Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/190

186 Ocean in the vicinity of the equator? The question is an intricate one, and its solution will be largely helped by such work as the writer wishes to undertake in a second Scottish Antarctic Expedition, when an investigation of those seas which lie between the chief field of work of the Scotia, namely, the Weddell Sea, and that of the Challenger south of 40° S., is suggested as an important part of the programme.

This idea of the spread of animal life from the Poles to the equator is not new. Professor J. Arthur Thomson points out that "The generally accepted view is that the deep sea did not become a possible home of life until perhaps Cretaceous times, until the Poles cooled and the cold water rich in oxygen sank to the great depths. The affinity between abyssal animals and those found in shallower water in boreal seas has often been pointed out, and it is probable that the deep sea was largely peopled from the poles, or in any case from the shores" (The International Geography, 1907, p. 92).

That there is a strong underflowing current south of 70° S. in the vicinity of Coats Land is certain, for on three occasions the Scotia's trawl was prevented from reaching the bottom, evidently having been swept by such a current. It is not unlikely that it is the cooled