V o° ^ 



Lj! LIBRARY 

 ANTARCTICA. WV ^•-*- 



By Prof. E. J. Goddard, B.A., D.Sc. 



(Evening Discourse delivered in the Tortw Hall, Port Elizabeth. 

 on Wednesday. July yd, 1912, and illustrated by lantern slides.) 



During the past ten years Antarctic explorers have achieved 

 considerable success, and only recently we have heard that at last 

 the goal has heen reached by Captain Amundsen. We have also 

 every reason to hope that the same measure of success has 

 attended the efforts of Captain Scott, and that the latter will 

 return* with a considerable amount of biological and geological 

 material, the investigation of which will assist us in the elucida- 

 tion of the problems of Antarctica and the continental masses of 

 the Southern Hemisphere. 



The question is often asked by the layman : What is the value 

 of the work of Antarctic explorers? What is the justification 

 for the money spent and the exposure to danger? 



The main object in this popular discourse is to demonstrate 

 the value of such work, and to point out why Antarctic problems 

 fascinate the scientific world, and especially those scientists who 

 devote their attention towards the elucidation of biological and 

 geological problems in the Southern continental masses. Pre- 

 liminarily, let us note that in the study of the distribution of 

 animals and plants, living and extinct, naturalists have long 

 regarded the continents of the Southern Hemisphere as having 

 once been closely connected together and more intimately related 

 to Antarctica. In fact, only by the assumption of such a con- 

 tinuous land area can distribution of the various forms from 

 their centre of evolution be satisfactorily explained. It will be 

 seen that the nature of such connections and the times during 

 which they existed can only be satisfactorily known when the 

 geology and biology of the various masses is critically examined 

 with the assistance of fuller details than we yet possess in regard 

 to the various land masses. However, in a broad way we have 

 achieved much. 



Antarctica of the present day is a huge continental — or, at 

 least, potentially continental — mass, uninhabited by the terres- 

 trial animals and plants with which we are familiar, devoid of 

 the bird life found in other lands, and of the varied foliage 

 characteristic of large areas — a huge ice-covered mass monoton- 

 ously isolated in every way. That it has not always existed as 

 such we are sure. W r e all realise that land and sea areas are con- 

 tinuously but gradually changing, and that no part of the earth's 

 crust can be truly regarded as constant in form and area, subsi- 

 dence taking place here, upheaval being the order of the day 

 there ; that meteorological conditions are inconstant, and climate 

 is changing even within our own recollections ; and that the 



* It will be remembered that intelligence of the tragic termination of the Scott 

 Expedition in March. 1912, was not received until seven months after the. delivery 

 of this lecture. 



