PRKSIDEXTIAL ADDRKSS SECTION 1!. 



3.^ 



Dcntschlaiid, with the party which Lieutenant Filchner will 

 command, left Bremerhaven on the 8th May, and will proceed.. 

 I'ia Buenos Aires, to its allotted sphere Of exploration. 



It must have been with no small surprise that Captain 

 Scott, who, when he left Europe, had heard of the preparations, 

 for another North Polar Expedition, under Captain Amundsen, 

 found the latter's ship, the Pram, going into winter quarters in 

 the I'ay of Whales, not far from his own base. Amundsen has 

 explained that the change of plans was due to the discovery of 

 the North Pole by Commander Peary. " which spelt ruin to his 

 own undertaking." and that he made up his mind in September. 

 IQ09, to undertake the onlv proljlem left — to reach the South 

 Pole. 



One cannot help thinking that Antarctic research has more 

 to attempt than the one sublime idea of the Pole, and that, with 

 so much of the conditions of that continent unknown, Amund- 

 sen's undoubted energies might have attacked some other part 

 of tlie coast. Still, as the President of the Royal Geographical 

 Society has so well said, " no exi)lorer obtains any vested right 

 merely by exploration,'' and we should, in our desire for know- 

 ledge, welcome all who care to seek. 



Dr. Douglas Mawson's project is one that is greatly appeal- 

 ing to the people of Australia and New Zealand, for less than 

 1,200 miles separates them from the new continent, and the 

 climatic, geological and geographical conditions of such near 

 neighbours must have much in common. The expedition is now 

 being equipped in London, and assumes a national aspect, as its 

 scientific personnel will be chiefly recruited from the 

 L^niversities of Australasia. It will explore the great coastline 

 of 2,000 miles between Cape Adare and Gaussberg, and it hopes 

 to have permission to add that portion of the new continent 

 opposite Australia to the Empire. 



No less than in benehting Australia, many problems of 

 meteorology, physics, bi.ology and geology will be clarified by 

 a greater knowledge of this great neighbouring land mass, and 

 as scientists we shall await the results of one and all of the 

 explorers with interest and admiration at their intrepidity. The 

 influence of such research on South African geology I refer to 

 in a later part of my address, and it is for this reason that I 

 have sketched the plans of the various expeditions now engaged 

 in Antarctic exploration. 



The Karroo System. 



I shall now return to the subject proper of my address. The 

 Karroo system occupies all the central elevated plateaux of Cape 

 Colony, the Free State and Basutoliind, and high veld areas 

 occur in Natal, the Transvaal and P.echuanaland. 



In Rhodesia areas of these rocks occur in the low-lying 

 valley of the Limpopo and the middle Sabi river. Karroo 

 lavas are to be seen near Charter. The largest terrain is that 

 of the middle Zambesi valley, with branches up the Luangv a and 



