January 6, 1910] 



NA TURE 



281 



four sledges, each hauled by a pony. The explorers 

 made a quick journey southward until the mountain 

 wall which forms the western boundary of the Ross 

 Sea and of the Great Ice Barrier curved eastward and 

 lay across the route to the Pole. The mountain scarp 

 is breached by a valley occupied by the Beardmore 

 Glacier, which offered a difficult route to the plateau, 

 and up it the explorers forced their way. After many 

 narrow escapes from crevasses, the expedition attained 

 the plateau and marched southward across it until 

 the exhaustion of their food compelled them to turn 

 back at a point only ninety-three miles from the South 

 Pole. No scientific advantage would have been gained 

 by traversing the remaining distance, and, considering 

 the small reserve supply of food, the risks that had 

 been accepted were, if anything, unduly high. 



This magnificent sledge journey has practically de- 

 monstrated that the South Pole is on a high plateau, 

 which is bounded to the north by a continuation of 

 the mountain 

 scarp of South 

 V i ct o r i a Land, 

 and that this scarp 

 trends eastward 

 towards Graham 

 Land. 



The second im- 

 portant achieve- 

 ment by the 

 expedition was 

 the daring sledge 

 journey by Prof. 

 David and Messrs. 

 Mawson and 

 Mackay to the 

 South Magnetic 

 Pole. This great 

 I eat was all the 

 more remarkable 

 as not one of the 

 three members 

 had any previous 

 Arctic or Antarctic 

 experience. Prof. 

 David's party had 

 10 haul its own 

 sledi'es, m a.k e 

 double journeys 

 over most of the 

 way, and work 

 on half rations 

 almost from the 

 Hrst day. They 



successfully sledged along the coast of Victoria Land, 

 and then up the Larsen Cilacier and over the inland 

 ice to the South Magnetic Pole. They ran great risks 

 from crevasses, and had to incur the added danger of 

 not being found by the Nimrod on their return to 

 the coast. Had thev been delayed a few days they 

 must have missed the ship, and their only chance 

 would then have been to wait until the sea again froze 

 over and they could sledge back to winter quarters. 



The scientific results of the expedition are unques- 

 tionably of the highest importance. It found that, 

 as was suggested in Nature in 1901, the mountains 

 of South Victoria Land curve eastw-ard, so that the 

 South Pole stands on a high plateau, of which the 

 scarp facing the Pacific trends towards Graham Land. 

 The structure of the mountains of Graham Land and 

 of South Victoria Land is very different; hence we 

 must expect either a continuation of the fold line of 

 Graham Land between the great scarp of Antarctica 

 and the South Pacific coast, or else that the east- 

 ward extension of the fold line of Graham Land has 

 foundered beneath the sea, leaving the coast of Ant- 

 NO. 2097, '^'OL. 82] 



arctica along the South Pacific of the secondary 

 Pacific type. 



The scientific problems raised in the second volume 

 are of wide interest ; though only preliminary state- 

 ments are given, they show the wide range and high 

 quality of the work. The accounts are most definite in 

 regard to geology and biology, and they include appen- 

 dices on the meteorology, magnetic observations, 

 aurora australis, and on tides and currents. The ex- 

 pedition was fortunate in having such an expert 

 geological staff as Prof. David, of .Sydney, Mr. Priest- 

 ley, of Bristol, and Mr. Mawson, of Adelaide, of whom 

 the last acted also as the physicist to the expedition. 

 The biologist, Mr. James Murray, is a w-ell-known 

 specialist on the smaller animals most likely to live on 

 an Antarctic land. Among the most remarkable of the 

 geological results was .Sir E. .Shackleton's discovery 

 of several seams of coal and coaly material, and of 

 a band of limestone in the southern continuation 



-The Gregarious Rotifer, which forrr 



' The Heart of the 



of the Beacon Sandstones. He was fortunate 

 in collecting the only recognisable fossil (other than 

 radiolaria) hitherto found in this quadrant of Ant- 

 arctica ; it has been determined by Mr. E. J. God- 

 dard, of Sydney, as a piece of coniferous wood of 

 Upper Devonian or Carboniferous age; it furnishes 

 the only direct evidence of the age of the sand- 

 stones that are so important in the geology of South 

 Victoria Land. 



Mr. Priestley's excursion to the mainland opposite 

 the winter quarters also yielded interesting results, 

 which greatly reduce the thickness previously assigned 

 to the Beacon Sandstone, and throw doubt on its in- 

 vasion by a younger granite. Prof. David determined 

 the geological history of Mount Erebus, as well as 

 obtained most valuable results as to the structure of 

 South Victoria Land. 



One of the most instructive of the geological 

 results is Prof. David's description of the Norden- 

 skjold and Drygalski Glaciers, which continue out to 

 sea as great ice capes for sixteen and thirty miles from 

 the coast. These projections appear to be certainly 



