In the north the plains
of Siberia and of the Hudson's Bay territories, warmed by the sunbeams
of summer, become at that season centers of radiating heat, while the
antarctic lands, of small extent, isolated in the midst of a polar ocean
and chilled by cold sea winds, act at every season as refrigerators of
the atmosphere. Further in the north the cold currents of the polar sea,
having but two openings of any estent through which they can convey
drift ice, have their chilly influence confined to comparatively narrow
limits, but the cold currents of the antarctic seas have scope to branch
out freely on all sides and carry their ice even into temperate waters.
Finally, at the northern hemisphere, the Gulf Stream conveys warmth even
to the shores of Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla, while on the opposite
regions of the globe no traces of warm currents have been observed
beyond 55 degrees of south latitude.
THE LANGUAGE USED BY CHRIST.--The language used by Christ was the
Aramaic, the dialect of Northern Syria. The Israelites were much in
contact with Aramaean populations, and some words from that tongue
became incorporated into the Hebrew at a very early date. At the time
of Hezekiah, Aramaic had become the official language of both Judea
and Assyria: that is, the language spoken at the courts. After the
fall of Samaria the Hebrew inhabitants of Northern Israel were largely
carried into captivity, and their place was taken by colonists from
Syria, who probably spoke Aramaic as their mother tongue.
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