I'm going to learn whittling because I need to do some sort of woodworking or I will go insane

‘Biodegradable’ balloons could also be posing critical threats to marine wildlife, time to let air out of the business

http://tinyurl.com/y672mayp My thoughts and physique have, instinctively, at all times had the best emotions in direction of issues which can be dangerous for the planet – it’s nearly as if my relationship with nature is so profound that we predict as one. I’ve at all times hated kites and plastic straws, for example, lengthy earlier than I knew what number of hundreds of thousands of lives they took. One other phobia of mine is balloons. My household is aware of that I cannot contact one and won’t enter an area that has them. Individuals who launch pigeons and balloons at rallies have my timeless hatred as a result of the pigeons will die and the balloons will kill. Fortuitously, as a result of we have now been so vociferous about chook releases at ceremonies, it’s now not carried out. Now, we have to cease the balloons as effectively. The deadliest ocean rubbish for seabirds is balloons. In a small survey carried out on one coast, 1,700 lifeless seabirds have been picked up. Over 500 of those birds had swallowed plastic, with 40 % of these deaths attributable to balloons. Big fish installations made with plastic are exhibited at a seashore in Rio de Janeiro. Reuters Seabirds regularly snap up floating litter as a result of it seems like meals. When items of latex or mylar are mistaken for meals and ingested, they lodge within the digestive tract, inhibiting the animal’s potential to eat and inflicting a sluggish and painful loss of life by hunger. Birds, turtles and different animals generally mistake balloons for meals. As well as, many animals can turn out to be entangled in balloon strings, which may strangle them or minimize their limbs. A balloon floats to a excessive altitude the place it bursts. The burst sample makes it seem like a jellyfish. It then comes down, is washed into the ocean and is swallowed by predators like dolphins, whales and sea turtles. If a seabird swallows a balloon, it’s 32 instances extra more likely to die than if it had gulped down a bit of arduous plastic, researchers reported in a brand new investigation carried out by the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Research on the College of Tasmania in Australia, printed in mega journal Scientific Experiences. “Among the many birds we studied, the main explanation for loss of life was blockage of the gastrointestinal tract, adopted by infections, or different issues, attributable to gastrointestinal obstructions,” a report reads. Birds are particularly more likely to swallow balloons as a result of they carefully resemble squid. Sea turtles, amongst different wildlife, eat shrivelled or exploded rubber balloons as a result of they seem like jellyfish. Once they floor to breathe, sea turtles generally eat balloons. Scientists doing necropsies on turtles that washed ashore lifeless have typically discovered the necks of latex balloons blocking the doorway to the small gut from the abdomen, and 4 ft of hooked up ribbon within the gut. In July 2018, a handful of boats held a contest on selecting up balloons within the ocean. In at some point, over 600 balloons have been collected. The Sea Turtle Basis estimates that 1,00,00zero marine mammals and turtles and two million seabirds die yearly from ingesting or changing into entangled in marine particles, together with indigestible plastic that blocks stomachs. In 2016, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Analysis Organisation (CSIRO) named balloon litter as one of many three most dangerous objects for marine wildlife. Balloons are made from latex, mylar or foil and fall to the bottom as litter. They’re as dangerous as cigarette butts and plastic baggage. Those which can be pumped with helium journey 1000’s of miles and their items are discovered within the remotest locations, like wildlife refuges, the place they pollute the earth. For instance, greater than 100 balloons have been lately collected on the Edwin Forsythe Nationwide Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey at a single cleanup on one seashore. Petrels swallow shrivelled up balloons and die. On any seashore on this planet, you’ll be able to decide up not less than 10-15 balloons on daily basis. To make use of helium in balloons needs to be made a criminal offense punishable by life imprisonment. Helium is a finite fuel and shouldn’t be wasted on fripperies. Helium is used as a defend fuel for non-ferrous welding and for cooling the superconducting magnets in MRI scanners. There isn’t a substitute for it, resulting from helium’s low boiling level. It’s also utilized in respiration ventilators for infants and sufferers. In 1996, Nobel Prize winner Robert Richardson issued a warning that provides of helium are getting used at an unimaginable fee and may very well be gone inside twenty years. Due to balloons? In accordance with the US-based Shopper Product Security Fee, balloons are linked to extra toddler fatalities than some other little one product, and loss of life by helium inhalation persistently takes lives annually. Balloon firms say that latex, or rubber balloons, degrade. They offer completely different names to the balloon – Qualatex, for example. This isn’t true. There are not any protected balloons. They degrade in many years and are eaten lengthy earlier than that. Whereas conservationists everywhere in the world are asking for an finish to balloons, the businesses in America have predictably bought collectively and have created the Balloon Council to struggle any legal guidelines that prohibit the shopping for and launch of balloons. They’re reinventing their promoting methods by calling themselves biodegradable. This nonsense, that they use “pure” latex so it’s biodegradable, doesn’t maintain, as a result of the latex has had chemical substances, plasticisers and synthetic dyes added to it. It could degrade finally, as even rocks do, however it’s actually not biodegradable. Individuals who dwell within the deserts have discovered 1000’s of them, some over 20 years previous. The ribbons, or the string that’s generally tied to balloons, whether or not it’s “biodegradable” or “naturally dyed”, will final years and entangles animals that come into contact with it. The balloon business claims that when a balloon pops, it bursts into many little items, and that the items land distant from one another. How does that matter? Each bit is a time bomb. Folks see balloons as an uplifting factor. Going to the skies and the heavens. They don’t attain heaven – however this flying trash makes 1000’s of animals and birds attain it earlier than their time. Have a look at the positioning Balloons Blow with the intention to see photos of the lakhs of creatures killed by balloons. Birthday events, weddings, graduations, sport occasions, political celebration jamborees – all these at the moment are mass balloon littering occasions. It’s time to make them unlawful. They’re pointless, ineffective, and an anachronism that no one will miss in the event that they have been gone. I’m shocked that the atmosphere and forest ministry has not moved to cease this business. However then, it has been equally ineffective in banning fireworks. Are you, as a guardian, not involved concerning the state of the world? Begin by altering the party balloon use. Have enjoyable, have a good time with environment-friendly alternate options. You need to have issues that make your events memorable and completely satisfied? Flowers are one of the simplest ways. Colored lights, vibrant streamers, flags and banners save time and money. Pinwheels, with flashy colors fluttering within the wind, appeal to consideration. Tissue paper pom-poms in numerous colors are fairly. Blowing bubbles is at all times enjoyable: watching them bounce round in direction of the sky and twist with the wind like rainbow butterflies. There are firms that create large bubbles that are a sight to behold. Chinese language paper lanterns should not an environment-friendly different. Sky lanterns have began big fires. Rubber Jellyfish by Carly Wilson, a documentary concerning the results of launched helium balloons on ocean wildlife – particularly, Australia’s inhabitants of critically endangered sea turtles, is a movie that needs to be proven in each faculty. Carly Wilson discovers that helium balloons, which can be typically launched ceremoniously, normally land within the ocean. She examines the phenomenon that causes balloons to imitate the looks of jellyfish, a prey that every one sea turtles eat, once they rupture excessive within the earth’s ambiance. She meets a number of turtles affected by the excruciatingly painful and sometimes deadly “float syndrome”, which is attributable to the ingestion of balloons and different ocean waste. By way of the movie, Carly seeks to grasp why and the way the multibillion-dollar balloon business has led the general public to imagine that latex balloons are biodegradable and environment-friendly, regardless of huge proof on the contrary. She meets marine biologists, turtle activists, representatives of the balloon business and coverage makers, to query why Australia has not taken motion in opposition to mass balloon releases, when its waters host all six sea turtles on the CITES endangered species checklist. Hearken to the experiences that scientists, wildlife rehabilitators and conservationists are submitting concerning the impacts balloons have on animals and the atmosphere. Cease utilizing them. Or invent edible, natural, biodegradable balloons made from unwaxed paper, or straw and even soya, which disintegrate when they’re moist. Your information to the newest cricket World Cup tales, evaluation, experiences, opinions, dwell updates and scores on https://www.firstpost.com/firstcricket/series/icc-cricket-world-cup-2019.html. 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December is a time of year when the North Pole comes into conversation a lot more frequently than say in the middle of July. This is because it’s the home of good old Saint Nick, a handful of hardworking elves, some reindeer, and is peppered with some warm and cozy log cabins. Perhaps it’s located somewhere near a magical candy cane and gum drop forest, where snowmen come to life and mammals can fly. But what do we really know about the North Pole beyond it being the place where Santa rests his red and white hat? Probably not a lot, since so very few people have actually been there for a visit. The North Pole is the true north, and where all lines of longitude converge, but there has to be something more about this enigmatic and mythical place beyond directional lines, right? The North Pole is a fascinating place with a storied history that is still evolving. There is so much amazing trivia about the North Pole that can be used to wow colleagues at a holiday party, impress kids, or to take home a championship trophy at the holiday themed edition of your local pub’s trivia night. History, geography, and general world knowledge has never been so fun or festive as it is right now! Only here will you learn that The Arctic Monkeys aren’t really rare creatures native to the Arctic Circle, they’re actually a rock band from England with a somewhat misleading name. Popular music aside: Here is everything you ever needed to know about the North Pole.

#1 There’s More Than One North Pole Most of us think about one location with Santa Claus when someone says “the North Pole”, but there are more than one “locations” that can be considered the North Pole. The first North Pole is known as the Geographic North Pole, meaning it is literally the top, most Northern, point on earth. The second is the Magnetic North Pole (or North Pole Dip), which moves around every day with its movements dependent upon the earth’s magnetic field. The third possible pole is known as the geomagnetic North Pole which is calculated mathematically with the main variable being an imaginary line which runs through the geomagnetic centre of the earth. The North Pole, Alaska, was incorporated in 1953 and is a hundred miles south of the other “real” North Poles. Over the past 100 years there has been an enormous migration of the geomagnetic North Pole, moving it from Greenland to Canada.

#2 No One Really Owns The North Pole, Not Even Santa The North Pole is not a continent, while the South Pole is. The North Pole isn’t even a country, since it’s not located on land, but on top of frozen water. Because of this, it is considered international waters. Many Arctic bordering countries such as, Russia, US, Norway, Denmark, and Canada have attempted to claim the area, but have come to a mutual agreement that no one can really post claim on the North Pole and the surrounding areas. In 2007, a Russian submarine placed a Russian flag deep at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean at the Geographic North Pole. However they weren’t the first underwater dwellers to visit the locale, The Americans’ submarine, The USS Nautilus was there first, 50 years earlier in 1958. There is particular financial interest in this area since geological surveys from 2008 revealed that approximately 22 percent of the globe’s unbroached natural gas deposits and oil are underneath the North Pole’s ice.

#3 Heading South, No Matter What If you were to stand on the North Pole, and turned in any direction, you would be facing south since you can’t go any further North from the pole. While you might be standing on what appears to be solid ground, it’s not, it’s actually ice on top of the ocean, which is pretty scary if you think about it. In fact, the nearest landmass is quite far away and approximately 700 miles to the south. The North Pole is on the move, and is gradually migrating towards Russia, getting closer at the snail’s pace of 34 miles each year. The great white north features the Aurora Borealis (also known as the northern lights) which are stunning clouds and rays of colour including: green, red, and blue lights in the night sky. The Aurora Borealis is Latin for “northern dawn” and occurs in an area around the north magnetic pole.

#4 It’s Not The Coldest Place In The World Most people shiver at the mere thought of spending some time way up in the North Pole, but even though it’s bone-chillingly cold, it’s not the coldest place in the world, not by a long shot. The South Pole is much, much colder with winter temperatures averaging -76 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to the coldest temperatures of -45 faced at the North Pole. This temperature difference is experienced because the North Pole barely sits a foot above sea level and the “landscape” is able to absorb some warmth, if you consider -45 warm, from the surrounding ocean, whereas the South Pole has a very high elevation. The South Pole sits on top of a very thick sheet of ice, which is situated atop land, and is 9,000 feet above the sea level. Antarctica is the world’s tallest continent, with much of the cold coming from its extreme heights or elevation.

#5 There’s Only One ‘Real’ Santa Claus Village There are so many amusement parks around the world that cash in on the big fat guy in the red suit, but there is only one Santa Claus Village that is actually located within the perimeter of the Arctic Circle. This winter wonderland is located in Finland, just a few miles north of the city Rovaniemi. The Arctic Circle has a borderline that cuts through the amusement park, and they’ve painted a white line across the border to let all of their visitors know that they’re inside the Arctic Circle. The park has Christmas themed restaurants and attractions, an onsite reindeer family farm, and guests can actually send mail with Santa’s personal postmark. The park opened up its festive doors at the turn of the millennium and boasts being the most spectacular Santa Claus destination in Scandinavia. Guests can stay in a cozy little hotel style cabin in the village or at the Snowman World Igloo Hotel.

#6 Attention Runners: There’s A North Pole Marathon New York City, and Boston can move over, The North Pole has its very own marathon. The marathon has run each year since 2002 and markets itself as “the World’s Coolest Marathon”. Runners face an average wind chill temperature of 22 degrees below zero while competing. This race, held on top of the icy Arctic Ocean, is for those who want to commit time, energy, and a lot of cash. Entry costs over 15 thousand dollars and includes flight, accommodations, helicopter rides to the North Pole Camp where the race is held, medals for those who place well, t-shirts for those who finish, and a DVD that commemorates the race. Runners suit up in thermal layers, need to put on two pairs of socks, and goggles to brave the cold. On April 9, 2016, 56 competitors from 21 different countries raced. This is truly a once in a life time, bucket list-worthy event for competitive runners.

#7 So What’s It Like Up There? The North Pole area is a shifting ice cap that floats above the Arctic Ocean. The ice is two to three meters thick and sits above the ocean which is around 4,000 meters deep. The size of the Ice grows depending on the season– in the winter it expands greatly and is roughly the size of the US, while over the summer, about half of the ice melts. While this seasonal change in volume of arctic ice is normal, the ice cap is shrinking because of global warming. In January, the temperature varies between -45 to -15 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas during the “warmer” summer months it’s a lot closer to freezing, hence the melting ice. The countries surrounding the Arctic Circle have six months of constant daylight and another six months of darkness because of the angle the most Northern part of the earth is to the sun.

#8 So, Who Lives There? Besides Santa… Santa, Mrs. Claus, the elves, and reindeer aren’t the only residents of the Arctic Circle. Most people consider the frigid weather to be unbearable, but there are some who have made the area their home. Native Inuit tribes live in northern Canada and Alaska, just around the bend from St. Nick. The outer regions of the Arctic Circle are home to polar bears. Other life in the region includes the Orca, Humpback, and Beluga whales, the arctic fox, wolverines, squirrels, walrus, and Svalbard reindeer. While these animals live in the Arctic Circle, they don’t usually go much further North than 82 degrees because there isn’t a consistent supply of food there. Despite what some people think, polar bears don’t eat penguins. This isn’t because they don’t want to, it’s because there are no penguins at the North Pole, and there are no polar bears in the South Pole (home of the penguins). There are several flying penguinish birds who call the Arctic Circle home including: auks, guillemots, and puffins.

#9 You Can Swim There Swimming in the Arctic waters is one heck of a polar bear dip, but during the summer months, there is enough room to dive in and have a little swim. In 2007, an Englishman named Lewis Gordon Pugh decided to swim along a crack in the ice to the North Pole. The water was measured at 28.7 degrees Fahrenheit that day and Lewis was in the water for nearly 19 minutes. Despite it being a once in a lifetime experience, Lewis said it wasn’t fun and told the BBC, “The pain was immediate and felt like my body was on fire, I was in excruciating pain from beginning to end and I nearly quit on a few occasions.”. Travel by water around the North Pole could become more common, even by boat, because of global warming. There is some debate as to when the shrinking ice cap could make a boat route possible, but if it occurs many ships could shave 4,000 miles off their current trips from Europe to Asia.

#10 The Unicorn Of The Sea Santa isn’t the only legend of the North Pole. The myths we hear about unicorns actually come from a creature who calls the North Pole its home. The Narwhal is a small whale that lives in the Arctic Circle. One of the things that makes the Narwhal so “magical” is its giant tusk which juts out from a canine tooth. The tusk can measure on average from six to ten feet long! This magnificent tusk is what has people calling the whale “the unicorn of the sea”. In the 16th century it was believed that, much like elephant tusks, the narwhals had powers that could cure diseases. In fact, it is believed that Queen Elizabeth I once spent 10,000 pounds (think about how high that number would be with inflation) to get her very own narwhal tusk. Unfortunately Narwhal populations are shrinking because of climate change and hunting with around 75,000 narwhals alive today.

#11  It Doesn’t Have A Time Zone Many of the things we take for granted in our homeland isn’t the case in the North Pole. We already talked about how the North Pole isn’t a continent and doesn’t really belong to anyone, but how about this: it has no time zones. The reason for this is because the sun only rises and sets one time each year. The sun is above the horizon for 187 days during the summer months, and for 178 days during the winter the sun is always below the horizon. Since there is also no permanent human population living in the area, there has never been a time zone assigned. Visitors can simply use their own preferred time zone while exploring the great white north. Fun fact: some believe the lack of time zone is part of the magic behind how Santa is able to deliver all of those presents around the world in just one night!

#12 The Ultimate Vacation Destination? It’s not just marathon runners who want to visit the North Pole. For a pretty penny, anyone can begin their own adventure way up north. There are cruises where visitors can enjoy the picturesque views. In the summer guests can watch polar bears and walruses hunt and experience arctic flora native to the region bloom. People who want to warm up from the cold can visit a natural geothermal hot spring that is located in a rock lake and surrounded by the beauty of the area’s nature. The Chena Hot Springs are about an hour away from Fairbanks and open from 7AM until midnight, and are a great location for tourists to watch the Aurora Borealis. The northern lights are said to be most magnificent between August and May. Guests can stay in a luxury room at the resort or “rough it” in a Mongolian-style yurt to get the full Arctic experience.

#13 The North Pole Could Flip Ever worry about a world where everything is upside down? Well, the North and South Pole could actually flip. From time to time, the magnetic poles can actually flip. The last time they flipped was around 780,000 years ago and it takes many thousands of years for the poles to flip. Despite the chaos people may believe this could cause, it would not be catastrophic to humanity. If the poles were to flip, a number of technologies would need to be tweaked to reflect the change. Additionally, there is a chance that humans could be less protected from the suns’ harmful rays, meaning more sunscreen and higher instances of skin cancer. There would be plenty of time for humans to prepare for this flip, in fact the magnetic field on earth is weakening, which could be a sign that a flip will happen in a couple of thousand years.

#14 Origins There are nights known as White Nights within the 15 or 16 days before and after the annual sunrise and sunset at the North Pole. During the summer months, when the sun is out for 24 hours a day it is known as the midnight sun. During the winter months when there is no sun, the dark hours when it’s light outside elsewhere in the world are called Polar Days. In the North Pole you can see the moon for two weeks each month. Even though Norway is known as “the land of the midnight sun” within the travel industry there is midnight sun in the other countries that are closest to the North Pole including USA, Canada, Russia, Greenland, Finland, and Sweden. The name Arctic is Greek in origin and means ‘near the bear’. We’re assuming this has to do with Mr. Polar Bear!

#15 World’s Longest Migration By now everyone’s heard about the March of the Penguins, but what about the super long journey of the Arctic tern? Not quite as catchy, eh? The tiny bird is mostly white and grey with a black cap on its head and a bright orange/red beak, and is also known as Sterna paradisaea. The stern embarks on the longest migration in the entire world. The bird travels from near the North Pole, all the way down to near the South Pole. The stern will breed in the North Pole, but will migrate south during the Northern Hemisphere’s winter, making his way all the way south to the very edges of the Antarctic ice. This journey, which happens every single year, is around 35,000 kilometers (or 21,750 miles) long. This flight distance is considered about the same as flying all the way around the world.

Source: TheRichest

The Ice Bank

THE NAUTILUS resumed its unruffled southbound heading. It went along the 50th meridian with considerable speed. Would it go to the pole? I didn't think so, because every previous attempt to reach this spot on the globe had failed. Besides, the season was already quite advanced, since March 13 on Antarctic shores corresponds with September 13 in the northernmost regions, which marks the beginning of the equinoctial period. On March 14 at latitude 55 degrees, I spotted floating ice, plain pale bits of rubble twenty to twenty-five feet long, which formed reefs over which the sea burst into foam. The Nautilus stayed on the surface of the ocean. Having fished in the Arctic seas, Ned Land was already familiar with the sight of icebergs. Conseil and I were marveling at them for the first time. In the sky toward the southern horizon, there stretched a dazzling white band. English whalers have given this the name "ice blink." No matter how heavy the clouds may be, they can't obscure this phenomenon. It announces the presence of a pack, or shoal, of ice. Indeed, larger blocks of ice soon appeared, their brilliance varying at the whim of the mists. Some of these masses displayed green veins, as if scrawled with undulating lines of copper sulfate. Others looked like enormous amethysts, letting the light penetrate their insides. The latter reflected the sun's rays from the thousand facets of their crystals. The former, tinted with a bright limestone sheen, would have supplied enough building material to make a whole marble town. The farther down south we went, the more these floating islands grew in numbers and prominence. Polar birds nested on them by the thousands. These were petrels, cape pigeons, or puffins, and their calls were deafening. Mistaking the Nautilus for the corpse of a whale, some of them alighted on it and prodded its resonant sheet iron with pecks of their beaks. During this navigating in the midst of the ice, Captain Nemo often stayed on the platform. He observed these deserted waterways carefully. I saw his calm eyes sometimes perk up. In these polar seas forbidden to man, did he feel right at home, the lord of these unreachable regions? Perhaps. But he didn't say. He stood still, reviving only when his pilot's instincts took over. Then, steering his Nautilus with consummate dexterity, he skillfully dodged the masses of ice, some of which measured several miles in length, their heights varying from seventy to eighty meters. Often the horizon seemed completely closed off. Abreast of latitude 60 degrees, every passageway had disappeared. Searching with care, Captain Nemo soon found a narrow opening into which he brazenly slipped, well aware, however, that it would close behind him. Guided by his skillful hands, the Nautilus passed by all these different masses of ice, which are classified by size and shape with a precision that enraptured Conseil: "icebergs," or mountains; "ice fields," or smooth, limitless tracts; "drift ice," or floating floes; "packs," or broken tracts, called "patches" when they're circular and "streams" when they form long strips. The temperature was fairly low. Exposed to the outside air, the thermometer marked -2 degrees to -3 degrees centigrade. But we were warmly dressed in furs, for which seals and aquatic bears had paid the price. Evenly heated by all its electric equipment, the Nautilus's interior defied the most intense cold. Moreover, to find a bearable temperature, the ship had only to sink just a few meters beneath the waves. Two months earlier we would have enjoyed perpetual daylight in this latitude; but night already fell for three or four hours, and later it would cast six months of shadow over these circumpolar regions. On March 15 we passed beyond the latitude of the South Shetland and South Orkney Islands. The captain told me that many tribes of seals used to inhabit these shores; but English and American whalers, in a frenzy of destruction, slaughtered all the adults, including pregnant females, and where life and activity once existed, those fishermen left behind only silence and death. Going along the 55th meridian, the Nautilus cut the Antarctic Circle on March 16 near eight o'clock in the morning. Ice completely surrounded us and closed off the horizon. Nevertheless, Captain Nemo went from passageway to passageway, always proceeding south. "But where's he going?" I asked. "Straight ahead," Conseil replied. "Ultimately, when he can't go any farther, he'll stop." "I wouldn't bet on it!" I replied. And in all honesty, I confess that this venturesome excursion was far from displeasing to me. I can't express the intensity of my amazement at the beauties of these new regions. The ice struck superb poses. Here, its general effect suggested an oriental town with countless minarets and mosques. There, a city in ruins, flung to the ground by convulsions in the earth. These views were varied continuously by the sun's oblique rays, or were completely swallowed up by gray mists in the middle of blizzards. Then explosions, cave-ins, and great iceberg somersaults would occur all around us, altering the scenery like the changing landscape in a diorama. If the Nautilus was submerged during these losses of balance, we heard the resulting noises spread under the waters with frightful intensity, and the collapse of these masses created daunting eddies down to the ocean's lower strata. The Nautilus then rolled and pitched like a ship left to the fury of the elements. Often, no longer seeing any way out, I thought we were imprisoned for good, but Captain Nemo, guided by his instincts, discovered new passageways from the tiniest indications. He was never wrong when he observed slender threads of bluish water streaking through these ice fields. Accordingly, I was sure that he had already risked his Nautilus in the midst of the Antarctic seas. However, during the day of March 16, these tracts of ice completely barred our path. It wasn't the Ice Bank as yet, just huge ice fields cemented together by the cold. This obstacle couldn't stop Captain Nemo, and he launched his ship against the ice fields with hideous violence. The Nautilus went into these brittle masses like a wedge, splitting them with dreadful cracklings. It was an old-fashioned battering ram propelled with infinite power. Hurled aloft, ice rubble fell back around us like hail. Through brute force alone, the submersible carved out a channel for itself. Carried away by its momentum, the ship sometimes mounted on top of these tracts of ice and crushed them with its weight, or at other times, when cooped up beneath the ice fields, it split them with simple pitching movements, creating wide punctures. Violent squalls assaulted us during the daytime. Thanks to certain heavy mists, we couldn't see from one end of the platform to the other. The wind shifted abruptly to every point on the compass. The snow was piling up in such packed layers, it had to be chipped loose with blows from picks. Even in a temperature of merely -5 degrees centigrade, every outside part of the Nautilus was covered with ice. A ship's rigging would have been unusable, because all its tackle would have jammed in the grooves of the pulleys. Only a craft without sails, driven by an electric motor that needed no coal, could face such high latitudes. Under these conditions the barometer generally stayed quite low. It fell as far as 73.5 centimeters. Our compass indications no longer offered any guarantees. The deranged needles would mark contradictory directions as we approached the southern magnetic pole, which doesn't coincide with the South Pole proper. In fact, according to the astronomer Hansteen, this magnetic pole is located fairly close to latitude 70 degrees and longitude 130 degrees, or abiding by the observations of Louis-Isidore Duperrey, in longitude 135 degrees and latitude 70 degrees 30'. Hence we had to transport compasses to different parts of the ship, take many readings, and strike an average. Often we could chart our course only by guesswork, a less than satisfactory method in the midst of these winding passageways whose landmarks change continuously. At last on March 18, after twenty futile assaults, the Nautilus was decisively held in check. No longer was it an ice stream, patch, or field - it was an endless, immovable barrier formed by ice mountains fused to each other. "The Ice Bank!" the Canadian told me. For Ned Land, as well as for every navigator before us, I knew that this was the great insurmountable obstacle. When the sun appeared for an instant near noon, Captain Nemo took a reasonably accurate sight that gave our position as longitude 51 degrees 30' and latitude 67 degrees 39' south. This was a position already well along in these Antarctic regions. As for the liquid surface of the sea, there was no longer any semblance of it before our eyes. Before the Nautilus's spur there lay vast broken plains, a tangle of confused chunks with all the helter-skelter unpredictability typical of a river's surface a short while before its ice breakup; but in this case the proportions were gigantic. Here and there stood sharp peaks, lean spires that rose as high as 200 feet; farther off, a succession of steeply cut cliffs sporting a grayish tint, huge mirrors that reflected the sparse rays of a sun half drowned in mist. Beyond, a stark silence reigned in this desolate natural setting, a silence barely broken by the flapping wings of petrels or puffins. By this point everything was frozen, even sound. So the Nautilus had to halt in its venturesome course among these tracts of ice. "Sir," Ned Land told me that day, "if your captain goes any farther . . ." "Yes?" "He'll be a superman." "How so, Ned?" "Because nobody can clear the Ice Bank. Your captain's a powerful man, but damnation, he isn't more powerful than nature. If she draws a boundary line, there you stop, like it or not!" "Correct, Ned Land, but I still want to know what's behind this Ice Bank! Behold my greatest source of irritation - a wall!" "Master is right," Conseil said. "Walls were invented simply to frustrate scientists. All walls should be banned." "Fine!" the Canadian put in. "But we already know what's behind this Ice Bank." "What?" I asked. "Ice, ice, and more ice." "You may be sure of that, Ned," I answered, "but I'm not. That's why I want to see for myself." "Well, professor," the Canadian replied, "you can just drop that idea! You've made it to the Ice Bank, which is already far enough, but you won't get any farther, neither your Captain Nemo or his Nautilus. And whether he wants to or not, we'll head north again, in other words, to the land of sensible people." I had to agree that Ned Land was right, and until ships are built to navigate over tracts of ice, they'll have to stop at the Ice Bank. Indeed, despite its efforts, despite the powerful methods it used to split this ice, the Nautilus was reduced to immobility. Ordinarily, when someone can't go any farther, he still has the option of returning in his tracks. But here it was just as impossible to turn back as to go forward, because every passageway had closed behind us, and if our submersible remained even slightly stationary, it would be frozen in without delay. Which is exactly what happened near two o'clock in the afternoon, and fresh ice kept forming over the ship's sides with astonishing speed. I had to admit that Captain Nemo's leadership had been most injudicious. Just then I was on the platform. Observing the situation for some while, the captain said to me: "Well, professor! What think you?" "I think we're trapped, captain." "Trapped! What do you mean?" "I mean we can't go forward, backward, or sideways. I think that's the standard definition of 'trapped,' at least in the civilized world." "So, Professor Aronnax, you think the Nautilus won't be able to float clear?" "Only with the greatest difficulty, captain, since the season is already too advanced for you to depend on an ice breakup." "Oh, professor," Captain Nemo replied in an ironic tone, "you never change! You see only impediments and obstacles! I promise you, not only will the Nautilus float clear, it will go farther still!" "Farther south?" I asked, gaping at the captain. "Yes, sir, it will go to the pole." "To the pole!" I exclaimed, unable to keep back a movement of disbelief. "Yes," the captain replied coolly, "the Antarctic pole, that unknown spot crossed by every meridian on the globe. As you know, I do whatever I like with my Nautilus." Yes, I did know that! I knew this man was daring to the point of being foolhardy. But to overcome all the obstacles around the South Pole - even more unattainable than the North Pole, which still hadn't been reached by the boldest navigators-wasn't this an absolutely insane undertaking, one that could occur only in the brain of a madman? It then dawned on me to ask Captain Nemo if he had already discovered this pole, which no human being had ever trod underfoot. "No, sir," he answered me, "but we'll discover it together. Where others have failed, I'll succeed. Never before has my Nautilus cruised so far into these southernmost seas, but I repeat: it will go farther still." "I'd like to believe you, captain," I went on in a tone of some sarcasm. "Oh I do believe you! Let's forge ahead! There are no obstacles for us! Let's shatter this Ice Bank! Let's blow it up, and if it still resists, let's put wings on the Nautilus and fly over it!" "Over it, professor?" Captain Nemo replied serenely. "No, not over it, but under it." "Under it!" I exclaimed. A sudden insight into Captain Nemo's plans had just flashed through my mind. I understood. The marvelous talents of his Nautilus would be put to work once again in this superhuman undertaking! "I can see we're starting to understand each other, professor," Captain Nemo told me with a half smile. "You already glimpse the potential - myself, I'd say the success - of this attempt. Maneuvers that aren't feasible for an ordinary ship are easy for the Nautilus. If a continent emerges at the pole, we'll stop at that continent. But on the other hand, if open sea washes the pole, we'll go to that very place!" "Right," I said, carried away by the captain's logic. "Even though the surface of the sea has solidified into ice, its lower strata are still open, thanks to that divine justice that puts the maximum density of salt water one degree above its freezing point. And if I'm not mistaken, the submerged part of this Ice Bank is in a four-to-one ratio to its emerging part." "Very nearly, professor. For each foot of iceberg above the sea, there are three more below. Now then, since these ice mountains don't exceed a height of 100 meters, they sink only to a depth of 300 meters. And what are 300 meters to the Nautilus?" "A mere nothing, sir." "We could even go to greater depths and find that temperature layer common to all ocean water, and there we'd brave with impunity the -30 degrees or -40 degrees cold on the surface." "True, sir, very true," I replied with growing excitement. "Our sole difficulty," Captain Nemo went on, "lies in our staying submerged for several days without renewing our air supply." "That's all?" I answered. "The Nautilus has huge air tanks; we'll fill them up and they'll supply all the oxygen we need." "Good thinking, Professor Aronnax," the captain replied with a smile. "But since I don't want to be accused of foolhardiness, I'm giving you all my objections in advance." "You have more?" "Just one. If a sea exists at the South Pole, it's possible this sea may be completely frozen over, so we couldn't come up to the surface!" "My dear sir, have you forgotten that the Nautilus is armed with a fearsome spur? Couldn't it be launched diagonally against those tracts of ice, which would break open from the impact?" "Ah, professor, you're full of ideas today!" "Besides, captain," I added with still greater enthusiasm, "why wouldn't we find open sea at the South Pole just as at the North Pole? The cold-temperature poles and the geographical poles don't coincide in either the northern or southern hemispheres, and until proof to the contrary, we can assume these two spots on the earth feature either a continent or an ice-free ocean." "I think as you do, Professor Aronnax," Captain Nemo replied. "I'll only point out that after raising so many objections against my plan, you're now crushing me under arguments in its favor." Captain Nemo was right. I was outdoing him in daring! It was I who was sweeping him to the pole. I was leading the way, I was out in front . . . but no, you silly fool! Captain Nemo already knew the pros and cons of this question, and it amused him to see you flying off into impossible fantasies! Nevertheless, he didn't waste an instant. At his signal, the chief officer appeared. The two men held a quick exchange in their incomprehensible language, and either the chief officer had been alerted previously or he found the plan feasible, because he showed no surprise. But as unemotional as he was, he couldn't have been more impeccably emotionless than Conseil when I told the fine lad our intention of pushing on to the South Pole. He greeted my announcement with the usual "As master wishes," and I had to be content with that. As for Ned Land, no human shoulders ever executed a higher shrug than the pair belonging to our Canadian. "Honestly, sir," he told me. "You and your Captain Nemo, I pity you both!" "But we will go to the pole, Mr. Land." "Maybe, but you won't come back!" And Ned Land reentered his cabin, "to keep from doing something desperate," he said as he left me. Meanwhile preparations for this daring attempt were getting under way. The Nautilus's powerful pumps forced air down into the tanks and stored it under high pressure. Near four o'clock Captain Nemo informed me that the platform hatches were about to be closed. I took a last look at the dense Ice Bank we were going to conquer. The weather was fair, the skies reasonably clear, the cold quite brisk, namely -12 degrees centigrade; but after the wind had lulled, this temperature didn't seem too unbearable. Equipped with picks, some ten men climbed onto the Nautilus's sides and cracked loose the ice around the ship's lower plating, which was soon set free. This operation was swiftly executed because the fresh ice was still thin. We all reentered the interior. The main ballast tanks were filled with the water that hadn't yet congealed at our line of flotation. The Nautilus submerged without delay. I took a seat in the lounge with Conseil. Through the open window we stared at the lower strata of this southernmost ocean. The thermometer rose again. The needle on the pressure gauge swerved over its dial. About 300 meters down, just as Captain Nemo had predicted, we cruised beneath the undulating surface of the Ice Bank. But the Nautilus sank deeper still. It reached a depth of 800 meters. At the surface this water gave a temperature of -12 degrees centigrade, but now it gave no more than -10 degrees. Two degrees had already been gained. Thanks to its heating equipment, the Nautilus's temperature, needless to say, stayed at a much higher degree. Every maneuver was accomplished with extraordinary precision. "With all due respect to master," Conseil told me, "we'll pass it by." "I fully expect to!" I replied in a tone of deep conviction. Now in open water, the Nautilus took a direct course to the pole without veering from the 52nd meridian. From 67 degrees 30' to 90 degrees, twenty-two and a half degrees of latitude were left to cross, in other words, slightly more than 500 leagues. The Nautilus adopted an average speed of twenty-six miles per hour, the speed of an express train. If it kept up this pace, forty hours would do it for reaching the pole. For part of the night, the novelty of our circumstances kept Conseil and me at the lounge window. The sea was lit by our beacon's electric rays. But the depths were deserted. Fish didn't linger in these imprisoned waters. Here they found merely a passageway for going from the Antarctic Ocean to open sea at the pole. Our progress was swift. You could feel it in the vibrations of the long steel hull. Near two o'clock in the morning, I went to snatch a few hours of sleep. Conseil did likewise. I didn't encounter Captain Nemo while going down the gangways. I assumed that he was keeping to the pilothouse. The next day, March 19, at five o'clock in the morning, I was back at my post in the lounge. The electric log indicated that the Nautilus had reduced speed. By then it was rising to the surface, but cautiously, while slowly emptying its ballast tanks. My heart was pounding. Would we emerge into the open and find the polar air again? No. A jolt told me that the Nautilus had bumped the underbelly of the Ice Bank, still quite thick to judge from the hollowness of the accompanying noise. Indeed, we had "struck bottom," to use nautical terminology, but in the opposite direction and at a depth of 3,000 feet. That gave us 4,000 feet of ice overhead, of which 1,000 feet emerged above water. So the Ice Bank was higher here than we had found it on the outskirts. A circumstance less than encouraging. Several times that day, the Nautilus repeated the same experiment and always it bumped against this surface that formed a ceiling above it. At certain moments the ship encountered ice at a depth of 900 meters, denoting a thickness of 1,200 meters, of which 300 meters rose above the level of the ocean. This height had tripled since the moment the Nautilus had dived beneath the waves. I meticulously noted these different depths, obtaining the underwater profile of this upside-down mountain chain that stretched beneath the sea. By evening there was still no improvement in our situation. The ice stayed between 400 and 500 meters deep. It was obviously shrinking, but what a barrier still lay between us and the surface of the ocean! By then it was eight o'clock. The air inside the Nautilus should have been renewed four hours earlier, following daily practice on board. But I didn't suffer very much, although Captain Nemo hadn't yet made demands on the supplementary oxygen in his air tanks. That night my sleep was fitful. Hope and fear besieged me by turns. I got up several times. The Nautilus continued groping. Near three o'clock in the morning, I observed that we encountered the Ice Bank's underbelly at a depth of only fifty meters. So only 150 feet separated us from the surface of the water. Little by little the Ice Bank was turning into an ice field again. The mountains were changing back into plains. My eyes didn't leave the pressure gauge. We kept rising on a diagonal, going along this shiny surface that sparkled beneath our electric rays. Above and below, the Ice Bank was subsiding in long gradients. Mile after mile it was growing thinner. Finally, at six o'clock in the morning on that memorable day of March 19, the lounge door opened. Captain Nemo appeared. "Open sea!" he told me.