80 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



Still another problem is that of oscillation of climate as expressed by 

 varying amounts of sea-ice and variations in the intensity of currents. 

 R. C. Mossman and others have shown that there is a correlation between 

 certain Antarctic records and those from places in the Northern Hemisphere. 

 There seems to be every likelihood that before long general weather fore- 

 casts of real value will be possible for some months ahead. 3 At Buenos 

 Aires, for example, the high correlation coefficient of +O88 is reached 

 when the summer rainfall there is correlated with the temperature of the 

 South Orkneys for the winter that began three and a half years earlier. 

 In fact, statistical correlation indicates that a very cold winter at the 

 South Orkneys will be followed after an interval of three and a half years 

 by a drought over the Argentine cereal belt ; a very mild winter, after 

 the same interval of time, by bountiful rains. 



Lastly, there is great need of oceanographical work in high southern 

 latitudes. This branch of research has been overlooked by most ex- 

 peditions in their hurry to reach their southern bases. Certainly in 

 the tempestuous seas of the fifties and sixties of southern latitude it is 

 uncomfortable and trying work and exasperating in delays and loss of 

 apparatus. The employment of echo-sounding should, however, make it 

 both easier and more accurate. 



There has been much careful and intensive work in the Antarctic 

 during this century, indeed since the voyage of the Belgica, but it has 

 merely touched the fringe of what there is to be done. The recent work of 

 the R.S.S. Discovery in the seas to the east of South Georgia should fill 

 gaps in existing knowledge of the Southern Ocean, ■ but details are not 

 yet available. 4 



Antarctic expeditions are costly, far more costly than expeditions to 

 the Arctic. It is unlikely that an impoverished Europe will be able to 

 find the necessary funds for years to come. We must look with hope 

 towards the great new nations of the Southern Hemisphere, some of whom 

 have already shown a marked interest in the Antarctic. It will be a sad 

 day when man is so free from curiosity about this earth that the last 

 mysteries of its surface are not probed because the task demands 

 enthusiasm and money. 



No pioneer problems of equal magnitude await the explorer in north 

 polar regions. There is small likelihood that any new land of importance 

 remains to be discovered. There is certainly no ' polar continent.' 

 However, there are gaps to be filled. Nicholas Land, found by the 

 Russians to the north of the Taimir peninsula in 1913, has still to be 

 investigated. Its full extent and its relation to other Arctic islands are 

 unknown. North-west of it the Arctic Ocean has never been penetrated 

 except by the drifting St. Anna in 1912-14. We hope that Russian 

 investigators of the coast of Siberia will include Nicholas Land within 

 their scope of work. 5 



3 ' Southern Hemisphere Seasonal Correlations,' R. C. Mossman. Symons 

 Meteorological Mag., 48, 1913; and 'TheClimate and Meteorology of the Antarctic and 

 sub-Antarctic Regions,' R. C. Mossman, Jour. Scot. Met. Soc. 1918, pp. 18-29. 



4 ' Discovery ' Expedition. First Annual Report, H.M.S.O., 1927. 



5 For the latest map of the Russian Arctic coasts, see ' The Russian Hydrographical 

 Expedition to the Arctic,' N. A. Trausche, Geog. Review (New York), No. 3, 1925. 



