OCEANOGRAPHY IN THE ANTARCTIC. 
BY 
Dr. S. W. KEMP, F.RB.S. 
The discourse gave a general account of the research work that is now being carried 
out in the Southern Ocean by the Discovery Committee. The objects of this work 
are numerous, for it has been undertaken with the intention of exploring the resources 
of the Dependencies of the Falkland Islands; but the principal object is to obtain 
information which will have a bearing on the great southern whaling industry. 
Dr. Kemp first spoke of the work which has been done at a Marine Biological 
station erected in South Georgia. Here the Blue and Fin whales caught at the 
adjacent whaling station have been systematically examined during the past six years 
and many facts relating to their life-history have been elucidated. It is now known 
that these whales are sexually mature at the age of two, and that the females normally 
produce one young one in every alternate year. Whales are physically mature in 
six to eight years, after which no further growth is possible, and their normal duration 
of life probably does not greatly exceed twenty years. It has recently been found 
that the age of female whales up to ten or twelve years can be estimated with some 
accuracy from the numbers of corpora lutea which remain as vestiges in the ovaries. 
With the information which has been gathered it is possible for the first time to obtain 
an insight into the constitution of a stock of whales, and problems such as the rate of 
deterioration of the stock by intensive hunting can now be attacked. Experiments 
have been made in marking whales in order to trace their migrations, but these have 
hitherto failed, and new methods are under consideration. 
The research ships employed by the Discovery Committee are mainly engaged in 
a study of the environment of whales, and it is hoped that in course of time it will 
be possible to explain the great fluctuations which exist from season to season in the 
abundance of whales. Whale food, which consists exclusively of a prawn-like animal, 
Euphausia superba, has been the object of close investigation. It appears that the 
natural habitat of this animal is along the edge of the Antarctic pack-ice from which 
it spreads northwards each spring, and is sometimes found in great concentration in 
areas which whales frequent. The reproduction of the prawn and its dispersal in 
the Southern Ocean afford problems of considerable interest which at present are not 
completely solved. 
The microscopic plant life of the sea, on which all marine animals are ultimately 
dependent for nourishment, is unusually abundant in the south. This, in general, is 
to be explained by the abundance of phosphates and nitrates in solution in the sea 
water, but there is another factor—at present unknown—which may limit the produc- 
tion of plant life in certain areas. 
The circulation of nitrates and phosphates has been examined in connection with 
a general study of the hydrology of the South Atlantic and Southern Oceans, and in 
the course of this work the principal mass movements of the water have been 
elucidated. 
Attention was directed to the extreme importance from a biological point of view 
of certain lines where sudden changes of hydrological conditions occur, for these lines 
separate distinct faunas in the upper layers of the sea just as effectively as land faunas 
are separated by mountain ranges. 
Dr. Kemp concluded his lecture by an account of the survey work undertaken 
with a view to improving the charts of these little-known parts of the Empire. The 
recently introduced method of echo-sounding has been employed with very great 
success, and the bearing of the results on geological views regarding former land 
connections was discussed. Echo-soundings have been successfully taken to a depth 
of 44 miles. In the course of the work new charts have been made of South Georgia, 
Bouvet Island, parts of the South Shetlands, and of the South Sandwich group, the 
last-named a chain of volcanic islands, which had not been surveyed for over a hundred 
years. 
For the Evening Discourse by Mr. H. E. Wimperis, C.B.E., on ‘ High-speed 
Flying,’ see Journ. Roy. Aeronautical Soc. 
