ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION — THE DUTY OP AUSTRALIA. 413- 



2.— ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION— THE DUTY OF 

 AUSTRALIA. 



By G. S. Griffiths, F.R.G.S., F.G.S,, of Melbourne, Vice- 

 President of the Section. 



It is now over two years since the subject of Antarctic Exploration 

 was first mooted by Baron von Mueller in his Presidential Address 

 to the Geographical Society, and during the intervening period 

 the subject has been kept more or less before the public — first of 

 Australia, and latterly of Europe. 



Although the efforts thus made have not yet borne the desired 

 fruit, still the Antarctic Committee has been enabled to collect a 

 mass of information which is of great value, bearing as it does 

 upon the practical questions of equipment, personnel, the pro- 

 gramme of work and the cost with respect to the objects to be 

 served by such an expedition, which are numerous and important. 

 They may be summed up briefly as follows : — A flying survey of 

 the coast lines lying within the Antarctic Circle, the discovery of 

 new water\\ays leading towards the South Pole, and of harbours 

 suitable for wintering in, and observations in the following depart- 

 ments of science : meteorology, the sea depths, temperature and 

 currents, terrestrial magnetism, the natural history and the 

 geology of the region; lastly, the commercial value of the whaling 

 grounds and the seal rookeries of these high latitudes. We have 

 yet to learn whether the antarctic land is continental, or a con- 

 geries of islands smothered under a continental glacier, as Green- 

 land now appears to be. 



Croll has calculated that the periphery of this ice-sheet must 

 be thrust outwards by the pressure of the ice-piled-up mountains 

 high in the interior of the region by the snow-fall of ages, and 

 that its rate of progress seaward may be a quarter of a mile per 

 annum. 



The structure of the volcanoes must be peculiar, as their cones 

 may well be largely built up of falls of ash alternately with falls 

 of snow. The known non-conductivity of volcanic ash is such, 

 that elsewhere lava has been seen to spread over ice which has 

 been covered with six inches of snow without meltine; the latter. 



