a2 Notices of Memoirs — 
hemispheres were not simultaneous,’ but were alternate. And ‘if 
it could be shown that the ice ages in the two hemispheres were 
concurrent, the astronomical doctrine would have to be forthwith 
abandoned.’ This glacial age, of which evidences have been found 
in the southern continents, must, if Sir Robert Ball’s assertion be 
correct, have taken place during a genial period in the northern 
hemisphere. Now during the Miocene age there was such a warm 
period (doubtless due to a period of high eccentricity) when a 
luxuriant flora flourished in the Arctic regions to within 84° of 
the Pole. 
“The outlines of this Antarctic continent it is of course impossible 
to trace with anything approaching to accuracy till we are in posses- 
sion of a larger number of soundings. But it is not unlikely that 
the great meridional masses of land—or world ridges—which are 
probably of primeval antiquity extended to meet prolongations 
running northward from the Antarctic continent. There is some 
evidence that the direct union of the Antarctic continent with South 
Africa was not for so prolonged a period as with the others. The 
presence of the Aphanapteryx and other ocydromine birds both in 
Mascarenia and in Antipodea supports other evidence pointing to 
an extension of that area south by Marion and Kerguelen Islands, 
and of New Zealand south, by way of the Macquarrie, Auckland, 
and Antipodes Islands. It is interesting to observe that the great 
Pacific trough to the east of the longitude of New Zealand extends 
far south into the Antarctic land.” 
Mr. Forbes next discussed the evidence derivable from the flora 
of the islands in the Antarctic Ocean, and argued that it also indicated 
a more extensive land in those seas. 
Mr. Forbes’s conception of the form of this Antarctic continent is 
thus described :—“ The Geological evidence shows that New Zealand 
was separated from Australia during all the Tertiary period, and 
that East and West Australia existed as two islands during a portion 
of the Cretaceous and Tertiary ages; so that in the early Tertiary 
period, at least, there were three separate islands, West Australia, 
East Australia, and New Zealand, the two latter with southern 
extensions. The New Zealand eastern shore-line extended not 
improbably from the Chatham Islands, by Young Island, to Victoria 
Land, where the Pacific trough runs far to the south, and north- 
west from the Chatham Islands, by Norfolk Island, near to—and, 
perhaps, including—New Caledonia and Fiji; southwards, by Lord 
Howe’s Island to the west of Stewart and Macquarrie Islands, where 
turning south and westward, it united with the eastern shore of 
Kast Australia, prolonged south to the Antarctic Land; its northern 
extension probably connecting the Great Papuasian Land (New 
Guinea, the Solomons, New Britain, and New Ireland) across Torres 
Straits--West Australia at this period, and for a long time previously 
and after, remaining a large and isolated island. The western shore 
of East Australia then ran southward and westward to Wilkes Land, 
where, about the longitude of 90° K., the trough of the Indian Ocean 
extends south towards the Pole, once more trending northward by 
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