NATURE 



337 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 1905. 



SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF THE BELGIAN 



ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 

 Risiiltats du Voyage dii S.Y. Belgica en 1897, 1898, 

 1S99, sous le Commandemant de A. de Gerlache de 

 Gomery. Rapports scientifiques. (i) Zoology and 

 Botany. (2) Astronomy and Meteorology. (Ant- 

 werp, 1902-4.) 

 (i) "T^HE cruise of the steam-yacht Belgica, organ- 

 -L ised by the Belgian Government, may be 

 regarded as the -first of the series of expeditions fitted 

 out during the last few years to explore the Antarctic 

 and to collect systematically its zoological and 

 botanical products. Consequently, it fell to the lot 

 of this expedition to be the first to bring back speci- 

 mens of certain animals previously known, more or 

 less imperfectly, by examples obtained by the early 

 expeditions to the South Polar regions, such as that 

 of the Erebus and Terror. The most noticeable in- 

 stance of this is afforded by the seal known as 

 Ommatophoca rossi, which had been previously 

 known only by two skulls and a skin brought home 

 by the Erebus and Terror Expedition (1839-43). 

 Fortunately, the fasciculus of the Rapports dealing 

 with the seals (by Captain Barrett-Hamilton) was 

 published in 1902, and ante-dates the British Museum 

 report on the Southern Cross Expedition, thereby 

 securing to the Belgica the full credit for having 

 been the first to increase our knowledge of this 

 interesting species. 



The comparative slowness of the rate at which it 

 has been found practicable to issue the result of the 

 Belgica's work will, however, necessarily have dis- 

 counted some of its claims to priority, seeing that 

 the aforesaid report on the collections made by the 

 Southern Cross was published in 1902, while at least 

 one small instalment of the zoological results of the 

 Discovery Expedition has already been made public. 

 On the other hand, in many of the groups the new 

 forms discovered by the Belgica expedition were de- 

 scribed at an early date in the form of preliminary 

 notices (in the case of the fishes as early as 1900), 

 and as the later parts of the work before us contain 

 reviews of the species described in the report of the 

 Southern Cross Expedition, an advantage rather than 

 a disadvantage has been gained by the delay in 

 publication. This is particularly noticeable in the 

 fasciculus devoted to fishes, which was published in 

 1904. 



The characteristic of the reports on the Belgica 

 collections is the wealth of detail with which the 

 descriptions are worked out and the elaborate style 

 in which they are issued. The entire work is, for 

 instance, published in quarto form, in large type, 

 with no apparent limitations to the extent of the 

 letter-press, and a fair allowance of plates, most of 

 which are admirably executed. Each section of the 

 subject has been assigned to a specialist, and the 

 mere mention of the fact that Captain Barrett-Hamil- 

 ton is responsible for the seals, Mr. Racovitza (the 

 NO. 1 841, VOL. 71] 



naturalist to the expedition) for the cetaceans, Mr. 

 Dollo for the fishes, and Dr. Pelseneer for the greater 

 part of the molluscs, will be a sufficient indication 

 of the care and wisdom with which the selection of 

 these specialists has been made. 



A total of more than sixty separate memoirs on 

 the zoology of the expedition is promised, and of 

 these no less than fourteen (ranging in their subjects 

 from seals and cetaceans to corals and sponges) are 

 now on the table before us. Within the limits of the 

 space at our disposal it would obviously be impossible 

 to attempt anything like a summary — much less a 

 criticism — of the vast amount of work contained in 

 this mass of literature. All that can be essayed is 

 to record a few of the more striking results of some 

 of these investigations, and at the same time to 

 express our opinion, so far as we are capable of 

 forming a judgment, of the high value and import- 

 ance of the work generally. 



As regards Mammalia, perhaps the most important 

 result of the Belgica Expedition was a negative one, 

 namely, the practical demonstration that no large 

 forms of terrestrial mammalian life inhabit Antarctica. 

 In his first expedition Mr. Borchgrevink was, indeed, 

 inclined to attribute certain marks commonly seen on 

 the hides of the Antarctic seals to the teeth of a land 

 carnivore, but it is now believed, with much more 

 probability, that they are due to sharks. Mr. 

 Racovitza, it may be added, was the first to make 

 us acquainted with the peculiar gular pouch and 

 strange cry of Ross's seal. 



In treating of the cetaceans, Mr. Racovitza, who 

 (like Captain Hamilton in the case of the seals) has 

 no new species to describe, makes some very interest- 

 ing remarks with regard to the mode of life and 

 physiolog)' of these animals. Especially important 

 are those relating to the depths to which whales are 

 capable of descending. These the author believes to 

 have been exaggerated very greatly, and he puts 

 the extreme limit at one hundred, and the ordinary 

 range at twenty-five metres. As he well remarks, it 

 is practically impossible to imagine an animal the 

 organisation of which would admit of its existence 

 alike at the surface and under the pressure of abyssal 

 depths. His arguments are supported by certain 

 facts in regard to the depths at which cetaceans are 

 captured by the Japanese. 



In the bulky fasciculus on the fishes Mr. Dollo 

 has incorporated the results of Mr. Boulenger's work 

 on those obtained during the Southern Cross Expedi- 

 tion, and has thus been enabled to present his readers 

 with what is practically a monograph of the Antarctic 

 forms. The most remarkable representatives of this 

 fauna are those constituting the family Nototheniidie, 

 of which the author recognises no less than eighteen 

 generic types, three of these being named by him- 

 self. Whether he is justified in proposing the name 

 Cryodraco antarcticus for the fish which he apparently 

 admits to be identical with the one captured during 

 the voyage of the Erebus and Terror and named 

 Pagetodes, on account of the alleged insufficient de- 

 1 finition of the latter, may be doubtful. In our opinion 



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