NOVEMBEB 7, 1913] 



SCIENCE 



657 



of late by Captain Amundsen's discovery of 

 the South Pole and by the tragic fate of Cap- 

 tain Scott and his little band of heroes after 

 they too had penetrated to the pole. It has, 

 therefore, seemed worth while to bring to- 

 gether a brief account of the recently de- 

 scribed paleontological discoveries, naturally 

 laying particular emphasis on those of a 

 paleobotanical nature. 



The hardship under which Gunnar Ander- 

 sson collected the splendid Mesozoic flora of 

 Graham Land and the bag of geological speci- 

 mens which Scott's party dragged along to 

 their last camp bear eloquent testimony to a 

 devotion not only to the ideal of science, but 

 also to that of manhood that should be an in- 

 spiration alike to scientist and to layman. 



Ten years ago not a single fossil plant was 

 known from the 14J million square miles of 

 the earth's surface south of latitude 60° 

 which roughly marks the boundary of the 

 Antarctic continent, in fact it was not cer- 

 tainly known that Antarctica was really a con- 

 tinent and not merely an archipelago. 



The paleobotanical results to be noted pres- 

 ently are due almost entirely to the expedi- 

 tion led by Dr. Otto Nordenskiold,^ nephew of 

 the discoverer of the Northeast passage, and 

 to Captain Larsen of his ship the Antarctic. 

 They reached the South Shetlands in January, 

 1902, and the party spent two winters on Snow 

 HiU Island, 64° 25' S. Petrified wood and 

 Cretaceous and Tertiary plants were collected 

 on Seymour and Snow Hill Islands while J. 

 Gunnar Andersson who with Lieutenant Duse 

 was forced to pass an unprepared-for winter at 

 Hope Bay, collected the fine series of Jurassic 

 plants that form the basis for Halle's memoir 

 to be discussed presently. 



Captain Larsen* during his voyages with the 

 Jason in 1892-1894 had found fossil mollusca 

 and petrified wood on Seymour Island, as had 

 also the English expedition, and this was one 



3 See article in Geogr. Jour. Land., Vol. 23, Feb- 

 ruary, 1904, by Nordenakiold and others, giving a 

 general account of the expedition. Eeprinted in 

 Smithsonian Beport for 1903, pp. 467-479, pi. 1, 

 1904. 



4 Larsen, Geogr. Jour., Vol. 4, 1894, p. 333. 



of the principal factors in deciding upon the 

 itinerary of Nordenskiold's expedition. The 

 results more than justified the expectations of 

 the explorers, for in addition to the collection 

 of Jurassic, Cretaceous and Tertiary plants 

 they have brought back extensive collections 

 of Upper Cretaceous invertebrates, of Ter- 

 tiary invertebrates and vertebrates, the latter 

 including the remains of five new genera of 

 birds and a species of Zeuglodon.^ 



The paleobotanical materials were turned 

 over to Professor Nathorst, the veteran stu- 

 dent of Arctic fossil floras, who published two 

 preliminary announcements, the flrst in the 

 Comptes rendus of the French Academy for 

 June 6, 1904, entitled Sur la flare fossile des 

 regions ajitarctiques and the second before the 

 International Geologic Congress at Mexico 

 City in 1906, entitled " On the Upper Jurassic 

 Flora of Hope Bay, Graham Land." 



Pressure of other work entailed his turning 

 over the materials to other specialists for final 

 elaboration and we now have a memoir by 

 Dusen on the Tertiary floras, one by Gothan 

 on the fossil woods, some of which are of Upper 

 Cretaceous age, and a third by Halle on the 

 Mesozoic flora. 



The Jurassic flora from Hope Bay is the 

 most extensive of these three floras and in 

 some respects the most interesting. 



Halle's memoir of the latter flora' is one of 

 the most careful examples of systematic paleo- 

 botanical work that has appeared in recent 

 years, maintaining an eminently sane point of 

 view, and occupying middle ground between 

 the pronounced conservatism of the English 

 students of Mesozoic floras and the unduly 

 sanguine work of some of the older paleo- 

 botanists, such as Saporta or Heer. 



Although the method has been criticized,^ 

 Halle maintains, quite rightly it seems to me, 

 that it is better to describe new species than 



B A summary of the results and a preliminary 

 account of the geology is given by J. Gunnar 

 Andersson, Bull. Geol. In^t., Upsala, Band 7, 1906, 

 pp. 19-71, PI. 1-6. 



6 A brief review by F. H. Knowlton appeared 

 in Science, Vol. 37, pp. 763-764, May 16, 1913. 



7 Seward, New Phyt., Vol. 12, 1913, p. 188. 



