270 Notices of Memoirs — Antarctic Exploration. 



" All Antarctic land is not, however, surrounded by such in- 

 accessible cliffs of ice, for along the seaward faces of the great 

 mountain ranges of Victoria Land the ice and snow which descend 

 to the sea apparently form cliffs not higher than 10 to 20 feet, and 

 in 1895 Kristensen and Borchgrevink landed at Cape Adare on 

 a pebbly beach, occupied by a penguin rookery, without encountering 

 any land-ice descending to the sea. Where a penguin rookery is 

 situated, we may be quite sure that there is occasionally open water 

 for a considerable portion of the year, and that consequently landing 

 might be effected without much difficulty or delay, and further that 

 a party, once landed, might with safety winter at such a spot, where 

 the penguins would furnish an abundant supply of food and fuel. 

 A properly equipped party of observers situated at a point like this 

 on the Antarctic continent for one or two winters might carry out 

 a most valuable series of scientific observations, make successful 

 excursions towards the interior and bring back valuable information 

 as to the probable thickness of the ice-cap, its temperature at 

 different levels, its rate of accumulation, and its motions, con- 

 cerning all which points there is much difference of opinion among 

 scientific men." 



We come then to the question — " Is there an Antarctic continent ? 

 It has already been stated that the form and structure of the 

 Antarctic icebergs indicate that they were built up on, and had 

 flowed over, an extended land surface. As these bergs are floated 

 to the north and broken up in warmer latitudes they distribute over 

 the floor of the ocean a large quantity of glaciated rock fragments 

 and land detritus. These materials were dredged up by the 

 ' Challenger ' in considerable quantity, and they show that the 

 rocks over which the Antarctic land-ice moved were gneisses, 

 granites, mica-schists, quartziferous diorites, grained quartzites, 

 sandstones, limestones, and shales. These lithological types ai-e 

 distinctly indicative of continental land, and there can be no doubt 

 about their having been transported from land situated towards the 

 South Pole. D'Urville describes rocky islets off Adelie Land 

 composed of granite and gneiss. Wilkes found on an iceberg, near 

 the same place, boulders of red sandstone and basalt. Borchgrevink 

 and Bull have brought back fragments of mica-schists and other 

 continental rocks from Cape Adare. Dr. Donald brought back from 

 Joinville Island a piece of red jasper or chert containing Radiolaria 

 and sponge spicules. Captain Larsen brought from Seymour Island 

 pieces of fossil coniferous wood, and also fossil shells of CucuUcea, 

 Cijiherea, Cyprina, Teredo, and Natica, having a close resemblance to 

 species known to occur in Lower Tertiary beds in Britain and 

 Patagonia. These fossil remains indicate in these areas a much 

 warmer climate in past times. We are thus in possession of 

 abundant indications that there is a wide extent of continental land 

 within the ice-bound regions of the southern hemisphere. 



" It is not likely that any living land-fauna will be discovered on 

 the Antarctic continent away from the penguin rookeries. Still, 

 an Antarctic expedition will certainly throw much light on many 



