October 29, 19 14] 



NATURE 



241 



of examples from other parts of the world. Mr. Bal- 

 four pleads for assistance in adding to the fine collec- 

 tion of material in his charge in the Pitt-Rivers 

 Museum, Oxford. 



The journal also contains an elaborate, well-illus- 

 trated paper on the antiquity of man in Ireland as 

 traceable in the older series of flint implements. Need- 

 less to say, the character of some of the specimens 

 obtained from the raised beach at Larne and other 

 sites in North Ireland has formed the subject of active 

 controversy, Mr. Knowles asserting that they are 

 human artefacts, while other authorities, as in the case 

 of the eoliths, deny that they are the work of man. 

 In this paper Mr. Knowles urges the validity of his 

 theory with much vigour, and he recognises in some 

 specimens striae which prove that they belong to the 

 Ice age. He sees in some of them a remnant saved 

 from the precursors of the Chellean and Achulean 

 coups de poing of France and the south of England. 

 His arguments deserve serious attention, but it is 

 perhaps too much to say that he will succeed in con- 

 vincing his opponents. 



The institute under its present management has 

 made a decided advance. Its members now number 

 534 — the highest point hitherto attained — as compared 

 with 367 in 19 13. During the year it has been en- 

 gaged in various schemes of research, and has 

 strongly advocated the teaching of anthropology to 

 candidates for the Indian and Colonial Civil Services. 

 But a larger membership is much to be desired, be- 

 cause many important projects, and, in particular, the 

 reorganisation of the library, have been postponed 

 through lack of funds. The present housing of the 

 institute leaves much to be desired, and it is scarcely 

 creditable to the British, Indian, and Colonial Govern- 

 ments and the large number of officials and colonists 

 throughout the Empire that a decided effort has not 

 been made to place this valuable in«!titution on a 

 sounder footing. 



PROBLEMS OF THE ANTARCTIC. 



ONE of the most noteworthy meetings during the 

 Australian session of the British Association 

 was the discussion at Sydney on the past and present 

 relations of Antarctica in their biological, geograph- 

 ical, and geological aspects. The four sections of 

 zoology, geolog}', geography, and botany held a joint 

 meeting for this purpose on August 25, with Prof. A. 

 Dendy in the chair. Sir Douglas Mawson, who had 

 only reached Sydney the day previously from London, 

 was to open the discussion, but he devoted his time 

 more specially to a general account of the work of 

 the Australian Antarctic Expedition. He expressed 

 his belief in the existence of only one land mass in 

 Antarctica. Prof. T. W. Edgeworth David touched 

 on several points. The uneven level of the ice-barrier 

 at its seaward edge could be adequately explained only 

 by its containing beneath its surface flattened-out ribs 

 of glacier ice from the glacier valleys to the south- 

 west and south-east of the barrier. These would 

 account for the inequalities in level of the barrier face, 

 which varies from 20 to 150 ft. above sea-level. In 

 this connection Prof. David pointed out how in the 

 heavily faulted rock strip of South Victoria Land 

 cross faulting had produced low points in the horst 

 through which the inland ice had run. He also dwelt 

 on the importance of the study of Antarctic meteoro- 

 logy in relation to the weather of Australia, and 

 emphasised the value of the Macquarie Island 

 meteorological station. 



Mr. Griffith Taylor spoke at some length on glacial 

 erosion. He contended that in 78° S., the latitude in 

 which his observations were made, there is little or no 

 NO. 2348, VOL. 94] 



I glacial erosion, that it is too cold for it to act, and 

 ! that the present sculpturing of the land is due to the 

 ! effects of alternate thawing and freezing. As proof 

 I of this theory, he pointed out that the streams flowing 

 from glaciers in summer are clear and not muddy, as, 

 for instance, in the Alps. 



Mr. H. T. Ferrar, who was not in entire agree- 

 ment with Mr. Taylor about erosion, spoke of the 

 tectonics of the continent of Antarctica. He main- 

 tained that the evidence showed that the continent had 

 been under a torsional strain. The Pacific side had 

 fallen and caused the Andean fold while the rest stood 

 firm. Mr. Ferrar agreed with Prof. David about the 

 structure of the great ice-barrier. 



Prof. A. Penck brought the discussion back to the 

 main problem. He pointed out the oneness of South 

 Victoria Land with Eastern Australia and the absence 

 of folding since Palaeozoic times. On the other hand, 

 Graham Land shows a complete divergence from this 

 structure, and a marked similarity to South America, 

 in its folded beds of Tertiary age and marine origin. 

 The great problem is, How are these two regions of 

 Antarctica, so strikingly opposed to one another, 

 joined? It was formerly suggested that the Andean 

 folds were continuous into Edward Land, but this 

 theory found no support in the geological evidence 

 collected by the Amundsen Expedition in that land. 

 Prof. Penck held that the possibility of a strait across 

 Antarctica was not yet disproved. 



Dr. R. N. Rudmose Brown agreed that the main 

 problem of Antarctic exploration was to, discover the 

 connection between the two divergent structures of 

 Victoria Land and Graham Land. This would be a 

 justification for a long transcontinental journey like 

 that contemplated by Sir Ernest Shackleton. Dr. 

 Brown disagreed with Prof. Penck as to the existence 

 of a strait across Antarctica, and said that the dis- 

 coveries of Shackleton and Amundsen in the Ross Sea 

 area and those of Bruce and Filchner, as well as the 

 increased probability of the actual existence of Mor- 

 rell Land, left no room for such a strait. He pointed 

 out that the Deutschland Expedition has not disproved 

 Morrell Land, but that it had, on the other hand, 

 lent colour to its existence. 



Capt. J. K. Davis emphasised the importance of 

 deep-sea work around Antarctica, and gave some 

 account of his own explorations and discoveries south 

 of Tasmania in the Aurora. He pointed out how 

 little of the coast line of Antarctica was known, cuid 

 insisted that this important part of Antarctic discovery 

 could be more satisfactorily and easily done from sea 

 than by land journeys. Capt. Davis said he wished to 

 place on record his great indebtedness to Dr. \V. S. 

 Bruce for the invaluable help he had given him in 

 deep-sea apparatus and advice in its use. 



Mr. F. L. Stillwell spoke of the geological work he 

 had done with the Mawson Expedition, and showed 

 specimens of the rocks obtained. He showed that 

 Adelie and Wilkes Land are of the same plateau 

 structure as Victoria Land. 



Dr. G. C. Simpson suggested that an area of five 

 million square miles radiating solar energy into space 

 must have an effect on atmospheric circulation which 

 had not so far been given full importance. Dr. Simp- 

 son spoke at length on Antarctic meteorology in Mel- 

 bourne to Section A. 



Other speakers included Prof. A. C. Seward and 

 Mr. C. Hedley, and while the discussion cannot be 

 said to have shed much new light on the main 

 problems of .Antarctica, it afforded a useful inter- 

 change of views and evoked great interest in Sydney. 

 The time proved all too short for the number of 

 speakers available, who were in consequence almost 

 limited to actual explorers. 



R. N. Rudmose Brown. 



