CONFORMATION OF THE SURFACE. 135 



height above sea-level are thus unsatisfactory, and only 

 to be accepted as average or approximate, how much 

 less do we know about their geological structure? It 

 is only necessary to remember that no landing what- 

 ever was effected on the whole coast of Wilkes Land, 

 and that Victoria Land offered an opportunity only on 

 one circumscribed spot ; Enderby, Kemp, Alexander 

 and Graham's Land have been seen only from afar ; 

 portions of the Dirk Gerritz Archipelago have certainly 

 been landed upon in isolated spots, but without any 

 sufficient investigation being possible. We shall see 

 that the South Shetland Isles have been visited and 

 that crews have wintered there, but all this was on the 

 part of wholly uneducated seal-hunters, without a trace 

 of scientific aptitude or knowledge. We have a tolerably 

 satisfactory knowledge only of Deception Island in the 

 above-named group, and of Royal Bay in the island of 

 South Georgia, but for the rest are dependent on the 

 accounts of discoverers who were either entirely unin- 

 structed or conversant only with the meagre outlines 

 of the undeveloped science of petrography during the 

 first half of the century. The specimens from which 

 observations— such as they are — were made, consist 

 of such stones as were found ready to hand, or brought 

 up in the dredging-net, or taken from the stomach of 

 some animal. It is, therefore, no wonder that the follow- 

 ing pages will contain but little of an account of the 

 structure of Antarctic lands. Rather will they indicate 

 the chasm which yawns across the collective knowledge 

 we possess of our planet, a void to be ascribed to the 

 neglect of South Polar exploration. 



In treating of the several groups of land, we shall 

 purposely start with the entirely isolated group of the 

 Bouvet Islands in the South Atlantic, since they have 

 not the remotest connection with any other Antarctic 

 islands and lands. Next, we shall turn west to South 



