THE ANTARCTIC QUESTION MACHAT. 467 



region. At Snow Hill, for instance, the temperature on July 17 

 rose from —29.8° to -{-4:.1°. At Port Charcot at the beginning of 

 June there was a sudden rise from —21° to +3.5°. "W^ien these 

 sudden changes occurred, which have had their equal in the summer, 

 the explorers endured most painful hours; the unexpected thaws, 

 generally coinciding with the storms and terrible snow blizzards, 

 would dampen everything on shipboard ; the tents and sleeping bags 

 would become useless by the excessive humidity, and the men slept 

 literally in ice water. 



M. Rey noted that another important character of the antarctic 

 climate is the high degree of saturation of the air into water 

 vapor, although the tension might be weak. The mean noted on the 

 hygrometer at Port Charcot was 86.3 per cent, 4 per cent higher than 

 at Cape Horn; in July it went up to 92.4 per cent. Ordinarily pre- 

 cipitation occurs in the form of hard snow, which falls in small sharp 

 crystals, even in summer time. The Belgica experienced two hundred 

 and sixty days of snowfall. On the Antarctic snow was recorded on 

 January 6, in full solstice, and on the Frangais there was snow on 

 February 2, from the moment of their entrance into the polar region. 

 Pouring rains are exceptional ; they fall during the northern storms, 

 at the change of season, sometimes with lightning and thunder.^ 

 The total dei)th of rainfall is slight. At Port Charcot it was only 

 376 mm., as compared with 1,360 mm. at Cape Horn. The maximum 

 was from November to March (46 mm. in Januar}^ as compared with 

 10 mm. in July). 



The expeditions about to start will undoubtedly endeavor to deter- 

 mine precise results and to extend meteorological studies more than 

 has so far been possible. A wide scope of observation is opened in 

 matters relating to the polar currents, the intensity of gravit}-, atmos- 

 pheric electricity, and terrestrial magnetism. Borchgrevink vras able 

 only by calculation to locate in a very general way the magnetic 

 pole at latitude 73° 20' S. and longitude 146° E. of Greenwich. He 

 at least did not depend upon certain published hypotheses, one of 

 v>diich leads to the conclusion that the variation of the electric field in 

 the Antarctic, as elsewhere, is in relation to the position of the earth 

 on the ecliptic, and not in relation to seasons. It is greater when the 

 earth is in the perihelion (winter in the northern hemisphere), hence 

 we are led to regard the sun more and more as the source of electricity 

 and of all forces. 



SOUTHERN GI.ACIATION. 



The constant low temperature in the Antarctic, never rising above 

 zero, gives wide variety to ice formation. On the broad seas, always 



"Doctor Charcot: Op. cit, p. 215. O. Nordenskjold : Op. cit., pp. 143, 318. 



