416 SCIENTIFIC ADVANTAGES OF AN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



whicli the Antarctic land ice moved were gneisses, granites, mica-scMsts, 

 quartziferous diorites, grained quartzites, sandstones, limestones, and 

 shales. These lithologioal types are distinctively indicative of conti- 

 nental land, and there can be no doubt about their having been 

 transported from land situated toward the South Pole. D'Urville 

 describes rocky islets off Adelie Land composed of granite and gneiss. 

 Wilkes found on an iceberg near the same place bowlders of red 

 sandstone and basalt. Borchgrevink and Bull have brought back 

 fragments of mica-schists and other continental rocks from Cape Adare. 

 Dr. Donald brought back from Joinville Island a piece of red jasper 

 or chert containing Eadiolaria and sponge spicules. Captain Larsen 

 brought from Seymour Island pieces of fossil coniferous wood, and also 

 fossil shells of Cuculltea, Cytherea, Cyprina, Teredo, and IS'atica, hav- 

 ing a close resemblance to species known to occur in lower Tertiary 

 beds in Britain and Patagonia. These fossil remains indicate in theso 

 areas a much warmer climate in past times. We are thus in possession 

 of abundant indications that there is a wide extent of continental land 

 within the ice-bound regions of the Southern Hemisphere. 



It is not likely that any living land fauna will be discovered on the 

 Antarctic continent away from the .penguin rookeries. Still, an An';- 

 arctic expedition will certainly throw much light on many geological 

 problems. Fossil finds in high latitudes are always of special impor- 

 tance. The pieces of fossil wood from Seymour Island can hardly be 

 the only relics of plant life that are likely to be met with in Tertiary and 

 even older systems within the Antarctic. Tertiary, Mesozoic, and 

 Paleozoic forms are tolerably well developed in the Arctic regions, 

 and the occurrence of like forms in the Antarctic regions might be 

 expected to suggest much as to former geographical changes, such as 

 the extension of the Antarctic continent toward the north, and its con- 

 nection with, or isolation from, the northern continents, and also as to 

 former climatic changes, such as the presence in pre-Tertiary times of 

 a nearly uniform temperature in the waters of the ocean all over the 

 surface of the globe. 



MAGNETIC AND PENDULUM OBSBEVATIONS, GEODETIC MEASURE- 

 MENTS, TIDES AND CURRENTS. 



In any Antarctic expedition magnetic observations would, of course, 

 form an essential part of the work to be undertaken, and the impor- 

 tance of such observations has been frequently dwelt upon by eminent 

 physicists and navigators. Should a party of competent observers be 

 stationed at Cape Adare for two years, pendulum observations could 

 be carried out there and at other points within the Antarctic, or even 

 on icebergs and on the interior ice cap. It might be possible to 

 measure a degree on the Antartic continent or ice cap, Avhich would be 

 a most useful thing to do. By watching the motions of the icebergs 

 and ice from land at Cape Adare, much would be learned about oceanic 



