20 THE ICE-CAP 



The skies were clearing. The planet was 

 being stripped of its cloud roof, so that its 

 warmth from the sun was radiated at night 

 and in winter directly into Space. Except to 

 leeward of the Gulf Stream, the lands of the 

 North Atlantic are still sub-Arctic as in 

 Labrador. These lands were more extensive 

 then than now, forming a bridge about a 

 thousand miles wide from Arctic Canada 

 across Smith's Sound to Greenland, and thence 

 by way of the Faroes to Scotland, which was 

 part of the European main. On this bleak 

 bridge which spanned the North Atlantic per- 

 manent snows heaped up to mountainous 

 heights forming the nucleus of the giant Ice- 

 cap. Its western lobe touched the Rocky 

 Mountains and the Missouri Valley, its eastern 

 wing covered the Russian plains as far as 

 Moscow, and southward flooded the German 

 Empire. It may be that the North Atlantic 

 bridge, remnant of an elder continent, sank 

 slowly until it foundered under its load of ice. 

 So the sea melted the ice and the climate began 

 to mend. 



Eastern Region. A third echelon of the 

 sou '-wester comes from the equatorial belt 

 of South America down to 1 5°s. This does not 

 take up any great load of moisture, for the 



