426 



Dr. J. Murray. 



Antarctic Ice. 



From many points of view it would be important to learn some- 

 thing about the condition and distribution of Antarctic sea-ice during* 

 the winter months, and especially about the position and motions of the 

 huge table-shaped icebergs at this and other seasons of the year. These 

 flat-topped icebergs, with a thickness of 1200 or 1500 feet, with their 

 stratification and their perpendicular cliffs, which rise 150 or 200 

 feet above and sink 1100 or 1400 feet below the level of the sea y 

 form the most striking peculiarity of the Antarctic Ocean. Their 

 form and structure seem clearly to indicate that they were formed 

 on an extended land surface, and have been pushed out over low-lying 

 coasts into the sea. 



Ross sailed for 300 miles along the face of a great ice-barrier from 

 150 to 200 feet in height, off which he obtained depths of 1800 and 

 2400 feet. This was evidently the sea-front of a great creeping 

 glacier or ice-cap just then in the condition to give birth to the 

 table-shaped icebergs, miles in length, which have been described by 

 every Antarctic voyager. 



All Antarctic land is not, however, surrounded by such inacces- 

 sible cliffs of ice, for along the seaward faces of the great mountain- 

 ranges of Victoria Land the ice and snow which descend to the sea 

 apparently form cliffs not higher than 10 to 20 feet, and in 1895 Kris- 

 tensen and Borchgrevink landed at Cape Adare on a pebbly beach, 

 occupied by a penguin rookery, without encountering any land-ice 

 descending to the sea. Where a penguin rookery is situated, we may 

 be quite sure that there is occasionally open water for a considerable 

 portion of the year, and that consequently landing might be effected 

 without much difficulty or delay, and further that a party, once 

 landed, might with safety winter at such a spot, where the penguins; 

 would furnish an abundant supply of food and fuel. A properly 

 equipped party of observers situated at a point like this on the 

 Antarctic continent for one or two winters might carry out a most- 

 valuable series of scientific observations, make successful excursions- 

 towards the interior, and bring back valuable information as to the 

 probable thickness of the ice-cap, its temperature at different levels, 

 its rate of accumulation, and its motions, concerning all which points, 

 there is much difference of opinion among scientific men. 



Antarctic land. 



Is there an Antarctic continent ? It has already been stated that 

 the form and structure of the Antarctic icebergs indicate that they 

 were built up on, and had flowed over, an extended land surface. As 

 these bergs are floated to the north and broken up in warmer lati- 



