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