436 



Sir J. D. Hooker. 



it push foreign matter before it ? Is the perfectly tabular form 

 of the Antarctic icebergs compatible with any differential movement 

 in the parent mass at all ; or does it not indicate, on the contrary, a 

 condition of immobility until their buoyancy lifts great fragments 

 off ? What is the condition of the rocks on which they rest ? Is 

 there any thrust upon the mass from the mountain ranges on which 

 the gathering ground lies ? Or is the whole country one vast gather- 

 ing ground from the continual excess of precipitation over melting ? 

 These questions, and a hundred others, have to be solved by 

 Antarctic discovery; and until they are solved we cannot argue 

 with security on the geological history of our own now temperate 

 regions. The Antarctic continent is unquestionably the region of 

 the earth in which glacial conditions are at their maximum, and 

 therefore it is the region in which we must look for all the informa- 

 ation attainable towards, perhaps, the most difficult problem with 

 which geological science has to deal. 



Remarks by Sir J. _D. Hooker. 



Dr. Murray's admirable summary of the scientific information 

 obtainable by an organised exploration of the Antarctic regions 

 leaves nothing further to be said under that head. I can only 

 record the satisfaction with which I heard it, and my earnest hope 

 that it will lead to action being taken by the Government in the 

 direction indicated. 



Next to a consideration of: the number and complexity of the 

 objects to be attained by an Antarctic expedition, what dwells most 

 in my imagination is the vast area of the unknown region which is to 

 be the field for investigation — a region which in its full extension 

 reaches from the latitude of 60° S. to the Southern Pole, and em- 

 braces every degree of longitude. This is a very considerable 

 portion of the surface of the globe, and it is one that has been con- 

 sidered to be for the most part inaccessible to man. I will therefore 

 ask you to accompany the scientific explorer no further than to the 

 threshold of the scenes of his labours, that you may see how soon 

 and how urgently be is called upon to study some of those hitherto 

 unsolved Antarctic problems that he will there encounter. 



In latitude 60° S. an open ocean girdles the globe without break 

 of continuity. Proceeding southwards in it, probably before reach- 

 ing the Artarctic circle, he encounters the floating ice fields which 

 form a circumpolar girdle, known as " the Pack," approximately con- 

 centric with the oceanic, interrupted in one meridian only, that 

 south of Cape Horn, by the northern prolongation of Graham's 

 Land. Pursuing his southward course in search of seas or lands 

 beyond, after the novelty of his position in the pack has worn off, he 



