48 



pressure and its accompanying great precipitation does not 

 extend to the pole. Dr. Murray, in the paper we have 

 already quoted from, says: — " It is probable that about 74 

 deg. S., the belt of excessive precipitation has been passed, and 

 it is even conceivable tbat at the pole precipitation might be 

 very little in excess of, or indeed, not more than equal to, 

 the evaporation." It is, therefore, very likely that instead of 

 the thickness of the snow or icecap on the Antarctic lands 

 being 10 or 20 miles as estimated by the late Mr. Croll, Dr. 

 Murray's estimate of 1,800 feet as the maximum is nearer the 

 truth, as this estimate slightly exceeds the calculated thick- 

 ness of the greatest southern bergs and floating ice islands. 



In consequence of this all - prevailing mantle of frozen 

 snow, " no land animal and no trace of vegetation- -not even 

 a lichen or a piece of seaweed — has been found on land 

 within the Antarctic Circle." The whalers last year brought 

 back some fossils, probably from tertiary rocks, that 

 "distinctly indicate the existence of more genial conditions 

 within the Antarctic in past geological times." 



But as Dr. Murray says :— " When we turn to the waters of 

 the Antarctic ocean we find at the present time a great 

 profusion of life, both animal and vegetable. During the 

 Challenger expedition myriads of minute spherical tetrasporsa 

 were observed to give the sea a peculiar green colour over 

 large areas. Diatoms were frequently in such enormous 

 abundance that the tow nets were filled to the brim with a 

 yellow-brown slimy mass, with a distressing odour, through 

 which various crustaceans, annelids, and other animals 

 wriggled. . . . Occasionally vast quantities of copepods, 

 amphipods, etc., were observed to give the ocean a dull red 



colour These small crustaceans are in turn the 



chief food of the fishes, penguins, seals, and whales which 

 abound in the waters of the great Southern Ocean." How 

 abundant and varied the animal life of this part of the 

 ocean is may bo judged from the fact that Dr. Murray 

 mentions that the Challenger trawl and dredge obtained from 

 waters lying farther south than Tasmania 326 new species, 

 and 119 new genera from depths varying from 1,260 to 2,600 

 fathoms, and that one-half of the new species and a quarter 

 of the new genera were not obtained elsewhere. 



Now what is to be done in the matter of Antarctic 

 exploration ? Dr. Murray answers: — ■" A dash at the South 

 Pole " — (like that which Nansen is making at the North) — " is 

 not what I now advocate, nor do I believe that is what British 

 science at the present time desires. It demands rather a 

 steady, continuous, laborious, and systematic exploration of the 

 whole southern region, with all the appliances of the modern 

 investigator. This exploration should be undertaken by the 

 Eoyal Navy. Two ships not exceeding 1,000 tons should, it 



