An Over- Ardent June 103 



shoulder for a bit, we said, we should be relieved. 

 And straightway she gave us just that. 



Still, let us reflect, when the heated term as 

 saults us, that some odd hundreds of thousands 

 of years ago, where we now broil, the ice-cap 

 rested a mile deep over Massachusetts which 

 had not yet been thought of and did not know 

 it. It was even deeper than it is now over Green 

 land. That was a climate to talk of in these days. 

 How comfortable it must have been ! about 250 

 degrees or less cooler than Sunday s sunshine and 

 200 degrees cooler than its shade. It is still cool 

 near the Arctic circle. And the Antarctic con 

 tinent is an even grander refrigerator. Butter 

 would never melt there, nor meats spoil ; and 

 there could be no call for ice-cream, soda water 

 or palm-leaf fans. The interesting narrative of 

 Arthur Gordon Pym, as reported by Mr. Poe, is 

 good reading for such a term as the recent. So 

 is Dr. Kane s romantic chronicle of his explora 

 tions, and the history of the Jeannette, not to 

 mention the tales of the various searches for Sir 

 John Franklin s party and the Peary relief ex 

 peditions. It is cool, too, on Kunchin-Jinga, on 

 Popocatepetl and on Cotopaxi. But the snow is 

 not clean on Cotopaxi, the volcanic dust is too 

 abundant. It is also cold on the moon, but there 

 is no atmosphere at all there, it is said, and even 



