THE ICE. 247 



annually into the North Atlantic, and collect off the 

 coast of Newfoundland. They all originate in the island- 

 studded Arctic Ocean, where the intense frosts of winter 

 form huge ice masses over wide, albeit varying, extent ; 

 part of which are in summer melted on the spot, part 

 drift farther south to meet the same fate, whilst a not 

 inconsiderable quantity retains its solid form, as happens, 

 for example, over the vast regions north of Behring Strait. 

 In the Antarctic regions, on the other hand, we have 

 shown in our history of discovery that after bursting 

 through a zone of pack-ice, which was not immoderately 

 thick, a sea was reached which was but slightly beset 

 with ice, no matter whether it was water washing the 

 coast, or open, extensive sea surfaces like the Ross Sea 

 and Weddell Sea. From this it follows that in the Arctic 

 regions the sea ice largely preponderates over the land ice, 

 which comes almost exclusively from Greenland, whilst in 

 the Antarctic regions the reverse takes place, that is to 

 say, that the land ice preponderates over the sea ice. 

 This is one more clear indication of the difference in 

 the distribution of land and water in the two hemispheres. 

 This the present author has elsewhere formulated thus : 

 " The northern hemisphere possesses a closed-in polar 

 ocean and a polar edge of the land ; the southern 

 hemisphere a closed-in polar continent (or polar archi- 

 pelago) and a polar edge of the oceans ". The effects 

 of this contrast are obvious. The islands sporadically- 

 scattered within the north polar basin, and also the 

 northern edges of the continents, are subject to the 

 influence of a continental dry climate ; the amount of 

 snow precipitated upon them is mostly too small to 

 produce a glaciation of the land, and consequently the 

 summer warmth is sufficient to liquefy the snow in the 

 lower regions, and to cause the drift-ice of the glaciers 

 (the icebergs) to recede. Conversely, in the Antarctic 

 regions, exceedingly low temperatures prevail even in 



