POLAR GEOGRAPHY BROWN 355 



some months ahead.* At Buenos Aires, for example, the high corre- 

 lation coefficient of +0.88 is reached when the summer rainfall there 

 is correlated with the temperature of the South Orkneys for the 

 winter that began three and a half years earlier. In fact, statistical 

 correlation indicates that a very cold winter at the South Orkneys 

 will be followed after an interval of three and a half years by a 

 drought over the Argentine cereal belt; a very mild winter, after 

 rhe same interval of time, by bountiful rains. 



Lastly, there is great need of oceanogi-aphical work in high south- 

 ern latitudes. This branch of research has been overlooked by most 

 expeditions in their hurry to reach their southern bases. Certainly 

 in the tempestuous seas of the fifties and sixties of southern latitude 

 it is uncomfortable and trying work and exasperating in delays and 

 loss of apparatus. The employment of echo sounding should, how- 

 ever, make it both easier and more accurate. 



There has been much careful and intensive work in the Antarctic 

 during this century, indeed since the voyage of the Belgica^ but it has 

 merely touched the fringe of what there is to be done. The recent 

 work of the R. S. S. Discovery in the seas to the east of South Georgia 

 should fill gaps in existing knowledge of the southern ocean, but de- 

 tails are not yet available.^ 



Antarctic expeditions are costly, far more costly than expeditions 

 to the Arctic. It is unlikely that an impoverished Europe will be 

 able to find the necessary funds for years to come. We must look 

 with hope toward the great new nations of the Southern Hemi- 

 sphere, some of whom have already shown a marked interest in the 

 Antarctic. It will be a sad day when man is so free from curiosity 

 about this earth that the last mysteries of its surface are not probed 

 because the task demands enthusiasm and money. 



No pioneer problems of equal magnitude await the explorer in 

 north polar regions. There is small likelihood that any new land 

 of importance remains to be discovered. There is certainly no 

 " polar continent." However, there are gaps to be filled. Nicholas 

 Land, found by the Russians to the north of the Taimir Peninsula 

 in 1913, has still to be investigated. Its full extent and its relation 

 to other Arctic islands are unknown. Northwest of it the Arctic 

 Ocean has never been penetrated except by the drifting St. Anna in 

 1912-1914. We hope that Russian investigators of the coast of 

 Siberia will include Nicholas Land within their scope of work.'' 



* Southern Hemisphere Seasonal Correlations, R. C. Mossman. Symons Meteorological 

 Mag., 48, 1913 ; and The Climate and Meteorology of the Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic 

 Regions, R. C. Mossman, Journ. Scot. Met. Soc, 1918, pp. 18-29. 



^ Discovery Expedition. First Annual Report, H. M. S. O., 1927. 



" For the latest map of the Russian Arctic coasts see The Russian Hydrographical Expe- 

 dition to the Arctic, N; A. Trausche, Geog. Rev. (New York), No. 3, 1925. 



