. Frost & fire : natural engines, tool-marks & chips : with sketches taken at home and abroad by a traveller. out of a sling tiU the string is loosed,must sling ice away from the Poles, imless the mass is of equaldimensions upon all sides of the axis about which it revolves. There is no cable to moor the float to the Pole ; the cable is up and down, and the anchor is at the earths centre. Thereis a force to swing the ship along the sea, and it ought tomove south because of centrifugal force. ARCTIC CURRENT—FLOATS—MAP. 487 A float 2000 miles in diameter is a body about as big assome asteroids,
. Frost & fire : natural engines, tool-marks & chips : with sketches taken at home and abroad by a traveller. out of a sling tiU the string is loosed,must sling ice away from the Poles, imless the mass is of equaldimensions upon all sides of the axis about which it revolves. There is no cable to moor the float to the Pole ; the cable is up and down, and the anchor is at the earths centre. Thereis a force to swing the ship along the sea, and it ought tomove south because of centrifugal force. ARCTIC CURRENT—FLOATS—MAP. 487 A float 2000 miles in diameter is a body about as big assome asteroids, and subject to laws wliich govern the move-ments of planets and projectiles great and small; it is off thebalance at the Pole, for the shape is irregular. The sun andmoon, which lift tidal waves out of the ocean ; planets, whichdisturb other planets in their orbits ; all stars, visible andinvisible, except pole-stars—attract ice at the Poles towardsthe polar horizon; and as they do not all pull equally inopposite directions, there must always be an extra pull alongsome spoke of the revolving wheel. : j-!,,;,The loose floating mass which projects above the searlevelat the North Pole cannot rest there. It is out of equilibrium,imstable, dragged, and pushed, so it must move. It can onlymove south, and if it moves an inch from the centre,centrifugal force comes into play and urges it on. But theedge of the disc on which it moves, moves fastest, so the icemoves ia curves. It moves south-west, escapes where it can,and marks its path till it melts and sinks into its place in the 4^8 DENUDATION—FROST-MARKS—LAND-ICE. curved sea. It cannot rest even there, so it moves on inobedience to laws which govern fluids at the Equator. Currentsflow, and clouds fly back; rivers flow into the hollow ; and sothe endless march endures. The ice-tool and the engine made of air and water worklike a chisel cutting patterns on a ball in a lathe, and layingbare fresh layers as it cuts new
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