36 HOBBS— THE FIXED GLACIAL ANTICYCLONE. 



motion tends to produce a vacuum above the central area of the 

 ice-mass, and the air must be drawn down from the upper layers of 

 the atmosphere in order to supply the void. It is here that is located 

 the 'eye' of the anticyclone." Again (p. 266) : "This anticyclonic 

 circulation of the air is not determined in any sense by latitudes 

 but is the consequence of air refrigeration through contact with the 

 elevated snow-ice dome, thus causing air to slide ofif in all directions 

 along the steepest gradients." 



In my monograph published in the Proceedings of this society 

 it is stated (Vol. 54, p. 188) : "It is because the inland-ice masses 

 have a domed surface that they permit the air which is cooled by 

 contact to flow outward centrifugally, and so develop at an ever- 

 accelerating rate a vortex of exceptional strength." 



Despite the statements of Meinardus that the descending air 

 within the anticyclone would be very poor in vapor, a statement 

 which is approved by Simpson, we now know from the records of 

 several Polar expeditions that within the eye of the glacial anti- 

 cyclone there is found an area of calm with shifting light, variable 

 winds and excessively high humidity which results in mist or fog 

 or even showers of ice needles, whereas all about are outwardly 

 directed air currents associated with relative low humidity. 



From the Antarctic glacier we have the record of Amundsen 

 made in the vicinity of the southern pole and that of Captain Robert 

 Scott, who entered the same region about a month later. From the 

 Greenland glacier we have the scientific reports of two professional 

 and highly experienced meteorologists, de Oueiwain and Wegener, 

 that of the former from about the median line of the ice-dome 

 near latitude 68° N., and that of the latter from near the very 

 center. 



Captain Amundsen entered the central area of the Antarctic ice- 

 dome near the 88th southern parallel, finding there what he believed 

 to be a region of permanent calm or of light winds and of generally 

 clear weather. The snow surface was smooth with no drifts. For 

 a fortnight the sky was clear except on two days when there were 

 snow flurries. Insolation was so intense that perspiration poured 

 from the bodies of the men even when most of their clothing had 

 been removed. 



