Park. — The Great be Age of New Zealand. 607 



Dr. Marshall* states that in tlie " most highly glaciated tracts the ice 

 does not extend over deep-sea areas." This statement is entirely contrary 

 to well-attested facts. In the Antarctic region the Great Ice Barrier ex- 

 tends over the sea for many hundreds of miles. 



Ross| found a depth of over 2,460 ft. on the edge of the barrier, and. 

 commenting on this, he says, " So great a depth of water seemed to remove 

 the supposition that has been suggested of this great mass of ice being 

 formed upon a ledge of rock, and to show that its outer edge, at any rate, 

 could not be resting on the ground." 



Further onj he mentions the almost magical power of the sea in 

 breaking up land-ice or extensive floes from 20 ft. to 30 ft. thick ; but 

 this extraordinary barrier of ice of probably more than a thousand feet 

 in thickness crushes the undulations of the waves and disregards their 

 violence. It is, he says, " a mighty and wonderful object, far beyond 

 anything we could have thought or conceived." 



' Captain Scott, of the " Discovery " Expedition.§ found soundings rang- 

 ing up to 482 fathoms, or 2,892 ft., on the edge of the ice barrier, concern- 

 ing which he says, " What was the thickness of the ice-sheet to the south, 

 or what lay beneath it, was obviously impossible for us to determine ; but 

 on collecting all the indirect evidences which bear on these points, I came 

 to the conclusion — which I still hold — that the greater part of it is still 

 afloat ; and, strange as it is to imagine that the sea should run beneath 

 such a solid sheet for so many hundreds of miles, I have yet to learn any 

 reasonable argument against such an idea." 



The ice-sheet stretched far beyond the most southerly point reached 

 bv Scott. Its extent is perhaps not less than five or six or even seven 

 hmidred miles. 



Speaking of the former extent of the ice-sheet, Scott|| says, " On all 

 sides of us and everywhere were signs of the vastly greater extent of the 

 ancient ice-sheet." 



In the Glacial epoch of the Northern Hemisphere the ice-sheet extended 

 across the North Sea for many hundreds of miles, until it reached Scotland. 



Referring to the former extension of the ice-sheet in Ireland, Geikie^ 

 says, " There can be no doubt from this evidence that even in the south 

 of Ireland the ice-sheet continued to be so massive that it went out to sea 

 as a great wall of ice." 



The Antarctic Ice Barrier still extends over the sea as a solid sheet " for 

 many himdreds of miles," even though the Glacial period there is now 

 past. Have we any reason to believe that it did not extend seven hundred 

 miles farther 'north — that is, to the limit of the extended New Zealand 

 area — during the period of maximum refrigeration ? 



Or, even assuming the Glacial period to have been due to some other 

 cause than elevation of the land, do we know of any reasonable argument 

 why the ice-barrier in the Glacial period could not extend over the sea for 

 the' 1,300 miles that separates New Zealand and the Antarctic land ? On the 

 contrary, it seems only reasonable to suppose that the intense refrigeration 

 which caused the gigantic glaciation of New Zealand would assist the ice 

 barrier to invade these latitudes. 



* P. Marshall, Otago Daily Times, 13th May, 1909. 



t Ross, " Voyages," vol. i, p. 222. 



%L.c.. p. 228. 



§ Scott, " Voyage of the ' Discovery,' " vol. ii, p. 309. 



I| Scott, I.e., p. 314. 



t A Geikie. "Geology." vol. ii, ]>. 1329. 



