THE ANTARCTIC ISLANDS. 321 



the radiation from a large area of land into a clear 

 sky, nor is it moderated by the warmth- bringing 

 currents of the sea ; the short summer, on the oth- 

 er hand, is hot. In the Southern Ocean the winter 

 is not so excessively cold, but the summer is far 

 less hot, for the clouded sky seldom allows the sun 

 to warm the ocean, itself a bad absorbent of heat ; 

 and hence the mean temperature of the year, which 

 regulates the zone of perpetually congealed under- 

 soil, is low. It is evident that a rank vegetation, 

 which does not so much require heat as it does pro- 

 tection from intense cold, would approach much 

 nearer to this zone of perpetual congelation under 

 the equable climate of the southern hemisphere 

 than under the extreme climate of the northern 

 continents. 



The case of the sailor's body perfectly preserved 

 in the icy soil of the South Shetland Islands (lat. 

 62° to 63° S.), in a rather lower latitude than that 

 (lat. 64° N.) under which Pallas found the frozen 

 rhinoceros in Siberia, is very interesting. Although 

 it is a fallacy, as I have endeavoured to show in a 

 former chapter, to suppose that the larger quadru- 

 peds require a luxuriant vegetation for their sup- 

 port, nevertheless it is important to find in the South 

 Shetland Islands a frozen under-soil within 360 

 miles of the forest-clad islands near Cape Horn, 

 where, as far as the hulk of vegetation is concerned, 

 any number of great quadrupeds might be support- 

 ed. The perfect preservation of the carcasses of 

 the Siberian elephants and rhinoceroses is certain- 

 ly one of the most wonderful facts in geology ; but 

 independently of the imagined difficulty of supply- 

 ing them with food from the adjoining countries, 

 the whole case is not, I think, so perplexing as it 

 has generally been considered. The plains of Si- 

 beria, like those of the Pampas, appear to have 



Vol. 1—21 



