ANTARCTIC MYSTERIES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18158, 2 August 1922, Page 7

ANTARCTIC MYSTERIES.

DIAMOND PROSPECTS. SUBMARINE FORESTS. Members of the Shackleton-Rowett expedition seriously suggest that diamond# exist in Antarctica. A small island near South Georgia was found to contain a large excavation. The Quest's "joineralogist panned the sfil and declared it was most certainly the type of alluvial which carries diamonds. Yellow quartz was also unearthed. The laole was made by a Capetown expedition which prospected thai island for five months as the resoH'. of the report of a private prospector, who produced diamonds said to have been found on the island. It is probable that a second attempt will bo made to locate diamondiiferous grouxd by a Capetown fishery company. Some wonderful features of the mystery and romance of deep-sea life around the shores of tha lonely, barren islands- and in the open waters of the South Atlantic and Antarctic regions, were related by Captain Womley, the sailing master of the Quest. He showed how the task of taking soundings might reveal the hidden secrets of adjacent, continents; how islands iaay be regarded as signposts to former tracka from continent to continent, and hew ocean depths may yet become an open book wherein may be revealed the history of early days of land and sea and perhape the rise and fall of continents lost and found. - y ;; Gigantic marine forests were duioovered and new fishing grounds located. The Antarctic waters were found to be, alive with edible fish. The dospost soundings were taken about 500 miles east ofthe South Sandwich group, where a depth of 2700 fathoms trae registered. . - Approaching 'fierra del Fuego, the Quest ran into kelp at an unusually long distance from the shore. Soundings showed a depth of ICO fathoms, so these marine trees, whose tops were just visible above the water, exceeded the height of tie tallest land trees by 150 ft. Fish in the Antarctic were so plentiful that it waft unnecessary to bait ti,e hooka.