ANTARCTIC MYSTERIES.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 August 1922, Page 5

ANTARCTIC MYSTERIES.

DIAMOND PROSPECTS. Members of the Shackleton-Rowett expedition seriously suggest t. ..t diamonds exist in Antarctica. A small island near South Georgia was found to contain a large excavation. The Quest’s mineralogist panned the soil and declared it was most certainly the type of alluvial which carries diamonds. Yellow quartz was also unearthed. The hole was made by a Capetown expedition which p- pected the island for five months as the result of the report of a private prospector* who produced diamonds said to have been found on the island. It is probable that a second at- ; tempt will be made to indicate diamondiferous ground by a Capetown fishery company. Some wonderful features of the mystery and romance of deep sea life around the shores of the lonely, barren islands, and in the open waters of the South Atlantic and Antarctic regions, were related by Captain Worsley, the sailing master of the Quest. He showed how the task of taking soundings might reveal the hidden secrets of adjacent continents; how islands may be regarded as signposts to former tracts from continent to continent, and how ocean depths may yet become an open book wherein may be revealed the history of early days of land and sea and perhaps the rise and fall of continents lost and found.

Gigantic, marinei forests were discovered and new fishing grounds located. The Antarctic waters ware found to be alive with edible fish. The deepest soundings were taken about 500 miles east of the South', Sandwich group, where a depth of 2700 fathoms was registered. Approaching Terra del Fuego, the Quest ran into kelp at an unusually long distance from the shore. Soundings showed a depth of POO fathoms, so these marine trees, whose tops were just visible above the water, exceeded the height of the tallest land trees by 150 ft. Fish in the Antarctic were so plentiful rthat it was unnecessary to bait the .hooks.