Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/238

234 acquire much importance when considered in connection with the very abnormal results obtained by the Discovery.

At Scotia Bay "the tides seem to be normal for a place in the Southern Ocean."

One of the most remarkable results of tidal observations taken in the Antarctic Regions, is the belief expressed by Sir George Darwin (Proc. Royal Soc., A vol. 84, 1910) that those observations taken during Shackleton's expedition reveal a sea-seiche. These sea-seiches are known to exist in different parts of the world, and have been specially observed in many Japanese bays; but Sir George Darwin points out that in none of the examples given "has the seiche a period at all comparable with that of which we have reason to suspect the existence in the Antarctic Sea," namely, a three-day period. From these observations Darwin makes a "guess," and says, "I guess then that the bay behind the (Ross) barrier stretches past the South Pole and a little to the east of it as far as latitude 80°. Such an inlet would have a length of 25° to 30° of latitude. "A sea of from 100 to 150 fathoms in such an immense bay as has been conjectured would oscillate with a period of three days, and the observed results are seen to be consistent with the existence of a deep inlet, almost or quite cutting the Antarctic continent in two."