362 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLI. No. 1053 



Among these were diatoms, algae, protozoa, 

 rotifera and bacteria. 



Bird life was the striking feature of living 

 nature; penguins, petrels, skuas and a new 

 species of prion. Most interesting are the ac- 

 counts of incubation, nesting, fishing, etc., of 

 the various species. Eggs of practically every 

 variety were obtained, including those of the 

 silver-gray and antarctic petrels, previously 

 unknown. The emperor penguin is the sov- 

 ereign bird of Antarctica, and both eggs and 

 rookeries are almost unknown. On Haswell 

 Island, off Queen Mary Land, was found a 

 large rookery of the emperors. 



The Emperor penguins had their rookery on the 

 floe, about a mile from the island. The birds cov- 

 ered four to five acres. . . . We estimated the num- 

 bers to be 7,500, the great majority being young 

 birds. 



Near by was found a large rookery, about 

 300 birds, of antarctic petrels nesting in gullies 

 and clefts, laying their eggs on the shallow 

 dirt, each having one egg. This island ap- 

 peared to be a bird's paradise, as there were 

 also large numbers of Cape pigeons, Southern 

 Fulmars, Wilson petrels and snow petrels, 

 while skuas also were present. Of 26 species 

 of birds obtained 6 were penguins, 3 albatross 

 and 7 petrels. 



Seal life was abundant during the summer 

 season, consisting of the seal elephant, sea- 

 leopard, Weddell seal, crab-eater seal and the 

 rare Ross seal, of which 6 specimens were ob- 

 tained. The blue and killer whales were the 

 only varieties observed. Space fails in which 

 to dwell on interesting observations made of 

 bird and of seal life, as well as to the rich and 

 varied marine life procured both by shore- 

 dredging and by deep-sea dredging at 11 sta- 

 tions in depths reaching 1,800 fathoms, and of 

 tow-nettings down to 200 fathoms. The rich 

 fauna and interesting flora of Macquarie Island 

 will prove interesting to scientists. Among 

 these the most important are the rookeries, the 

 sea-elephants having some 500 cows in the 

 largest, the king penguins about 6,000, and 

 the royal penguins covering 26 acres of ground, 

 approximately nearly half a million, as 150,000 

 birds are killed annually. 



Glaciology. — The lands of Adelie, King 

 George and Queen Mary are buried under 

 thick glacial ice, through which protrude rare 

 and small nunataks (ice-free peaks). Not 

 only is the land thus covered, but the conti- 

 nental ice-caps project seaward along the entire 

 coast-line to a greater or less extent. These 

 projections, named by Ross harriers, and 

 styled shelf s by Mawson, are actually oceanic 

 ice-caps. In King George Land Mertz and 

 Ninnis glaciers push seaward indefinite dis- 

 tances, demarcation between land and ocean 

 being undetermined, but each covers more than 

 a thousand square miles of the Antarctic 

 ocean. More remarkable is the Shackleton 

 oceanic ice-cap which covers some 36,000 

 square miles of the ocean, its dimensions being 

 180 miles north and south by 200 miles east 

 and west. Its surface extent is approximately 

 equal to the combined areas of the states of 

 New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, 

 Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey. 

 Rising about 100 feet above the sea, its average 

 thickness can not be less than 600 feet. Spe- 

 cial interest attaches to the so-called ice-falls, 

 where glaciers of very steep pitch impinge on 

 the oceanic ice-caps, the Denman glacier be- 

 ing an example. Of this Dr. Wild says: 



Denman glacier moving much more rapidly than 

 the Shackleton Shelf, tore through the latter and 

 shattered both its own sides and also a consider- 

 able area of the larger ice-sheet. At the actual 

 point of contact was an enormous chasm over 1,000 

 feet wide, and from 300 to 400 feet deep, in the 

 bottom of which crevasses appeared to go down 

 forever. The aides were splintered and crumpled, 

 towering above were titanic blocks of carven ice. 

 The whole was the wildest, maddest, grandest 

 thing imaginable. . . . Bending the Shackleton 

 Shelf from top to bottom, it presses onward. 

 Thus chaos, earthquake and ruin. 



Other polar publications in recent years have 

 been as sumptuously illustrated as are these 

 beautiful volumes, but here is to be noticed 

 a welcome restriction of personal photographic 

 exploitation. The varied experiences of Maw- 

 son and of his subordinates, the wealth of sea- 

 life and of bird-fauna, the immensity and 

 peculiarity of glacial forms, have been wisely 



