XLVIII PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



Amundsen's meteorological results show that the barometric 

 pressure at the Bay of Whales is lower in winter than in summer, 

 a fact of great significance, confirming the previous observations 

 of Scott, Shackleton, and the German Antarctic expedition imder 

 Drygalski. Fifty per cent, of the air currents at the Bay of 

 Whales, sufficiently strong to be termed winds, came from the east. 

 The lowness of the temperatures recorded at Framheim, in the Bay 

 of Whales, at a latitude 78 deg. 38 min. south, longitude 163 

 deg. 37 min. west, was as remarkable as it was unexpected. 



The winter there at Framheim was no less than 21.6 deg. F. 

 colder than it usually is in McMurdo Sound, where the British 

 Expedition wintered. 



During August, 1911, the average temperature at Framheim of 

 this, the coldest month, proved to be no less than — 48.1 deg. F. 

 The first abortive attempt made in September, 1911, to reach the 

 South Pole proved to Amundsen that, at a distance of only about 

 25 miles south of the Bay of Whales, the temperature was about 

 17 deg. F. lower still. The latter point is in lat. 80 deg. south; 

 possibly at 82 deg. or 83 deg. south, the temperature is cooler 

 still. When one reflects that Hann and Meinardus have inde- 

 pendently calculated the temperature at the South Pole, reduced 

 to sea level in winter time, that is for the month of July, as only 

 — 28 deg. F., the great importance of Amundsen's discovery 

 becomes apparent. 



There is an immense pool of intensely cold air lying on the 

 surface of the Great Barrier, remote from the stirring-up effects 

 of high mountain ranges like the Antarctic Andes. Thus, we 

 have the remarkable condition of this great lake of cold air, not 

 only much colder than the temperature of the South Pole, reduced 

 to sea level, but perhaps even colder than the South Pole itself, 

 though the latter has an altitude of about 10,260 feet, whereas 

 the surface of the Great Ice Barrier is not more than about 200 

 feet above the sea. An interesting analogous instance of a region 

 of greater cold than the South Pole itself occurs in Northern 

 Siberia. There at Verkhoyansk, the lowest temperature ever re- 

 corded at any part of the world has been met with, namely, — 96 

 deg. F., that is 122 deg. F. of frost. 



The geological specimens brought back by Amundsen, and ex- 

 amined in Christiana, reveal the fact that the rocks of the Betty 

 Mountains to the south of the Ross Barrier (Great Ice Barrier) 

 are formed of granite with veins of aplite. Similar rocks were 

 obtained from Scott's Nunatak, in King Edward VII. Land, to- 

 gether with schist, gneiss, white granite, granodiorite, and diorite. 

 No less interesting are the oceanographical results secured by the 

 Fram on her long and patient surveys in the South Atlantic, as 

 shown on the accompanying lantern slides. It was found that 



