SUB-ANTARCTICA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 69, 14 December 1907, Page 7

SUB-ANTARCTICA.

'LECTURE BY .ME. J.. S.. TENNANT... Mr. - : J. S.'Tenriant, Assistant-Inspector of Schools uudcr the' Wellington Education Hoard, and "a member of the recent scientific expedition to.tho Auckland Islands, delivered an'interesting lecture to an- audience of''.teachers-at.-St;'.'.John's Schoolroom last evening. : The '■•lecturer was'- introduced, by Mr. William Foster, President of the Wellington Teachers'.. Institute. There , was a fair,,audionce. Referring to tho general results'.of ' the-expedition, • the lecturer said that the'soasori of the year was not favourable .for ; . botanical, zoological, and entomological observations. ■ The expedition was primarily _ organised for the purposes of a magnetic' Purvey •of the Southern The expedition, after leaving Stewart Island, called at The Snares, "a wonderful and romarkablo group," said tho lecturor.' Great interest'was taken in i the penguins. They built no nests, but their rookeries we're everywhere, on baro, rocks, in the scrub, among' tussocks, and oven ,in -th.o"swamps. The botanical species of the §roup wero few, only-about forty or fifty varieties being observed. :/Tho. animals wore chiefly sea-lions, some "of them of tremendous sizo. The-lec-turer exhibited a' specimen of sea-lion skin, which was of a coarser' appearance than tho ordinary seal skin;' One of tho largest of the sea-lions had been -secured for the Newtown. Museum. , The party then set Bail for the Auckland Islands,, about 200 miles distant; and landed at. l'ort Ross, .named after Sir/ James. Ross, (of. the Erebus; and.Terror Antarctic , Expeditions).' ]Tho , lecturer '■ tietailed .':tho principal geological, /zoological, and botanical, points'of interest, in tho Auckland Islands!' Granite was. present, and sedimentary rocks were observed on Disappointment Island; ,Traces of lignite coal .seams wore noticed.'' pbservations taken jalong the cliffs on tho. western side . showed layers of" volcanic flow,'. almost ' horizontal, • and shorn off by the action of tho sea. It was practically a vortical section of tho island. Sir; Speight; the; geologist,' counted;, twentynino layers in one place, and forty-two in another.' The late Sir James Hector had counted seventy layers. It had boon suggested that the island had formerly been a volcanic, 'cone, 8000 feet high. There were numerous coincidences of glacial' action in the valleys and inlets along tho coast. Thoro was .art intimate connection between these outlying islands and Now Zealand, as soundings' did not exceed 196 fathoms between the mainland and The Snares Group. An interesting exhibition of lantern views was &hen shown,. the ■ lecturer being assisted by Mr. W. C. I)avics ; Instructor in Agriculture under 'the Education Board.