296 ANTARCTIC KXPLORATION. 



rocka of the earth, resemble those masses of extra-terrestial ori<;iii 

 whieh we know as meteorites. ISuch bodies of uiioxidized metal are 

 iinkiiowu elsewhere in the mass, aud why they are peculiar to the 

 Aretic it is hard to say. Should similar masses be found within the 

 Antaretie, a fresh stimulus would be ^iven to speeulation. Geologists 

 would have tocousider whether the oxidized strata of the earth's crust 

 thin out at the poles; whether in such a case the thinninjj is due to 

 ssvere local erosion, or to the protection a<;ainstoxy«^en afforded to the 

 surface of the polar re^nous by their ice caps, or to what other cause. 

 Such discoveries would add somethiu*^ to our knowledge of the 

 materials of the interior of our globe and their relation to those of 

 meteorites. 



Still looking for fresh knowledge in the same direction, a series of 

 pendulum observations should be taken at points as near as possible 

 to the pole. AVithin the Arctic circle the pendulum makes about L'lO 

 more vibrations per day than it does at the equator. The vibrations 

 increase in number there because the force of gravitj' at the earth's 

 surface is more intense in that area, and this again is believed to be 

 due to the obhiteness of that part of the earth's tigure, but it might 

 be caused by the bodily approach to the surface at the poles of the 

 masses of dense ultra-basic rocks just referred to. Thus, pendulum 

 experiments may reveal to us the earth's tigure, and a series of such 

 observations, recorded from such a vast and untried area, must yield 

 important data for the physicrist to work up. We should probably 

 learn from such investigations whether the earth's figure is as much 

 flattened at tne Antarctic as it is known to be at the Arctic. 



We now know that in the past the North Polar regions have enjoyed 

 a temperate climate more than once. Abundant seams of Paleozoic 

 coal, large deposits of fossiliferous Jurassic rocks, and extensive Eocene 

 beds, containing the remains of evergreen and deciduous trees and 

 flowering plants, occur far within the Arctic circle. This circumstance 

 leads us to wonder whether the corresponding southern latitudes have 

 ever experienced similar climatic vicissitudes. Conclusive evidence on 

 th.s point it is diflicult to get, but competent biologists who have ex- 

 amined the tioras and faunas of South Africa and Australia, of New 

 Zealand, South America, aud the isolated islets of tho Southern Ocean, 

 find features which absolutely involve the existence of an extensive 

 Antarctic land — a land which must have been clothed with a varied 

 vegetation, and have been alive with beasts, birds, and insects. As it 

 also had had its fresh-water fishes, it must have had its rivers flowing 

 and not frost-bound, and in those circumstances we again see indica- 

 tions of a modified Antarctic cliniate. Let us briefly consider some of 

 the evidence for the existence of this continent. We are told by Pro- 

 fessor Ilutton, of Christchurch, that t-t per cent, of the New Zealaiul 

 flora is of Antarctic origin. The Auckland, Campbell, and .Ma(<inarie 

 Islands all support Antarctic; plants, some of which appear never to 



