414 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 



The viscous nature of ice under pressure would prevent this 

 process proceeding beyond certain limits ; but, nevertheless, the 

 conditions are such that must give rise to interesting structural 

 ppculiai'ities. The clifi's and other sections should be searched for 

 dykes in the hopes that masses of specular iron and nickel — similar 

 to those found at Ovifak — might be discovered. The occurrence 

 of such ultra-basic lavas as contain these metals at the South Pole 

 would be suggestive, and the question must be worked out when- 

 ever the opportunity presents itself. It is desirable that a series 

 of pendulum observations should be taken at points round the 

 pole, within the Arctic Circle, the pendulum making more vibra- 

 tions than it does at the equator by two hundred and forty per 

 day, the increase in number being the result of the superior 

 oblateness of the North Polar Region. We now desire to learn 

 whether the same flattening of the sphere is characteristic of the 

 South Polar Region, so as to know as nearly as possible the exact 

 form of that part of our globe. Knowing, as we do, that the 

 Arctic has enjoyed a warm equable climate during several distant 

 epochs we ought to search for evidences bearing upon the past 

 climate of our own pole. 



The discovery in high northern latitudes of Palaeozoic coal, of 

 large suites of fossiliferous Jui'assic rocks, and of extensive beds 

 containing the remains of evergreen and deciduous trees, and 

 flowering plants — all these latter probably of Eocene age — all 

 these facts whet our apetite for such evidences from the rocks as 

 may be gleamed from the south. 



The faunas and floras of the lands and seas of the Southern 

 Hemisphere, as worked out by Wallace and Hutton, point to the 

 former existence of an extensive land. 



We are told that forty-four per cent, of the New Zealand flora 

 is of Antarctic origin. New Zealand and South America — so 

 widely apart — have in common, three flowering plants, two fresh 

 water fishes, five sea-weeds, three marine crustaceans, one marine 

 mollusc, and one marine fish, and similar links unite these regions 

 with the Crozets, Tristan d'Acuhna, Kerguelen Island, and the 

 Marion group, and these with South Africa. 



There must have been large earth surfaces to develop the 

 progenitors of these now scattered forms. Where was that 

 fatherland, and what else strange did it contain 1 These questions 

 are ones which Antarctic fossils may help us to get at. 



At present all we can say for certain is, that such lands there 

 have been, and the disappearance of these regions beneath the 

 sea must have modified the climate of this hemisphere profoundly. 



This leads us to the subject of tlie meteorology of the region 

 which deserves investiaration. We believe that the conditions 



