The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1892-07-09
LAND OF MYSTERY.
Little Is Known of the South
Pole Region.
A Region Twice as Big as Europe.
Where Mammals Are Said to Have
Originated-A Commercial Object
to Be Served by Its Exploration.

Originated-A Commercial Object
to Be Served by Its Exploration.
| The South Pole has always been re-
/ garded as land of mystery and wonder.
/ Up to the present day what has been
written about the continent of the Antarc-
tic is limited almost wholly to the imag-
NATIVE. Several bold explorers like
| Ross and Wilkes have circumnayigated
1t, marking its outlines crudely upon
! their charts. But the forbidding coast
line, walled at all points with ice cliffs
/ and tringed with fields of ice, has pre-
vented any attempt to penetrate into the
interior. Thus it appears that this strange
region, twice as big as Europe, and hay-
ing an area Of 100000 square miles, is
altogether terra incognita. That it viii
remain such much longer is not likely,
/ because science has lately directed its at
tention to projects for expeditions in that
| direction. Although the one that was
! recently contemplated from Australia is
not likely to be carried out, owing to the
lack OF funds, the Washington Sju7' thinks
others Will doubtless be organized and
achieved.
Most people would be inclined to con-
slider that the objects TO be attained by an
! exploration of the Antarctic continent
| were not Of sufficient importance to pay
! Tor the trouble, expense and danger in
! VOWED. W hat satisfactory purposes can
| be gained by investigating region which
! IS nothing more than a vast ice-cap, sur
rounding the neither pole of the earth,
| having no fauna nor flora, and exhibit
/ ing geographically nothing more inter
| eStlng than diversity of rugged mount
| ans and raYineS, covered with eternal
! glaciers? Nevertheless a little study of
the subject proves that this is far from
! being correct view of the matter. The
! geology alone of this mysterious country
should afford vast amount of most en-
| PERTAINING instruction. In no other part
| OF the whole world do frost and fire hold
such divided sway, numerous, lofty vol
canoes belching forth lava and ashes over
/ the snow and ice.
GLACIERS UNDER LAVA CRUST.
Now, volcanoes are built out of the
products Of their own eruption, each one
| consisting of debris piled around a vent
Lava and ashes surround the crater with
| alternate layers. But in this polar region
strata Of snow falling at intervals must
| lie between the layers of ashes and lava
1t would naturally be imagined that the
volcanic ejecta would quickly melt the
snow upon which they drop but this is
! IlO1 So DCNdllSG IIlG dSIlGS Uu1O" IL OUG Dy
the volcanoes fall quite cold, form cake
and make one of the best non-conductors
| known. When such layer few inches
! thick is spread over snow even molten
| lava may flow over it without melting
the snow beneath. This has been fire.
quently observed, glaciers being some
| Tunes actually sealed up under crust of
lava. 1t is further supposed that great
masses of pure iron and nickel may be
! found in the mountains Of the Antarctic
| continent, similar to those which have
| been discovered far toward the North
! Pole. The interest taken in these metal
! lie masses arises from the fact that they
alone, OF all such deposits in the world,
resemble in composition the fragments
/ cast upon the earth from the outer uni
verse and called "meteorites."
| In all probability an investigation of
the rock formations of the Antarctic con-
! tlnent would tell wonderful story of its
| history In ages past. 1t has been ascer-
| tanned from abundant fossil deposits, dis
covered in North Greenland and else
| where IN the not distant neigh borhood of
| the North Pole, that the Arctic circle for
merly enjoyed a climate approaching the
! tropical. That region is proved by such
evidence to have been at one time COW
| cred with a luXuriant vegetation. Where
at present all is ice and desolation va
ried forms of animal and vegetable life
| itOuriShed. 1t seems likely the corre-
| spending conditions at one or more pc
RODS existed in the vicinity of the South
! Pole. Science now holds the opinion that
| millions of years ago there was an enor-
nous land mass in that part of the world,
which has since sunk to the bottom OF the
! sea. 1t was clothed with trees and YER
dure, and many flowing rivers filled
with fishes, and was alive with beasts,
| birds and insects.
| This vanished country was, perhaps,
! ~
mighty archipelago. Whichever it was,
it afforded opportunities for travel and
| distribution to numerous species of land
animals and fresh water fishes, which
now are common to Australia, New Tea
land, South America and the isolated
| isles of the Southern Ocean. No other
| theory will account satisfactorily for the
| existence of these creatures, belonging to
the same families. in localities so widely
separated by expanses of sea.
GEOLOGY OF THE LOST CONTINENT.
Evidence to the same effect is afforded
| by mollusks and by plants. Moreover, a
| further and peculiar interest attaches to
this lost continent. There are many rea-
sons for believing that the higher forms
| of life represented by the mammals-apes.
cats, dogs, bears, oxen, etc.-originated
! there. Biologists trace the history and
! development of the animal creation by
means of the fossil remains of the Great
ures which they find buried in the strata
of the rocks: but there are gaps in the
story which the rocks must tell, and
most important of them is the one that
comes in at the close Of the mesozoic
epoch.
During that epoch there were no MAN.
mails. Reptiles ruled creation, many of
them of gigantic size, attaining a length
| of eighty feet or more. Some were her.
! bivorous, while others of carnivorous
habits, equipped with natural weapons
astonishingly formidable, fed upon them.
| While some lived on the land, others
swan in the seas, and others yet flew in
the air. They were all wiped off the face
seem, conditions, climatic and otherwise,
| that were unfavorable TO them having ar
rived. In the strata Immediately cover
ing their remains are discovered those of
for