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CHAKACTERISTICS AND DISTRIBUTION OF LAKES 649 
crust spout innumerable small jets of boiling water. This flat is 
known as the " Frying Pan.'' 
The Southern Crater, the most south-westerly of all the craters 
along the line of the great rift, lies about 200 yards south-west of 
the " Frying Pan." Like most of the other craters, it is bordered by 
precipitous walls. It is filled by a pond of greenish water 50 or 60 
yards across by 100 yards in length, and 60 or 80 feet deep. Some 
years ago the crater was quite dry. Unlike the other craters, it shows 
no sign of thermal activity. 
ANTARCTIC LAKES i 
At Cape Royds on Ross Island (latitude about 77° 30' S.) the 
British Antarctic Expedition, 1907-9, found many small lakes 
occupying rock-basins. The smaller ones melted in summer, but 
those over 5 feet in depth did not even partially melt in the two 
summers when they were under observation. A few soundings were 
made by digging shafts in the ice. The deepest sounded — Blue Lake 
— had 5 feet of water under 21 feet of ice. In another place Blue 
Lake was frozen to the bottom (at 15 feet). The bed was of gravel 
in angular pieces, covered with a thin film of yellowish vegetation. 
Coast Lake, about 4 feet deep, had a thick layer of a soft peaty 
deposit. Few of these lakes had any overflow to the sea. One lake, 
separated from the sea only by a broad stretch of flat gravelly beach, 
had its surface 18 feet below sea-level. 
Vegetation, in the form of broad, lichen-like sheets of an orange- 
coloured plant, covered the beds of the lakes, and on it were myriads 
of microscopic animals. These animals (Rotifers, etc.) showed them- 
selves capable of living in the adult condition frozen in the ice for a 
number of years. There were few plankton organisms in the open 
water, nothing being seen but some blue-green Algas (Oscillatoria, 
etc.), some Infusoria, and a Rotifer (in one lake only). 
SUMMARY 
The foregoing review of the principal lakes and lake-regions of the 
world is necessarily incomplete and fragmentary : at the present time 
our knowledge of the physical and biological conditions in many of 
these lakes is very meagre, but is rapidly extending in all directions. 
We may look forward to interesting additions to the science of 
1 See notes by James Murray in Sliackleton, The Heart of the Antarctic, 
London, 1909. 
