Especially will this be the case where the snowfall is
great.
Under such conditions, it appears that the only extensive body of
shallow water extending from the ice-clad southern continent is the
shoal channel which separates the South Shetlands from Cape Horn,
which is a region of great snowfall. Therefore, should the antarctic
ice gain sufficient thickness to rest on the bottom of this shallow
sea, it would move into the Cape Horn channel, and eventually close
it. The ice growth would not be entirely from the southern continent,
but also from lands in the region of Cape Horn. Thus the antarctic
continent and South America would be connected by an isthmus of ice,
and consequently the independent circulation of the Southern Ocean
arrested. Hence it will be seen that the westerly winds, instead of
blowing the surface waters of the Southern Ocean constantly around the
globe, as they are known to do to-day, would instead blow the surface
waters away from the easterly side of the ice-formed isthmus, which
would cause a low sea level along its Atlantic side, and this low sea
level would attract the tropical waters from their high level against
Brazil well into the southern seas, and so wash the antarctic
continent to the eastward of the South Shetlands.
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