450 



NA TURE 



[August 31, 1905 



gained more than she lost by the unexpected diversion of 

 energy. The healthy conditions which prevailed through- 

 out are a standing proof both of Captain Scott's eminent 

 capacity as a leader and of the cheery spirit which animated 

 the whole expedition. 



The full results of the scientific observations are not yet 

 worked out, and in many cases for a complete appreciation 

 of their bearing they must be compared and correlated with 

 those of the other Antarctic expeditions, but many highly 

 suggestive points have already been revealed. 



For the first time Antarctic continental land has been 

 travelled over for long distances, and though the actual 

 area of new discovery looks small on a map of the world, 

 the distances covered can only be described as extraor- 

 dinary, and far exceeding the most sanguine anticipations. 



Few who considered the mountainous coast-line of 

 Victoria Land and its complete glaciation, as reported 

 by Sir James Ross from his distant view, thought that it 

 would prove practicable not only to ascend those mountains, 

 but to reach to heights much surpassing them behind. 



The reason that it proved feasible is that, while there are 

 occasional heavy snowstorms, the annual snowfall is small, 

 and the surface, therefore, is generally unencumbered with 

 soft deep snow. 



And what did Captain Scott find after his memorable 

 struggle up the glacier through the mountains? 



.An enormous plateau at an elevation of about gooo feet, 

 nearly level, smooth, and featureless, over which he travelled 

 directly inland for more than 200 miles, seeing no sign 

 at his furthest point of any termination or alteration in 

 character. So far as could be seen from other journeys, 

 glacial discharge from this great ice-sheet is very small, 

 and practically it appears to be dead. Its accretion by 

 fresh snowfall' is insignificant, while on all sides along the 

 flanks of the coastal mountains there are signs of diminution 

 in the mass of ice. 



The great ice-barrier east of Ross Island tells the same 

 tale. This magnificent feature presents to the sea a face 

 of perpendicular ice-cliffs varying from 60 to 240 feet in 

 height and 450 sea-miles long. Sir J. Ross mapped its 

 position in 1841, and Captain Scott finds that it has re- 

 treated on an average fifteen miles, varying much in 

 different parts. 



Should this rate of retreat continue the whole of_ this 

 ice mass, so far as Captain Scott saw it, will have vanished 

 in 1000 years. 



As the motion of the ice mass is also about fifteen miles 

 to the north in the same time, icebergs covering collectively 

 an area of 450 miles by 30 have been discharged from it 

 in sixty years. 



Captain Scott travelled over it nearly due south to a 

 point 300 miles from its face, and then saw no sign of its 

 end. 



It is bordered on its western side by a mountainous coast- 

 line, rising in places to 15,000 feet He found the ice 

 practically flat and wholly unfissured, except at the side, 

 where its northerly motion, found to be about 130 feet 

 in the month, caused shearing and vast crevasses. All 

 that is known of its eastern edge is that it is bordered, 

 where it meets the sea, by land from 2000 to 3000 feet 

 high, suspected by Ross and verified by Captain Scott. 

 This may be an island, or more probably the eastern side 

 of the great fiord or bay now filled by the barrier. 



Captain Scott is of opinion that this great ice-sheet is 

 afloat throughout, and I entirely agree with this conclusion. 

 It is unexpected, but everything points to it. 



From soundings obtained along the face it undoubtedly 

 has about 600 feet of water under it. 



It is difficult to believe that this enormous weight of 

 ice, 450 miles by at least 360, and perhaps very much 

 more, with no fall to help it along by gravity, can have 

 behind it a sufficient force in true land glacier to overcome 

 the stupendous friction and put it in motion if it be resting 

 on the bottom. It is sufficiently astonishing that there is 

 force enough even to overcome the cohesion at the side, 

 which must be very great. 



The flat nature of the bottom of the Ross Sea and the 

 analogies of many geographical details in other parts of 

 the world make it most probable that the water under the 

 whole barrier is deep. 



A point on which I have seen no comment is the differ- 



NO. 1870, VOL. 72] 



ence in the appearance of the slopes of Mount Terror. 

 Captain Scott found the bare land showing over large 

 areas, but during the two summers of Ross's visit it was 

 wholly snow-clad. Sir Joseph Hooker, the sole survivor of 

 Ross's expedition, when questioned had no doubt on the 

 subject, and produced many sketches in support. 



This may be due to temporary causes, but all the in- 

 formation collected by the expedition points without doubt 

 to steadily diminishing glaciation in recent times. We have, 

 therefore, this interesting fact, that both in Arctic and 

 Antarctic regions, as indeed all over the world, ice con- 

 ditions are simultaneously ameliorating, and theories of 

 alternate northern and southern maximum glaciations seem 

 so far disproved. 



But this does not mean that climatic conditions in the 

 Antarctic are now less severe — probably the contrary. It 

 has been pointed out by many that land glaciation may 

 arise from varied primary causes, but one obvious necessity 

 is that the snowfall should exceed melting and evaporation. 

 It need not be heavy ; but if it is, it may produce glaciation 

 under somewhat unexpected conditions. This would entail 

 a vapour-laden air more or less continuously impinging 

 upon the land at a temperature which will enable it when 

 cooled, either by passing over chilled land or when raised 

 to higher regions by the interposition of mountains, to 

 give up its moisture freely. This condition is not fulfilled 

 when the air as it arrives from the sea is already at a very 

 low temperature. 



It was my fortune to spend two long seasons in the 

 Straits of Magellan, and I was daily more impressed by 

 what I saw. 



There you have a mountainous ridge of no great height 

 — very few peaks rising more than 4000 feet — opposed 

 to the almost continuous westerly winds pouring in from 

 the Pacific at a very moderate temperature and charged 

 with much moisture. 



The result is that in the latitude of Yorkshire every 

 mountain mass over 3000 feet high is covered with eternal 

 snow, and sends glaciers down to the sea. 



I was convinced by what was going on under my eyes 

 that it only required an upheaval of the land of 2000 feet 

 or so to cover the whole of Patagonia with ice. But then 

 the climate would still not be very severe. The temperature 

 of the wind from the sea would be the same, and such 

 part of it as blew along the channels and on the lower 

 land would moderate the cold caused by the ice-covered 

 slopes. 



The shores of the whole of Western Southern Patagonia, 

 deeply indented with long and deep fiords, indicate, ac- 

 cording to all received views of the origin of such form- 

 ations, that the land was formerly higher, while signs of 

 glaciation are everywhere present. 



The results of geographical research show us that in 

 many parts of the world climate must have greatly changed 

 in comparatively recent times. 



In the now arid regions of Northern Africa, Central 

 North America, and in parts of Asia there is ample evidence 

 that the climate was in times past more huinid. In a 

 remarkable paper on the causes of changes of climate, con- 

 tributed by Mr. F. W. Harmer to the Geological Society in 

 1901, and which has not obtained the notice it deserves, 

 it is pointed out how changes in the distribution of the 

 prevalent winds would vastly alter climatic conditions. Like 

 everything else in Nature, and especially in the depart- 

 ment of meteorology, these questions are exceedingly com- 

 plex, and similar results may be brought about in different 

 ways, but there can be no doubt that the climate of South 

 Africa would be greatly modified, and more rainfall would 

 occur, if only the cyclonic storms which now chase each 

 other to the eastward in the ocean south of the Cape of 

 Good Hope could be prevailed upon to pursue a slightly 

 more northerly line, and many obstacles to the agricultural 

 prospects of South Africa now existing would be removed. 

 This is, however, beyond the powers of man to effect; but, 

 as I have just said, there are other ways of attaining the 

 object, and it is earnestly to be hoped that the attention 

 now being paid to afforestation may result in vigorous 

 efforts to bring about by this means the- improvement in 

 humidity so much required in many parts of the country. 



