Is The World Growing Colder?

A curious theory of the future fate of the world is being discussed by a Swedish paper. The question ia whetlier recent and long-continued observations do not point to the advent of a second glacial period, when the fair countries now basking in the fostermg warmth of a tropical sun will ultimately give way to the perennial frost and snow of the polar regions. The researches of geologists have proved the existence in I Greenland and other Arctic lands of fossil palma and other tropical plants,which show that these regions were f ormerly covered with a rich vegetation which only equatorial climes can now produce. Then carne a great ice age, which buried tliis vegetation bentath the mantle of cold which still prevails at the polar extremities of the earth. ís this kingdom of ice and snow again extending its way toward the equator? From the Antarctic circle we have no data which supply an answertothe question; but it is asserted that the climate of Norway, Sweden and Icelaiad is annually beconiing more severe. Great masses of ice are frequently observed by navigators in far more southerly position during the summer months in the Atlantic than w the case % few years a go; and the effect of these cebergs is to materially reduce the tem)erature of Scandinavia and Iceïand. The latter island is suffering so severely hat the corn no longer ripens there, and ;he inhabitants, in fear of approaching 'amine and still colder climate, are emigrating to North America. The influmce of the gulf stream on the climate of íorway, which has been not less marked ;han its eñects on the coasts of Ireland and Scotland, is being effaced by the inensity of the cold brought by the masses of ice which it is for the guit' stream to carry toward the eastern side of the íorth Atlantic. This extraordinary cold appears to be rather of periodical occurronce than of gradually and annually increasing intensity, and our Swedieh conemporary appears to have forgotten hat the existence of larger quantities of ice than usual in the Atlantic rather joints to a recent period of stormy but ïot weather iu the polar regions than to au unusual intensity and extensión of jhé reign of pol;ir cold. Still the phenomenon is of great interest and importance, and deserves careful attention.