WHEN POLAR LANDS WERE HOT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 967, 7 November 1910, Page 6

WHEN POLAR LANDS WERE HOT.

CONVINCING EVIDENCE, ißj Telegraph.—Special Correspondent.! Christchurch, November 5." • Mr. Griffith. Taylor, one of tho gee logists .of Captain Scott's expedition, who arrived in Christchurch yesterday morning, is an interesting scientist. Ho carries on his watehchain a small piece of Antarctic rock, about the size of a pea. It eame from 85deg.'south latitude, at the head of the Beardmore Glacier, and represents the southernmost rock discovered. When the specimens of this limestone rock were taken to Sydney they were broken up into tiny pieces, which were examined microscopically, .and very closely, with the result that the investigators were delighted to find in them largo numbers of fossils, which are also found in other countries, and which are amongst the oldest fossils in the world. They are the remains of an organism which seems .abe a link between the corals and the snpnges, and they are more plentiful in South Australia than in any other part of the world. Mr. Taylor accepts them as evidence of the fact that when the organisms lived there were in the South Polar seas huge reefs, allied to the coral reefs now found in warmer waters.

He further states that the theory of continental origins developed by Suess, the geologist, certainly implies land connection between' Australia and Antarctica, and he hopes that, when he is in the south with Captain Scott, he will discover fresh evidence to support the iiieory, and establish it even more firmly than it is established at present. He intends to give special, attention to the place where the fossils were found, at the head of the Beardmore Glacier. It was there that specimens of coal were found, showing that there were warmer conditions in tho region at a .iter date than that represented by the fossil organisms. He thinks that it is not at all improbable that minerals will also be found in that part of the Antarctic, and he has been advised by Professor David to specially study the district known as the "Dry Valley," where the Professor saw promising quartz formations. Mr. Taylor will also bear in mind problems discussed ■y Professor David in the latest presilcntial address before the British Association. These deal with the erosion' of land surface by mean of glaciers and ice, contrasted with erosion by water in the Antarctic. He will have the advantage of studying those geological questions. '