ANTARCTIC CONTINENT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 296, 8 September 1908, Page 5

ANTARCTIC CONTINENT.

DR. BRUCE'S INVESTIGATIONS. ... (BT TELEGRAPH—PRESS ASSOCIATION"—COPVRYGHT.) London, September 6. Dr. W. S. Brueo, addressing tho British Association in Dublin,' narrated discoveries made by the Scottish Antarctic Expedition, which, he claimed, pointed to the existence in prehistoric times of a-continent twice the size of Europe. OCEANOGRAPHICAL DISCOVER:!ES. Dr. W. S. Bruce, who not" long'ago returned from an expedition—mainly topographical and' geological—to Prince Charles Foreland (Spitzbergon), is evidently now referring to the Scottish Antarctic expedition which he led in 1502-04, in the ship Scotia.-"'His. address to the British Association is' no abiibt made, with a special bearing on his ( -'propO£ied':new .Antarctic expedition, by ,wliiph„[he seels;?,, to,extend the deep-sea investigations made .by the Scotia in the South Atlantic and''the "Weddell' and Biscoe Seas. Tho- work, painly oceanographical, is divided into three . (1) A thorough investigation of the South Atlantic Ocean and islands south of 40 degrcGs S. (2) Similar investigations in, the,, Weddell and Biscoe Seas, including . the .mapping ..out, of the limitations of these, seas; by, tho^coas.t r line of Antarctica. „• • , (3) To investigate the.' IftWds "adjacent "to' the Weddell and Biscoe Seas;~and- to -make an attempt to cross the Antarctic continent. Dr. Bruce estimates that .an expedition fitted out with one ship of about' 250 toils register, and 38 men, including six scientists, woidd cost somo £40,000. Additional fluids, including the cost of a second ship, would ''be" required' to carry out efficiently the project for tho exploration of tho land. It is estimated that the expedition would last oyer two years. The main movements of the Scotia in 1902-04 wcro as follows Leaving the Falkland Islands for tho south in January, 1003, a wide extent of unexplored examined, and many soundings wcrotaken; • < The ship was frozen in at the South Orkney Islands, where the meteorological observers remained for another year, in company with a scientific party sent from Argentina. -T-lie-Sootia-returned-to Buenos Ayres, refitted, went south again, discovered land, and finally, .came, liomo-.by-ilie-Cape of Good Hope, reaching the Clyde on July 21, 1904. ~t , „ -