MODIFICATION OF THEORY EXAMINED. Ill 



one continuous sheet of ice. In fact, it seems highly 

 probable that a very large portion of the ice rests on 

 a surface which is under the sea-level. Victoria Land 

 is, of course, certainly elevated and mountainous, but 

 the character of the Antarctic icebergs shows that this 

 state of things must be the exception and not the rule 

 in those regions. 



If this be the case, the Antarctic ice is just in the 

 condition admitting of its being easily modified by 

 warm currents from equatorial regions. In fact, at 

 the very present day, as Dr. Neumayer has shown, 

 the slight southward deflections of the warm westerly 

 drift-current caused by the projecting land masses of 

 Australia, Africa, and South America cut notches in 

 the ice. When the southern winter solstice was in 

 perihelion during the glacial epoch, it is probable that 

 the greater part of 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, Professor Shaler, and others, 

 detailed in Chapter V., as to the nature of the 

 Antarctic ice, proved to be correct, viz., that the 

 greater part of that ice originated in pack or sea 

 ice, which ultimately became converted into a solid 

 and continuous sheet by long ages of successive 

 snowfalls. 



If such be the condition of the Antarctic ice, we can 

 readily understand how it might all soon disappear 

 under the influence which would be brought to bear 

 upon it were the eccentricity high and the southern 

 winter solstice in perihelion. The warm and equable 

 conditions of climate which would then prevail, and 

 the enormous quantity of intertropical water carried 

 into the Southern Ocean, would soon produce a melt- 

 ing of the ice. Layer after layer would disappear 



