184 E. DU FAUR. 



times to the banks of Newfoundland, when a period of 

 comparatively equable stability intervenes until the super- 

 incumbent pressure has been renewed. Is not the same 

 process, perhaps on a much larger scale, because on a less 

 interrupted area, going on in our Southern Ocean ? Ross' 

 ice-barrier has been proved to be a 'floating mass,' at least 

 five times as great below as above sea-level; its recession 

 does not mean that it recedes, but that by pressure or 

 possibly by volcanic action, vast masses are cut away and 

 floated northwards by the prevailing south wind, and the 

 edge that is left remains further back by thirty miles to 

 what it was sixty years ago. Is this a permanent 'set 

 back' or will the gigantic ice-cap behind, renewed by 

 successive deposits of snow, reassert its pressure, and again 

 drive its ice barrier to the position or even further north 

 which it occupied in 1841-3 ?* 



But while we know that this vast withdrawal or 'recess- 

 ion' of the 'Ross Ice Barrier' has occurred since 1841-3, 

 we are entirely ignorant, for lack of continuous accurate 

 measurements, whether it may have taken place, equably, 

 throughout the period of about sixty years, or have been 

 the result of spasmodic efforts of pressure or volcanic 

 agency, confined to within one or more minor portions of 

 that period. Herein is where during almost two generations 

 we have neglected our opportunities, and now find ourselves 

 only on the threshold of a scientific research, in which we 

 should have already accumulated so many valuable data. 



1 " At the South Pole lies a continent surrounded by a great ring of 

 water ; gigantic masses of tabular ice come from the continent and slowly 

 melt. Here is a great problem with reference to the difference between 

 the North and South Poles," — Baron von Richthofen. 



"The ice-barrier probably 1,600 feet in perpendicular height, of which 

 150 to 200 feet are above the sea." — Sir Clements Markham, Geog. Journ. 

 November, 1899. 



Capt. Scott is inclined to reduce this estimate to 1000 or 1200 feet; much 

 would depend on the amount of earthy or saline particles in different 

 bergs, affecting their specific gravity. 



