| At the bottom of the world lies a
mighty continent still wrapped in the Ice Age and, until recent times, unknown
to man. It is a great land mass crisscrossed by mountain{{U}} (51)
{{/U}}whose extent and elevation are still uncertain. Much of the{{U}} (52)
{{/U}}is a complete blank on our maps. A 1,000-mile stretch of the coastline
has never been{{U}} (53) {{/U}}by any ship. Man has{{U}} (54)
{{/U}}, on foot, less than one per cent of its ares. Antarctica differs fundamentally from the Arctic regions. The Arctic is an ocean,{{U}} (55) {{/U}}with drifting packed ice and surrounded by the land masses of Europe, Asia, and North America. The Antarctic is a continent nearly as{{U}} (56) {{/U}}as Europe and Au stralia combined, centered roughly{{U}} (57) {{/U}}the South Pole and{{U}} (58) {{/U}}by the most unobstructed water areas of the world—the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. The continental ice{{U}} (59) {{/U}}is more than two miles high at its center; thus, the air over the Antarctic is far more refrigerated than it is over the Arctic regions. This{{U}} (60) {{/U}}air cascades off the land with such{{U}} (61) {{/U}}that it makes the nearby seas the stormiest in the world and renders{{U}} (62) {{/U}}those regions whose counterparts at the opposite end of the{{U}} (63) {{/U}}are inhabited. Thus, more than a million persons live within 2,000 miles of the North Pole in an area that{{U}} (64) {{/U}}most of Alaska, Siberia, and Scandenavia—a region{{U}} (65) {{/U}}in forest and mining industries. Except for a handful of weather stations, within the same distance of the South Pole there is not a single tree, industry, or settlement. |