298 



NA TURE 



[January 25, 1906 



valuable appendix by Mr. Ferrar, which is to be 

 followed, in the volumes on the scientific work of 

 the expedition, by a more detailed account of the 

 rocks, and we may hope also by more precise inform- 

 ation about the ice. Captain Scott describes the 

 admirable pains devoted to the observations in physics 

 and meteorology, the results of which are being 

 worked out. 



The geographical work — " surveyed under the 

 direction of the R.G.S.," the chart informs us — 

 is stated and discussed at length. The chief 

 geographical results were achieved by the sledg- 

 ing parties. The results thoroughly justify those 

 who advocated the selection of McMurdo Sound, or 

 Bay as it was then called, as the winter quarters, 

 owing to its high latitude, its exceptionally interest- 

 ing geographical position, and its easy accessibility 



" great icy barrier," owing to the mystery suggested 

 by its name, and perhaps, in part, to what, according 

 to Captain Scott, was Ross's exaggeration of its 

 height and uniformity. Ross's conclusion that this 

 ice-sheet is afloat along its seaward face has been 

 fully confirmed ; and the important discoverv has been 

 added, by observations on a food depot, that the ice 

 is moving in one place at a rate estimated at 608 

 yards in 13A months. Captain Scott regards this ice- 

 sheet, a smaller sheet in Lady Newnes Bay, and a 

 mass ashore at Cape Crozier, as relics of a vast sheet 

 of glacier ice, which once filled the whole of the Ross 

 Sea, and floated when the reduction in its thickness 

 rendered it buoyant. 



The geographical problem of most importance is 

 the form and area of the Antarctic continent. It is 

 gratifying to those who believe in the value of geo- 







aMESw — -T- 



— " i nnw 5»<|a|>iW>' "" ' ;i w i i*i 



Jl( 2 3ofe«)( 



, showing the regular stratific 



in the summer. There is one quaint mistake in the 

 book in reference to the main hut erected there, which 

 is described (p. 215) as of a design used by "out- 

 lying settlers in that country" (Australia); whereas 

 the design was based on Peary's Greenland hut, and 

 the modifications, suggested by Australian experience, 

 were devices used there to render the walls of the 

 frozen meat warehouses impermeable to heat and 

 cold. 



The headquarters were established near Mount 

 Erebus, whii h is still in quiet activity, and (disregard- 

 ing the feelings of those who like scientific precision 

 in geographical terms) the volcano is described 

 throughout the book as giving forth smoke, fire, and 

 flame. 



The widest popular interest is perhaps felt in the 



NO. I 89 I, VOL. 73] 



graphical homologies, to find how fullv the sugges- 

 tions based on them have been justified by the work 

 of the Antarctic expeditions. The important discovery 

 of Coats Land by the Scotch expedition has revealed 

 the southern shore of the Weddell Sea even further 

 north than the position assigned to it in Sir John 

 Murray's sketch-map. The German expedition has 

 re-established faith in the continuity of the land, in 

 an area where the soundings of the Challenger had 

 thrown doubt on it, and where it was possible that 

 there might be a deep southern indentation opposite 

 the basin of the Indian Ocean. 



The only serious alteration suggested in the outline 

 of Murray's Antarctica is that the Pacific coast 

 between Graham's Land and Victoria Land may 

 possibly be further south than was expected. The 



