8．The Antarctic，a Desert of Ice All Year Round

The antarctic is actually a desert．It is the only continent on the earth without a river or a lake．

The antarctic is all ice all year round．The warmest temperature ever recorded there is zero，at the South Pole．Explorers used to think that a place so cold would have a heavy snow－fall．But less than ten inches of snow falls each year．That is less than half an inch of water．Ten times that much moisture falls in parts of the Sahara．

The little snow that falls in Antarctica never melts．It continues to pile up deeper and deeper year after year and century after century．When the snow gets to be about eighty feet deep it is turned to ice by the weight of the snow above it．

8．南极——终年冰封的不毛之地

南极地区实际上是一片不毛之地，它是地球上唯一没有河流也没有湖泊的大陆。

南极地区终年冰封。那儿历史上的最高气温纪录是零度，那还是在南极点。探险家们过去总认为，如此寒冷的地方可能会有纷飞的大雪，但是，那儿每年的降雪却不足10英寸厚，还没有半英寸水多。撒哈拉沙漠一些地区的降雨量还是那儿的10倍呢！

降于南极洲的微量的雪从不融化，年复一年，一个世纪又一个世纪地越积越厚。当积雪达80英尺的时候，受上层重压的雪就会凝结成冰。