PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. LV 



This enterprising and magnanimous young explorer has placed 

 his services gratuitously and unreservedly at Dr. Mawson's dis- 

 posal, a bright example of the true scientific spirit. It is thought 

 that a particlularly rich biological collection will be gathered 

 together by Mr. J. Hunter and his assistants which will supplement 

 the collection already made by Mr. Hamilton at Macquarie Island, 

 and by Mr. E. R. Waite and Professor Flynn on the recent cruise 

 of the Aurora in Sub- Antarctic waters. 



The first Oceanographic cruise of the Aurora did not prove very 

 fruitful in result, chiefly on account of the extremely stormy 

 weather encountered throughout. A second cruise was more suc- 

 cessful, and resulted in a discovery of importance, that of an ex- 

 tensive submarine ridge about 200 miles to the south of the 

 southern end of Tasmania. 



This ridge rises from depths of about 2,200 fathoms to 600 

 fathoms of the surface, and is therefore 9,600 feet in height. It 

 is a monument most suggestive of that former union of Tasmania 

 and Antarctica which the past and present flora of Tasmania, South 

 America, Antarctica, and New Zealand, seem to postulate, and 

 which has been so ably argued by Mr. C. Hedley recently in his 

 paper to the Linnean Society of London. ^ 



It is not generally realized that, in going to the coast of the 

 Antarctic, so close to the Antarctic circle itself. Dr. Mawson and 

 Captain Davis took a tremendous risk. It is well known that 

 near the latitudes of 60 degrees and 65 degrees is what the German 

 meteorologists call the " gutter " (die Rinne) of the atmosphere, 

 that is a great world furrow of extremely low pressure running 

 E. and W. into which blow, with a persistence and fury elsewhere 

 unparalleled, the blizzards of the south and the '" Roaring Forties " 

 of the north. 



Navigation in those seas is fraught with many great dangers ; 

 but, nevertheless, we hope to see every member of the Expedition 

 return safe and sound to us in March or April of this year, when 

 we shall all join in giving them a very warm welcome, and all 

 honour for the endurance and courage with which they have faced 

 such great privations and perils in the cause of science. 



Visit of the British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science to Australasia in July, August, September, 1914. — 

 An important feature, and in some respects a serious draw- 

 back in the location of Australasia on the face of the globe, is its 

 extreme isolation from the great centres of thought in other 



' Proc. Linn. Soc. Lcndon 1911-12, pp. 80-90. "The Palseogeographicftl Relations of 

 Antarctica." 



