422 
ORIGIN OF LIFE IN AMERICA 
America to the broken columns found by Oriental travellers 
in the ruined and deserted cities of a vanished civilisation. 
And as an. archaeologist may restore from such fragments the 
fallen temples or disused aqueducts, so may a naturalist trace 
the missing arches of life that once spanned the gap.” Mr. 
Hedley * favours the theory of a direct land connection in 
Mesozoic or early Tertiary times between Tasmania and 
Tierra del Fuego across the South Pole, while New Zealand 
then reached sufficiently near this antarctic land without join¬ 
ing it, to receive by flight or drift many animals and plants. 
He thinks the faint affinity of Antarctica to Africa would be 
explicable on the supposition that before either America or 
Australia had united with the former, Africa had already 
broken aw r ay from it. 
A very memorable discussion on this question took place 
during the fourteenth annual meeting of the American 
Society of Naturalists in Philadelphia. Reviewing the geo¬ 
logy of the antarctic regions, Professor Heilprin f stated that 
in its relation to the other continents there was reason to 
believe that Antarctica, whether as a continent or in frag¬ 
mental parts, had a definite connection with one or more of the 
land-masses lying to the north, and that the suspicion could 
hardly be avoided that such connection was, if with nothing 
else, with New Zealand (and through it with Australia) and 
Patagonia. The facts of palaeontology are best explained, 
according to Professor Scott $ on the assumption that the 
antarctic land-mass has at one time or another 'been connected 
with Africa, Australia and South America, all of which once 
radiated from the South Pole, just as North America and 
Eurasia now do from the North Polar area. 
Although Professor Britton § cited many examples of 
astonishingly close relationship between plants of Australia, 
southern South America and South Africa, it is unnecessary 
in his opinion to invoke as an explanation a former land con¬ 
nection across the antarctic region. 
Arguing from the geographical distribution of the fishes, 
* Hedley, C., “ Surviving Refugees in Austral Lauds,” pp. 3 — 6. 
t Heilprin, A., “ Geology of Antarctic Regions,” pp. 306—307. 
| Scott, W. B., “Antarctica Palaeontology,” p. 310. 
§ Britton, N. L., “Origin of Antarctic Flora,” p. 311. 
