Yet there is a greater amount of life in the northern seas 

 than in the seas of the equatorial region. In the arctic, 

 where the sunshine is seemingly the least abundant, the 

 animals in the sea are not only the most numerous but also 

 the largest; therefore, there must be some source of energy 

 in the arctic that fades out southward. 



Since sunlight alone cannot generate protoplasm and 

 since lightning, terrestrial electricity, and Azotobacter alone 

 can fix nitrogen, the essential base of protoplasm, and since 

 there is less snow and rain in the arctic zone than in the 

 warmer climates, there is, therefore, less lightning and 

 less terrestrial electricity, and there would therefore be less 

 nitrogen fixation, hence less protoplasm, in the arctic 

 region, were there no source other than solar energy. 



The one overwhelming electric phenomenon in the north 

 is the aurora borealis. The aurora borealis is as stupendously 

 greater than any electric phenomenon in the temperate or 

 tropic zones as the enormous blue whale is greater than any 

 other animal in the temperate or tropic zones. 



This one form of energy, the aurora borealis, is peculiar 

 to the arctic region. Its intensity fades toward the equator, 

 the area of strongest sunlight, in much the same manner 

 that sunlight, rain, trees, and plants fade in the opposite 

 way toward the poles, the areas of least sunlight. The band 

 of the most intense aurora passes northern Russia, Siberia, 

 across northern Canada, and along Baffin Land, Greenland, 

 and Newfoundland at about 60 latitude, and this electric 

 phenomenon is the most colossal spectacle in the world. 

 Accompanying it is a violent electric disturbance of tele- 

 phone, radio, and telegraph systems. 



As they pass through the atmosphere, light rays ionize 

 the gases in the atmosphere, and the electrons that are set 

 free, as they pass into space, ionize the air. It is this ioniza- 

 tion of the air by the free electrons that is expressed in 

 northern lights. 



166 



