HOBBS— THE FIXED GLACIAL ANTICYCLONE. 35 



pronounced examples. To the anticyclones which owe their origin to a 

 snow-covered land Hobbs has given the name ' glacial anticyclone ' and he 

 has worked out at considerable length the meteorological features of such 

 anticyclones" (page 248). 



" In my opinion . . . the descending air in the anticyclones is very poor 

 in vapour." (Citation from Meinardus on page 249.) 



" One must agree with Meinardus in this matter and there can be little 

 doubt that Hobbs has left unsolved what we shall see in the next section is 

 the greatest problem of the Antarctic anticyclone, namely, the origin of the 

 precipitation within the anticyclone." 



On page 250 of his report several statements are made by Dr. 

 Simpson in summarizing' my views (such, for example, as that the 

 air moves inward along the surface to replace the surface outflow 

 of air) which are without warrant and in common with the entire 

 chapter reveal a very careless reading. I have therefore no re- 

 course but to restate some of the more essential elements in my con- 

 ception of the glacial anticyclone and to call attention to the several 

 papers in which I have dealt with the subject.^ Among later ones I 

 would note especially a paper in the Proceedings of this society.^ 



In all my writings upon the glacial anticyclone I have been at 

 much pains to explain that the domed surface of the ice is essential 

 to the development both of the anticyclone and of the alternating 

 calms and blizzards which record its strophic action. In my " Char- 

 acteristics of Existing Glaciers" it is stated (p. 149) : "It is due to 

 the peculiar shield-like form of this ice-mass that the heavier cooled 

 bottom layer (of air) is able to slide off radially as would a film of 

 oil from a model of similar form. The centrifugal nature of this 



- " The Ice Masses on and about the Antarctic Continent," Zcitsch. f. 

 Gletschcrk. Vol. V., 1910, pp. 107-20. " Characteristics of the Inland-ice of 

 the Arctic Regions," Proc. Am. Pliilos. Soc, Vol. XLIX., 1910, pp. 96-109. 

 "Characteristics of Existing Glaciers" (Macmillan, 1911), Chaps. IX. and 

 XVI. and Afterword. " The Pleistocene Glaciation of North America 

 Viewed in the Light of our Knowledge of Existing Continental Glaciers," 

 Bull. Am. Gcogr. Soc, Vol. XLIIL, 191 1, pp. 641-59. "Earth Features and 

 their Meaning" (Macmillan, 1912), pp. 283-86. "The Ferrel Doctrine of 

 Polar Calms and its Disproof in Recent Observations," Proc. Second Pan- 

 American Scientific Congress, Vol. II., Sec. II., Washington, 1917, pp. 179- 

 89. " The Mechanics of the Glacial Anticyclone Illustrated by Experiment," 

 Nature, July 22, 1920. 



3 " The Role of the Glacial Anticyclone in the Air Circulation of the 

 Globe," Proc. Am. Phil. Soc, Vol. 54, 1915, pp. 185-225. 



