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

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