328 POLAR PROBLEMS 



were evolved the elements of a new flora that spread in diverging lines over a Palaeo- 

 zoic continent, the disjuncta membra of which have long been added to other land- 

 masses where are preserved both the relics of the southern flora and of that which 

 had its birth in the north.* 



To that may be added the striking tectonic similarity between 

 South Victoria Land and Tasmania, lying far to the north in the same 

 quadrant. 



The great plateau formation of the Beacon sandstone is represented 

 in the Permo-Carboniferous coal measure formation of the island, and 

 the dolerite sills of the Antarctic horst and King George V Land have 

 their counterpart in the Tier dolerites which have flooded large areas 

 of central and southeastern Tasmania. 



The geological evidence in itself is not sufficient to prove the 

 existence of a land connection between the two regions, though it 

 may legitimately be used to supplement the biologic evidence which 

 suggests — and demands for its reasonable explanation — the existence 

 of such a bridge. 



All these problems become very simple to the ardent advocates 

 of Wegener's hypothesis of continental drift, but to the writers of the 

 present article the paleoclimatological evidence from this particular 

 continent presents an insuperable obstacle to the acceptance of this 

 most fascinating and all-embracing theory of modern geology. 



* A. C. Seward: Antarctic Fossil Plants (British Antarctic (Terra Nova) Expedition igio: Natural 

 History Report: Geologi% Vol. i. No. i, p. 42), British Museum, London, 1914. 



