. The continent we live on. Physical geography; Natural history. Jaeger in flight. These relatives of the petrels are robbers, predators, carrion feeders, and powerful fliers. Facing page: Numerous glaciers depend from the Greenland icecap. If they reach the sea, their tongues fan out and float, and great chunks break off,or are"calved,"to form icebergs. The Arctic Tern, greatest traveler of all birds, flies the Atlantic route 11,000 miles to the Antarctic in our autumn and back again in our spring to nest in the American considerable growth of lowly plants and many flowers
. The continent we live on. Physical geography; Natural history. Jaeger in flight. These relatives of the petrels are robbers, predators, carrion feeders, and powerful fliers. Facing page: Numerous glaciers depend from the Greenland icecap. If they reach the sea, their tongues fan out and float, and great chunks break off,or are"calved,"to form icebergs. The Arctic Tern, greatest traveler of all birds, flies the Atlantic route 11,000 miles to the Antarctic in our autumn and back again in our spring to nest in the American considerable growth of lowly plants and many flowers above which butterflies flutter and bumblebees buzz. There is even an indigenous species of weasel that does not have an especially thick coat or underfur. In summer it can be very hot there. The reasons for this apparent reversal of what might be expected are several. Lack of precipitation is one factor, the proximity of open ocean is another, and the fact that what are called adiabatic winds—consisting of great blankets of supercooled air that roll outward off icecaps—are stopped by the elevation of the land from reaching the coast in this area is a third. On the other hand, there is a small icecap on Ellesmere Island; and the other northern islands are bleak and dreary places, their northern fringes covered for the most part all year round with incipient icefields, ancient snow beds, or fresh snow. Otherwise the land surface is truly barren ground, being mostly bare rock and lacking even lichens. Yet there is life here, just as on the very polar ice raft itself. WHITE ANIMALS OF THE FAR NORTH Under the ice raft there are various whales and seals, which appear to be able to travel very considerable distances from peripheral leads in its edge to holes and open spaces well within its main body. Upon the ice there are polar bears, arctic foxes, and gulls. The polar bears are the hunters and killers, the foxes and gulls the scavengers, for there are no other animals avail- ab
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, booksubjectnaturalhistory, booksubjectphysicalg
