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TopocrarpHy or Sours Vicrorta Lanp (Antancric).* 
By Lovis Bernaccul. 
THE conception of a great terra Australis incognita has been proved 
to be equally erroneous with the conjecture that no land whatever, or 
of only trifling extent, was to be found. It has been proved that ex- 
tensive masses of land exist within the antarctic circle; but whether 
the land takes the form of a vast continent, or an archipelago of 
islands smothered under an overload of frozen snow which conceals 
their insularity, or islands whose shores are washed by the ocean, 
remains still an enigma, and a fascinating one to be solved by future 
expeditions. It is, I think, premature to call it “the Antarctic Con- 
tinent,” for explorations on the American side, and even on that of 
Australia, tend to prove the existence of a broken-up continuation of 
these two continents with the most extensive masses of land lying 
under their respective meridians. 
The coasts of Wilkes Land and the Balleny islands appear to be a 
duplicate of the Australian coast, so the gigantic mountain range to 
which the coast of South Victoria Land rises seems to correspond to the 
mountain chain of New Zealand; while the volcanic extremity of the 
cordilleras of South America finds its counterpart in the broken and 
scattered island masses also bearing volcanoes to the south of Cape 
Horn. The prolongation of the volcanic ring, or ‘“ circle of fire,” from 
New Zealand to Balleny islands, South Victoria Land, and right across 
to the American side, seems to support this theory. Prof. Ar¢towski, of 
the Belgica Expedition, has suggested that ‘ Graham Land is connected 
with Patagonia by a submarine ridge, which forms a great arc extending 
between Cape Horn and the South Shetland islands, and that the tertiary 
chain of the Andes reappears in Graham Land.” 
Although, perhaps, the explorations of the Southern Cross have 
not thrown much light on this matter, the great mass of geological 
specimens collected might, if properly dealt with, assist very materially 
in arriving at a better knowledge of the conditions of things. The 
ship Southern Oross of the Newnes Expedition entered the antarctic ice- 
pack on the last day of the year 1898, and was nearly fifty days before 
penetrating to the ocean beyond, during which time she thrice crossed 
* Read at the Royal Geographical Society, March 18, 1901. 
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