The Southern Ocean system of the Victorian Dividing Range hardly attains to the dignity of high mountains.
Some of these lake-beds are at or slightly below sea-level, so that a very slight depression of the land to the south of them would connect much of the interior with the Southern Ocean.
The North Atlantic being altogether cut off from the Arctic regions, and the vertical circulation being active, this movement is here practically non-existent; but in the South Atlantic, where communication with the Southern Ocean is perfectly open, Antarctic water can be traced to the equator and even beyond.
But it is in the Southern Ocean that Petrels most abound, both as species and as individuals.
It extends E northward to the Arctic Basin and southward to the Great Southern Ocean.
