudes where fresh water
-would congeal. Consequently, this is one of the reasons why successive
-periods of frigidity and mildness have been brought about; for with an
-ocean of fresh water, repeated epochs of cold and warmth could not have
-occurred, because a sea composed of fresh water would have congealed
-while circulating in the high latitudes during a frigid age. Therefore,
-it required a sea of brine to maintain a liquid state during the low
-temperature of an ice period.
-
-For, while the cold of a glacial age increased, the saltness of the sea
-increased also, because of the great amount of fresh water evaporated
-from the ocean, and stored in ice-sheets on the great continents and
-islands of the globe. Thus the briny sea was maintained in a liquid
-state, while washing vast ice-fields and glaciated shores and floating
-the numerous icebergs of a freezing age. The cold which radiated
-from such ice-bound seas must have been severe; but meanwhile the
-evaporation from the ocean was much reduced, while the saltness and
-coldness of the sea increased, and so prevented the ice of a glacial
-period from gaining invincible proportions before the independent
-circulation of the southern ocean was arrested. Therefore, the
-remaining warmth of the tropical waters after gaining free access to
-the antarctic latitudes was able to overcome the accumulated cold of
-that frigid region.
-
-At this date the observant navigators who have visited the antarctic
-seas report that the surface currents above the latitude of Cape Horn,
-while being drifted eastward by the prevailing westerly winds, also set
-toward the antarctic ice cliffs, as shown on map No. 2.
-
-The reason why this southerly set of the surface currents becomes
-noticeable above the latitude of 55° south is because the tropical
-currents which set southward from the torrid latitudes on the western
-sides of the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans, although largely
-turned away from the high latitudes by the westerly winds and drift
-currents, are also able to send sufficient water into the great
-belt of westerly winds to furnish water for the deep under-currents
-setting northward from the antarctic shores. Thus the surface waters
-moving from the north in order to gain the higher latitudes, after
-entering the westerly wind-belt, are moved in drift currents by the
-impelling winds easterly over many degrees of longitude, and also at
-the same time slowly southward among the cooling icebergs, because of
-the attraction caused by the difference of temperature and density
-between the northern drift waters and the icy seas of the antarctic ice
-barrier. Consequently, the gradual movement of the surface waters of
-the westerly wind-belt southward before entering the higher latitudes
-is not generally apparent; for it is after they enter latitudes where
-the globe becomes much reduced in circumference that their southern
-movement in the contracted seas becomes more noticeable. The impact of
-this southerly current, which finds its outlet in deep under-currents,
-and retards somewhat the increase of ice on the southern continent at
-this date, also largely prevents the small icebergs and field-ice from
-floating northward, away from the antarctic ice barrier; for it is such
-large icebergs as penetrate the deep under-currents that are the best
-able to move into the more temperate latitudes.
-
-From the above explanations it will be seen that the impact of surface
-water against the antarctic ice barrier when the Cape Horn channel
-was closed would greatly assist the tropical waters attracted to the
-great low sea-level to the leeward of the obstructed strait to wash the
-antarctic shores while being drifted eastward by the westerly winds
-over the southern ocean against the Patagonian coast and the Pacific
-side of the closed channel, and there causing a high sea-level. This
-movement of the winds and currents encircling the antarctic continent
-is shown on map No. 1.
-
-The vast, high sea-level caused by the westerly winds drifting the
-surface waters against the Patagonian coast would obtain a much higher
-plain, were it not that so much of the water of the great drift current
-was required to feed the antarctic under-current which constantly sets
-northward from the antarctic shores; yet it would be sufficient to
-greatly increase the volume of the Humboldt current, which would flow
-in the same direction it now flows, down the South American coast to
-the equatorial latitudes, where it would become the main source of the
-great equatorial stream, and thus offset the increased southward flow
-of the equatorial waters through the Brazil and Mozambique streams.
-
-The equatorial stream, with its increased volume, would also move, as
-it moves to-day, across the Pacific; and, on gaining the western side,
-after sending off large streams to the northern and southern latitudes,
-it would pass through the East India passages into the Indian Ocean,
-where it would be drifted westward by the trade winds and cause a high
-sea-level abreast the east coast of Africa, and so become the source
-of the great Mozambique current, which would flow southward along the
-east coast of Africa, and, with the Cape Horn channel closed, would
-gain a much higher latitude than it would with the channel open. At
-this age, when the continuation of this great equatorial stream gains
-the latitude of the Cape of Good Hope, its waters are largely turned
-eastward by the great drift current of the southern ocean.
-
-Still, a considerable portion of its waters turns toward the west,
-forming the Agulhas current, which flows around the Cape of Good Hope
-into the Atlantic, where it mingles with the cooler currents which
-branch off from the great southern drift current; and so, in connection
-with the latter, it is attracted to the low sea-level caused by the
-south-east trade winds abreast the south-western coast of Africa,
-and from thence moved as a drift current by the trade winds to the
-equatorial Atlantic and coast of Brazil. Thus it will be seen that the
-Agulhas current, even with the Cape Horn channel in possession of its
-present wide capacity, serves to retard somewhat the advance of a cold
-period.
-
-The Agulhas current at this date also partly serves to replenish the
-water which is forced from the South Atlantic by strong westerly winds
-into the Southern Indian and Southern Pacific Oceans. For it appears
-that more water is now removed by such winds from the South Atlantic
-than enters it from the South Pacific, even through the enlarged Cape
-Horn channel of this date; and this fact seems to favor an impression
-that a portion of this enlarged channel existed prior to the glacial
-periods, but with its waters so much reduced as to be unable to give
-the southern ocean an independent circulation sufficient to exclude the
-tropical currents from reaching the high southern latitudes in adequate
-volume to maintain a mild climate in the southern hemisphere.
-
-For previous to the glacial age, with little or no ice gathered on
-the antarctic lands, it seems that a strait possessing one-half the
-capacity of the Cape Horn channel of the present age could not prevent
-the Brazil current and the Agulhas stream from flowing into the
-southern ocean in quantities sufficient to make it impossible for
-glaciers to form on southern lands.
-
-Thus it is probable that a reduced channel separated the western
-continent from the antarctic lands even in the mild eras previous to
-the glacial epochs.
-
-The Cape Horn channel, at the present age, with a capacity sufficient
-to largely maintain an independent circulation for the southern ocean,
-is still only one-third of the breadth of the westerly wind-belt of the
-southern seas. Therefore, the drift currents do not all pass through
-it from the Pacific into the Atlantic. Consequently, a considerable
-portion of the drifted water turns northward west of Cape Horn, and so
-forms the Humboldt current.
-
-The Agulhas stream, which even now assists in replenishing the South
-Atlantic with tropical water, would, during the perfection of a glacial
-period, with the Cape channel closed, be a much stronger stream than
-it now obtains with the Cape channel possessing its present enlarged
-capacity, for the reason that the South Atlantic waters would continue
-as now to be forced eastward by the westerly winds, while they could
-not be replenished, as they are to-day, directly from the South Pacific.
-
-Consequently, the waters of the South Atlantic Ocean would be
-correspondingly reduced.
-
-Such conditions alone would greatly increase the volume of the Agulhas
-stream at the culmination of a frigid age. Therefore, the work of
-subduing a frigid period in the southern hemisphere after the Cape Horn
-channel was closed would not rest on the Brazil current alone, but also
-on the great equatorial stream of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
-
-Yet during such frigid times the sources of the equatorial stream would
-be greatly chilled by its two great feeders, the Humboldt current and
-the returning Japanese current, both of which flow down from the high
-latitudes and meet in the equatorial latitudes on the eastern side of
-the Pacific, thus cooling the source of the great equatorial current.
-
-But this latter stream, while on its long western passage across
-the Pacific and Indian Oceans, beneath a torrid sun, with only
-one cold feeder from the south which approaches it along the west
-side of Australia, would, on its long tropical journey, be able to
-obtain considerable warmth, even during an ice period, to supply the
-Mozambique and Agulhas streams, and so greatly assist the Atlantic
-waters in bringing about a mild period. Still, the process of subduing
-the cold of the southern latitudes would be slow, even with the Cape
-Horn channel closed, because of the vast collection of ice burdening
-the sea and land.
-
-Yet there were conditions that were naturally brought about to favor
-the process of returning warmth; for it appears that, when the southern
-ocean was made shallow because of a considerable portion of its waters
-having been moved into the northern hemisphere, it will be seen that
-the conditions were more favorable for the westerly winds to create
-drift currents than would be the case on deeper seas. Therefore,
-the high and low sea-levels caused by such winds would be greater
-on a shallow ocean than would occur on deeper waters. Thus the low
-sea-levels of the shallow southern sea would have strong attraction
-for tropical surface waters, and so increase the thickness of its warm
-drift currents, and at the same time its lessened depths would have
-less capacity for the storage of cold water to reduce the temperature
-of the under-waters of the tropical zone.
-
-And, furthermore, when the southern ocean was shallow, New Zealand
-acquired a longer extension of land to the north and south.
-Consequently, the enlarged low sea-level on its eastern side attracted
-more tropical water into the southern latitudes than now.
-
-So, according to the conditions I have pointed out, the ice-sheets
-would at length melt away, and a long period of mildness would succeed
-on account of the length of time it would require after the ice
-disappeared from the earth for the prevailing winds to move the surface
-waters of the augmented northern seas into the southern ocean, and
-again restore its independent circulation, and so, after a considerable
-lapse of time, bring about the geographical and climatic conditions
-existing at the present date, which can be seen on map No. 2, which
-shows that a cold period has already made considerable advance in the
-southern hemisphere, the southern continent and islands being covered
-with glaciers, and the prevalence of icebergs as far north as the
-latitude of 35° south.
-
-Moreover, when we consider that the independent circulation of the
-southern ocean is caused by the westerly winds blowing its surface
-waters constantly around the globe through the open Cape Horn channel,
-and so largely preventing the tropical currents from entering the
-high southern latitudes, and how, in consequence, the cold is slowly
-on the increase through the constant accumulation of ice on the lands
-and in seas of the southern latitudes, it appears that a frigid age
-is slowly progressing in the southern hemisphere. For it seems that
-continental ice-sheets should not only be able to retain their freezing
-temperature, but also the mean of the low temperature in which they
-were formed, for a considerable length of time, and so impart their
-extreme coldness in the shape of icebergs into such seas as border on
-the glaciated lands.
-
-It has been proved at Point Barrow that strata of ice and gravel can
-maintain a wintry temperature through the summer months. Captain
-G. B. Borden, keeper of the refuge station in that region, states
-that Lieutenant Ray, of the Signal Service, excavated through ice and
-gravel to a depth of forty-one feet, and that the lower portion of the
-excavation maintains a temperature 15° Fahrenheit above zero the year
-around. Therefore, with the probability of southern glaciers obtaining
-a temperature of over 15° Fahrenheit below the freezing point, we
-can well realize the frigidity imparted to the southern oceans while
-melting numerous immense icebergs, and consequently will conclude that
-the temperature of the southern latitudes is gradually lowering.
-
-The icebergs of the antarctic seas would not move northward into the
-temperature latitudes so readily as they now do, were it not that the
-general southward set of the southern ocean currents were interrupted
-by the movement of northerly surface currents in the longitudes of
-the low sea-levels, caused by the westerly winds drifting the surface
-waters of the sea from the eastern coasts of Southern South America and
-New Zealand. For it is owing to the low sea-levels thus created, in
-connection with the deep under-currents which set northward from the
-ice cliffs of the antarctic lands, that many icebergs are enabled to
-move into the temperate latitudes, especially to seas north-east of the
-Falkland Islands.
-
-On other portions of the southern ocean above the latitude of 55° south
-the surface waters, while being drifted eastward by the strong westerly
-winds, also set toward the antarctic shores, and so furnish water for
-the cold under-currents which set northward from that frigid region.
-Thus from such parts of the coast only the largest bergs, which require
-a deep sea to float them, are moved by the under-currents into the
-temperate latitudes. Therefore, it happens that, while an ice period
-progresses, and the antarctic icebergs increase in size, the more
-readily the cold, deep under-currents force them into the temperate
-zone, in opposition to the winds and surface currents.
-
-The icebergs, after gaining the temperate latitudes, are moved more
-or less eastward by the westerly winds and drift currents, and so are
-scattered over the southern temperate oceans, where the melting bergs
-impart whatever coldness they were able to store up while forming in
-the antarctic regions.
-
-The low sea-levels caused by the westerly winds to the leeward of New
-Zealand and to the leeward of Argentine, not only cause the ice-bearing
-currents to set northward, but they also cause the tropical currents to
-make considerable inroads into the high southern latitudes. This is the
-reason why the lands are less burdened with ice on the antarctic shores
-opposite Cape Horn than on other parts of that glaciated continent.
-
-The tropical currents which turn southward east of New Zealand largely
-mingle their waters with the great southern drift current, and so
-are carried through the Cape Horn channel. Owing to this cause, the
-antarctic lands abreast Cape Horn are less burdened with ice than other
-portions of the antarctic shores.
-
-Thus, were it not for this penetration of warm waters southward, the
-antarctic coasts south of Cape Horn, because of the great snow-fall of
-that region, would obtain heavier glaciers than other portions of the
-southern continent. But the time is slowly coming when, with a lower
-temperature, the ice-sheets on the lands in the vicinity of the South
-Shetlands will attain greater thickness than the glaciers on other
-shores of the antarctic continent.
-
-Hence it appears that, when the several agents for producing
-and distributing cold in the southern latitudes are taken into
-consideration, the immense and continuous storage of ice on the
-southern lands, which adds to the wide-spread fleet of icebergs that
-float the southern temperate seas, and also the vast movement of
-cold antarctic water into the temperate and tropical oceans in deep
-under-currents, combined with the increasing coldness of the westerly
-winds, are now slowly bringing about in the southern hemisphere a
-period of frigidity.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER II.
-
-HOW ICE PERIODS IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE ARE BROUGHT ABOUT.
-
-
-A large number of geologists are of the opinion that during the whole
-of the Tertiary period the climate of the northern temperate and arctic
-latitudes was uniformly warm, without a trace of intervening frigid
-periods. I have before explained why the climate was made warm in the
-southern hemisphere during the Tertiary epoch, and how on the closing
-of that age, and subsequently, a considerable portion of the ocean
-waters had moved from the northern hemisphere into the southern.
-
-Therefore, the northern seas during Tertiary times covered a much
-larger area than have obtained during periods following that mild
-epoch. So, when the low lands of Europe were submerged, the Baltic,
-Caspian, and other neighboring seas, now land-locked, were a portion of
-an enlarged Atlantic. Consequently, the westerly winds blew over a much
-wider North Atlantic than during the later periods.
-
-Thus the high sea-level caused by such winds on its European side was
-greater than has since been obtained with the Atlantic of less breadth.
-This high sea-level, composed largely of drift water from the ancient
-Gulf Stream, had convenient access to the enlarged Arctic Ocean, which
-then covered the low plains of Northern Europe and Siberia. And owing
-to the trend of elevated lands north-eastward, which then formed the
-southern shores of the Arctic Ocean in those regions, the warm waters
-of the high sea-level of the Eastern North Atlantic found an easy
-passage into the arctic seas; for, while they moved over the European
-and Siberian seas to the north-east, they had the assistance of the
-westerly winds well into the arctic seas, from which position they
-were attracted across the Arctic Ocean to the low sea-level abreast
-Labrador and Davis Strait.
-
-The Gulf Stream of Tertiary times comprised a much larger area than it
-now obtains; for with Florida and a large portion of the Gulf States
-submerged, and a wide, shallow sea covering the Mississippi valley
-and the Great Lake region, the tropical waters of the enlarged Gulf
-of Mexico moved from their vast high sea-level to the low sea-level
-abreast British America and Labrador, without being confined to the
-narrow Florida channel. Thus with an enlarged Gulf Stream in possession
-of a wide and clear passage leading northward, in connection with a
-mild period in the southern hemisphere, giving warmth to the southern
-oceans, the resources of the ancient Gulf currents for warming the
-northern regions were so ample and inexhaustive they were fully able to
-maintain a mild climate on the shores of the European seas, and also on
-the shores bordering the Arctic Ocean, during the Tertiary epoch.
-
-Furthermore, the Humboldt current, which had its rise in the mild
-southern seas of that age, mingled its warmth with the equatorial
-current of the Pacific, which in turn gave its warmth to the Japanese
-current. Therefore, the latter stream under such conditions was
-competent to maintain a mild climate on the North Pacific coasts.
-
-The origin of a cold period in the northern hemisphere was largely
-owing to the changed condition of the northern oceans following the
-close of the Tertiary epoch. The movement of the ocean waters into the
-southern hemisphere lessened the area of the Arctic and North Atlantic
-Oceans, and brought them to their present reduced limits, and also
-diminished the volume of the Gulf currents.
-
-This great geographical change, in connection with a cold period
-progressing in the southern hemisphere, and so increasing the coldness
-of the Japanese current, and the cold antarctic currents, previously
-explained, which set northward on the bottom of the sea through the
-torrid latitudes even into the North Pacific and North Atlantic
-Oceans, were altogether sufficient to cause conditions favorable for
-the advancement of a cold period in northern latitudes. Besides, with
-reduced northern oceans and a diminished Gulf current, conditions were
-favorable for an independent circulation of the arctic waters, such as
-is being carried out at the present time. Hence an explanation of the
-movements of the ocean waters of to-day will explain the conditions
-which caused the northern ice periods in times past, as well as
-those to come in a future age. Although the conditions are such that
-the independent circulation of the arctic waters cannot be so well
-performed as the independent circulation of the southern ocean, still
-the open arctic channels are able to prevent the tropical Gulf Stream
-water from largely entering the higher northern latitudes. For it is
-certain that the prevailing westerly winds blow the surface waters of
-the North Atlantic away from the eastern shores of North America from
-Georgia to Labrador.
-
-Consequently, the low sea-level thus caused attracts the waters of
-the Arctic Ocean southward through Baffin’s Bay and Davis Strait, and
-likewise down the east coast of Greenland, thus surrounding that large
-island with an arctic temperature, and so causing it to become a land
-of glaciers, which are constantly launching icebergs into the sea to
-cool the waters of the northern oceans. The tropical waters of the high
-sea-level of the Gulf of Mexico also seek the low sea-level abreast the
-American coast, thus causing the Gulf Stream. This great ocean current,
-being the main conveyer of tropical heat into the high latitudes of
-the North Atlantic, calls for particular notice. The great gravity
-currents, of which the Gulf Stream is one of the most conspicuous, are
-moved by small gradients.
-
-Hence the gradient which causes the Gulf Stream waters to move out
-of the Florida passage is small. The levellings which have been made
-place the surface waters of the Gulf of Mexico as being about one
-metre higher than the Atlantic abreast New York, the pressure of the
-higher Gulf waters toward the low level of the Atlantic being nearly
-equal in the narrow Florida channel from the surface to the bottom of
-the stream. Therefore, according to descriptions given by Commander
-Bartlett, the warm stream moves like a river over the hard level floor
-of the channel; but to the northward of the Bahamas, abreast Cape
-Hatteras, the stream spreads out in fanlike form, and flows over a bed
-of cold water of great depth.
-
-A bed of cold water is found to cover the bottom of all the deep oceans
-that are accessible to the antarctic seas, through which the cold water
-is mostly supplied, as I have before pointed out.
-
-But the cold water which underruns the Gulf Stream is probably
-furnished by the arctic waters which move down Davis Strait and the
-east coast of Greenland. The Gulf Stream, as it widens and becomes more
-shallow, is, through its exposure to the westerly winds, gradually
-converted into a drift current; and in this way its surface waters are
-forced over abreast the shores of Western Europe, where it imparts its
-warmth to a wide region, and also causes a high sea-level. A portion
-of the waters of this high sea-level turn southward to replenish the
-waters which have been moved by the trade winds from the eastern
-tropical North Atlantic over into the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico,
-while its northern and smaller portion mingles with the Arctic Ocean
-waters north of Europe. These latter waters, having escaped from the
-westerly wind-belt, and acquired a high sea-level, and also made cool
-on mingling with the icy arctic seas, lose a part of their bulk on
-becoming chilled by sinking and returning in under-currents to the seas
-from which they were forced by the south-westerly winds; while the
-larger remaining surface waters set across the Arctic Ocean over to
-the northern coast of Greenland, and so down the east and west coasts
-of that large island to the low sea-level abreast the American coast,
-where the cold waters not only crowd the Gulf Stream from the shore,
-but they also sink under it, and form the vast bed of cold water over
-which the Gulf currents flow. This cold underflow of water southward
-probably joins the deep antarctic currents south and south-east of the
-Bermuda Islands, and returns to the tropical latitudes a portion of the
-water that is carried into the Arctic Ocean by the Gulf Stream.
-
-There are times during the late summer and early fall months when the
-arctic channels are considerably obstructed by icebergs, and the low
-sea-level of Davis Strait and Baffin’s Bay, with the assistance of
-occasional south-east winds, is able to attract the temperate waters
-of the Atlantic as far north as the Arctic Circle. Also from the same
-cause the icy waters which flow down the east coast of Greenland are
-attracted along its southern and south-western shores into Davis Strait.
-
-Yet at the same time the icy waters which flow from Smith’s Sound and
-other arctic channels move in a counter-current down the westerly
-side of Baffin’s Bay and Davis Strait, and so carry the icebergs and
-field-ice past Labrador and Newfoundland well on to the borders of the
-Gulf Stream. And, according to Lieutenant Maury, the westerly gales of
-the winter months force the temperate waters of the Atlantic, which
-pertain to the Gulf Stream, several degrees away from the south-east
-coast of Greenland. Therefore, during such seasons the surface waters
-of the returned arctic currents, which flow down the east coast of
-Greenland and Davis Strait, are drifted past Southern Greenland and
-Iceland, and so onward into the arctic seas, north of Europe. Thus the
-arctic waters maintain an independent circulation sufficient to largely
-exclude the Gulf Stream from the arctic seas, and surround Greenland
-with an arctic temperature; and it is on this account glaciers have
-formed on Greenland and other arctic shores, and such glaciers are
-probably increasing, as every iceberg launched from the frigid lands
-and floated to the lower latitudes lowers somewhat the temperature
-of the North Atlantic, and so causes conditions favorable for larger
-accumulations of ice on the arctic shores.
-
-Yet it is probable that an ice period extending over the northern
-temperate zone could not be perfected by this process alone, should the
-tropical and southern oceans maintain their present temperature. But,
-with the assistance of a frigid period in the southern hemisphere to
-cool the ocean waters, and thus lower the temperature of all tropical
-currents, including the Gulf Stream and Japan currents, an ice age
-could be brought about in the northern hemisphere equal in intensity to
-the glacial periods of the past.
-
-And, when we know that a considerable portion of the heat carried into
-the northern latitudes by tropical streams is largely derived through
-the mingling of the waters of such currents with the warm waters of
-the southern tropical oceans, it is evident that the ice periods of
-the northern and southern hemispheres were concurrent; although the
-culmination of the northern frigid period would be somewhat later
-than the perfected southern ice age, on account of the northern seas
-requiring the assistance of the cold oceans of the southern hemisphere
-to perfect a northern ice age.
-
-The small area of the northern seas, compared with the southern oceans,
-and the wide mingling of the ocean waters of the hemispheres, make it
-evident that the comparatively scanty northern seas could not bring
-about or maintain either a frigid or mild period in opposition to the
-superior oceans of the southern hemisphere.
-
-On the consummation of an ice period in the northern hemisphere heavy
-glaciers covered the larger portion of its continents and islands,
-which added so much weight to the northern lands as to attract the
-waters of the southern oceans into the northern latitudes, as I have
-before explained.
-
-Thus, when the ice was mostly melted from the lands of the southern
-hemisphere, the heavy ice-sheets that remained on the extensive
-northern lands would still continue to attract the warm waters of the
-southern seas into the northern oceans; and in this way the Japanese
-and Gulf currents would gain a higher temperature and greater volume,
-and thus add to their ability for melting the northern glaciers
-wherever they were able to flow, and so hasten the growth of a mild era
-in the northern hemisphere.
-
-And it seems reasonable to suppose that there was more water in the
-northern hemisphere on the ending of its ice period than at this age;
-yet it appears that it was returned to the southern hemisphere during
-a short period by the prevailing winds in the manner which I have
-previously explained.
-
-Therefore, there are but few traces of such flowage to be found in the
-glacial drift, especially with the scarcity of marine life after the
-rigor of a frigid age.
-
-An article in _Science_, July 5, 1895, written by Agnes Crane, states
-that Professor Joseph Prestwich has recently contributed a suggestive
-memoir on this subject to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal
-Society. It treats of the evidence of a submergence of Western Europe
-and the Mediterranean coasts at the close of the glacial period; and in
-a previous paper communicated to the Geological Society of London, in
-1892, the author gave evidence, deduced from personal observation, of
-the submergence of the south of England not less than a thousand feet,
-at the close of the glacial epoch.
-
-Since that time the flood of water which flowed all of the low lands
-of the high northern latitudes has been returned to the southern seas,
-because of the force of the prevailing winds in connection with the
-great oceans which open so widely toward the south, the force of the
-winds being assisted through the attraction caused by the difference
-of temperature in the surface waters of the vast southern temperate
-oceans and the antarctic seas, and in this manner bringing about the
-geographical conditions of to-day which favor the return of another ice
-age.
-
-It is said by those who attribute the great currents of the ocean to
-the rotation of the earth that the winds have little to do in causing
-such currents as the Gulf Stream. But my impression is that the
-southern portion of the Gulf Stream waters, after being drifted by
-westerly winds over abreast Europe, are attracted to the low sea-level
-in the vicinity of the Canary Islands, to be moved by the trade winds
-toward the equatorial calm belt and the West India Islands. And during
-my many months’ cruising over these seas I have had my attention
-directed to the singular action of the surface waters, while being
-impelled by the trade winds toward the West India sea; for during the
-first fifteen hundred miles of their passage they are moved by the
-prevailing easterly winds without much apparent resistance or unusual
-disturbance. But on nearing the longitude of Cape St. Roque, and
-having acquired a high sea-level from which there is no easy or wide
-outlet, the impelled surface waters begin to rebel against the forceful
-winds, and cause a remarkable commotion in the shape of tide-rips and
-white-capped ripples, which extend from the equator in a northerly
-direction to the latitude of about 19° north, thus crossing the central
-portion of the north-east trade-wind belt, with a breadth of over three
-hundred miles, as shown on map No. 2.
-
-This disturbed region where the winds and waters conflict is the
-probable fountain-head of the Gulf Stream. The reason why the surface
-waters of this disturbed portion of the Atlantic do not flow peacefully
-along through the West India passages into the Caribbean Sea and Gulf
-of Mexico is because of their narrow outlet at the Florida channel. For
-it is mainly through this narrow channel that the vast waters of the
-tropical high sea-level are attracted to the low ocean-level of the
-Western North Atlantic.
-
-Thus it seems that the great fountain-head of the Gulf Stream is
-situated between the wide tide-rips and the Caribbean Islands. The
-waters from this high ocean-level enter the Caribbean Sea mainly
-through the several passages south of Guadeloupe; while the northern
-portion of the raised waters set mostly toward the north-west, and so
-unite with the eastern portion of the Gulf currents after they enter
-the Atlantic. Still, the great high sea-level which presses against
-the Windward Islands, being somewhat higher than the Caribbean Sea,
-forces its waters through the island passages in quantities sufficient
-to supply the Gulf Stream; and there are times when the winds are so
-strong and favorable that all of the passages east of Cuba conduct
-water into the Caribbean Sea, the cold under-waters entering the deeper
-channels as well as the warm surface waters. Yet the currents setting
-through these numerous channels are subject to fluctuations, and so
-also is the Gulf Stream which they supply.
-
-That portion of the high sea-level south of Guadeloupe receives
-considerable assistance as a feeder for the Gulf Stream through being
-connected on the south by the great high sea-level abreast Brazil and
-the great high sea-level of the equatorial calm belt. The latter high
-level is caused by the trade winds, which generally blow briskly down
-the coast of Sahara, and also further off shore, and ending south of
-the Cape Verde Islands somewhat abruptly in the equatorial calm belt.
-
-The south-east trades which blow over the Eastern and Middle South
-Atlantic terminate on the southern side of the calm region. Therefore,
-the two trade winds impel the surface waters of the tropical Atlantic
-from opposite directions directly toward the calm belt, and so raise
-its waters above the common level of the sea.
-
-This is the opinion of the writers of the South Atlantic Directory.
-Still, it is probable that the high ocean-level of the calm belt is
-but slightly raised above the common level of the sea, on account of
-the trade winds having to contend against the tendency of the warm
-tropical surface waters to move toward the polar latitudes. The calm
-belt expanse which extends from Africa, where it attains its greatest
-width, gradually narrows as it extends westward to the longitude of
-Cape St. Roque, where it attains its highest sea-level, on account of
-the borders of its narrowing space being impelled westward by the trade
-winds.
-
-The movement of the waters of this high ocean-level is mostly toward
-the west, forming a portion of the equatorial current of the Atlantic.
-The reason of its western movement is on account of its raised waters
-being able to supply a portion of the Gulf Stream with water which is
-sent off in a westerly current along the South American coast, west of
-Cape St. Roque into the Caribbean Sea; while, on the other hand, it
-joins with the great high sea-level abreast Brazil, and so unites with
-its great southern current. The gradient of the high sea-level of the
-calm belt on its southern side probably extends south of the equator,
-on account of the south-east trades being weak in latitudes near the
-equator; while on the north side the north-east trades generally blow
-brisk and end more abruptly, so producing a gradient of less width than
-that of the South Atlantic side.
-
-It does not appear that the seas of the high northern latitudes gain
-an undue proportion of the tropical Atlantic waters, because of the
-south-east trades extending north of the equator, on account of such
-winds being weak, and the waters of the high sea-level of the Western
-North Atlantic having narrow and otherwise obstructed passages leading
-to its northern seas. Yet the high sea-level of the equatorial calm
-belt is always ready, whenever a favorable grade is formed by a monsoon
-or otherwise, to run off its surplus water obtained by winds and rain;
-and I have noticed, while cruising in these seas, that it happens at
-times during the northern winter months when the north-westerly gales
-drive the surface waters of the North-western Atlantic toward the
-tropical zone, and at the same time a strong north-east monsoon is
-prevailing along the southern coast of Brazil, the westerly currents
-setting past the Amazon River are reversed, and set to the south-east,
-while such conditions last.
-
-For, when the summer solstice is in the south, and the north-east
-monsoon moves southward along the coast of Brazil, much equatorial
-water moves off in that direction; and during the same season the
-cooled Sahara has an outward flow of air toward the south, which
-moves more or less water from the coast of Guinea, which is easily
-accomplished, because the warm surface waters of that coast are
-inclined to join with the south equatorial stream. Consequently, the
-waters move from their high sea-level north of Cape Palmas, and so form
-the Guinea current.
-
-The high sea-level of the equatorial calm belt of the Atlantic contains
-a large portion of the conserved heat of the tropical Atlantic, which
-at this age sends off a somewhat limited supply of warm water to
-the Gulf Stream, and also to the Brazil current. But, whenever the
-Cape Horn channel is closed or much obstructed, so causing a great
-low sea-level in the Southern Atlantic, the tropical waters heaped
-against Brazil, and the raised waters of the great calm region being
-one continuous high sea-level, would mostly be attracted to the vast
-low sea-level of the southern ocean. Hence it will be seen how large a
-portion of the conserved heat of the tropical Atlantic would be used to
-warm the high southern latitudes during a warm period in the southern
-hemisphere, and at the same time the head-waters of the Gulf Stream
-would obtain the same height as now. For we now see much of the force
-of the north-east trade winds lost, while maintaining so large a high
-sea-level to the windward of the West India Islands, which is probably
-capable of supplying a stream of double the capacity of the gulf
-current which passes through the Florida channel.
-
-And it appears, while viewing the vast reservoirs of warm water
-apparently gathered by trade winds to subdue the cold of the high
-latitudes, that much of the energy of such winds is now lost to the
-world, while maintaining a vast and pent-up high sea-level which has
-a difficult outlet to the northern seas, and no strongly attractive
-low sea-level to move its waters into the oceans of the high southern
-latitudes. The wide waters which are banked up to the windward of
-the West India Islands, and cause the wide tide-rips, set mostly
-to the westward into the Caribbean Sea through the passages south
-of Guadeloupe, while the northern portion of the raised waters set
-mostly toward the north, and thus form the eastern boundary of the
-Gulf Stream, and comprise the inner circle of the great current that
-encircles the Sargasso Sea.
-
-I have been informed by an old Barbuda fisherman that “the weeds which
-float on the surface of the Sargasso Sea grow in large quantities
-on the bottom of the shoal waters to the north and eastward of that
-island and Antigua.” Consequently, the currents of that region carry
-such weeds as become detached from their places of growth into the
-higher latitudes, where the westerly winds in the winter season drift
-them eastward south of Bermuda, until finally the central area of
-their gathering, where the most dense collection of weeds is found, is
-situated near the tropic of Cancer, and about 55° west longitude, as
-shown on map No. 2.
-
-This position is also the centre of the great circular currents which
-encompass the Sargasso Sea. The comparatively few weeds which enter
-the Gulf Stream abreast Florida are currented to the northward of
-the Bermuda Islands, and from thence drifted by the westerly winds
-to the south-west of the Azores before entering the trade-wind belt.
-The weeds, on their long drift from their native shoals, hold their
-freshness, and continue to grow while floating on the sea for a
-considerable time, but at length lose their renovating properties, and
-in certain areas of the sea acquire an appearance of age and decay.
-
-The Gulf Stream, and such other tropical waters as are attracted
-northward to the low sea-level abreast the North American coast, pass
-into the westerly wind-belt, and so gradually become drift currents,
-while being forced by the winds over to the European side of the ocean,
-as we have previously shown.
-
-The vast movement of the North Atlantic waters encircling the great
-Sargasso Sea has often been pointed out by writers on the subject. But
-the central and most dense portion of the vast sea of weeds has always
-been placed on the charts several degrees of longitude east of its true
-position.
-
-It is fifteen years since I wrote of the Gulf Stream and arctic
-currents as being attracted to a low sea-level caused by the westerly
-winds. But, as far as I know, writers on the Atlantic currents have
-had nothing to say of the great low sea-level caused by the westerly
-winds blowing the surface waters of the North Atlantic away from the
-eastern coast of North America, from Georgia to Newfoundland, and thus
-attracting the arctic and Gulf Stream waters in opposite directions,
-fifteen hundred miles along the North American coast. For, were it
-not for this low sea-level, the Gulf Stream would not be able to move
-so far northward as it now flows, but would spread out, were there no
-unevenness in the sea-level of the Atlantic, and become a drift current
-far south of its present northern limits. The United States government
-has caused surveys to be made of the Gulf Stream, and the interesting
-discoveries thus obtained have all been laid before the public. Still,
-such surveys cover but a portion of the whole round of the vast
-movement of the Gulf Stream water, and do not refer to the vast high
-sea-level of the calm belt as being one of its feeders, or to the wide
-disturbance of the surface waters of the tropical North Atlantic in
-their conflict with the trade winds, while being forced to the vast
-high sea-level of the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico, and so giving
-head to the Gulf Stream.
-
-Thus from the foregoing explanations it will be seen that the ability
-of the prevailing winds to move the surface waters of the ocean away
-from the weather shores of continents over against the opposite leeward
-shores in the different wind-belts of the globe, and so cause both high
-and low sea-levels, is the main reason why there is an interchange of
-surface water between the tropical and colder zones sufficient to carry
-heat from the tropics to the cooler regions, and thus largely affect
-the temperature of the higher latitudes.
-
-The unmistakable traces of cold periods having occurred in both
-hemispheres have given rise to an ingenious astronomical theory to
-account for their origin. According to this theory the ice periods
-in the two hemispheres were consecutive; and it is admitted by its
-supporters that, should it be shown that the frigid periods in the
-northern and southern hemispheres were concurrent, the astronomical
-doctrine would have to be abandoned.
-
-It is impossible for a person who is acquainted with the great surface
-currents of the several oceans to conceive how a mild period could be
-maintained in the northern hemisphere with a frigid period existing
-in the southern hemisphere. A frigid period in the latter hemisphere
-necessitates a cold temperature for the superior oceans of the globe
-south of the equator. With this vast area of water reduced to a
-chilling temperature, it seems impossible for the inferior waters of
-the northern latitudes to maintain sufficient warmth to favor a mild
-period in the northern hemisphere, especially with both hemispheres
-receiving an equal annual amount of the sun’s rays. The great Humboldt
-current, having its rise in the southern ocean west of Cape Horn,
-would during a southern frigid period greatly lower the temperature
-of the vast equatorial stream in the Pacific Ocean. Consequently, the
-Japanese stream, which branches off from the equatorial current into
-the North Pacific, would be cooled to such a degree that it would be
-unable to maintain the mild climate on the shores of the North Pacific
-which extensive lands now enjoy. Furthermore, during a cold period in
-the southern hemisphere the temperature of the Gulf Stream would also
-be greatly lowered by the great South-eastern Atlantic return current,
-which is caused by the south-east trade winds impelling the surface
-waters of that region into the equatorial latitudes, such waters
-being replenished from the common level of the southern ocean, and so
-mingling the cool waters of that sea with the equatorial waters of the
-Atlantic during a frigid period in the southern latitudes. And it may
-be said that during such times the frigid Antarctic Ocean would send
-its cold under-currents to cool the inferior northern oceans. Even
-to-day the northern and southern hemispheres, through the intermingling
-of the waters of the northern and southern oceans, largely maintain
-a like temperature in their temperate zones. Therefore, when we
-consider the certain traces of ice-sheets having formed on South
-Africa and Southern Australia, and to have overrun South America above
-the latitude of 40° south, thus strewing the oceans of the southern
-temperate zone with ice that are now largely free from it, it seems
-that the maintenance of warm oceans in the northern hemisphere during
-the time of a frigid period in the southern hemisphere would be
-impossible.
-
-In order to make this statement more plain, I will again refer to the
-importance of the great Humboldt current for cooling the waters of
-the North Pacific during the perfection of a southern ice age. For
-during such times the ocean strewed with ice west of Cape Horn, where
-the Humboldt current takes its rise, would impart its coldness to the
-Humboldt stream, while it was floating icebergs toward the equator. The
-equatorial current of the Pacific being a continuation of the Humboldt
-stream, its waters would partake of its coldness. The Japanese current,
-being a large offshoot from the equatorial stream, would also possess a
-lower temperature than it obtains at this age. Yet at this date, with
-the southern ice-sheets confined to the antarctic lands, it does not
-possess heat sufficient to prevent glaciers from flowing down to the
-tide-water from mountains in Alaska.
-
-Consequently, the Japanese stream could not maintain a mild climate on
-the North Pacific coasts while a cold period was being completed in the
-southern hemispheres. Therefore, under the conditions above set forth
-the support of a mild period in the northern hemisphere during the
-existence of a frigid period in the southern hemisphere could not be
-carried out.
-
-From what has been explained, it will be seen that the growth of an
-ice period is necessarily slow, especially in its early stage, and also
-that the storage of ice is carried on in both hemispheres at the same
-time; but I will call further attention to the southern hemisphere,
-because it possesses greater resources than the northern for the
-production of an ice age.
-
-The independent circulation of the southern ocean waters, as before
-shown, turns away the tropical currents, and thus largely prevents
-their warm waters from entering the high southern latitudes.
-Consequently, the heat from the sun’s rays, and all other sources of
-heat included, are not sufficient to prevent ice from gathering on
-lands within the antarctic circle. This increasing storage of ice is
-only another name for the accumulation and spreading of cold, and so
-the increasing chillness goes on. The snow falls, and thus adds to the
-extension and thickness of the ice-sheets; and at the same time the
-spreading snow-fields reflect the heat received from the sun’s rays
-into space, while the cold is retained and increased in the growing
-glaciers.
-
-The spreading ice-sheets having covered the land are able to flow into
-the surrounding seas, where their outer edges become detached and form
-icebergs, which float out to sea, and so scatter over the adjoining
-oceans. Thus their coldness is mingled with and largely preserved by
-the sea, while the surface water, which is carried into the southern
-latitudes from the northern oceans by the prevailing winds, and also
-such surface waters as are attracted into the antarctic seas because
-of the difference of temperature of the antarctic waters and the
-more northern seas, are on gaining the frigid latitudes made cool,
-and returned to the more northern seas in cold under-currents, and
-so chilling the vast under-waters of the great oceans of the globe,
-and eventually their wide surface waters also; and so the coldness
-increases until the ice-sheets which at first formed on polar lands are
-enabled to spread slowly toward the equatorial regions so long as the
-independent circulation of the southern ocean is maintained.
-
-But at length the depth of the great southern ocean is diminished
-because of the water evaporated from its surface, and precipitated in
-the shape of hail and snow over the vast continents and islands of the
-high northern latitudes, thus adding sufficient weight to the northern
-lands to attract the waters of the southern seas and still further
-lessen their depth. Thus during such times the Cape Horn channel is so
-reduced as to be obstructed by the heavy glaciers and icebergs of an
-ice age.
-
-Consequently, a great change is wrought in the circulation of the
-southern seas. For, when the Cape Horn channel is closed, the westerly
-winds employ their strength to force the ocean’s surface waters away
-from the glaciers which have filled the diminished channel. This
-potent action of the winds necessarily creates a great low sea-level
-on the Atlantic side of the obstructed strait, sufficient to attract
-the tropical waters heaped against Brazil by the trade winds, and the
-waters of the high sea-level of the equatorial calm belt, and also the
-equatorial waters which set along the east coast of Africa, well into
-the southern seas.
-
-It will thus be seen that the conditions for the circulation of the
-tropical ocean waters have met with a great change.
-
-But the temperature of the waters has been lowered by the coldness of a
-frigid period; and, consequently, their capability for conveying heat
-to the high latitudes has largely diminished. Therefore, their first
-inroads in the higher latitudes make small impression on the icy seas,
-so the early process for melting ice is exceedingly slow. But the icy
-southern ocean, deprived of its independent circulation, in the course
-of time yields to the warming invasion of the tropical waters, whose
-wide and increasing spread is eventually able to bring about a mild
-period, according to the natural methods which I have explained in the
-preceding pages.
-
-And it may be said that a mild period succeeding a glacial age gained
-sufficient warmth to melt the ice-sheets from all lands excepting the
-highest mountains. For it is probable that there are lands situated in
-the antarctic circle sufficiently elevated even during late Tertiary
-times to have been above the snow-line. Therefore, the glaciers on
-such lands could not have melted away during mild periods succeeding
-an ice age. For, as has been explained, a portion of the waters of the
-southern seas had moved into the northern hemisphere. Consequently, the
-antarctic lands were raised higher above the sea-level than at this
-age. Hence the area of lofty land was increased above the snow-line.
-And, according to Dr. James Croll’s estimate, the ice-sheet at the
-south pole is at this age several miles in thickness. Therefore, its
-upper surface is above the line of perpetual snow, and could not be
-melted away during the warm eras succeeding glacial periods.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER III.
-
-THE SPREAD OF GLACIERS DURING COLD EPOCHS.
-
-
-I have before explained that the conditions are such that the cold
-periods of the northern and southern hemispheres were concurrent.
-Through this cause, while the glacial epoch was being perfected, the
-ice followed down the mountain ranges of both hemispheres; and, while
-gathering on the lands of the temperate latitudes, it also spread
-over a portion of the tropical zone. It is reported that traces of
-ancient glaciers are found in India, and also in Central America and
-in tropical South America. In fact, the denudation caused by ancient
-glaciers on the elevated lands of the tropics are too well defined to
-be attributed to any process of weathering, while Alpine plants of the
-same species are found near the summits of mountains in the tropics as
-well as in the high latitudes of both hemispheres.
-
-This fact goes to show that a portion of the lowlands of the tropical
-zone have experienced a temperature favorable for the growth of Alpine
-plants. And, judging from the tropical islands I have visited, situated
-in the cold currents which flow down the eastern sides of the oceans
-from the high latitudes, I think they show strong traces of having
-during some remote period been subject to the action of glaciers. The
-island of St. Helena, situated in the southern tropical Atlantic, has
-the appearance of having been heavily iced during a frigid age. Its
-steep ravines, which deepen as they approach the sea, recall to the
-southern voyager the ice-worn islands of the high latitudes. It seems
-improbable that these deep ravines which penetrate the hard volcanic
-rock, on their short course to the sea, could have been caused by their
-scanty brooklets.
-
-The bowlders scattered over the island are not in harmony with the
-weathering process, while the obliteration of its craters seems to
-point to a more rapid process of erosion than could be attributed to
-weathering.
-
-Professor Agassiz, in his “General Sketch of the Expedition of the
-‘Albatross,’” states that the Galapagos Islands are of volcanic origin,
-and that their age does not reach beyond the earliest Tertiary period;
-and his report seems to favor the impression of their having undergone
-denudation sufficient to slough off large portions of the rims of the
-older craters, and also the eastern face of Wenman Island. On Hood’s
-Island, at the time of my visit, its crater had entirely disappeared.
-
-The highest portion of the island, which was the probable site of
-its ancient crater, showed no trace of its former existence; yet at
-the foot of this low mountain, on its southern side, I saw a large
-collection of loose bowlders, composed of hard volcanic rock, which
-were mostly free from soil and other débris, and easily moved from
-their places, while the spaces afforded by the loose piles of dark
-basaltic rocks afforded a secure retreat for numerous owls and lizards.
-Beyond the rocky piles to the southward a horizontal area of land was
-strewn with bowlders to the sea, which was some two miles distant from
-the higher land. The bowlders which covered the plain were somewhat
-smaller than those at the foot of the mountain, as none of the former
-were more than three or four feet in their longest measurement.
-
-They seem to have been formed from thin strata of lava, which were
-broken in pieces from pressure, such as the action of ice could
-perform. In fact, the crowded and angular and somewhat worn blocks
-of lava presented a different appearance from stones thrown from the
-crater of a volcano, while no such bowlders are found among the recent
-volcanic eruptions on the islands.
-
-The plain so thickly strewn with bowlders, and partly shaded by a tall
-growth of shrubs, fell off abruptly at the seaside, forming a steep
-cliff some two hundred feet in height.
-
-The rocky floor at the foot of the cliff received such débris as fell
-from the sea-washed land; yet it contained few bowlders, they having
-been washed away by the waves soon after falling.
-
-At one place a steep, dry ravine penetrated the land from the seashore,
-which was dangerous to cross on account of the loose stones resting
-on its sides. Two or three miles further west, on the level land
-bordering the sea, a large rookery of albatross were brooding their
-eggs and chicklings. The land on the south side of Albemarle, near the
-sea, consists of débris from the eroded high lands; and, judging from
-the crumbling cliffs by the sea, it seems that the land at one time
-extended further seaward.
-
-Besides the excessive denudation which appears to have taken place on
-portions of these bowlder-strewn lands, we have other unmistakable
-testimony of their having formerly possessed a frigid temperature. The
-characteristic Alpine flora of these islands points to a time when they
-were exposed to a cold climate. Furthermore, rookeries of seal and
-albatross, which naturally belong to shores situated in cold latitudes,
-still exist on these equatorial islands; and, when we consider the
-favorable position of the Galapagos for the reception of cold during a
-frigid period, we can well account for the lingering signs which point
-to their former cold climate.
-
-During the perfection of an ice period the western shore of South
-America was covered with an ice-sheet from the summits of its mountain
-range to the sea, extending northward as far as the latitude of 38°
-south.
-
-This vast ice-sheet, situated in a region of great snow-fall, was
-constantly sending icebergs into the sea, where they were borne
-northward by the cold Humboldt current directly toward the Galapagos
-Islands; while, on the other hand, in the northern latitudes, in
-regions of great snow-fall, such as Alaska and British America,
-numerous icebergs were launched into the ocean, to be currented
-southward to the Galapagos seas. Thus during the frigid epoch the
-equatorial waters surrounding the Galapagos group was one of the
-greatest gathering places for floating ice to be found on the globe.
-
-And here the frigidity stored up in the glaciers of the higher
-latitudes was set free, thus chilling the waters as well as the
-atmosphere of that region. The Alpine flora of the American coast
-mountains was probably carried by floating ice to the Galapagos, while
-its rookeries of albatross and seal date back to a cold period. And
-it seems that these cold-weather animals, with the assistance of the
-cool Humboldt current, may be able to preserve their rookeries at the
-equator until the advent of another ice period. In connection with the
-evidences of a cold climate having possessed the Galapagos, there are
-ample traces of ice-sheets having flowed over a large portion of the
-high lands of tropical America, and in some places the ice may have
-flowed down to the sea, especially where the large rivers now empty;
-and it is said that masses of clay, mixed with sub-angular stones, have
-been found in Brazil, which goes to prove the glaciation of portions of
-that tropical land during a remote age. Professor Louis J. R. Agassiz,
-during his research in the Amazon valley, found bowlders resting near
-the summits of the low hills of that region, which he attributed to
-the action of ice. The spread of glaciers on southern continents and
-islands is shown on map No. 1.
-
-In _Science_, Nov. 17, 1893, Mr. J. Crawford published a summary of
-his discoveries in Nicaragua, during ten months of nearly continuous
-exploration since August, 1892.
-
-The author of this report says: “The numerous eroded mountain
-ridges and lateral terminal moraines of that tropical region give
-unquestionable evidences of the former existence of a glacial epoch,
-which covered an area of several thousand square miles in Nicaragua
-with glacial ice. The ice-sheet covered a large part of the existing
-narrow divide of land (containing about 48,000 square miles) between
-the Pacific and Caribbean Sea.” And it is likely that other large areas
-of tropical America were glaciated at the same time, especially in
-regions of great precipitation.
-
-The island of Cuba, during a portion of the ice age, probably
-supported heavy glaciers, and obtained an average temperature as low
-as South-western New Zealand at this age. According to the description
-given by J. W. Spencer, of the Cuban land, great valleys have been
-excavated, the lower portion of which are now fiords, reaching in one
-case at least to seven thousand feet in depth before gaining the sea
-beyond. Thus, while keeping in view the glacial condition of Central
-America during the frigid period, it seems that the great Cuban
-excavations were partly the work of glaciers of the same cold epoch.*
-Judging from such reliable statements, it is probable that the climate
-of tropical America during the frigid age was somewhat colder than
-obtained in the tropical regions of the eastern continent, owing to
-the wide connection of the Atlantic with the Arctic Ocean as well as
-with the antarctic seas, and because of its shores possessing a larger
-area of glaciated lands in proportion to its size than the Pacific and
-Indian Oceans, and also owing to the tropical Atlantic containing so
-small a portion of the world’s waters which lie within the torrid zone,
-and its equatorial current being separated by continental lands from
-the great equatorial stream of the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
-
- *The meeting of the British Association for the Advancement
- of Science, September, 1895, was reported in _Science_ of
- October 18, where mention is made of an interesting paper by
- Mr. R. B. White, on “The Glacial Age of Tropical America,” in
- which he described a number of apparently glacial deposits in
- the Republic of Colombia, almost under the equator. He spoke
- of moraines forming veritable mountains, immense thicknesses
- of bowlder clay, breccias, cement beds, sand, gravels, and
- clays, beds of loess, valleys scooped, grooved, and terraced,
- monstrous erratics, and traces of great avalanches.
-
-Therefore, the tropical Atlantic waters must have been reduced to a
-lower temperature during a frigid age than the tropical waters of the
-Indian Ocean or the western part of the tropical Pacific, as a large
-portion of the great equatorial current of the latter oceans, during
-its western movement, was exposed to the rays of a tropical sun for a
-much longer time, after being replenished by the cold waters of the
-high latitudes, than the tropical currents of the Atlantic; and it
-is probable that, on account of tropical America possessing a colder
-climate than the tropical lands of the eastern continent during the
-frigid epoch, the cold of the western continent was more destructive
-to its fauna and flora than was the case in the tropical regions of
-the eastern continent. Professor Wright, in his valuable work on “The
-Ice Age of North America,” gives a good description of the “flight
-of plants and animals during the glacial epoch,” and also of the
-extermination of many superior species because of the frigid climate.
-
-The high lands of tropical Africa, above the altitude of three thousand
-feet, and situated in places of great precipitation, were probably
-covered with snow and ice during the glacial age. Travellers have
-reported that islands composed partly of granite bowlders are found
-in the lakes at the head-waters of the Nile. But the glaciers that
-invaded the tropical latitudes were of short duration compared with the
-ice-sheets that burdened the lands of the temperate zones. Besides,
-such tropical ice as flowed to the low lands was so near a melting
-condition that it made small impression on the rocks; but on steep
-mountain slopes, where the movement of the ice was comparatively rapid,
-it possessed considerable eroding power. The climate of the tropical
-zone on both continents during the perfection of an ice period was so
-cold that such animals as could not endure a low temperature retreated
-into the warmest regions of the equatorial latitudes, while many
-species who failed to reach such places perished. And especially was
-this the case with the pre-glacial fauna of the western continent. Mr.
-W. B. M. Davidson, in his treatise on Florida phosphates, says: “The
-great mammal hordes of the glacial epoch were driven into Florida in
-their flight southward for life and warmth, and there perished because
-of the deadly cold which ever moved southward. The Florida waters
-grew so icy cold, fishes, reptiles, and mammoth animals died, and
-added their frames and teeth to the valley of bones now found in that
-southern region.”
-
-Such species of the tropical fauna of the ocean as survived the ice age
-could have existed only in torrid seas with small connection with the
-cold oceans during the frigid epochs. For, with the diminished oceans
-of a cold period, it seems that the conditions were favorable for the
-maintenance of such seas in the region of the East India Islands.
-
-Such parts of Southern Europe and Northern Africa as bordered on the
-Mediterranean Sea probably possessed a milder climate during the ice
-age than regions in the same latitudes on the Atlantic coast, for the
-reason that the North Atlantic was proportionally a greater receptacle
-for icebergs which were launched into it from the numerous glaciers of
-North-eastern America, Greenland, Iceland, and North-western Europe
-than the great inland sea obtained from its less frigid shores. And it
-may have happened that during such times the tropical waters of the
-Indian Ocean had some connection with the Mediterranean through the
-Red Sea and Suez, and so during portions of the year the waters of the
-tropical Indian Ocean were forced by the periodical winds into the
-inland sea. It is the opinion of several writers that man, along with
-other species of animal life, existed previous to the glacial period;
-for, since the seas and lands of the globe were chilled, the conditions
-seem to have been less favorable for the spontaneous generation of
-animate bodies than during the previous warm ages. Therefore, it
-appears that the generative ages should be ascribed to the long genial
-eras prior to the glacial epochs. For it is probable that the lower
-parts of the ocean, which now possess a low temperature even in the
-tropical latitudes, were, during the warm eras, wholly composed of warm
-water, because the surface waters of the antarctic seas of that age,
-which supply the great under-currents of the ocean, would possess a
-high temperature; and it is probable that the temperature of a large
-portion of the seas of the torrid zone was for a long time maintained
-at blood heat. For it should be considered that the waters which moved
-from the torrid seas, after making their journey through the warm
-regions of the high latitudes, would on their return to the tropics
-retain a large portion of the heat they acquired in the torrid zone
-before making their journey to the mild polar regions.
-
-And, when we reflect how the heat of the sun’s rays was conserved by
-the ocean waters, and that their circulation during such times was
-almost wholly performed by the winds, as the difference of temperature
-between the polar latitudes and the equator was small, it appears
-that during the eras previous to the glacial age the oceans must have
-obtained a higher temperature than possessed by the warmest seas of
-to-day.
-
-According to the discoveries of Professor Wright and others, ancient
-stone implements have been found beneath the glacial drift, as well
-as the bones of animals whose descendants are now living, which goes
-to prove that man, with other species of fauna which now inhabit the
-earth, existed anterior to the glacial epoch.
-
-And on consideration it seems unreasonable to suppose that any of the
-superior species of animals could have been brought into existence
-since the waters and lands of the earth were chilled by the cold of
-a glacial age. And it appears that many species of animals which
-are known to have survived the cold periods were indebted for such
-survivals to the slow process through which a frigid period is brought
-about, thus affording time for evolutionary inurement to the slow
-increase of cold which at length perfects a glacial epoch.
-
-The inurement to cold acquired by animals during the glacial age is
-still an attribute possessed by many species of fauna to-day. For, when
-a warm climate took possession of the tropical zone, it was deserted
-by a large portion of the animals that found refuge there during the
-glacial age.
-
-Thus, while the seas and shores of the cooler latitudes swarm with
-animate bodies, the torrid latitudes seem comparatively lonely to the
-voyagers on the tropical oceans.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER IV.
-
-THE GLACIERS OF THE TEMPERATE ZONES.
-
-
-Having asserted that during the culmination of a frigid period the
-ice-sheets spread over a portion of the lands of the tropical zone,
-I will give my views, with those of several writers, on the spread
-of ice-sheets within the now temperate latitudes; and meanwhile I
-will repeat a portion of my former essays on the subject. Professor
-Hitchcock, in his lectures on the early history of North America,
-says that “the history opens with igneous agency in the ascendant,
-aqueous and organic forces become conspicuous later on, and ice has
-put on the finishing touches to the terrestrial contours.” But there
-appear to be various opinions held by geologists respecting the changes
-brought about on the earth’s surface during the glacial period. Some
-think that glaciers have never been an important geological agent,
-while others assert that during the glacial epoch heavy ice-sheets
-covered the elevated portions of Western North America as far south
-as the thirty-sixth parallel of latitude, and Eastern North America
-was overspread with ice-sheets, which attained a depth of five or six
-thousand feet, and were able to move their débris over wide lands of
-little declivity toward the sea, their immense deposits forming the
-lands of Cape Cod, and also the islands of Nantucket and Martha’s
-Vineyard.
-
-But it is now said that this implied magnitude of the glacial deposits
-on the lands skirting the New England coast is without foundation,
-since the larger bulk of these islands consists of upturned Cretaceous
-and Tertiary strata, which are only thinly covered with glacial débris,
-such as bowlders, gravel, clay, and sand, from the eroded shores of the
-mainland of New England. But it appears that the dislocated and folded
-cretaceous strata which underlie the glacial drift of Nantucket and
-Martha’s Vineyard were during an early period deposited on the bottom
-of a shallow sea, which then covered the Vineyard Sound, Buzzard’s Bay,
-and their surrounding lowlands. Thus the ice-sheets of the frigid age
-which moved over New England displaced the yielding stratified deposits
-of the shallow sea, and forced them southward in a disturbed condition
-to the position which they now occupy.
-
-Still, it is apparent that only a small portion of the glacial drift is
-found on these islands, which, according to appearances, must have been
-eroded and moved southward from the rocky lands of New England during
-the ice age; but there is sufficient to show that large quantities
-of such débris were carried over the islands into the Atlantic. And,
-judging from the eroded rocky New England lands, there must have been
-sufficient glacial drift moved over Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard
-into the ocean beyond to far exceed in bulk the deranged Tertiary and
-Cretaceous deposits which now form so large a portion of the islands.
-
-For, when we look over lands bearing traces of the ice age, where
-the glaciers did not move their drift into the sea, so the terminal
-moraines of such glaciers can be better estimated, we can realize the
-great work that has been performed by the ice-sheet that overran New
-England during a frigid age.
-
-Professor James Geikie states, in his discussion on the glacial
-deposits of Northern Italy, that the deposits from Alpine glaciers of a
-frigid period “rise out of the plains of Piedmont as steep hills to a
-height of fifteen hundred feet, and in one place to nearly two thousand
-feet. Measured along its outer circumference, this great morainic mass
-is found to have a frontage of fifty miles, while the plain which it
-encloses extends some fifteen miles from Andrate southward.” And it
-is reported that there are found on the southern flank of the Jura
-numerous scattered bowlders, all of which have been carried from the
-Alps across the intervening plains, and left where they now rest. Many
-contain thousands of cubic feet, and not a few are quite as large as
-cottages.
-
-Such blocks are found on the Jura, at a height of no less than two
-thousand feet above the Lake of Neuchâtel. The Jura Mountains being
-formed of limestone, it is easy to distinguish the débris deposited
-by Alpine glaciers; and, from what I can learn of extensive glacial
-work, it appears that intervening plains, lakes, and sounds are so
-often found separating the source of ancient glaciers from their
-deposits that their existence becomes almost necessary to represent
-the general outlines of disturbance performed during an ice period. In
-consideration of such facts and the foregoing statements of reliable
-observers, I am prompted to offer my views on glacial work performed on
-a portion of the Pacific shores of North America, which seems to me to
-be much more extensive than hitherto supposed.
-
-Professor Whitney describes the coast mountains of California as being
-made up of great disturbances, which have been brought about within
-geologically recent times; and this statement I found to be so obvious
-in my travels over that region that it appears to me that the coast
-ranges originated in a different manner from the older Sierras. The
-western sides of the latter mountains everywhere show the great eroding
-power of ancient glaciers; and, when I considered their favorable
-position for the accumulation of snow during a glacial period, I was
-led to seek for the glacial deposits adequate to represent the great
-gathering of ice which an age of frigid temperature would produce.
-
-But it seemed to me that such deposits could not be found in the
-foot-hills of the Sierras, which contain the moraine of inferior
-ice-sheets that terminated at the base of the mountains.
-
-Under these conditions I came to the conclusion that during the earlier
-ice period the immense glaciers which must have formed on the western
-slopes of the Sierra range moved their gigantic accumulation of débris
-so far seaward as to form the range of hills now existing next the
-coast line, and perhaps the islands abreast the Santa Barbara coast,
-the Contra Costa, or eastern range, being formed during a subsequent
-ice period, in the same manner as the hills next the coast line.
-
-Still, it may be that neither of the coast ranges was the work of a
-single cold epoch; but the western range must necessarily have been the
-earliest deposit. Although the coast ranges differ from the Sierras
-in their make up, yet it does not disagree with the glacial origin
-of the former inferior mountains, from the fact that the ice-sheets,
-while moving their bulk westward, displaced the deposits of such bays,
-lakes, rivers, and marshes as lay abreast of the Sierra slopes. The
-advancing ice-sheets, thousands of feet in depth, moving from a lofty
-and steep incline, pressed and ploughed below the somewhat superficial
-cretaceous and alluvial strata which lay in their course. The disturbed
-strata, while forced along in confused heaps in front of the ice, were
-amassed in ridges sufficient to form the hills of the coast ranges.
-The bowlders found imbedded in several of the coast hills must have
-been moved by the ice from the Sierras on account of the coast ranges
-not having a rocky core of sufficient firmness to give shape to such
-bowlders. Moreover, the temperature of the Pacific waters would not be
-favorable for glaciers to form on the coast ranges, with the ice-sheets
-of the Sierras terminating at the foot-hills.
-
-The Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys are now covered by recent river
-deposits. Therefore, the glacial drift which should be traced from the
-Sierras to the coast ranges is concealed.
-
-Yet the abraded appearance of exposed solid rocks at the base of the
-foot-hills, and also the scattered bowlders which gradually disappear
-beneath the diluvial deposits of the plains, indicate that the Sierra
-ice-sheets could not have ended at the foot-hills, but must have moved
-further westward, while gathering immense accumulations in their front,
-sufficient to form the coast hills, the débris thus amassed being able
-to arrest the further movement of the ice seaward.
-
-The coast ranges in several places have been subject to igneous action,
-which may have been brought about through heat generated from pressure
-exerted on the interior masses after the ice had melted away, the heat
-thus produced being sufficient to cause outbursts of lava, where the
-nature of the material favored combustion. The low plains, lakes, and
-bays which separate the Sierras from the coast hills are in a position
-similar to the shallow sounds which separate Nantucket, Martha’s
-Vineyard, and Long Island from the inferior slopes of the mountains of
-New England. Therefore, while agreeing with glacialists, who believe
-that great geological changes have been wrought by ice-sheets in Italy
-and New England, it appears to me that the ancient glaciers of the
-Sierra Nevada have accomplished more extensive work, owing to the
-Sierras being situated in a more favorable position to receive the
-humidity of the ocean.
-
-Hence, with a low temperature, vast quantities of snow must have
-collected on their lofty sides; and at the same time their great
-height and declivity would cause the ice to move down their steeps
-with greater force than the glaciers which passed over New England.
-Writers who have given the subject considerable study think that the
-deep valleys of the Sierra Nevada were produced by disruptive rather
-than erosive agencies. This conclusion has been formed from the lack
-of large accumulations of débris about their lower extremities, which
-would not be the case if such valleys were the result of glacial
-erosion. But, should the coast ranges be attributed to glacial action,
-as has been stated, we can well account for the débris that should
-accumulate from the erosion of the deep valleys.
-
-The only thing that could prevent the ice from gathering on the Sierra
-Nevada range during an ice period in greater masses than on any
-mountains in the northern hemisphere would be the lack of cold; for,
-with a low temperature, the fall of snow would be enormous. This is
-shown by the great snow-fall during the short mild winters of to-day.
-Therefore, with ice-sheets covering a large portion of the lands of
-the high northern latitudes, and with the Japanese current which
-tempers the north Pacific waters made cold in the manner described
-in the foregoing pages, and while the sea along the north-west coast
-of America was strewn with icebergs launched from Alaska and British
-Columbia, it seems that California must also have obtained a frigid
-climate during the ice age. Therefore, on account of its exposure to
-the ocean winds, and the consequent heavy snow-fall, the accumulation
-of ice on its lands must have been immense. For, when it is considered
-that the glaciers of North America extended southward even into the
-torrid zone sufficient to cover a large portion of Central America,
-it is unreasonable to suppose that any portion of California could
-escape being covered by heavy ice-sheets during the glacial epoch. The
-comparatively scant fall of rain and snow over Greenland is known to
-form ice-sheets hundreds of feet in thickness.
-
-Therefore, what must have been the depth of ice over the high lands of
-the Pacific coast north of California at the culmination of a frigid
-period? The descriptions given by Dr. Dawson and others, of glacial
-phenomena along that coast, favor the impression that an immense
-ice-sheet at one time deeply covered the whole region from the top of
-the mountain range to the ocean.
-
-Thus all the deep channels were filled and all the islands deeply
-overrun with ice, while the immense bergs launched from the shore
-and carried by the winds and currents southward were probably not
-melted until they reached the tropical latitudes. Thus, when the
-whole circulation of the Pacific waters are taken into account, it
-will be seen that their temperature during the ice age must have been
-considerably lowered. The movement of ice-sheets on the Pacific slope
-was probably local in character, and not connected with the movement of
-ice on the eastern sides of the mountains.
-
-From what I have seen of the vast territory lying between the Sierra
-Nevada and the Rocky Mountains it appears that it obtained much heavier
-ice-fields than generally supposed. Professor Geikie in his lectures
-says of this region that during the glacial age, “in the Second
-Colorado Canyon, the sides were completely glaciated from bottom to
-top. These walls are from 800 to 1,000 feet high, and at the thickest
-point the glacier was 1,700 feet thick”; and he says that “the country
-around Salt Lake was covered with ice, for the rocks about there show
-the action of ice, and that the bones of the musk-ox are found there.”
-This vast area of ancient ice, although subject to little movement in
-its interior basin, still, in whatever movement it may have had, must
-have found its main outlet through the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.
-
-For in no other way can we account for the erosive forces necessary to
-excavate that immense chasm. Not even the mighty torrent that carried
-off the waters of the melting ice-sheets that covered the interior
-portion of the continent could accomplish work of such magnitude.
-
-According to Professor Geikie’s observations the Second Colorado Canyon
-was filled with glaciers during the ice age. Therefore, it seems that
-these glaciers must have flowed down into the Grand Canyon, and there
-united with glaciers flowing from more northern regions.
-
-An account of a collecting expedition to Lower California by G. Eison,
-in 1895, describes ancient moraines at the extremity of the peninsula
-as being prominent, large, and steep. This region lies under the tropic
-of Cancer, and 8° south of the mouth of the Colorado River where
-it empties into the Gulf of California. Hence it appears that the
-temperature of that portion of North America during the ice age was
-favorable for the great glacier of the Colorado Canyon to have flowed
-into the Gulf of California.
-
-The wide, shallow basins of Utah and Nevada were filled with the water
-from the melting ice-sheet on the breaking up of the ice period,
-and the lakes so caused remained for a considerable time after the
-disappearance of the ice. But, owing to the great evaporation and light
-rain-fall of that region, the lakes gradually shrank away, the filling
-and emptying of the lake basins being governed by the cold and mild
-epochs.
-
-The conglomerate deposits in the Appalachian district of North America
-are known as occurring on a large scale. Professor Shaler is inclined
-to attribute them to glacial action, because he knows of no other force
-that could bring together such masses of pebbles from a wide-spread
-surface. In Eastern Kentucky and East Tennessee these deposits are
-found to be several hundred feet in thickness. Such accumulations of
-apparent glacial origin are to be found from New Brunswick to Alabama.
-
-Hence it seems that the ice during a frigid period followed down the
-Alleghany range even so far south as Georgia and Alabama; and for a
-time, when the ice attained its greatest spread, it flowed over the
-central portion of the Gulf States. For how else can we account for the
-clay mixed with gravel and pebbles and stony fragments being spread
-broadcast over that region?
-
-I know that such statements do not agree with the views of glacialists
-who have written on the subject, and have drawn the glacial boundary
-from seven to ten degrees further north, where a line of bowlders with
-other glacial débris is plainly traced. Still, it appears to me that a
-line of bowlders deposited by an ice-sheet spreading over a continent
-and across many degrees of latitude cannot be compared to the moraines
-of inferior mountain glaciers of the temperate latitudes of the present
-age.
-
-An ice-sheet moving from a high latitude to a lower would, while in the
-colder latitude, freeze firmly to the rocky ledges, and hold them so
-strong in its frigid grasp as to break off the weaker portions of the
-rocks, and drag them toward a milder region, as far as the freezing
-grip of the ice-sheet would permit; but, on gaining lower and milder
-latitudes, the holding and dragging power of the ice would be lost on
-account of the increased warmth of the earth over which the glacier
-must pass, and also because of the ice-sheet having lost a portion of
-the low temperature acquired in the higher latitudes. Therefore, on
-such lines the bowlders would be released, while the ice-sheet would
-still move on, although largely deprived of its eroding power.
-
-This is the probable reason why a line of glacial débris, largely
-composed of bowlders, is found to extend across the Middle and Western
-States, and so generally supposed to be the glacial boundary of a
-frigid period. But there is no reason to suppose that an ice-sheet,
-although deprived of its eroding power, was arrested in its southern
-movement on the line of its stony débris, because there could be no
-sudden change of temperature in a particular latitude on the eastern
-lands of North America to cause an abrupt ending of the ice-sheets.
-And there appears to be nothing to hinder the ice from gathering and
-flowing over lands warm enough to loosen its implements of erosion;
-for there is much to show that the ice-sheets flowed much further
-southward, even into the middle portion of the Gulf States, and there
-spread the clay mixed with gravel and pebbles, with now and then a
-bowlder, over the land. The scattered bowlders, found in numerous
-instances many miles south of the bowlder line, were so deeply imbedded
-in the ice-sheet that they could not be dropped on the usual releasing
-ground. The ice-sheet, when deprived of its rocky, eroding implements,
-would, while flowing over the land, leave few or no imprints on the
-rocks; but it would probably move and spread a large amount of clay,
-gravel, pebbles, and sand over its wide course, especially if the ice
-moved from a region abounding with such material.
-
-Should we place the glacial boundary on the line of the rocky débris,
-how could we account for the glaciated stones found on the hills and
-plains situated far southward of the bowlder-strewn regions of the
-Middle and Western States? The clay mixed with gravel and sand, and
-spread so broadcast over a large portion of Georgia and even into
-Northern Florida, makes it appear that the ice of a cold period must
-have covered that southern region.
-
-Moreover, it seems to have been through the great abrasion which only
-ice-sheets could perform that the sands of the Florida peninsula were
-produced; for on examination they seem to have resulted from the
-abrasion and weathering of crystalline rocks.
-
-The worn remnants of such rocks are now found in the southern
-Appalachian range. In fact, the hills and mountains of that region at
-the present time are supposed to be a small remnant of the ancient
-highlands. Thus, on consideration, it appears that the sands caused by
-the action of glaciers were, on the disappearance of ice-sheets, blown
-by the strong north-west winds toward the Florida peninsula as fast
-as the receding waters of the ocean which flowed the lowlands on the
-breaking up of the ice age would permit; and in this way the sand was
-spread over the lowland region, which was largely composed of coral
-sea shells and other marine matter. And it seems that the sand must
-have been blown over large areas in Florida soon after the ending of
-the frigid period, because the sand, in order to be moved by the winds,
-must have spread over a country nearly destitute of vegetation; and
-such would be the condition of that region during times which succeeded
-the ice period and the subsequent brief flowage of the lowlands on the
-ending of the frigid age, which would not be the case if such sands
-resulted entirely from water erosion and weathering, because with
-such a state of things the country would be covered with forests and
-grasses, which would prevent the sand from being moved by the winds to
-any great extent.
-
-This goes to show that the region of the Gulf States was so much
-affected by the cold of the glacial period, together with the
-submergence of the lowlands at its close, its flora and also its
-animals were exterminated; for how else can we account for the abundant
-fossil remains of animals now found buried in the Florida sands? It
-appears also that, when Florida was being covered with drifting sands,
-many of the lake basins now formed did not exist, as the wind-blown
-sand could not have crossed a continuous chain of lakes like the St.
-John’s River; and it is an easy matter to-day to trace the beds of the
-ancient lakes that prevented the sands from drifting over certain lands
-now nearly destitute of it. And it is probable that the sea flowed the
-lowest lands during the period when the winds were drifting the greater
-portion of the sands over the peninsula. Therefore, regions which
-embrace the Everglades and portions of the Indian River territory are
-quite free from heavy sand deposits, and so also are the extensive flat
-woods of the peninsula.
-
-Since the sands blew over the ancient desert of Florida, many lake
-basins have been formed because of the sinking of the ground. This
-sinking of the ground is a common occurrence in limestone regions,
-where a great amount of material is moved in solution, leaving caverns
-whose roofs often fall in. The great amount of sand blown upon Florida
-caused the marine strata to give way in the weaker places under its
-burden. The sinks thus formed, probably of frequent occurrence at one
-time, have now nearly ceased. Still, there are depressions to be seen
-to-day where the tops of large pine-trees, which grew on dry, sandy
-land, are barely above the surface of the water which partly fills
-the basins so recently formed. Yet I would not assert that all of the
-depressions where Florida lakes exist were caused by the sinking of the
-ground; for the winds may have caused shallow basins in the sand, where
-the decayed vegetation has formed mud sufficient to hold the water
-which now partly fills such basins.
-
-The mobility of Florida sands can be seen to good advantage when
-exposed to a strong, dry north-west wind, where the ground happens
-to be destitute of vegetation. An observer can then realize what the
-result would be, should the whole land be deprived of vegetation and
-laid bare to the action of the winds.
-
-Under such conditions, not only would the winds be much stronger than
-now, but the air near the ground would be filled with sand, moving like
-drifting snow in a Dakota blizzard. And, furthermore, it is probable
-that the rainfall was very light while Florida was void of vegetation;
-and, even if shallow basins were formed, there would be a lack of rain
-to supply them with water.
-
-The wide plains west of the Mississippi River, extending southward into
-Texas, during the frigid period must have been covered with a sheet
-of ice and snow. And it is probable that it was not wholly a product
-of more northern latitudes, but was mostly produced by the snow which
-fell on the plains during the long winters of that period, which could
-not be melted away during the cold summers of an ice age, when it is
-considered that an ice-sheet, with a temperature sufficiently low as to
-carry glacial drift, covered the lands of Missouri as far as latitude
-38° south; and it may have been through the pressure from an ice-sheet
-in its south-eastern movement that we are to account for the numerous
-ore-bearing faulting fissures traversing the limestone strata.
-
-The ice-sheet was also the probable cause of the erosion of the
-horizontal bedded stones, yet it appears that the ice did not greatly
-change the contour of the ground; for it is well known that glaciers
-do move over lands that are not frozen to the ice without causing much
-disturbance, especially where the gradient is small, and this was the
-probable condition of the Western plains during the ice age. Thus it
-seems that whatever disturbance this region has undergone could be
-partly attributed to ice-sheets without the presence of bowlder drift,
-because the temperature and texture of the ground in the limestone
-region were unfavorable for such accumulations; yet it may be owing to
-the action of ice that minerals once diffused are now found collected
-in fissures. The deep valleys through which the large rivers now pass
-on their way toward the sea were once filled with glaciers which flowed
-into them from their tributaries. Thus the deep trenches of the plains
-are largely the work of glaciers. It is generally supposed that the
-driftless region of Wisconsin was free from ice during the frigid
-period. But it seems impossible for this region to have escaped being
-covered by ice and snow, with the great lakes filled with glaciers, and
-the regions on all sides of the driftless area covered with ice.
-
-The reason why this territory escaped the drift from the north was on
-account of the hindrance which the drift-bearing ice-sheet encountered
-in the deep basin of Lake Superior. In this great depression the
-ice-sheet from the north was relieved of bowlders and other glacial
-drift, as well as obstructed in its southern movement.
-
-Therefore, the snow and ice which gathered on the driftless region had
-little movement in any direction, while the temperature and consistency
-of the ground under the ice were not favorable for the production
-of bowlder drift; and, when we consider that the Mississippi valley
-was deprived of great sources of warmth during the culmination of a
-glacial period, we are forced to the conclusion that its wide lands
-were also covered with snow and ice.
-
-The tropical waters of the North Atlantic were so much chilled by the
-floating icebergs of North-eastern America, Greenland, Iceland, and
-Northern Europe that the Caribbean Sea, its warmest reservoir, was
-reduced to a temperature so low that the easterly winds which blew over
-its waters were unable to prevent ice-sheets from gathering on Eastern
-Nicaragua.
-
-Therefore, during such frigid times it appears that, with the waters of
-the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico reduced to a low temperature, it
-was impossible for the great Mississippi valley to escape glaciation,
-while being surrounded by cold seas and glaciated lands which extended
-even into the tropical latitudes. The broad, level lands of British
-America and Siberia during the ice age must have been thickly covered
-by the snow which fell on the deeply frozen plains, besides the large
-amount of snow that the cold westerly winds must have drifted over
-their icy surface from lands of greater snow-fall on their western
-borders. This snow during such freezing times could not be melted away.
-
-The great ice-sheets thus formed over wide, level lands could have
-but little motion in any direction, certainly not sufficient to cause
-glacial drift of much magnitude; yet the ice-sheet, at one stage of
-its existence, probably served to widen and deepen the channels of the
-great rivers which empty into the Arctic Ocean from these vast regions,
-and the glacial débris from such erosion was deposited in the arctic
-seas.
-
-
-
-
-CHAPTER V.
-
-REMARKS ON THEORIES ADVANCED FOR EXPLAINING ICE PERIODS.
-
-
-On Nov. 12, 1891, Professor Geikie made his presidential address before
-the Edinburgh Geological Society, the subject being “Supposed Causes of
-the Glacial Period.”
-
-Many of his views advanced in this lecture were so much in accordance
-with my own that I am induced to repeat them. He said that the glacial
-period was a general phenomenon due to some widely acting cause, and
-that where we now have the greatest rain-fall the greatest snow-fall
-took place, and that the Pleistocene period was characterized by great
-oscillations of climate, extremely cold and very genial conditions
-alternating. He also said that in glacial and post-glacial times
-changes in the relative level of the land and sea had taken place, and
-any suggested explanation which did not fully account for these various
-climatic and geographical conditions could not be satisfactory. And,
-while examining the earth-movement hypothesis, he pointed out that in
-the first place there was not the least evidence of great continental
-elevations and depressions in the northern hemisphere, such as the
-hypothesis postulated. Next he showed that, even if the diserrated
-earth-movements were admitted, they would not account for the phenomena.
-
-Such changes, no doubt, would profoundly affect the maritime regions of
-North America and Europe; but they would not bring about the conditions
-that obtained at the climax of the ice age.
-
-Another objection to the earth-movement hypothesis was this: it did not
-account for interglacial conditions. The advocates of that hypothesis
-imagined that these conditions would supervene when the highly elevated
-northern regions were depressed to their present level. But these
-were the conditions that obtained at the present time; and yet in
-spite of them the climate was neither so equable nor so genial as that
-which obtained in interglacial times and during the mild stage of the
-necessary post-glacial period.
-
-Therefore, he said that the earth-movement hypothesis should be
-rejected, not only because it was highly improbable that such
-wonderfully rhythmic elevations and depressions of northern lands could
-have taken place, but chiefly because it did not explain the conditions
-of the glacial periods and interglacial times.
-
-Still, Professor Geikie says that in glacial and in post-glacial times
-changes in the relative level of the land and sea had taken place; and
-it is reasonable to suppose that such changes were obtained in the high
-latitudes of both hemispheres during the breaking up of the last ice
-age.
-
-We have previously pointed out that much of the ice of the glacial
-period in the southern hemisphere was melted away, and its waters
-warmed sufficiently to assist the Gulf Stream and Japanese current to
-bring about a mild period in the northern hemisphere; for without such
-assistance they would be unable to disperse the vast ice-sheets of the
-northern latitudes.
-
-Still, the attraction of the southern ocean waters into the northern
-seas must have commenced as soon as the growing ice-sheets of the large
-continents and islands of the high northern latitudes surpassed the
-growth and weight of the glaciers on the smaller lands of the southern
-hemisphere.
-
-Hence the attraction of the ocean waters northward overcomes the force
-of the prevailing winds from moving an undue portion of the ocean’s
-surface waters southward. Consequently, the movement of water from the
-southern seas into the northern latitudes continued so long as the
-vast northern ice-sheets increased in weight greater than the glaciers
-of the southern hemisphere. Therefore, at the perfection of a frigid
-age straits and channels situated so far southward as the Magellan and
-Cape Horn channels were much diminished in width and depth or entirely
-deprived of their waters. Through this cause such reduced channels were
-readily filled with glaciers in a region of great snow-fall. The depth
-of water on the submerged northern lands at the close of the glacial
-period is not known.
-
-According to Professor Dawson, in the township of Montague in Ontario
-the skeleton of a whale was found in post-glacial deposits 440 feet
-above tide-water, and marine shells are known to occur on Montreal
-mountain at an elevation of 520 feet above the ocean; and it is said
-that there are traces of submergence of over one thousand feet in the
-higher latitudes, including the islands of Great Britain.
-
-According to the researches of Dr. J. W. Spencer, one great sheet of
-water covered most of the great lake region about the close of the
-ice age; and the lower strands of these inland seas are known to be
-connected with old marine shore lines. The probable reason why so few
-sea-shells collected on the glacial drift during such times was because
-of so much marine life having been exterminated in the high northern
-latitudes during the frigid age. Therefore, the sea, in the short
-period of northern submergence, left but few traces on the glacial
-drift it once flowed.
-
-Thus it will be seen that, if the ocean waters were attracted northward
-through the preponderance of northern ice-sheets, they not only
-assisted in melting the northern ice, but also served to greatly reduce
-the waters in the Cape Horn channel, and so largely prevented the
-independent circulation of the southern ocean, thus furthering a mild
-climate in the southern hemisphere until the prevailing winds, after
-the northern ice-sheets were melted, were able to move more of the
-ocean waters southward than they could move northward, owing to the
-ocean currents setting southward being less obstructed than the lesser
-currents setting northward. This tendency of the ocean waters to move
-southward I have before explained in the preceding pages.
-
-But I will say in addition that, on further consideration, it seems
-that one of the main causes of the waters of the augmented northern
-oceans moving southward so soon after the melting of the ice from
-the northern lands was on account of so much water being attracted
-southward to the great low sea-level east of Cape Horn. This vast low
-sea-level remained a great area of attraction for the northern seas
-until so much northern water was moved into the southern ocean as to
-reduce the seas of the northern hemisphere and augment the southern
-ocean sufficiently to enlarge the Cape Horn channel, thus causing
-the extinction of the vast low sea-level that furnished such great
-attraction for the waters of the more northern latitudes.
-
-If the earth-movement hypothesis, so wholly rejected by Professor
-Geikie, fails to explain the cause or causes of a northern ice age, it
-seems to be still more inadequate for explaining the occurrence of ice
-periods extending over both hemispheres. For it is not probable that
-portions of continents and large islands rose above the snow-line in
-both temperate zones during the same period of time, and then again
-obtained their present level with the occurrence of a mild era.
-
-Those who maintain that the continents of North America and Europe
-rose to great elevations during the ice age, in order to prove their
-assertions, point to the fiords which indent the eastern and western
-coasts of North America, and also to the fiords of Norway, as having
-been eroded by streams of ice that flowed along the bottom of such
-gorges when they were above the sea.
-
-But it appears that such erosion could be performed by heavy glaciers
-with the lands at their present level. A glacier three thousand feet
-thick would fill and press heavily on the bottom of a gorge fifteen
-hundred feet in depth. Therefore, should the bottom of a fiord sink
-hundreds of feet below the sea-level, a glacier several thousand feet
-thick flowing through and over it into a sea of much greater depth, the
-erosion at the bottom of the sunken channel would be greater than on
-the land above the sea, where the ice possessed less weight.
-
-Therefore, it is not necessary that lands pierced by deep fiords
-should have acquired a higher level during the ice age than they now
-maintain. And it is probable that on the antarctic continent ice
-erosion may be going on at much greater depths below the sea-level than
-the deepest channels in the high northern latitudes. For it is likely
-that the temperature of a glacier is so low in such frigid regions
-that it holds firmly in its freezing grasp such bowlders as may become
-detached from the rocks, thus giving it great erosive power.
-
-But this great eroding ability could not be maintained by glaciers in
-the lower latitudes, where a higher temperature would largely deprive
-the ice of its abrading properties except on the steep slopes of
-mountainous lands.
-
-There are deposits of ice on the North American coast bordering the
-arctic shores, and also on Northern Siberia, that are supposed to have
-existed since the last frigid period, and are likely to be preserved
-into a future cold age, which now appears to have made considerable
-progress on Greenland and other ice-clad arctic shores on account of
-the independent circulation of the Arctic Ocean waters, which largely
-excludes the Gulf Stream from the polar seas; and it is for this reason
-that the glaciers on the elevated lands of Iceland are being enlarged
-and rapidly advancing. Yet, notwithstanding the gathering of ice
-and increasing coldness of lands largely removed from the warm Gulf
-currents, there are still mountain regions where glaciers may have been
-preserved through post-glacial times, although directly to the leeward
-and under the influence of the Gulf Stream and Japanese currents.
-These glaciers are situated in the Alpine districts of Europe and on
-the mountain ranges of Alaska. It would appear that, were the climate
-growing gradually colder in the northern temperate zones, such glaciers
-should be increasing in size.
-
-Yet it is said that such is not always the case. This is probably
-owing to their being subject to the genial influence of the tropical
-currents. For, although the climate of Europe and Alaska may have been
-slowly growing colder for centuries, still the slow shrinkage of these
-once immense glaciers may still be going on, although at a much slower
-rate than formerly, even if the tender plants of these latitudes,
-because of the growing coldness, have gradually moved southward.
-
-As to the Alpine glaciers, M. Forel reports from data he has collected
-that there have been several enlargements and diminutions during the
-last century. And since 1875 enlargements have taken place, their
-shrinkage being caused by warm and dry weather, while their enlargement
-was brought about during cold and rainy seasons. The glaciers of
-Alaska cannot attain much extension until the waters of the great
-Japanese stream acquire a lower temperature. There is at this date a
-small current setting down through the eastern side of Bering Strait,
-bearing field-ice in the spring season down to Anadyr Gulf. The Okhotsk
-Sea in the spring season furnishes considerable field-ice to cool the
-north Pacific waters, and the wintry winds which sweep down from the
-high lands of Northern Asia also serve to chill the Pacific seas; but
-all such sources of cold combined at this age have but little general
-effect on the vast Japanese current, which still has warmth sufficient
-to prevent the increase of glaciers on Alaska.
-
-This great ocean stream in its impact against the shores of Oregon
-causes a high sea-level, which is mostly turned southward by the
-prevailing north-west winds. Still, a comparatively small stream
-sets along the shore of the Alaska Gulf, and also through the island
-passages toward a slight low sea-level, to the leeward of the Alaska
-peninsula; and it is probable that this current which warms these
-in-shore waters is favored by the difference of temperature and density
-between the waters abreast Oregon and the Gulf of Alaska, and it may be
-owing to the same cause that a small stream is sent along the eastern
-shore of Bering Strait into the deep portions of the Arctic Ocean. Thus
-because of the warm waters that proceed from the great Japanese current
-the glaciers of Alaska are prevented from increasing their bulk.
-
-The only way to furnish the Japanese stream with colder water, and
-so cause glaciers to increase on the north-west coast of America, is
-through the great Humboldt current, which has its rise in the southern
-ocean west of Patagonia and the Cape Horn channel, where a moderate but
-vast high sea-level is formed on account of the great drift current of
-the southern ocean being somewhat obstructed on its passage through the
-Cape Horn channel, which is about one-third the breadth of the westerly
-wind-belt.
-
-Therefore, the northern portion of the waters of the high sea-level
-so caused are attracted northward to the low sea-level abreast Peru,
-from whence they are moved by the south-east trade winds as a drift
-current to the equatorial latitudes, thus meeting and mingling with the
-returning Japanese current abreast Central America, and so giving head
-to the great equatorial stream which moves westward over the Pacific
-Ocean, partly impelled by the trade winds, and, on gaining the western
-side of the ocean, sends off from a moderate high sea-level a large
-stream to the low sea-level caused by the westerly winds abreast Japan,
-from whence it is drifted by the same winds over to the north-west
-coast of America, thus forming the great Japanese current.
-
-Meanwhile the temperature of the Humboldt current, being governed by
-the temperature of the southern ocean from which it takes its rise, is
-cooling at a slow rate through the enlargement of ice-sheets in the
-antarctic regions, while the increase of glaciers on Patagonia will
-in time greatly add to its coolness, and so lower the temperature of
-the equatorial current from which the Japanese current branches, the
-latter current being made cooler through the increase of coldness of
-the former streams. Therefore, the temperature of Alaska, which is
-governed by the Japanese current, will slowly acquire a colder climate;
-and, consequently, its glaciers will increase in size sufficient to
-launch icebergs into the Pacific to be currented southward, and so
-still further lower the temperature of the Eastern Pacific waters,
-and consequently the equatorial current from which the Japanese stream
-branches, and so eventually, under the above conditions, cause heavy
-ice-sheets to spread widely over the north-west coast of North America.
-
-It will be seen from the above explanations how an increase of cold
-in the southern hemisphere is necessary to cause a wider spread of
-ice-sheets on lands in the northern hemisphere.
-
-Especially is this the case to promote the gathering of glaciers on the
-west coast of North America. The great equatorial current while on its
-way to the Indian Ocean not only sends off the Japanese stream, but
-also the East Australian current, which is like the Japanese current,
-having its temperature lowered in proportion as the equatorial stream
-is cooled. Therefore, the southern ocean is slowly being deprived of
-equatorial heat from this source.
-
-I have explained how the increasing coldness of the superior oceans of
-the southern hemisphere affects more or less the temperature of the
-Gulf Stream, which meanwhile is only able to enter a small portion
-of its waters into the Arctic Ocean after undergoing a long cooling
-process as a drift current; and, while thus mingling with the arctic
-waters, it is not able to prevent the gathering of ice-sheets on
-Greenland, where glaciers are launching bergs to float southward as far
-as the latitude of 40° north. Consequently, the northern seas are now
-being cooled as well as the seas of the southern hemisphere.
-
-Yet this cooling process is so slow there is a lack of data to
-show that the temperature of the high latitudes is lowering. Our
-thermometrical observations are of such recent date they cannot be used
-to determine climatic changes which requires centuries to bring about.
-Still, it is generally known that the climate of Northern Europe has
-been accused of growing colder. The vine no longer flourishes on the
-shores of Bristol Channel or in Flanders or Brittany; and vineyards
-are no longer planted on the elevated shores of France where they
-flourished three hundred years ago. Arago did not refuse to believe
-that the laws regulating the temperature of Western Europe had notably
-altered. This is proved, he said, by the general retrogradation of the
-vineyards southward.
-
-The recent deadly freezing of the orange groves of Florida makes it
-uncertain whether the cultivation of the orange can again be successful
-in the counties where during this generation it has been very
-profitable.
-
-Travellers visiting Iceland say that the old accounts of its prosperity
-seem strange to those who now visit its shores; and it is narrated in
-the Sagas that in early times sheep could shift for themselves during
-winter, and that there were large forests and that corn ripened.
-Several years ago a correspondent of the _Spectator_, writing from
-Northern Russia where the Volga is locked with ice for six months in
-the year, stated that “the people were beginning to show increased
-resentment at the climate, and that there was reason to believe that
-the northern government of Russia would be abandoned to the desert. The
-people silently glide south by the tens of thousands every year, so the
-life of Russia was concentrating in the south.”
-
-It is now the opinion of travellers in arctic lands that the
-inhabitants of the Esquimaux regions are decreasing, as are also the
-inhabitants of Northern Siberia.
-
-A writer in the North China _Herald_, of Shanghai, says that “the
-climate of Asia is becoming colder than it formerly was, and its
-tropical animals and plants are retreating southward at a slow rate.
-In the time of Confucius elephants were in use on the Yangtse River.
-A hundred and fifty years after this Mencius speaks of the tiger, the
-leopard, the rhinoceros, and the elephant as being in many parts of
-China.
-
-“It is also said that the ferocious alligator, that formerly infested
-the rivers of South China, has retreated southward.
-
-“The flora of the country is also affected by the increasing coldness
-of the climate. The bamboo is not found in the forests of North China,
-where it grew naturally two thousand years ago, but is still grown in
-Pekin, with the aid of good shelter, as a sort of garden plant only.”
-
-A letter from Hong Kong, published in the London _Standard_, reports
-that on the 15th of January, 1893, the temperature of Hong Kong, a
-tropical seaport of China, was below freezing for three days, and was
-colder than ever before known. The rocks and also vegetation were
-covered with a coating of ice. The thermometer at times stood at 23°
-and 26° Fahrenheit.
-
-I have previously explained how the slow increasing coldness of the
-northern temperate zone is also being carried out in the southern
-hemisphere. The meteorological records for the lofty table lands of
-Ecuador, although very incomplete, furnish strong evidence to show that
-the mean temperature of that region is gradually lowering.
-
-Observations made by Boussingault at Quito in 1831, compared with those
-from 1878 to 1881, showed a decrease from 15.2° Centigrade to 13.27°
-Centigrade.
-
-Records made by Hall from 1825 to 1827 give averages of 16.1°
-Centigrade, 15.52° Centigrade, and 15.6° Centigrade. This decrease
-holds good for all points in the inter-Andean region where records have
-been kept.
-
-Yet we know that the falling temperature in the northern temperate
-latitudes is not brought about by a yearly increase of cold, because,
-when the arctic channels are somewhat obstructed with icebergs, the
-movement of arctic waters through them is lessened; and, therefore,
-during such times the Gulf Stream, meeting with less opposition from
-arctic currents while flowing northward, is able to move a larger
-volume of its waters into the arctic seas, thus warming their waters
-sufficiently in a few seasons to clear the obstructed channels, and
-also somewhat soften for several successive years the temperature of
-such lands as border on the seas of that region.
-
-And in this way we account for the mild seasons which at times follow
-those of lower temperature in high northern latitudes.
-
-But, when the detained icebergs are set adrift, and currented into the
-temperate North Atlantic, the heat consumed while melting such numerous
-bodies of ice is able to more than overcome the warmth gained during
-the temporary detention of ice in the northern seas. Thus, under such
-considerations, it appears that the conditions are favorable for the
-growth of glaciers in the high northern latitudes.
-
-I have pointed out the manner in which the superior oceans in the
-southern hemisphere are obtaining a lower temperature, and how
-they impart their coldness to the tropical currents, and in this
-way slowly cool the waters of all oceans. Thus it appears that the
-northern temperate zone, with all other parts of the earth, is slowly
-approaching a cold epoch.
-
-Several writers on climatic changes have expressed their views as to
-the number of glacial and mild periods that have been perfected since
-the conditions have been favorable for their appearance on the globe.
-According to my views, while considering the reasons for the occurrence
-of the great glacial periods which have left such extensive traces on
-the land, it seems certain that two very cold epochs have possessed
-the earth, separated by a warm period; and, possibly, other preceding
-cold epochs of less intensity have possessed the high latitudes, with
-intervening periods of mildness. But the earlier cold periods, if they
-ever existed, were comparatively short, because the Cape Horn channel
-during such times possessed less capacity than in the later periods,
-and, therefore, was more easily and quickly obstructed by the natural
-methods previously explained.
-
-Consequently, the independent circulation of the southern ocean was
-sooner arrested than during the later epoch, when the channel had
-become enlarged by erosion from heavy glaciers and icebergs; and
-meanwhile the same conditions may have governed the arctic channels
-which give an independent circulation to the arctic waters which
-surround Greenland, and thus, in connection with cold epochs in the
-southern hemisphere, have caused periods of cold of small intensity to
-occur in the high northern latitudes, and it may happen in the future
-that more ice periods will be perfected than the one now progressing.
-
-Still, it is well to bear in mind that the Cape Horn channel, which
-is the real cause of glacial periods having occurred in both the
-northern and southern hemispheres, in the manner previously explained,
-is being made wider and deeper during each succeeding ice age. For
-this reason the latest cold epoch will require a longer continuance
-of cold to obstruct the channel than the cold period preceding.
-Therefore, it appears that the time will come when there will be such
-great accumulations of ice stored on the land and in the sea before
-the enlarged Cape Horn channel can be closed that, when it is closed,
-there will not be sufficient warmth remaining in the tropical seas to
-unite with the sun’s rays to subdue the intense cold stored in the
-immense gatherings of ice. And thus the earth, which began its career
-with a warm temperature, and so continued for long ages, will finally
-terminate in an endless glacial age.
-
-The statements made by General Cowell in _Science_ of Nov. 25, 1892, in
-reference to the alleged discovery of the second rotation of the earth
-by Major-general Drayson, represents the discovery as affording a new
-solution for the cause or causes of an ice age.
-
-The second rotation as defined consists in the pole of the heavens
-describing a circle around a point which is ascertained to be
-situated six degrees distant from the pole of the ecliptic. And it
-is asserted that by a knowledge of the second rotation it is proved
-that a variation of twelve degrees in the extent of the arctic circle
-and the tropics occurred not later than 13,500 B.C., “the tropics
-varying in distance from the equator from the minimum of 23° 25′
-47″ to the maximum of 35° 25′ 47″, thus extending the torrid zone
-during its widest expansion from Cape Hatteras to the river Plate....
-It is calculated that at this date we are about 403 years distant
-from the time when the pole of the heavens in its revolution, the
-pole of the ecliptic and that of the second rotation, will be in
-the same colure,--that is, in the year 2,295 A.D.; and then the
-least differences in temperature between summer and winter will be
-experienced. From that time forward this difference will increase, and
-about 6,000 years later, or about the year 8,300 A.D., the earth will
-enter the next glacial period, and attain its greatest severity about
-the year 18,136 of our era.” General Cowell does not state how the
-widening of the tropical zone, as above set forth, would bring about
-a glacial period. The winters of the temperate zones would evidently
-be colder than now; but, on the other hand, the summers would be
-proportionally warmer, while the westerly winds above the latitudes of
-40° would prevail the same as now.
-
-Therefore, their general effect on the surface waters of the ocean
-in the high latitudes would not be changed with such an extension of
-the tropical zone, neither would the trade winds change their general
-direction with a wider torrid zone; yet the boundaries of the trade
-winds and also the westerly winds would be more shifting according to
-the declination of the sun, such winds being governed as now by the
-position of the sun during the summer and winter solstice. Yet the
-natural process for moving tropical water into the high latitudes, or
-excluding it therefrom, would not be greatly changed.
-
-Consequently, the expansion of the torrid zone to the latitudes named
-by General Drayson would not affect the climate of the hemispheres
-sufficiently to cause a frigid epoch. On the contrary, the summer
-monsoons, which now blow from the north-east, along the shores of
-Eastern Africa, and also along the coast of Southern Brazil, would be
-much stronger with a vertical sun in midsummer as far south as river
-Plate, thus forcing the surface waters of the tropical oceans into the
-higher latitudes with greater facility than at this age.
-
-Moreover, according to the statements of General Cowell, the present
-period of mildness should be on the increase, and obtain perfection
-in the year 2,295, or about 400 years hence; while, on the contrary,
-according to the explanations we have given in the preceding pages,
-there is much to show that an ice age is advancing, and has made
-considerable progress in the high latitudes of both hemispheres.
-Furthermore, if the second rotation, as claimed by General Cowell,
-is able to perfect a glacial period at regular intervals of 31,600
-years, it seems that traces of frigid epochs should not be confined to
-late geological records, as there appear to be little or no traces of
-glacial work prior to the Quaternary or Post-tertiary periods.
-
-It appears that explanations so far given, which depend on the
-astronomical theory to account for the ice age, are not in harmony with
-well-known geographical facts. The explainers neglect the attention due
-to the great prevailing winds which since the earlier geological ages
-have, in connection with continents, moved the surface waters of the
-ocean from torrid latitudes to colder zones, and from the colder zones
-to the warmer latitudes.
-
-This exchange of ocean waters between the zones is as old as the
-continents which shape their courses. The important change wrought in
-the ocean currents sufficient to have caused the glacial age which
-ended the early warm epochs was brought about through the action of the
-prevailing winds, which, in connection with the form of continents,
-became able to move the ocean waters from the northern hemisphere into
-the southern sufficient to submerge the low lands of the southern
-hemisphere, causing a great diversion of the tropical currents from
-the high southern latitudes, such as I have pointed out in preceding
-chapters.
-
-Those writers who believe that ocean currents have been the cause of
-great climatic changes have suggested that the existence of an ancient
-channel through the isthmus of Panama would have caused a frigid period
-on lands bordering on the northern shores of the Atlantic by turning
-the head-waters of the Gulf Stream into the Pacific Ocean.
-
-Professor Agassiz thinks that such a channel existed during some remote
-geological age, judging from the semblance of the fauna pertaining to
-the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
-
-Yet it may be said that an open channel through Central America would
-have connected two high sea-levels.
-
-For this reason there would be little or no exchange of water between
-the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
-
-The high sea-level on the Pacific side is caused by the prevailing
-north-west winds which blow down the North American coast past
-California as far south as Central America; while, on the other hand,
-the south-east trade winds impel the surface waters of the South
-Pacific along the coast of Peru down to the equator, and so onward 5°
-to 8° north latitude. Thus the space between the ending of the two
-ocean winds obtains a high sea-level, corresponding to the high level
-of the Caribbean Sea. This has been proved from levellings for the
-Nicaragua ship canal.
-
-Consequently, the Atlantic waters would not run into the Pacific Ocean,
-even if a channel opened through Central America.
-
-Therefore, the Gulf Stream has never been turned away from the North
-Atlantic.
-
-Writers, while seeking a cause for the mild climate of ages preceding
-the glacial epochs, have thought that during such times channels
-opening through Asia from the Indian Ocean by the way of the Persian
-Gulf into the arctic seas would be the means of furnishing the Arctic
-Ocean with warm water. But it is evident that such a movement of water
-could not be brought about, because the winds would not be favorable
-for it. For, when we reflect that the prevailing winds would blow in
-the same direction as now, and that the seas of Eastern Europe and
-Western Asia were enlarged during the warm epochs, it seems that they
-would obtain high levels superior to the high level seas of the Indian
-Ocean.
-
-Besides, we should consider that there is a continuous range of high
-land separating the Persian Gulf from the northern seas, which probably
-existed anterior to the ice age. Still, during later periods, while
-the ice-sheets were being melted from the northern hemisphere and also
-on the ending of the last ice age, the Isthmus of Suez was submerged,
-as were all other low lands in that latitude; but it is probable that
-the waters of the high sea-level of the Indian Ocean abreast tropical
-Africa did not flow largely into the Mediterranean Sea for the reason
-that the enlarged European seas, being within the westerly wind-belt,
-maintained a high sea-level, while at the same time the high level
-tropical Indian Ocean waters were strongly attracted into the southern
-oceans through the Mozambique and Agulhas currents in the manner I
-have previously explained. Yet the waters of the high sea-level of the
-southern European seas must have been strongly attracted to the low
-sea-level abreast the Canary Islands.
-
-While considering the causes which brought about the glacial periods,
-it is well to reflect that the natural mode of action which could have
-produced a frigid age was as extensive as the surface of the globe;
-and, therefore, any geographical change that would affect only a
-comparatively small portion of the earth cannot serve to account for
-ages of warmth which extended over the globe, or for glacial epochs
-which were separated by warm periods of time, which seem to have
-affected all lands and seas.
-
-And it appears from the geographical explanations given in preceding
-pages of the general movements of the winds and currents of the sea how
-impossible it is for heat to be conveyed to the antarctic latitudes
-sufficient to prevent the growth of glaciers on their lands while the
-Cape Horn channel is in possession of its present capacity.
-
-For, as has been shown, this channel furnishes opportunity for the
-westerly winds to impel the surface waters of the great southern ocean
-constantly around the globe, and so largely turns away the tropical
-currents from the high southern latitudes.
-
-Consequently, there seems to be no method yet devised through nature’s
-mode of action that can carry sufficient heat into the antarctic
-latitudes to melt the ice-sheets from the southern continent, or even
-arrest their growth, while the Cape Horn channel maintains its present
-width and depth.
-
-Therefore, the increase of glaciers and icebergs will slowly continue
-until a glacial epoch is perfected.
-
-And it seems that this arrangement for bringing about a frigid age
-made slower progress in its early stage than at this date, owing to
-there having been a lack of glacial ice in the polar regions to produce
-icebergs for cooling the ocean waters. But the independent circulation
-of the great southern ocean, after turning away the tropical currents
-from the high southern latitudes for thousands of years, did at length
-cause glaciers to form on the antarctic lands, which have been slowly,
-but constantly increasing; and, consequently, the cooling of the ocean
-has been accelerated proportionate to the increase of ice-sheets.
-Therefore, with the cooling process so well advanced as it now appears
-to be, it seems that more than half of the time required to bring a
-frigid age to perfection has been expended since ice-sheets began to
-gather on the antarctic shores. For, when we realise how the facilities
-for making ice have advanced through the increase of glaciers in both
-hemispheres, and how large a portion of the ocean waters have been
-cooled below a temperate or tropical temperature even in the torrid
-latitudes where the warm upper waters of the ocean have been reduced
-to a comparatively thin stratum when compared to the vast bulk of the
-cooled under-waters, it appears that the cold will increase at a faster
-rate for the next thousand years than was the case during the last ten
-centuries. Therefore, the climate will be less favorable for plants and
-animals existing on lands in the high latitudes for the next thousand
-years than during the ten centuries preceding; and, when we take into
-consideration the accelerative growth of a frigid epoch, it seems that
-the increasing cold will in a few thousand years drive the greater
-portion of both plants and animals from the now temperate latitudes to
-maintain an existence in the tropical zone, where a large part of the
-existing species of such life must have taken refuge during the last
-ice period.
-
-And, from what can be learned from the relics of man’s prehistoric
-life, it seems to point to the lands of the tropical latitudes as
-having been his home during the frigid ages; and, because of his long
-undisturbed residence in favored portions of the tropics, he there
-attained his earliest civilization. For it appears that the tropical
-zone was not only less burdened with ice in glacial times than the
-higher latitudes of the globe, but was also more exempt from the
-great flooding of lands which obtained in the more northern latitudes
-through the shifting of the ocean waters, from causes set forth in the
-preceding pages. Yet it may be said that the low lands of the tropical
-zone south of the equator during cold epochs were much more extensive
-than at this age, on account of the shrinkage of the sea, because of
-the great amount of water evaporated from its surface, and stored in
-ice-sheets on the great continents and islands. Hence the reefs and
-shallows which surround such tropical islands as include the Seychelles
-Archipelago, and also the extensive banks covered with shoal water
-in that portion of the Indian Ocean, were during the glacial period
-elevated above the surface of the sea, possessing a climate favorable
-for vegetable and animal life. But, owing to the great rain-fall of
-that region, it is probable that the highest lands were glaciated,
-as it is reported that granite bowlders still rest on the mountain
-slopes of the highest island. The numerous islands and shoals of the
-south-western tropical Pacific must also have afforded wide land areas,
-with a temperate climate, owing to their having been situated on one of
-the warmest regions of the earth during the ice age.
-
-Moreover, it is probable that these tropical lands afforded space for
-numerous lagoons which had little connection with the surrounding
-oceans, and consequently were able to maintain, in their secluded
-shallow basins, a warmer temperature than obtained in the open seas;
-and at the same time, owing to the great rainfall in such tropical
-portions of the Indian and Pacific regions, the waters of the lagoons
-were rendered less salt than the briny depths of the shrunken oceans
-of a cold period. Hence because of such conditions the fauna of the
-tropical seas were preserved from the destructive rigor which beset the
-earth during the frigid epochs.
-
-
-
-
-Transcriber’s Notes
-
-
-Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a
-predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they
-were not changed.
-
-Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation
-marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left
-unbalanced.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Coming Ice Age, by C. A. M. Taber
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