THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. 333 



February, remarks : "Not a particle of ice of any description was 

 to be seen, the evening was mild and serene, and our situation 

 might have been envied had it not been for the reflection that 

 probably we should have obstacles to contend with in our passage 

 through the ice northward." As regards the various eminences 

 which have at different times been designated "land" (such as 

 Kemp Land, Enderby Land, etc.), and which have so often been 

 United together to form a continuous land mass, there is every 

 reason to believe that many of them are merely islands, and even 

 islands of inconsiderable extent. Thus, it is certain that if the 

 positions assumed by Morrell and Biscoe for their respective 

 vessels are true, then Biscoe must have sailed over a portion of 

 what was subsequently designated Enderby Land (Enderby Is- 

 land), The deceptive forms of ice have by nearly all polar navi- 

 gators been at one time or another taken for rising land surface, 

 a condition which makes doubtful the references to many of the 

 "land "masses that have been made known to us. It is by no 

 means unreasonable to assume, with Petermann, that Antarctica 

 may yet prove to be a disjointed association of land and ice 

 masses, j^urely archipelagic in form ; in this sense, Victoria Land, 

 which is to-day the most extensive tract known, may be merely a 

 correspondent of the insular form of New Zealand. 



The only important addition to our knowledge of true Antarc- 

 tica that has been made since Ross's voyage belongs to the close 

 of the year 1893, when Larsen penetrated, in the region of the 

 Graham Land complex, to latitude 68 10' south, and brought 

 back with him a " departure " in the geological concept of the 

 region under consideration. The finding of Tertiary fossils 

 {Cytlierea, Natica, etc.) on Seymour Island (Cape Seymour) is 

 the opening vista in an investigation which has heretofore been 

 considered closed, and at once affords, to use a business term, a 

 basis for consideration. Not less significant is the finding at the 

 same locality of an abundance of tree remains (conifers, Arau- 

 caria ?). These fragments at least show that some part of Ant- 

 arctica was of the same kind of construction as the continents 

 generally, and their special fades immediately suggests a South 

 American relationship. Previous to 1893 the only rocks known 

 from the ice-bound region of the far south were granites, gneisses, 

 (and related schists), the strictly eruptive and trappean rocks, and 

 certain red sandstones (Piner's Island Triassic ?) from a very 

 limited area. Most (and perhaps nearly all) of the higher moun- 

 tains are distinctly of a volcanic nature, and many of them bear 

 huge craters on their summits. Ross found Erebus in eruption 

 at the time of his visit (1841), and Larsen found the mountains of 

 Christensen and Lindenberg Islands similarly active in 1893-'94. 

 Kristensen and Borchgrevink, who sailed over a portion of Ross's 



