210 HOBBS— ROLE OF GLACIAL ANTICYCLONE [April 24, 



lar form are set forth the percentage of cahn days to all others as 

 determined at several stations near the margin of inland-ice : 



Percentage of Calm Days to All Others. 



Per Cent. 



Danmarks-Haven, Northeast Greenland*^ 26 



Cape Adair, South Victoria Land*^ , 4^ 



Scott's First Base, South Victoria Land*" 23 



Cape Evans, South Victoria Land*^ (up to 4 miles per hr. 29.8 



per cent.) 



Framheim, Whale's Bay*^ (up to 4 miles per hr. 42.2 per cent.)*^. . 21.3 



The Theory of Circum-Polar Whirls vs. the Glacial 

 Anticyclones. 



Vietvs of Ferrel and Hann.- — From a theoretical view-point, the 

 theory of circumpolar whirls first enunciated by the American 

 meteorologist Ferrel, has been a most serious obstacle in the way of 

 securing a clear conception concerning the air circulation above 

 continental glaciers. Ferrel's theory assumed that strong westerly 

 winds sweep about the geographic poles with increasing accelera- 

 tion of velocity and corresponding centrifugal effect, producing 

 polar areas of calm and of low barometer. Of the southern polar 

 region, Hann stated as late as 1897:^° 



" The whole Antarctic circum-polar area presents us, as already stated, 

 with a vast cyclone, of which the center is at the pole, while the westerly 

 winds circulate round it." 



This view was of course largely speculative, and when Bernacchi 

 of the " Southern Cross " expedition had brought out on the basis 

 of observations at Cape Adare the evidence for anticyclonic condi- 

 tions over the south polar regions, Hann cautiously qualified his 

 earlier statements in the following manner : 



45 Wegener, " Med. om Gronl.," Vol. 42, pp. 325-326. 



*6 Bernacchi, in Borchgrevinck, " First on the Antarctic Continent," p. 

 306. 



^■^ Shaw, " National Antarctic Expedition, 1901-1904, Meteorol.," Pt. I., 

 1908. 



*s Simpson, " Scott's Last Expedition," Vol. 2, p. 320. 



49 Amundsen, " The South Pole," Vol. 2, pp. 381-382. 



50 " Handbuch der Klimatologie," 2te aufl.. Vol. 3, 1897, p. 543. 



