804 SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OP NEW ZEALAND. [Summary of Results. 



land connection with South America. Coats Land, in lat. 72° S., long. 17° W., 

 discovered hy the Scottish National Expedition under Bruce, and Kaiser Wil- 

 helm II Land, investigated by the German Antarctic Expedition, are probably 

 also parts of the Antarctic Continent, other parts of which have been named 

 Enderby Land, Sabrina Land, Clarie Land, &c., though the existence of these 

 lands does not rest on such good authority. At present the northern shore 

 of this continent is situated at some considerable distance from the subant- 

 arctic islands, and in places there are great depths of ocean lying to the north 

 of the Antarctic Continent. Recent explorations, however, certainly tend to show 

 that this separation was not always so great. South America comes, of course, 

 nearest, for the direct distance from Cape Horn to Graham Land is only 550 miles, 

 and a shallow area of sea extends east past Falkland Islands and on towards South 

 Georgia, thence south past the Sandwich Group, and then west past the South 

 Orkneys and other islands towards Louis Phillipe Land. An elevation of the land of 

 only a moderate amount would establish land connection between the parts just 

 named, and the existence of the sedimentary rocks referred to above is evidence that 

 areas of land existed in the neighbourhood in past geological ages. 



Macquarie Island is about 970 miles from Adelie Land, and somewhat less than 

 this from the Balleny Islands. Thirty miles to the south of Macquarie Island there 

 is a group of rocks known as the Bishop and Clerk, and from the evidence given in 

 an earlier part of this paper it is pretty certain that Macquarie Island at one time 

 formed part of a great area of land connecting it with the Auckland and Campbell 

 Islands, and in any case it must certainly have extended beyond the Bishop and 

 Clerk rocks, so that its distance from the Balleny Islands would be to this extent 

 reduced. Unfortunately, our information as to the depths of the sea in this region 

 is very scanty ; but it appears probable from the existence of Scott Island at a 

 considerable distance east from the Balleny Islands that there is a wide extent of 

 shallow sea in that region. It is not known definitely how far north this shallow 

 area extends, but a moderate elevation of the Antarctic Continent would bring it 

 much closer to Macquarie and the other islands, if it did not actually connect it with 

 them. 



In the Indian Ocean, Kerguelen Island is about 1,225 miles from Enderby 

 Land, and much the same distance from Kaiser Wilhelm II Land ; but about 

 300 miles to the south of Kerguelen Island lies the McDonald and Heard Islands 

 group, and from the similarity of its flora to that of Kerguelen Island, and from 

 the existence of shallow water between the two, it is most probable that a greater 

 mass of land once existed in this region, and its distance from the Antarctic Con- 

 tinent at that time would be proportionately reduced. It seems likely that the 

 Crozets and Prince Edward and Marion Islands are in the same way remnants of a 

 former larger land-area, and that they were then brought into fairly close connection 

 with Kerguelen Island, though a narrow strait of water more than 2,000 fathoms 

 in depth appears to lie between Kerguelen and the Crozets at the present time. 



Further soundings in the subantarctic seas are urgently required for the fuller 

 investigation of these points. The " Scotia " has done much valuable work in this 

 direction, and it is worth while pointing out that, from the soundings obtained, 

 Bruce is of opinion that a shallow area of sea less than 2,000 fathoms, and 300 miles 

 in breadth, extends north-east from the Sandwich Group, that one arm of this then 



