352 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN" INSTITUTION, 192 8 



most parts. Detailed exploration has so far concentrated on the 

 two more accessible coasts of Antarctica — those of Graham and Vic- 

 toria Lands. In fact, one might reasonably argue that there has 

 been too great a concentration of interest on those coasts, on the 

 part of well-found expeditions, to the neglect of unknown or little- 

 known areas more difficult of access but promising more striking 

 discoveries. That has been due, no doubt, to the one, Graham 

 Land with its islands projecting northward into open sea and lying 

 near civilized lands, and the other, Victoria Land, offering the most 

 promising point of departure for sledge journeys to the pole. How- 

 ever, noAv that the South Pole has been reached, the temptation to 

 focus effort on the best available base for that undertaking has 

 gone, and the explorer's energy of the future is more likely to be 

 expended in directions more profitable to the advancement of 

 knowledge. 



Graham Land, for we discard the awkward title of west Antarc- 

 tica, and Victoria Land, or more strictly South Victoria Land, are 

 both regions of lofty mountain ranges, but apparently of contrasted 

 structure and diverse origin. The ranges of Graham Land, often 

 called the Antarctic Andes, in stratigraphy and structure, as well as 

 in their eruptive rocks, bear so close a resemblance to the Cordilleras 

 of South America that there can be no reasonable doubt that they 

 w^ere at. one time connected and are in fact disunited parts of the 

 same foldings. Nor does it appear doubtful any longer that the 

 line of former continuity can be traced by a submerged ridge on 

 which stand relics of the chain — in the South Orkneys, the volcanic 

 south Sandwich group, and South Georgia, extending in a great arc 

 between Trinity Land and Tierra del Fuego and sweej)ing well to the 

 east of Drake Strait. There is no doubt of this line of connection, 

 but we are still uncertain if South Georgia, and even more so, if 

 the Falklands are really fragments of the arc or relics of a lost south 

 Atlantic Land. 



The Antarctic Andes, or Southern Antilles, have been traced 

 southeastward but lo.-t sight of at Alexander Island and Charcot 

 Land, which in all probability are parts of the same formation. The 

 great problem of the Antarctic is what happens to these ranges. On 

 the opposite, or New Zealand, side of the Antarctic the great fault 

 ranges of Victoria Land show little if any resemblance in structure 

 and origin with the Antarctic Andes. A great horst capped with 

 horizontal layers of sandstone, probably of Permo-Carboniferous 

 age, is associated with much evidence of volcanic activity, and seems 

 to rise from a great peneplain of crystalline rocks which underlie 

 the whole of that side of the Antarctic ice sheet. 



The structure of the Victoria Land edge of the Ross Sea is remi- 

 niscent of Tasmania and eastern Australia, and the suggestion of 



