•transactions of section e. 765 



Republic agreed to continue the Scotia Bay observatories and have now secured 

 five years' continuous records there. One of the most important results of these 

 records is that they seem to indicate an extensive continental land mass not far to 

 the south and west of the South Orkneys. This is specially emphasised by the 

 observations at Scotia Bay, off Coats Land, and near the position where Morrell 

 reported land and Ross an ' appearance of land.' The observations show that 

 the line between the easterly and westerly systems of weather is in about 65° S. 

 in the Weddell and Biscoe seas ; the South Orkneys being well within the westerly 

 system. 



Ocean Physics. — The large series of observations are only now being worked 

 up, but they must give us a large amount of new and important information. 



Deep Sea Deposits. — The deep-sea deposits indicate by the continuous band of 

 terrigenous deposits between Gh° and 74° S. a corresponding extensive con- 

 tinental coast-line to the south. The characteristic blue muds, as well as the 

 great rock-masses, strongly continental in character, give ample proof of an 

 extensive land mass to the south. 



Bathymetry. — The results of the extensive sounding operations change our 

 ideas of the bathymetry of the South Atlantic Ocean, the Weddell Sea, and the 

 Biscoe Sea. The Ross Deep has been obliterated, and relatively shallow instead 

 of very deep water was found to extend to the northward. Actually in the 

 portion where Ross reported 4,000 fathoms, no bottom, Bruce reached bottom 

 in 2,660 fathoms, and brought up a sample of blue mud. Connecting rises of 

 less than 2,000 join Graham's Land, South Orkneys, and the Sandwich Group, as 

 well as the south of South America and Antarctica. South of Gough Island, 

 where the ' Scotia ' naturalists made interesting ornithological collections, Dr. 

 Bruce sounded out a continuance of the mid-Atlantic rise a thousand miles to the 

 south, and this rise probably joins another rise between the Sandwich Group and 

 Bowet Island, which rise continues north-eastward to meet Madagascar and the 

 east coast of Africa. The deep lying to the east of Argentina, therefore, seems to 

 be separate from that of the Biscoe Sea, and both these are separate from the deep 

 lying to the south-west of South Africa. The shelving of the water in the south 

 and west of the area bathymetrically surveyed by the ' Scotia ' in the Weddell Sea 

 also gives additional weight to the hypothesis of an extensive and continuous 

 land mass existing between Kemp, Enderby, Coats, Morrell, and Moss's supposed 

 land and Graham's Land. 



Topography. — The Scottish Expedition surveyed Laurie Island, South Orkneys, 

 on a scale of two inches to the mile. They included in this survey local hydro- 

 graphical work. A running coast survey was also made of the north side of 

 Coronation Island, as well as of 150 miles of the new coast-line which the 

 expedition discovered and Dr. Bruce named Coats Land in honour of the two 

 chief supporters of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition. 



Biology. — Besides making surface and shallow water collections, the Scottish 

 naturalists trawled in great depths, not only south of 40*^ S., but also south of 

 the Antarctic Circle, many trawlings being in water exceeding 2,500 fathoms. 

 Bipolarity fades away, for not only do North and South Polar species differ widely, 

 but even species from different South Polar areas. The northern extension of 

 Antarctica at Graham's Land appears to be a potent factor in this matter. 



4. The Northward Fxjjandon of Canada.^ By W. L: Grant. 



At its formation, in 1867, Canada extended from the Atlantic to Lake 

 Superior ; by the purchase of its rights from the Hudson's Bay Company in 1869, 

 and by union with British Columbia in 1871 , it reached the Pacific. But a country 

 is really measured, not in square miles, but in the area which men can inhabit and 

 develop. At federation the inhabited country was but a thin and broken strip 

 along the American frontier. Wildernesses separated the maritime provinces 



' Introductory to the visit of the Association to Canada in 1909. 



