CHAPTER XIX 

 * CAIXOZOIC PAL.EOGEOGRAPHY 



PART I. ANCIENT EXTENSION OF THE GLACIERS 



M. H. Akc^towski was the first to record evidence of the glaciers of the Antarctic 

 having formei^ly had a very much greater extension than they have at present, f 

 He found in Gerlache Strait traces of former glaciers in the shape of moraines, 

 erratic blocks, and roches montonnees. This strait was formerly occupied by 

 an immense glacier, which has left behind it a moraine from 20 to 25 metres 

 above sea-level. Arctowski considers (p. 64, footnote h) that, inasmuch as the 

 Gerlache Strait is 400 to 500 metres deep near where these moraines were observed, 

 it is probable that this glacier did not fill the strait from top to bottom, but was 

 floating. He considers that the dominant movement of this floating glacier was at 

 first from south-east towards the north-west. When checked by the opposing 

 islands of Anvers, Brabant, and Liege the ice was diverted chiefly towards the north- 

 east. He also records that Gaston Islet, about 1 mile eastwards of Cape Reclus, 

 shows evidence of having been strongly glaciated, and the direction of the quartz- 

 porphyry erratics show that the glacier of this strait moved southwards, from south 

 of Cape Anna, towards the Bay of Flanders. Thus it is assumed that the main 

 gathering ground of this unknown ice-sheet was situated on Danco Land, and that 

 near Cape Anna it parted into two streams going respectively to the north-east and 

 south-west, with possibly a third stream passing outwards direct to the north-west 

 through the De SchoUaert Canal into the Bay of Dalmann. The glacier which 

 formerly filled Hughes Bay belonged to the north-east stream. 



Dr. J. Gunnar Andersson | records the fact that Moose Island, an enth'ely ice- 

 free rocky island at Cape Westspring in the Bay of Brialmont on the Belgica chart, 

 shows strong traces of ice-gi'ooving right up to its summit ; the furrows are directed 

 towards the north-east. He concludes that this island was once over-ridden by an 



* Cainozoic is here used in the sense of including all time from the close of the Cretaceous to the 

 present. 



t C. R. Acad. Sc, Paris, 27th Aout, 1900. Sur I'ancienne extension des glaciers dans les regions 

 des terres decouvertes par I'Expedition Antarctique Beige. 



Expedition Antarctic Beige. Voyage du S.Y. Belgica, 1897-98-99. Rapports scientifiques, 

 Geologie, Les Glaciers, 1908, pp. 59-64. 



J Otto Xordeuskjold, Antarctic, Zwei Jahre in Schnee und Eis am zud Pol, Bd. ii. p. 217. 



2S5 2 o 



