GLACIATION OF THE SOUTH POLAR REGION. 313 



idea, and how, as each discovery of land in South Polar waters has been 

 more thoroughly examined, continental masses have resolved themselves into 

 small groups of islands. That eminent geographer remarks as follows, at the 

 close of a discussion of this question : " It is very probable that the Antarctic 

 Zone may have only comparatively small islands to show in the way of land ; 

 and that the coasts which have thus fiir been discovered may shrink up 

 [zusammenschrumpfen] into islands, when they come to be more closely 



examined So too the experienced navigator Sir James C. Ross is of 



opinion that the coast seen by Balleny, D'Urville, and Wilkes (Wilkes Land) 

 is only a chain of islands. Certain it is, that all those portions of the Ant- 

 arctic lands which have been closely examined, and fully laid down on the 

 map, have turned out to be islands, and comparatively small ones, like the 

 South Orkney and the South Shetland groups."* 



It has been generally thought that the quantity of pack ice and icebergs 

 observed in the ocean south of the equator indicated the existence of a great 

 continent from which these floating masses must have come. Petermann 

 has made a careful examination of the distribution of the drift ice in the 

 southern seas with the following results.! 1. The most northern boundary 

 of the Antarctic drift ice forms an irregular curved line, extending between 

 the parallels of 33° and 58° S. latitude. 2. The ice makes its way farthest 

 to the north in the neighborhood of the Cape of Good Hope ; and keeps 

 most to the south in the region of Cape Horn. 3. On the average, the most 

 drift ice is found in the Atlantic Ocean, and the least in the Pacific and in the 

 seas south of Australia and New Zealand ; so that, in this respect also, the 

 " Great Britain of the Southern Ocean " is most highly favored. 4. The 

 Antarctic drift ice is met with chiefly in the southern summer months 

 (December — February); it is rarely, if ever, [am wenigsten, ja fast gar 

 nicht] encountered in the winter (June — August). From the latter circum- 

 stance he concludes that the ice forms chiefly along the coast, by freezing of 

 the ocean, which ice is detached by the melting power of the summer sun 

 and floats north, driven by winds and currents. 



That much, if not most, of the Antarctic drift ice is formed by freezing 

 of the ocean, and is not the ice which is born of glaciers in the form of 

 bergs, seems evident from the descriptions and illustrations given by the 



* 1. c, p. 416. 



t 1. c, p. 416, under the head of " Die Verbreituiig uiid Ausdehnung des Trcibeises." This term Treibeis of 

 course incluch's botli pat'k ice and icebergs. 



