326 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tiguous with the South Shetland Islands, is also loftily mountain- 

 ous, ranging to perhaps nine thousand feet, and with volcanic 

 cones as a dominant feature. Lying east of King Oscar II Land, 

 which is seemingly only a portion of Graham Land, are a number 

 of small islands, some of which, as Christensen and Lindenberg, 

 were volcanoes in active eruption at the time of Larsen's visit. 

 This tract of archipelago lying south of the American continent 

 is much less snow-bound than the region about Victoria Land, 

 large areas of bare rock being exposed both on the islands and on 

 the mainland, especially the volcanic slopes. Not improbably the 

 heat of the volcanic cones has much to do with keeping an ex- 

 posed surface, although it can hardly be supposed that this expos- 

 ure is entirely due to this cause. 



The geographical and geological study of the region under 

 consideration resolves itself into four or more lines of inquiry : 

 1. Have we a continent in Antarctica ? 2. What is the nature 

 of the ice covering ? 3. Of what construction are the rock 

 masses ? 4. Has Antarctica ever been united with any of the 

 major divisions of the earth's surface which we recognize as 

 continents ? 



The first inquiry hardly recognizes a positive answer as yet. 

 Wilkes was certain that in the land masses seen by him, or 

 thought to have been seen, we had the positive marks of a vast 

 united continent ; Ross, although he had seen more continuous 

 coast line than any other investigator, was exceedingly doubtful 

 on this point, and considered the evidence insufficient for positive 

 determination ; Murray, the distinguished geographer of the 

 Challenger Expedition, has gone even beyond Wilkes, and con- 

 structed the contours of what appears to him to be true Antarc- 

 tica, the outlines of which are in the map on the next page. These 

 may be approximately correct or not a matter about as difficult 

 to disprove as to prove but it is certain that the materials upon 

 which this construction is based are hardly sufficient to warrant 

 the mapping. Yet it is almost positive that a vast land area 

 perhaps two, three, or more of them underlies the capping of 

 snow or ice ; but whether it is entitled to the designation of con- 

 tinent remains to be demonstrated by future exploration. Ross 

 strongly emphasizes the doubt as to whether all the eminences or 

 appearances reported to be land are really such, and he himself 

 admits cautious observer though he was to having been de- 

 ceived on more than one occasion. Murray, again, warns us that 

 much of the ice barrier described by Wilkes is not the true barrier 

 (which is presumed to be the boundary to a not distantly lying 

 terra firma), but merely the cemented pack. It is a significant 

 fact that none of the explorers refer to a distant elevated ice cap, 

 such as everywhere bounds the horizon of the observer looking 



