Review of Recent Geological Literature. 
243 
Prof. Packard, so far as he is reported, well notes the chief 
characteristics of the invertebrate fauna of Kerguelen island, 
but refrains from drawing conclusions as to formerly greater 
land extension in the Antarctic region. 
Dr. Gill’s review of the fishes, batrachians, and reptiles of 
the land is partly summarized thus: “In finally taking into 
consideration the limited distribution northwards and the 
close relationship of the species of the several regions referred 
to, it was urged that the evidence in favor of a former Ant¬ 
arctic continental area was strong, and, in view of the affini¬ 
ties of the species of the now distant regions, the conclusion 
was logical that the time of disruption was not remote in a 
geological sense. It was suggested that such disruption might 
have been coeval with the final uplift of the Andes.” 
Dr. Allen, from his study of the birds and mammals, be¬ 
lieves, on the other hand, that “ there seems to be very slight 
need for calling in the aid of a former Antarctic continent to 
explain their present distribution.” 
Lastly, Dr. Gill infers, from the scanty knowledge of marine 
vertebrate life in the southern circumpolar seas, “that the sup¬ 
posititious Antarctic continent may have been in all Tertiary 
geologic times at least deeply indented by extensions of the 
ocean far towards the Pole.” 
It is fervently to be hoped that an expedition will erelong 
spend a part of the summer, or, better still, a whole year, in 
observations on the meteorologic and magnetic conditions in 
the vicinity of the southern magnetic pole, and on the geology 
of portions of the land not ice-enveloped, including the acces¬ 
sible volcanic summits of Mts. Erebus and Terror; and that 
journeys will also be made to considerable distances and alti¬ 
tudes upon the ice-sheet of that region, affording exact terms 
for its comparison wfith the Greenland ice-sheet and with those 
of North America and northern Europe in the Glacial period. 
_w. u. 
REVIEW OF RECENT GEOLOGICAL 
LITERATURE. 
Greenland Icefields , and Life in the North Atlantic; with a New 
Discussion of the Causes of the Ice Age. By G. Frederick Wright 
and Warren Upham. Pages xv, 407; with nine maps, and 63 plates 
