42 
AUSTRALASIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 
in all parts of the southern seas before a map claiming any great degree of accuracy 
can be prepared. At present it seems possible to recognise the following geographical 
districts of sea-bottom above the 1,000-fathom line separated from all other districts by 
seas of greater depth. Those from which brachiopods are known are marked with an 
asterisk. 
* Australia including Tasmania. 
*New Zealand, including Chatham, Bounty, Antipodes, Campbell, Auckland, 
Lord Howe, and Norfolk Islands. 
Kermadec Islands. 
* Macquarie Island. 
Juan Fernandez and S. Felix Islands. 
*South America, including the Falkland Islands. 
*South Georgia. 
Sandwich Islands. 
Tristan da Cunha. 
Gough Island. 
Bouvet Island. 
*South Africa. 
Madagascar. 
*Marion, Prince Edward, and Crozet Islands. 
*Kerguelen and Heard Islands. 
*St. Paul and New Amsterdam Islands. 
Balleny Islands. 
Peter Island. 
*The Antarctic, including the South Shetland and South Orkney Islands. 
Numerous other small reefs and submarine ridges. 
The number of southern districts from which brachiopods have not yet been 
obtained is thus shown to be large, and the attention of future exploring expeditions 
may be directed to the desirability of obtaining dredgings in these areas. From a 
scientific point of view more is to be gained by an expedition exploring the little known 
submarine banks of the Southern and the Pacific ocean bottoms than from a further 
Antarctic expedition. If these banks have arisen by subsidence of previous lands, 
remains of coastal faunas such as brachiopods are to be expected. If, on the other hand, 
they represent recent diastrophic uplifts of formerly deeper portions of the ocean floor, 
no such faunas can occur, and they can be inhabited only by species with abyssal range 
or modifications of such species. There is thus a practical method of testing the theory 
of the permanence of ocean basins. 
