824 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 804 



have resulted from the condensation of vapor 

 around the orifices of the fumaroles. 



It will be obvious that Erebus is very interest- 

 ing geologically on account of its unique fuma- 

 roles, its remarkable feldspar crystals and rare 

 lavas, and as a gigantic tide gauge to record the 

 flood level of the greatest recent glaciation of 

 Antarctica. 



Accounts of several eruptions are given in 

 whicli the ejected steam rose from 6,000 to 

 10,000 or more feet above the crater. 



Biology. — As might be expected, far the 

 greater portion of biological data pertain to 

 bird life, especially to the penguins, whose 

 habits and methods are treated with interest- 

 ing fulness. 



Save rare specimens of the lowest forms of 

 lichens, mosses and algs, vegetation was en- 

 tirely lacking. Doubtless the most important 

 observations were those relating to microscopic 

 fresh-water animals, of which Murray says: 



On some of the moraines the growth of mosses 

 and lichens was, comparatively speaking, lux- 

 uriant. A dried-up pool, close by the penguin 

 rookery, . . . was covered by green filamentous 

 algae. Around smaller lakes was seen a dingy 

 green or brown plant resembling some of the 

 foliaceous lichens in form. 



The plant-life consisted of various spheres and 

 threads of blue-green algse. The animals were 

 more abundant . . . the rotifers and water-bears 

 most important in point of numbers. [There 

 were] thread- worms; . . . protozoa, each of a 

 single cell . . . active infusoria . . . and the slow- 

 moving rhizopods. . . . Skins of animals higher 

 in the scale, . . . mites related to the cheese mite, 

 small shrimps ( Crustacea) . . . were occasionally 

 found. 



A temperature of — 40° F. did not kill the 

 rotifers. They were alternately frozen and thawed 

 weekly for a long period and took no harm. They 

 were dried and frozen, thawed and moistened and 

 still they lived. They were dried, the bottle in 

 which they were immersed in boiling water and 

 still a great many survived. 



Such is the vitality of these little animals 

 (rotifers and water-bears) that they can endure 

 being taken from ice at a minus temperature, 

 thawed, dried and subjected to a temperature not 

 far short of the boiling point, all within a few 

 hours. . . . These are animals comparatively high 



in the scale. The rotifers are worms, and the 

 water -bears are cousins to the insects and spiders. 



Of the twelve kinds of creeping rotifers two 

 were viviparous, one belonging to a genus 

 (Adineta) of which no other known member 

 is viviparous. 



Dredging in depths less than 100 fathoms 

 " the bottom appeared to be carpeted with a 

 dense growth of living things." 



Scant space is given to marine biology, per- 

 haps as of little popular interest. There were 

 obtained sponges, sea-weeds, anemones, tuni- 

 cates, big-headed fishes (Nototheia), carnivor- 

 ous whelks (Neohuccinum), tube-dwelling 

 worms, Crustacea, corals, sea-butterflies, dia- 

 tirus, sea-spiders, etc. 



Of the phosphorescence displayed by some 

 of the worms from the bottom and by the 

 eopepods of the open sea, Murray says : 



The phosphorescence is displayed by cold-blooded 

 animals, living in a temperature always some 

 degrees below the freezing-point of fresh water, 

 and it is shown equally throughout the winter. 



Geology. — Professor T. W. E. David and 

 Mr. E. E. Priestley discuss the geological 

 data in connection with those of preceding 

 Antarctic expeditions. In the Victoria Land 

 region previous researches, especially those by 

 H. T. Ferrar, disclose: 



An ancient complex of gneisses and gneissic 

 granites, with mica-schists, calc-schists and 

 quartzites, and that these rocks are capped for 

 a great distance by a formation almost horizon- 

 tally bedded, called the Beacon sandstone. 



Amongst volcanic rocks are comprised horne- 

 blende-basalts, olivine basalts, dolomites, basalt 

 tuffs, kenytes, phonolitic trachytes and phonolites. 

 Amongst the foundation rocks of South Victoria 

 Land Prior records crystalline limestones with 

 chondrodites, gneiss, granites, diorites, campton- 

 ites, kewantites and banakite. 



David says: 



The oldest rocks seen by us . . . consist of 

 banded gneiss, gneissic granite, grano-diorite and 

 diorite rich in sphene. In some spots masses of 

 very coarse white crystalline marble are inter- 

 spersed in the gneiss. . . . 



The next oldest sedimentary rocks appear to be 

 the greenish grey slates brought by the Southern 

 Party from the surface of Beardmore glacier . . . 



