PBESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 35 



the far south with that of Australia, should be of great 

 value. Perhaps the most interesting branch, however, 

 was that investigated by Lillie. He obtained numerous 

 trawls throughout the area traversed, and was particularly 

 successful in catching enormous quantities of the queer 

 primitive vertebrate Cephalodiscus. All previous know- 

 ledge was based on half a dozen fragments. 



Turning now to Amundsen's results, there are two 

 features of outstanding interest — first, the meteorology at 

 his headquarters, for this was the first winter spent by any 

 expedition on Barrier Ice ; and secondly, the light thrown 

 by his splendid southern journey on the trend of the 

 mountains near the Pole. No definite information appears 

 to have been published on these points, but it seems certain 

 that, although he experienced extremely low temperatures, 

 probably considerably lower than those recorded at Cape 

 Evans, yet his winter was practically a calm period. It is 

 only necessary to glance through the British records to 

 see that a continuous series of blizzards characterised 

 every season. March, 1911, with an average hourly wind 

 force of 25 miles, rising for many days above gale strength; 

 April, May, June and July with average forces throughout 

 the whole period, of 15 miles, culminating in July with a 

 week's continuous blizzard over gale strength (38 miles), 

 and with temperatures varying around fifty degrees of frost. 

 One may hazard the explanation that it was the proximity 

 of mountain ranges 10,000 feet high which accounted for 

 this extraordinary difference, whereby the western region 

 exhibits the wildest weather ever systematically recorded 

 on the face of the globe. 



From Amundsen's account, it seems probable that the 

 Ross Barrier is really a hugh Piedmont glacier occupying 

 a gigantic bay. To the south it is bounded by the prolong- 

 ation of the Queen Alexandra Range discovered by 



