212 HOBBS— ROLE OF GLACIAL ANTICYCLONE [April 24, 



is, within the known coast areas, the anticyclonic conditions do not yet 

 prevail.'"'-55 



Referring to the observations by Captain Scott and by others 

 upon the plateau back of the Admiralty Range in South Victoria 

 Land, Meinardus is quick to seize upon the westerly winds which 

 there prevail as evidence that the anticyclone has at these levels 

 given place to the supposed overlying cyclones ; failing utterly to 

 note that the winds are here blowing directly down slope from the 

 ice plateau — that is, radially. ^'^ Other statements in the report are 

 likewise strikingly at variance with facts either known at the time 

 or revealed by later exploration. 



Objective Studies by Barkow in Antarctica. — The first oppor- 

 tunity to measure the upward extension of anticyclonic conditions 

 over Antarctica, has been taken advantage of by Barkow, the 

 meteorologist of the Second German Antarctic Expedition ; who at 

 the margin of the inland-ice of Prince Regent Luitpold Land (lat. 

 '/'/° 45' S., long. 34° 40' W.) sent up pilot balloons, one on February 

 2, 1912, to the extreme elevation of 17,200 meters, or over 8 km. 

 above the base of the stratosphere.^^ These observations disclose 

 the fact that easterly and northeasterly winds prevailed at the time 

 of observation in all levels up to the ceiling of the troposphere,^^ 

 whereas with the beginning of the stratosphere, where at an eleva- 

 tion of 9,000 meters the wind turns suddenly through an angle of 

 180° and blows steadily from the southwest. If, as is probable, the 

 margin of the continent corresponds to the margin of the inland-ice 

 dome, these observations considered with due regard to the known 

 deviation indicate an anticyclone fed by currents above the tropo- 

 sphere. Barkow calls attention to the speculations of Meinardus 

 above referred to, and shows that they are controverted by the re- 

 sults of his observations. 



°^ L. c, p. 333. Hardly in harmony with the facts known at the time, 

 since easterly winds, and not westerly, are here the rule (cf. " Existing 

 Glaciers," pp. 264-265, and ante, p. 197). 



56 L. c, p. 334- 



=''■ E. Barkow, " Vorlaufiger Bericht iiber die meteorologischen Beob- 

 achtungen der deutschen antarktischen Expedition, 1911-12," Ver. d. k. 

 preiisz. meteor. Inst., No. 265 (Abh., Vol. 4, No. 11), Berlin, 1913, pp. 7-1 1- 



5^ The italics are mine. — W. H. H. 



