178 E. DU FAUR. 



interest in the Great Circle Route, and in collating the logs 

 of the ocean clippers, then competing for the fastest pas- 

 sage to Port Philip, many of which summaries were from 

 time to time printed in the Melbourne Age. I have also a 

 distinct recollection of ice-charts being occasionally pub- 

 lished in those years, showing the varying latitudes in 

 which ice had been encountered. (My collection of cuttings 

 and extracts on the subject has, unfortunately, long since 

 been lost or destroyed). 



In those days the "Marco Polo," and her rivals, went 

 into high latitudes, seldom I suppose now visited ; and that 

 was a comparatively dry period in southern Australia. 

 Later on, in the later fifties, the obstructive ice was met 

 with in so much lower latitudes, that Great Circle sailing 

 was virtually abandoned, on account of the danger; and 

 1857 (the "Dunbar" year), and several following years 

 formed a comparatively wet period in these colonies ; and 

 the conclusion appeared to me reasonable that, when the 

 ice was confined to high latitudes, the northerly and 

 westerly dry winds would have the predominance; when 

 it encroached into lower latitudes (further north) the 

 southerly polar winds would obtain the mastery. 



If any such cyclical periods of varying position of the ice 

 limit exist, we may for ever remain in ignorance of the 

 great natural causes of such oscillation; but we can observe 

 and record them for the benefit of posterity, if not for our 

 own. Had the observations which led to the publication 

 of the simple ice-charts of the early fifties been methodically 

 maintained, we should now (1891) have nearly forty years 

 record to show, and might hope to begin to know something 

 on the subject. Unfortunately, the higher latitudes, in the 

 parts of the Great Southern Ocean to the immediate south- 

 ward of this continent, are seldom or never visited. 

 Whalers, there, are probably unknown, and steam has 



