वेदों की प्राचीनता एवं काल-निर्णय / ओरायन (लोकमान्य बाल गंगाधर तिलक - खगोलीय वैदिक शोध)

CHAPTER III.
THE ARCTIC REGIONS.
Existence of a Circum-polar continent in early times—Probable
also in the Inter-Glacial period—Milder climate at the time—
Necessity of examining Vedic Myths—Difference between Polar
and Circumpolar characteristics—The precession of the equinoxes
used as chronometer in Vedic chronology—Characteristics of the
North Pole—The horizontal motion of the celestial hemisphere
—Spinning round of the stars without rising or setting—
The Sun rising in the South—A day and a night of six months
each—Aurora Borealis--Continuous fortnightly moonlight, and
long morning and evening twilights—Dawn lasting from 45 to 60
days—The Polar year—The darkness of the Polar night reduced
only to two, or two and a half, months—Dr. Warren's descrip-
tion of the Polar Dawn with its revolving splendours—Characte-
ristics of regions to the South of the North Pole—Stars moving
obliquely and a few rising and setting as in the tropical zone—The
Southernly direction of the Sun—-A long day and a long night,
but of less than six months' duration—Supplemented by the
alternations of ordinary days and nights for some time during
the year—Long dawn, but of shorter duration than at the Pole
—Comparison with the features of the year in the tropics
—Summary of Polar and Circum-Polar characteristics.
We have seen that in the Pleistocene period there was great
elevation and submergence of land accompanied by violent changes
in the climate, over the whole surface of the globe. Naturally
enough the severity of the Glacial period must have been very in-
tense within the Arctic circle, and we shall be perfectly justified
in supposing that geographical changes like the elevation and de-
pression of land occurred on a far more extensive scale in regions
round about the Pole than anywhere else. This leads us to infer
that the distribution of land and water about the Pole during
the Inter-Glacial period must have been different from what it