Arctic vs. Antarctic


If the earth be the globe of popular belief, the same amount of heat and cold, summer and winter, should be experienced at the same latitudes North and South of the Equator.  The same number of plants and animals would be found, and the same general conditions exist.  That the very opposite is the case, disproves the globular assumption.  The great contrasts between places at the same latitudes North and South of the Equator, is a strong argument against the received doctrine of the rotundity of the earth.”  -Thomas Winship, “Zetetic Cosmogeny” (8)


This uniformity of temperature partly accounts for the great accumulation of ice which is formed not on account of the great severity of the winter, but because there is practically no summer to melt it.  In the Antarctic there is eternal winter and snow never melts.  As far north as a man has travelled he has found reindeer and hare basking in the sun, and country brilliant with rich flora; within the Antarctic circle no plant is to be found.”  -Thomas Winship, “Zetetic Cosmogeny” (9)

The island of Kerguelen at 49 degrees Southern latitude has only 18 species of native plants that can survive its hostile climate.  Compare this with the island of Iceland at 65 degrees Northern latitude, 16 degrees further North of the equator than Kerguelen is South, yet Iceland is home to 870 species of native plants.  On the Isle of Georgia, just 54 degrees Southern latitude, the same latitude as Canada or England in the North, where dense forests of various tall trees abound, the infamous Captain Cook wrote that he was unable to find a single shrub large enough to make a toothpick!  Cook wrote, “Not a tree was to be seen.  The lands which lie to the south are doomed by nature to perpetual frigidness – never to feel the warmth of the sun’s rays; whose horrible and savage aspect I have not words to describe.  Even marine life is sparse in certain tracts of vast extent, and the sea-bird is seldom observed flying over such lonely wastes.  The contrasts between the limits of organic life in Arctic and Antarctic zones is very remarkable and significant.  Vegetables and land animals are found at nearly 80 degrees in the north; while from the parallel of 58 degrees in the south, the lichen, and such-like plants only, clothe the rocks, and seabirds and the cetaceous tribes alone are seen upon the desolate beaches.”

In the Arctic there are 4 clearly distinguished seasons, warm summers, and an abundance of plant and animal life, none of which can be said of the Antarctic.  The Eskimo live as far North as the 79th parallel, whereas in the South no native man is found higher than the 56th.  Admiral Ferdinand von Wrangel, the 19th century Russian Arctic explorer, wrote how in the North, “Countless herds of reindeer, elks, black bears, foxes, sable and grey squirrels fill the upland forests; stone foxes and wolves roam over the low ground; enormous flights of swans, geese, and ducks arrive in spring, and seek deserts where they may moult, and build their nests in safety. Eagles, gulls, and owls pursue their prey along the sea-coast; ptarmigan run in troops among the bushes; little snipes are busy among the brooks and in the morasses; the social crows seek the neighbourhood of man’s habitations; and when the sun shines in spring, one may sometimes even hear the cheerful note of the finch, and in autumn that of the thrush.

Beyond the 70th degree of Southern latitude not a tree meets the eye, wearied with the white waste of snow; forests, woods, even shrubs have disappeared, and given place to a few lichens and creeping woody plants, which scantily clothe the indurated soil. Still, in the farthest north, Nature claims her birthright of beauty; and in the brief and rapid summer she brings forth numerous flowers and grasses, to bloom for a few days, to be again blasted by the swiftly-recurring winter. The rapid fervour of an arctic summer had already (June 1st) converted the snowy waste into luxuriant pasture-ground, rich in flowers and grass, with almost the same lively appearance as that of an English meadow.”  -W. & R. Chambers, “Arctic Explorations”







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