Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/26

22 appears to be carried over into Victoria Land, and it is obvious that both these systems on the east and on the west of the Pacific Ocean are essentially the same except for secondary modifications. In consequence, we have all coasts of the Pacific, as far as they are known, of exactly similar formation in all essential respects. To my mind, therefore, there can be no doubt that this type of coast is continuous along the Pacific coasts of Antarctica, and that the mountain system of Victoria Land and its islands links up with the mountain system of Graham Land, almost certainly excluding the possibility of a break to the east of Victoria Land by a channel across to the Weddell Sea. Neither Penck nor Darwin appears to have given sufficient consideration to the principles and characters of different coastal types in reaching the conclusions they have regarding a channel or deep inlet under the Ross Barrier across the Antarctic continent, slightly to the Pacific side of the South Pole. Evidence obtained from the distribution of ice, deep-sea deposits, and marine fauna all bears out this contention of a continuity of the land.

This great mountain chain forms, in fact, the backbone of Antarctica, and probably more or less follows the sea coast between Victoria Land and Graham Land just as it does in those lands themselves.