170 SCIENCE IN SHORT CHAPTERS. 



AERIAL EXPLORATION OF THE ARCTIC 

 REGIONS. 



ON our own hemisphere, and separated from our own 

 coasts by only a few days' journey on our own element, 

 there remains a blank circle of iinexplored country above 

 800 miles in diameter. We have tried to cross it, and 

 have not succeeded. Nothing further need be said in re- 

 ply to those who ask, " Why should we start another Arctic 

 Expedition?" 



The records of previous attempts to penetrate this area 

 of geographical mystery prove the existence of a formidable 

 barrier of mountainous land, fringed by fjords or inlets, 

 like those of Norway, some of which may be open, though 

 much contracted northward, like the Yestfjord that lies 

 between the Lofoden Islands and the mainland of Scandin- 

 avia. The majority evidently run inland like the ordinary 

 Norwegian fjords or the Scotch firths, and terminate in 

 land valleys that continue upwards to fjeld regions, or 

 elevated humpy land which acts as a condenser to the 

 vapor-laden air continually flowing towards the Pole from 

 the warmer regions of the earth, and returning in lower 

 streams when cooled. The vast quantities of water thus 

 condensed fall upon these hills and table lauds as snow 

 crystals. What becomes of this everlasting deposit? 



Unlike the water that rains on temperate hill-sides, it 

 cannot all flow down to the sea as torrents and liquid rivers, 

 but it does come down nevertheless, or long ere this it 

 would have reached the highest clouds. It descends mainly 

 as glaciers, which creep down slowly, but steadily and ir- 

 resistibly, filling up the valleys on their way; and stretch- 

 ing outwards into the fjords and channels, which they 

 block up with their cleft and chasmed crystalline angular 

 masses that still creep outwaid to the sea until they float, 

 and break off or "calve" as mountainous icebergs and 

 smaller masses of ice. 



These accumulations of ice thus formed on land consti- 



