the ice then disappeared. 
In fact this is a result which would be even still more likely 
to occur were the views held by Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker an 
some others as to the nature of the antarctic ice proved to. be 
correct. Sir Joseph thinks that much’ of the Antarctic 1¢e- 
sheet, thousands of feet in thickness‘as it is, was formed by the 
successive accumulations of snow year by year on pack-ice. 
The snow fall in the Antarctic regions he believes to be enor- 
mous during both summer and winter; and as but a very small 
portion of it melts, the accumulated snow is perfectly sufficient 
to form such a sheet. He does not consider that there is land 
interglacial period, be broken up, dispersed, and melted by an 
inflow of equatorial water. : 
I think, however, that the whole of that enormous sheet from 
that there is much to favor the assumption that there are large 
areas within the antarctic circle consisting of low flat gro 1a 
islands separated by broad and shallow seas which have 2) — 
become filled with solid ice. It is quite possible that the 1c@ 
re 
S 
= 
os 
verted into ice, was + 
mass would gradually sink till it rested on the sea-bottom-7 
* Phil. Mag., November, 1883, p. 357. : 
+ In this eh I am glad to fina that Sir Joseph to a certain extent ae 
for in a letter to me on the subject he says:—“I cannot doubt but that parler 
rgs have originated from the ice of the great southern barrier; a0 
- Suspect is that much of this barrier-ice originated in k-ice over ve 
bays, increase success 0 . age 
mer is enormous south of latitude 50°-60.° Certainly it fell on half the aye 
each ing the three seasons we spent in those seas, 2D@ © ©” — 
