Antarctic Synonyms

For purposes of measurement the polar boundaries are taken to be the Arctic and Antarctic circles, although in discussing the configuration and circulation it is impossible to adhere strictly to these limits.

To these might be added the antarctic, which is still very imperfectly known.

America, broadening in the north as if to span the oceans by reaching to its neighbours on the east and west, tapering between vast oceans far to the south where the nearest land is in the little-known Antarctic regions, roughly presents the triangular outline that is to be expected from tetrahedral warping; and although greatly broken in the middle, and standing with the northern and southern parts out of a meridian line, America is nevertheless the best witness among the continents of to-day to the tetrahedral theory.

The alpine flora, beginning at 6000 ft., is specially characterized by its rhododendrons, pines (Araucaria and Libocedrus), and palms, by numerous superb species of Agapetes (Ericaceae), and on the summits by an extraordinary association of species characteristically European (Rubus, Ranunculus, Leontodon, Aspidium), Himalayan, New Zealandian (Veronica), Antarctic and South American (Drymus, Libocedrus).

Excepting the barren lands of the Antarctic regions, with which Patagonia is somewhat associated by a broken string of islands, the nearest continental lands of a more habitable kind are South Africa and New Zealand., In contrast to the sub-Arctic land ring, here is a sub-Antarctic ocean ring, and as a result the land flora and fauna of South America to-day are strongly unlike the life forms of the other south-ending continents.