448 



Sir A. Ge'kie. 



volcanic ring or " circle of fire," which nearly surrounds the vast 

 basin of the Pacific Ocean, stretches southwards into New Zealand. 

 The few observations that have been made in the scattered islands 

 further south show that the Auckland, Campbell, and Macquarrie 

 groups consist of, or at least include, materials of volcanic origin. 

 Still further south, along the same general line, Mr. Borchgrevink 

 has recently (1894- 95) made known the extension of Ross's volcanic 

 region of Mount Erebus northwards to Cape Adare, the northern 

 promontory of Victoria Land. He noticed there the apparent 

 intercalation of lava and ice, while bare snowless peaks seemed still 

 further to point to the continued activity of the volcanic fires. 

 Some specimens, brought by Captain Jenssen, from Possession 

 Island were found by Mr. Teall to be highly vesicular hornblende- 

 basalt ;' while one from Cape Adare was a nepheline-tephrite. 

 This region is probably one of the most interesting volcanic tracts 

 on the face of the globe. Yet we can hardly be said to know more 

 of it than its mere existence. The deeply interesting problems 

 which it suggests cannot be worked out by transitory voyagers. 

 They must be attacked by observers stationed on the spot. Ross 

 thought that a winter station might be established near the foot of 

 Mount Erebus, and that the interior could easily be traversed from 

 there to the magnetic pole. 



But it is not merely in Victoria Land that Antarctic volcanoes 

 may be studied. Looking again at the globe, we observe that the 

 American volcanic band is prolonged in a north and south line 

 down the western side of the southern continent. That it has been 

 continued into the chain of the South Shetlands and Graham Land 

 is proved by the occurrence there of old sheets of basalt, rising in 

 terraces over each other, sometimes to a height of more than 

 7,000 feet above the sea. These denuded lavas may be as old as 

 those of our Western Isles, Earoe, Iceland, and Greenland. But 

 that volcanic activity is not extinct there has recently been found 

 by Captain Larsen, who came upon a group of small volcanoes form- 

 ing islets along the eastern coast line of Graham Land. It is 

 tantalising to know no more about them. 



Another geological field where much fresh and important infor- 

 mation might be obtained by Antarctic exploration is that of ice 

 and ice action. Our northern hemisphere was once enveloped in 

 snow and ice, yet although for more than half a century geologists 

 have been studying the traces of the operations of this ice covering, 

 they are still far from having cleared up all the difficulties of the 

 study. The Antarctic ice-cap is the largest in the world. Its 

 behaviour could probably be watched along many parts of its 

 margin, and this research would doubtless afford great help in the 

 interpretation of the glaciation of the northern hemisphere. 



