THE EFFECT OF POLAR ICE ON THE WEATHER. 177 



revival of the whaling and fur-sealing industries in the 

 Great Southern Ocean, by these colonies, I drew attention 

 to "the possible effect of the varying position of floating 

 ice and ice-fields, in that vast area, on the meteorology of 

 the southern portion of our continent ; and recorded that, 

 on supplying the Sydney Morning Herald, February 7th, 

 1881, with a translation of a minute received from the 

 Geographical Institute of Berne, respecting the then pro- 

 posed Italian expedition, I prefaced it with a few remarks 

 of my own, and ventured to express the opinion that : — 



"It is from investigation into the sources and direction of 

 Antarctic Oceanic currents, and into the varying disposition of 

 Polar ice, in higher or lower latitudes, in different years, or during 

 more lengthened periods, that we may ultimately hope to arrive at 

 some knowledge of the laws under which our climate is directed. 

 In the constant struggle for mastery, which we know to be carried 

 on between the winds generated in those Polar regions, and by 

 those causes, with equatorial and westerly winds, due to the rarifi- 

 cation of the air from the heated surface of this vast continent, 

 in this grand struggle between forces generated altogether beyond 

 her limits, New South Wales must eventually look for the solution 

 and governing laws of periodic successions of dry and moist seasons." 



I went on to remark that "ten years ago, (1881) such a move- 

 ment was, I supposed in advance of the times, as it received some 

 very harmless ridicule from quite an unexpected quarter, and was 

 dropped. But as it now (1891) appears to be more in favour, and 

 a leading article in the Sydney Morning Herald of 24th April, 

 1891, remarked, 'that the meteorology of the Antarctic Circle 

 may be otherwise of deeper interest to us, for there is not the least 

 doubt that in our climatic changes we are closely linked with the 

 meteorological and magnetic conditions of the great Polar region 

 so close to our doors.'" 



I should like to refer to some circumstances which many 

 years previously to 1881 led me to the opinions above 

 expressed. In the early fifties, I happened to take an 



L— Dec. 4,' 1907. 



