May i8, 1905] 



NA rURE 



57 



SCIENTIFIC RESULTS OF THE NATIONAL 

 ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



THE April number of the Geographical Journal 

 contains a series of sfiort papers by members 

 of the Discovery Expedition which may be regarded 

 as forming together a liind of " preliminary report " 

 on the work of the expedition in the Antarctic regions. 

 These papers are five in number; C;iptain Scott deals 



Fig. I. — Beacon Heights. Sandstone and Basalt. 



with the general geography, Mr. Ferrar with physical 

 geography, Lieut. Royds with meteorology, Dr. 

 Wilson with seals and birds, and Mr. Hodgson with 

 the marine biological collections. Captain Colbeck 

 also contributes a paper on the .Antarctic sea-ice, dis- 

 cussing the observations made on the Southern Cross 

 in 1898-1900 and on the Morning in 1902-4. 



Without attempting to summarise the cont(iit> nf 

 each paper, we may try to indicate 

 what are the chief problems which 

 have attracted the attention of the 

 members of the expedition, and 

 what materials thev have provided 

 for their discussion. All things 

 considered, perhaps the most im- 

 portant questions concern the re- 

 markable ice conditions observed 

 by Captain Scott and Mr. Ferrar. 

 " There are innumerable glaciers 

 on the coast of Victoria Land,'" 

 says Captain Scott, " but the great 

 majority merely discharge local 

 neve fields lying in the valleys of 

 the coastal ranges. Very few run 

 back to the inland ice, and these 

 may be divided into two classes — 

 the living and the dead. In the 

 long stretch of coast between Cape 

 .Adare and Mount Longstaft', over 

 11° of latitude, there appears to be 

 only four living ice-discharges 

 from the inland." "The Ferrar 

 glacier is typical of the dead 

 glaciers ; the ice lies in the valley 

 practically stationary, and gradu- 

 ally wasting away from the sum- 

 mer thawing." "The Ferrar 

 glacier probably contains as much 



ice as any hitherto known in the world ; the Barne and 

 Shackleton glaciers contain a great deal more, and 

 since they are now in such a diminished state it is 

 interesting to think what vast streams of ice they 

 must have been at their maximum." "To what 

 extent the inland ice sheet stood above its present level 

 is also interesting to surmise ; one would submit a 

 possibility of 400 or 500 feet." 



NO. 1855, VOL. 72] 



Again, referring to the Great Barrier, Captain 

 Scott says : — " ... the barrier edge sixty years ago 

 was in advance of its present position, in places as 

 much as 20 or 30 miles." 



These facts, along with many others, such as 

 observations by Dr. Wilson and Mr. Ferrar of 

 moraines and erratics high above the level of the ice- 

 sheet, all go to show that " the majority of curious 

 and often vast ice-formations met with in the Ross 

 sea must be regarded, not as the 

 result of present day conditions, 

 but as the rapidly wasting rem- 

 nants of a former age." 



One of the most remarkable 

 observations is that while, as just 

 explained, the ice from Victoria 

 Land does not make any important 

 contribution to the ice-barrier in 

 the Ross Sea, that ice is moving 

 northward at the rate of about 600 

 yards in a year. Captain Scott 

 believes that the greater portion of 

 the ice-sheet in the Ross Sea is 

 afloat, and that the high coast line 

 of Victoria Land continues south- 

 ward in a direction towards 

 Graham's Land. Here there is 

 obviously a fruitful source of dis- 

 cussion, but whatever the result, 

 with regard to the distribution of land and sea, it may 

 be taken as proved beyond doubt that the ice in at 

 least this part of the Antarctic regions is in a state 

 of fairly rapid retreat, and it is known that the same 

 thing is happening in the .Arctic regions. 



Mr. Ferrar 's geological observations in Victoria 

 Land have an important bearing on the problem of 

 the outline of the land mass, as well as great intrinsic 



value. In the Royal Society range a gneissic plat- 

 form was found, probably of Archsan age, and above 

 it in order are granites, sandstone, and basalt. The 

 granites are, according to Mr. Ferrar, of two ages ; 

 the sandstone is 2000 feet thick, while the basalt caps 

 the sandstone, forming plateaux which have been dis- 

 sected by denudation, and probably also broken up 

 by faulting. .At the base of the basalt a thin carbon- 



