WONDERS OF ANTARCTIC WORLD 343 



Lieutenant Shackleton, Captain Scott and others were puzzled by the occur- 

 rence of a wind blowing from the South Pole considerably warmer than the 

 previous temperature for this point. Captain Scott writes : 



"The warm snow, bearing southerly winds, which we experienced, have 

 not yet been explained. Even in the depth of winter this wind had a tempera- 

 ture of ten to fifteen degrees." 



This alone suggests that there may be comparatively warm valleys or 

 regions somewhere in the Antarctic continent. 



It is a most extraordinary fact that vast as is the accumulation of ice in the 

 Antarctic continent, it is less than it used to be, and is gradually diminishing. 

 Lieutenant Shackleton found traces of glaciers on Mount Erebus i.ooo feet 

 above the sea level. As the adjacent sea is i,8oo feet deep, the ice sheet at one 

 time must have been 2,800 feet thick. 



Most of the glaciers in Antarctica are dying, that is to say, decreasing in 

 size and not flowing. Strange to say, meteorologists argue that the diminu- 

 tion of ice indicates that the climate was formerly milder than now. Ice and 

 snow only accumulate where there is occasional warmth with moisture and va- 

 riations of temperature. A continuously dry cold does not favor the accumu- 

 lation of ice and snow. 



Geological conditions indicate that Antarctica was once linked by land to 

 South America and Australia and that it then possessed vegetation and abun- 

 dant human and animal life. 



Little is known of the interior of Antarctica. Shackleton has made a dash 

 into it so rapid that he had no time for careful research, while other explorers 

 have merely scratched the edges of the land. No fossils have been brought 

 back and very few geological specimens of any value. These are points to 

 which the next explorers will devote their attention. 



Nunataks are a curious feature of the Antarctic landscape. They are sharp, 

 black rocks which stick up out of the snow and are very prominent in Summer. 

 Sastrugus is the name given to curious hillocks of snow that also form in Sum- 

 mer. 



It was at Cape Adare, where there is a break in the environing ice cliffs, 

 that Ross, in 1842, with his two little sailing ships, the Erebus and the Terror, 

 made his way as far to the south as latitude 78 degrees 10 minutes. 



This place is remarkable because the temperature at the base of the high 

 cliffs is unusually warm — sometimes up to 50 degrees in summer — and much 

 curious Antarctic vegetation is found there. 



