PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS, LXXXVII 



If the Antarctic Continent were to be entirely removed, and 

 the Southern Ocean were continuous over the South Pole, Aus- 

 tralia, and the Southern Hemisphere in general, would have a far 

 more equable and more monotonous climate than at present. 

 There would be none of those periodic fierce outrushes of blizzard 

 winds which accompany the development of the Antarctic " lows " 

 which so often profoundly affect Australian weather. With 

 diminished energy of circulation in the Southern Hermisphere, it 

 is probable that the rainfall of Australia would be also diminished. 

 If this were so — and there seems no reason to doubt it — it is no 

 exaggeration to state that part of the pastoral and agricultural 

 wealth of Australia depends upon the existence of Antarctica in 

 its present form. 



While indirectly we probably owe some of our rainfall to 

 Antarctica, we have less perhaps for which to thank her in the 

 way of the icebergs which she annually launches into the Southern 

 Ocean. But, after all, the danger to shipping from these bergs is 

 comparatively small, and yet it is, of course, very desirable that 

 accurate information may be recorded as to the exact route mostly 

 followed by these bergs. Doubtless the increased rainfall which 

 Antarctica probably gives us, through the vigorous stirring it 

 imparts to the earth's atmosphere, enormously outweighs the small 

 disadvantage of icebergs. 



If Antarctica, instead of completely foundering, were to dis- 

 solve into an archipelago of low-lying islands, their summer tem- 

 perature would be higher than that of Greenland and Grant Land, 

 and, like them, the Antarctic islands would be clothed with 

 hardy forms of plants, amongst which numerous flowers and 

 mosses as well as trees, like the South American Fagus, would be 

 included. With the advent of vegetation, the islands would 

 become suited for herbivores, and, if later, this Antarctic archi- 

 pelago became re-united to South America, there is no reason why 

 the herbivores, and with them man, should not inhabit Antarctica 

 to, at least, the same extent as do the Esquimaux the lands around 

 the Arctic Ocean. 



If, on the other hand, Antarctica were to increase greatly in 

 size until it assumed proportions like those which, perhaps, 

 belonged to it in Permo-Carboniferous time (when it may have 

 embraced South America, South Africa, and Australia), it is 

 evident, from what is the present effect on clim.ate of the present 

 distribution of land and water respectively at the North and South 

 Poles, that such a huge continent so situated would produce 

 winters of far greater intensity than the present. It has been 



