324 POLAR PROBLEMS 



Ross Island, Paulet Island, and the Robben (Seal) Nunataks on the 

 east, and King George Island, Deception Island, etc., on the west, are 

 essentially calc-alkaline. They comprise olivine basalts and glassy 

 pyroxene andesites. 



While there is much that is still obscure in the geology of Graham 

 Land — the interior is still practically unknown — there is every reason 

 to believe that the peninsula forms tectonically and petrographically 

 a continuation of the Andean chain of Patagonia. The ridge has been 

 appropriately referred to by Arctowski as the Antarctandes. 



With the paleontological aspect of these rocks there is no space 

 in the present paper to deal. Something on this subject will be said 

 in the next paper, under the heading of glaciological and paleocli- 

 matological problems. In Graham Land, however, occur the most 

 interesting Antarctic geological floras and faunas yet discovered, 

 with the possible exception of the Glossopteris flora of the Beardmore 

 Glacier region. Much material has been brought back by expeditions 

 fortunate enough to make their headquarters in close proximity to 

 fossiliferous sediments, but much remains to be done. From this 

 point of view there are few regions of the continent likely to repay 

 detailed investigation to the same extent as certain known areas of 

 the American sector. Detailed work at permanent or semi-permanent 

 winter quarters would go hand in hand well with the extended meteoro- 

 logical observations which are necessary if climatological generaliza- 

 tions, fit to be applied to weather forecasting or the elucidation of 

 meteorological problems of major importance, are to be made possible. 



Antarctic Geological Problems To Be Solved 



Such is a bare outline of Antarctic geology as at present known, 

 and, at best, our present knowledge of the continent is not sufficient 

 to provide more than the barest outline of its geological and paleonto- 

 logical history and the barest hint of its geological constitution. 



The problem of the future is the filling in of these outlines and the 

 verification or the shattering of the hypotheses which have been built 

 upon the slender evidence provided by the expeditions whose chief 

 objectives have been the poles and whose activities have been re- 

 stricted in large measure by that fact. 



Relation of the Two Structural Areas of the Continent 



First of all, the geologist is faced with the question: "Am I 

 dealing with one continent or with two? Do the Antarctandes of 

 Graham Land stretch across the continent to South Victoria Land? 

 Alternatively, is the Ross Barrier continued across Antarctica as a 



