Mat 27, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



829 



miles, and is the only visible outflow from a 

 vast unknown expanse of the south-polar ice- 

 cap. Confined to a certain extent by lofty 

 mountains and forced into a tortuous route, 

 it is scarred by countless ridges and broken 

 by thousands of crevasses. Receiving at its 

 head enormous masses of neve it transforms 

 them by the well-known processes of compres- 

 sion and expansion, of melting and regelation 

 into glacial ice of the hardest, densest quality, 

 and in most varied forms. 



Of the surface conditions Shackleton 

 records : 



Sharp blue-edged ice, full of chasms and 

 crevasses, rising to hills and descending to gullies. 

 . . . One crevasse (where Marshall fell through 

 and was saved by his harness) open from the top, 

 with no bottom to be seen ... a drop of at least 

 1,000 feet. ... In another, the last pony dropped 

 out of sight, the broken swingle-tree saving Wild. 

 . . . We marched 9 miles over a surface where 

 many times a slip meant death. . . . Followed' the 

 bed of an ancient moraine, full of holes through 

 which boulders have melted down. 



[Of the country] the wonderful scenery, the 

 marvelous rocks. ... A wonderful view of the 

 mountains, with new peaks. ... [In 84° 10' S.] 



The main rooks of the mountain under which 

 we are camped . . . the erratics of marble eon- 

 glomerate and breccia are beautiful, showing won- 

 derful colore, ... a wonderful sight ag [the 

 mountain] towers above us with the snow cling- 

 ing to its sides. . . . [In 84° 54' S.] Rock mainly 

 sandstone with six seams of coal. 



Fitting surroundings these for such an ice- 

 river — issuing from the highest plateau of the 

 world. 



To crown the scientific observation is the 

 very brief medical report which records that 

 there was no case of scurvy or other sickness, 

 apart from temporary sufferings of the half- 

 starved southern party on its return. 



Physiography. — From a broad standpoint 

 the southward extension of South Victoria 

 Land, the discovery of eight mountain ranges 

 and scores of peaks, the reaching of the vast 

 ice-clad plateau and the locating of the south 

 geographic pole on tableland approximately 

 12,000 feet in elevation, may be considered as 

 the most important of the scientific labors of 

 the expedition. 



The southern journey disclosed the contin- 

 uity of Antarctica for about 1,260 miles due 

 north and south, from Cape North to Shackle- 

 ton's farthest. It thus establishes beyond 

 peradventure the actual existence of a south- 

 ern continent as announced by Wilkes in 1840, 

 and as conjecturally charted by Sir John 

 Murray in about 1875. 



Moreover, the many ranges of lofty moun- 

 tains, with the extent and great elevation of 

 the wonderful south-polar tableland, clearly 

 classify Antarctica as the most remarkable of 

 continents not only in its conditions of glacia- 

 tion but also in its surpassing elevation. 

 Well-considered calculation places, with a pos- 

 sible error of =+= 200 meters, the mean eleva- 

 tion of Antarctica at 2,000 meters, more than 

 twice the average elevation of Asia. 



Not only is it of scientific interest that the 

 great, almost landless Arctic Ocean is oppo- 

 site the enormous uplifted mountainous Ant- 

 arctica, but the mass and location of this vast 

 southern continent, one and a half times 

 greater in surface than Europe, should serve 

 to solve or elucidate vexed problems of lati- 

 tude-variations and pole-shiftings. If not a 

 practical factor for the far future these condi- 

 tions may well have been so during past ages, 

 when a milder climate, abundant animal life, 

 luxuriant vegetation and forestal growths ob- 

 tained in the vicinity of the present north and 

 south geographical poles. 



Eegion of Wilkes Land. — Of geographic 

 importance is Shackleton's discovery on his 

 return voyage of an extension of the north 

 coast of South Victoria Land some 45 miles 

 to the westward. This ice-bound mountainous 

 coast connects in all probability with the land 

 of Wilkes, whose priority of discovery has 

 been lately put beyond question by Admiral 

 Pillsbury, F.S.N. 



General Results.— Briefly summarized the 

 most important scientific results of Shackle- 

 ton's expedition are : 



1. Culminating data establishing the exist- 

 ence of an Antarctic continent. 



2. The definite location of the south mag- 

 netic pole. 



