CHAPTER IX. 

 ICE-NEEDLES TO ICE-MOUNTAINS 



" In all time, 



Calm or convulsed, in breeze or gale or storm, 

 Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime 

 Dark -heaving ; boundless, endless, and sublime 

 The image of Eternity, the throne 

 Of the Invisible." BYRON. 



OO far most of our thoughts have been given 

 to Earth's milder regions ; where, indeed, the 

 warm ocean water is at best but a thin slice laid 

 over vast depths of cold water, yet where, so far 

 as man is concerned, heat has the upper hand. 

 In other parts, far to north and south, the Reign 

 of Frost is a dire reality ; and that chill monarch 

 "rules the roost" in a masterful fashion, lording 

 it over land and sea for months together, with 

 none to resist his sway. 



Wherever King Frost waves his sceptre, one 

 result always follows. Water changes from a 

 liquid to a solid. 



Nor is water the only liquid which so changes. 



79 



