| The 20th century has been called many things-the age | | | | ice fields of the far North. But when loose at sea the |
| of steam, of steel, of electricity, of aviation, and most | | | | great floating chunks of ice known, as icebergs are |
| recently of atomic energy. It also might be called the | | | | wreckers, as the long roll of lost ships indicates. Ice is |
| age of refrigeration-an entirely different kind of ice age | | | | used in modern surgery as a painkiller, yet it can cause |
| than the world has ever before experienced. Ice. which | | | | pain, too, as anyone who has ever experienced the |
| is merely frozen water, possesses such vast | | | | ache and tingle of frostbitten feet, ears or fingers can |
| possibilities that man only now is beginning to recognize | | | | eloquently testify. In addition to this twentieth century |
| and take advantage of them. Today, ice is an easily | | | | ice age-this age of refrigeration-several other ice ages |
| obtainable necessity that costs little. But this has not | | | | have come and gone. |
| always been the case. | | | | Geologists say that the world is only now progressing |
| Time was when a pound of ice was so costly that | | | | out of the most recent of these older ice ages, and no |
| only merchant prince's and men of great wealth could | | | | one will predict whether other icy eras lie ahead. We |
| afford to buy it. Farther back in history, cool drinks and | | | | have moved such a short distance from the last glacial |
| iced foods were luxuries that only the mightiest of | | | | age that a drop of nine degrees in the world's yearly |
| rulers could command. Ice is, at any time, both a | | | | average temperature would serve to bring on another. |
| preserver and a destroyer, is a vast storehouse of | | | | Many parts of the northern hemisphere owe their |
| water, one of the world's greatest natural resources, | | | | present physical state to the crushing, grinding and |
| yet, when it releases that store too rapidly, floods and | | | | smoothing powers of the great ice sheets, which four, |
| disaster result. It is a preserver, too. and perishables | | | | or possibly five times, crept over them. Each ice age is |
| locked in its crystal depths will last indefinitely. It is an | | | | said to have lasted about fifty thousand years, with |
| architect and a builder, for it has shaped the face of | | | | pleasant interglacial periods, perhaps several times as |
| the earth, rounding off corners or lopping off hilltops - | | | | long, sandwiched in between. |
| and heaping up the material somewhere else. It is the | | | | The last ice age ended about twenty thousand years |
| handwriting of the ice age. | | | | ago and since that time the climate has been growing |
| As a source of recreation, ice-skating, ice boating and | | | | milder, with occasional setbacks. Those great ice |
| associated winter sports provide entertainment and | | | | sheets retreated slowly, reluctantly, and are still |
| exercise for thousands. A frozen pond, sparkling, in the | | | | retreating. |
| wintry daylight, is a thing of beauty, as are the great | | | | |
