CLIMATE. 233 



extensive south polar lands existed, the west winds would 

 probably whirl round the South Pole and actually reach 

 it, and the south polar zone would then form a large 

 continuous region of low barometric pressure." 



Having stated this general theory, we will now turn 

 to the actual facts, or rather to the few isolated and 

 scattered observations, which have been made on the 

 climate and meteorology of the south polar regions. On 

 one point it is indispensably necessary to be perfectly 

 clear, viz. : that it is premature to give a truly satis- 

 factory description of the climate of the south polar 

 regions. Modern science requires as basis of such a 

 description a series of careful observations of all the 

 meteorological phenomena extending over a period of 

 thirty-five years, as these alone supply mean values, 

 which are fully reliable. Great, enormously great, is the 

 difference between this ideal and our actual knowledge 

 of the south polar regions. We possess isolated notices 

 scattered over a period of more than a hundred years, 

 or else series of observations of short duration, almost 

 each of which refers to a different locality, but not a 

 single series made on the same spot. The observations 

 at our disposal have been made during circumnavigations 

 of the Pole, or else on rapid advances south, none of 

 which comprised a period of more than a few months. 

 And finally, all have been made during the southern 

 summer, whilst we know absolutely nothing of the long 

 polar winter of the far south, there being no record, at 

 least none of any scientific value, of a winter having 

 been passed there. It follows that our description of 

 the south polar regions can be no more than a circum- 

 spect groping in the dark, and a scheduling of the few 

 numerical observations from which further inferences 

 may cautiously be drawn. 



The state of the temperature, being the most funda- 

 mental element constituting climate, claims our first 



