THE CHALLENGER 361 
The Challenger left the Antarctic question in this posi- 
tion: there is undoubtedly a continent within the Ant- 
arctic circle covered for the most part with an immensely 
thick coating of ice. Sir John Murray, taking account of 
every indication, drew a hypothetical outline of that 
continent which subsequent discovery has not as yet 
materially modified. More than this, the study of the 
Challenger’s meteorological investigations indicated, as 
was clearly shown by Sir John Murray and Dr. A. Bu- 
chan, that an area of permanently high atmospheric press- 
ure lies over the ice-bound continent around the South 
Pole. 
We have seen how the researches of the mathe- 
matician Gauss in terrestrial magnetism led directly to 
the great Antarctic expeditions at the dawn of the Vic- 
torian era. It is not too much to say that the work of the 
Challenger and the discussions of that work by various 
men of science, brought about the still greater expeditions 
of the beginning of the twentieth century. 
