8o PROCEEDINGS OF THE 



V. 



The Paheogeograpliical llelations of Antarctica. By Charles 

 IIedlky, F.L.8., Assistant Curator of the Australian Museum, 

 Sydney, New South Wales. 



[Eead 6th June, 1912.] 



1. Introduction. 



Testimony in support of alteration in temperature and contour of 

 Tertiary Antarctica is almost wholly based on a comparison of tl)e 

 living fauna and flora of surrounding countries. While biologists 

 in general, led by Wallace, Sclater, and Hutton, opposed the idea 

 of an extended and habitable Antarctica, geographers hesitated to 

 adopt a hypothesis the arguments for which lay in a foreign field. 

 Hut of late years most of those engaged in its discussion have been 

 supporters of extension, so that the theory has advanced from the 

 position of a disparaged heresy to that ofan established view. 



Accustomed to rely on biological evidence, in the form of 

 !)al£eontology, for important and far-reaching generalisations, 

 geology n lay now accept from biology this theory of formei* 

 Antarctic extension. Thereby is acquired a correlation of climate, 

 of time, and of continental change, while incidentally a new light 

 is thrown on the question of the permanence of ocean basins. 



It seemed nothing unusual to find a similar fauna and flora, 

 even to the extent of a large proportion of identical species, on 

 the subantarctic islands all round the world. But collectors 

 working in south temperate and even in south tropical zones were 

 surjn-ised to And related species and genera in opposite hemi- 

 spheres. This correspondence is more pronounced in primitive 

 groups and grow s clearer southwards. 



First, it was realised when the famous botanist Sir J. D. Hooker 

 pointed to the distribution of the southern pines as indicating 

 a common origin (Hooljer, ' London Journal of Botany,' iv. 1845, 

 p. 137). 



The relations of a southern fauna linking Australasia to South 

 America Mere sketched firm and clear by a master hand iu 

 Professor Huxley's essay on the classification and distribution 

 of the gallinaceous birds (Huxley, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p. 294). 



According to Ortmann, first Eiitimeyer definitely proposed 

 radiation from Antarctica as the solution of the problem (Eiiti- 

 meyer, ' Ueber d'e Herkunft unserer Thierwelt,' 1807, p. 15). 



Our knowledge of this subject was nuich advanced by Dr. 

 H. O. Forbes (Forbes, Boy. Geogr. Soc. Sup])l. Papers, iii. 1893). 

 Starting from the fossil avifauna of the Chatham Islands, he 

 reviewed the community of southern faunas and interpreted it by 



