350 POLAR PROBLEMS 



species of these islands were brought by birds and winds from the 

 west, and to Macquarie Island also from the northeast. The poor and 

 uncertain means of transport, the inclement weather conditions, and 

 the ravages of penguins account for the poverty of the flora. The 

 fossil trees of Kerguelen, sometimes dignified by the name of coal or 

 lignite, must be relics of a preglacial flora. They are found in Tertiary 

 basalt flows which no doubt were largely instrumental in destroying 

 the forests of what were then more extensive land areas, before the Ice 

 Age set in. 



Some Problems of Antarctic Plant Life 

 laboratory work 



The adaptations of the various species to their environments, a 

 study particularly important in the case of cosmopolitan species, 

 promises most valuable results but is more likely to be undertaken 

 seriously when the systematic and geographical interests of the flora 

 have been more fully worked out. It is, moreover, extremely ,de- 

 sirable that such physiological and morphological questions should 

 be studied on the spot; indeed, the impracticability of satisfactory 

 investigation in any other circumstances is most obvious. The diffi- 

 culty of laboratory accommodation in the isolated Antarctic Regions 

 is naturally great but not nearly so great as is generally supposed. 

 Various expeditions which have recently wintered in the south have 

 shown that the climatic conditions, though not exactly as favorable 

 as in the north, offer no serious inconvenience to a person endowed 

 with an ordinary robust constitution and cheerful disposition. And, 

 furthermore, it should be remembered that there are at the present 

 time several habitable dwellings within the regions of south polar 

 ice which have been erected by one or other of the expeditions of this 

 century. Of these the house at Scotia Bay, South Orkneys, is per- 

 manently inhabited as an Argentine meteorological observatory. 

 The Falkland Islands government has a marine station on South 

 Georgia in connection with the scientific researches on the whaling 

 industry. Most of the Antarctic stations available, it may be re- 

 marked, are not very far south; but that is a distinct advantage, for 

 while all are within the true polar regions and experience the real Ant- 

 arctic climate, they escape in very large measure the long night and 

 its attendant drawbacks, and, most important consideration of all, 

 they are readily accessible, so that a relieving ship should experience 

 little difficulty in gaining all or any of them every summer. The Danes 

 have now established in the Arctic Regions, on Disko Island, a fully 

 equipped biological laboratory; and the extreme desirability of a 

 similar station in the Antarctic need not be further urged. If such a 

 station should be instituted, it would be a matter of extreme interest 



