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1487 by Bartholomew Diaz first brought explorers within touch |
of the Antarctic cold, and proved that the ocean separated Africa
from any Antarctic land that might exist. The passage of
Magellan's Strait in 1520 showed that America and Asia also
were separated from the Antarctic continent, which was then
believed to extend from Tierra del Fuego southward. The
doubling of Cape Horn by Drake in 1578 proved that the Tierra
del Fuego archipelago was of small extent and that any continent
A
30° West Longitude B

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ever died a harder death. It is not to the purpose here to describe in detail how Schouten and Le Maire rediscovered the southern extremity of Tierra del Fuego and named Cape Horn in 1615, how Quiros in 1606 took possession for the king of Spain of all the lands he had discovered in Australia del Espiritu Santo (the New Hebrides) and those he would discover "even to the Pole," or how Tasman in 1642 showed that New Holland (Australia) was separated by sea from any continuous southern continent. Meridian of o° Greenwich C 30 East Longitude

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which lay to the south must be within the region of perpetual | Voyagers round the Horn frequently met with contrary winds winter. Before this, however, vague reports of land to the south of the Malay archipelago had led European geographers to connect on their globes the coast of Tierra del Fuego with the coast of New Guinea, and allowing their imaginations to run riot in the vast unknown spaces of the south Atlantic, south Indian and Pacific oceans, they sketched the outlines of a vast continent stretching in parts into the tropics. The search for this great south land or Third World was a leading motive of explorers in the 16th and the early part of the 17th centuries, and no illusion

XXI. 31

and were driven southward into snowy skies and ice-encumbered seas; but so far as can be ascertained none of them before 1770 reached the Antarctic circle, or knew it, if they did. The story of the discovery of land in 64° S. by Dirk Gerritsz on board the "Blijde Boodschap" in 1599 has recently been shown to be the result of the mistake of a commentator, Kasper Barlaeus, in 1622. Much controversy has arisen as to whether South Georgia was sighted in 1675 by La Roche, but the point is of no importance in the development of the history of exploration. It may

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safely be said that all the navigators who fell in with the southern ice up to 1750 did so by being driven off their course and not of set purpose. An exception may perhaps be made in favour of Halley's voyage in H.M.S. "Paramour" for magnetic investigations in the South Atlantic when he met the ice in 52° S. in January 1700; but that latitude was his farthest south. A determined effort on the part of the French naval officer Pierre Bouvet to discover the South Land described by a half legendary sieur de Gonneville resulted only in the discovery of Bouvet Island in 54° 10' S., and in the navigation of 48 degrees of longitude of ice-cumbered sea nearly in 55° S. in 1739. In 1771 Yves Joseph Kerguelen sailed from France with instructions to proceed south from Mauritius in search of "a very large continent." He lighted upon a land in 50° S. which he called South France, and believed to be the central mass of the southern continent. He was sent out again to complete the exploration of the new land, and found it to be only an inhospitable island which he renamed in disgust the Isle of Desolation, but in which posterity has recognized his courageous efforts by naming it Kerguelen Land. The obsession of the undiscovered continent culminated in the brain of Alexander Dalrymple, the brilliant and erratic hydrographer who was nominated by the Royal Society to command the Transit of Venus expedition to Tahiti in 1769, a post he coveted less for its astronomical interest than for the opportunity it would afford him of confirming the truthfulness of his favourite explorer Quiros. The command of the expedition was given by the admiralty to Captain James Cook, whose geographical results were criticized by Dalrymple with a force and persistence which probably had some weight in deciding the admiralty to send Cook out again with explicit instructions to solve the problem of the southern continent.

Sailing in 1772 with the "Resolution," a vessel of 462 tons under his own command and the " Adventure " of 336 tons under Captain Tobias Furneaux, Cook first searched in vain James Cook. for Bouvet Island, then sailed for 20 degrees of longitude to the westward in latitude 58° S., and then 30° eastward for the most part south of 60° S. a higher southern latitude than had ever been voluntarily entered before by any vessel. On the 17th of January 1773 the Antarctic Circle was crossed for the first time in history and the two ships reached 67° 15′ S. in 39° 35' E., where their course was stopped by ice. There Cook turned northward to look for South France, of the discovery of which he had received news at Cape Town, but from the rough determination of his longitude by Kerguelen, Cook reached the assigned latitude 10° too far east and did not see it. He turned south again and was stopped by ice in 61° 52′ S. and 95° E. and continued eastward nearly on the parallel of 60° S. to 147° E. where on March 16th the approaching winter drove him northward for rest to New Zealand and the tropical islands of the Pacific. In November 1773 Cook left New Zealand, having parted company with the "Adventure," and reached 60° S. in 177° W., whence he sailed eastward keeping as far south as the floating ice allowed. The Antarctic Circle was crossed on the 20th of December and Cook remained south of it for three days, being 'compelled after reaching 67° 31′ S. to stand north again in 135° W. A long detour to 47° 50' S. served to show that there was no land connexion between New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego, and turning south again Cook crossed the Antarctic circle for the third time in 109° 30′ W., and four days later his progress was blocked by ice in 71° 10′ S., 106° 54′ W. This point, reached on the 30th of January 1774, was the farthest south attained in the 18th century. With a great-detour to the east, almost to the coast of South America, the expedition regained Tahiti for refreshment. In November 1774 Cook started from New Zealand and crossed the South Pacific without sighting land between 53° and 57° S. to Tierra del Fuego, then passing Cape Horn on the 29th of December he discovered the Isle of Georgia and Sandwich Land, the only ice-clad land he had seen, and crossed the South Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope between 55° and 60° S., thereby wiping out Dalrymple's continent from all the oceans and laying open the way for future Antarctic exploration by exploding the myth of a

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habitable southern continent. Cook's most southerly discovery of land lay on the temperate side of the 60th parallel, and he convinced himself that if land lay farther south it was practically inaccessible and of no economic value.

Sealers' Voyages.

Soon after Cook's return sealers set out on voyages to South Georgia both from England and America, but no clear accounts of the southern limits of their voyages before the year 1819 can now be obtained. In February of that year William Smith of the brig" Williams" trading between Monte Video and Valparaiso, rounding the Horn with a wide sweep to the south, saw land in 62° 40′ S. Repeating the voyage in October he saw the land distinctly, and named it New South Shetland. The "Williams" was chartered by the British naval commander on the Pacific station, and in 1820 Edward Bransfield, master R.N., surveyed the group and went as far as 64° 30′ among the islands. Meanwhile American sealers from Stoning, ton, Connecticut, had begun operations on the newly discovered land, and one of these, Nathaniel B. Palmer, discovered the mountainous archipelago still farther south which now bears his name. In 1821-1822 George Powell, apparently a British sealer, discovered and surveyed the South Orkney Islands which, though typical Antarctic lands, lie outside the Antarctic region,

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hausen.

A voyage only second in importance to that of Cook was planned in Russia and sent out by the emperor Alexander I. under the command of Fabian von Bellingshausen in the Bellings Vostok," with Lieut. Lazareff in the Mirni in company, both vessels being about 500 tons. The object of the expedition was to supplement that of Cook by circumnavigating the Antarctic area, taking care to keep as far south as possible in those longitudes where Cook had made his northward detours. Bellingshausen entered on his exploring work by sighting South Georgia at the end of December 1819, discovered the Traverse Islands, sighted the Sandwich group and met a solid ice-pack in 60° S., to get round which he made a wide detour, sailing east to the south of Cook's track, and getting south of the 60th parallel in 8° W. On the 26th of January he crossed the Antarctic Circle in 3° W. and by February 1st had reached 69° 25′ in 1° 11′ W., a latitude which has never been surpassed on that meridian. Being stopped by ice, Bellingshausen turned northward and then continued to the east well to the south of Cook's track, getting south again as the ice permitted and reaching 69° 6′ S. in 18° E. On this occasion he was able to sail for three degrees of longtitude within the circle before being forced north of it by a succession of heavy gales. He still kept eastward south of 65° S. and crossed the circle once more in 41° E., where the number of birds seen suggested the proximity of land, and in fact Enderby Land was not very far off, though out of sight. A storm of unexampled violence drove the ships northward, but they still held to the east south of 60° S. as far as 87° E., having followed the edge of the ice through those meridians south of Kerguelen Land where Cook had made a great detour to the north. Bellingshausen now made for Sydney to rest and refit, arriving there on the 29th of March 1820, after 131 days under sail from his last port. At Sydney Bellingshausen heard of the discovery of the South Shetlands, and leaving early in November reached the sixtieth parallel a month later in longitude 143° W., and sailing eastward kept south of that parallel through 145 degrees of longitude during sixty-five days, never out of sight of the ice, keeping close along the pack edge through the great gap left by Cook south of New Zealand. He managed to cross the circle three times more, in 164° 30′ W., in 120° W. and in 92° 10' W., where he reached 69° 52′ S., the culminating point of the voyage. As the cruise was supplementary to Cook's, no attempt was made to get south of the meridian where that great navigator made his highest latitude. On the 22nd of January 1821, the day after reaching his highest latitude, Bellingshausen sighted the first land ever seen within the Antarctic Circle, the little island named after Peter I. A week later another and larger land, named after Alexander I., was seen at a distance of 40 m. and sketches made of its bold outline in which the black rock stood out in contrast to the snow.

Bellingshausen then made for the South Shetlands, where he | stand, Biscoe brought the "Tula " into Hobart Town, Tasmania, met the American sealers, and thence returned to Russia. The voyage was a worthy pendant to that of Cook; it was carried out with a faithful devotion to instructions and consummate seamanship, and as a result it left only half the periphery of the Antarctic Circle within which land could possibly project beyond the Frigid Zone.

Weddell.

The next episode in the history of Antarctic exploration was the voyage of James Weddell, a retired master R.N., in 1823. Weddell was in command of the "Jane," a brig of 160 tons, with the cutter "Beaufoy" of 65 tons in company, and after cruising among the South Orkneys during January he started for the south on exploration, and as he was well equipped with chronometers his positions may be taken as of a far higher degree of accuracy than those of ordinary sealers. On the 20th of February he reached the highest latitude yet attained, 74° 15′ S. in 34° 17′ W., having seen much ice but no impenetrable pack, and at the farthest point the sea was clear and open, but the lateness of the season and the length of the return voyage decided him to go no farther. Weddell made interesting collections of Antarctic animals, including the type specimen of the seal which bears his name, and the book in which he describes his voyage testifies to the keenness of his observations and the soundness of his reasoning. The sea which he penetrated so far to the south he named after the reigning king, George IV., but it is now known as Weddell Sea.

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and the "Lively," with only the master, one man, and a wounded boy alive, just escaped shipwreck in Port Philip Bay. After recruiting their health and completing their crews the two captains put to sea again and spent some time in sealing on the shores of New Zealand and neighbouring islands. They started south once more, and crossed 60° S. in 131° W. on the 28th of January 1832. Biscoe kept between 60° and the Antarctic Circle, north of Bellingshausen's route, for he dared not' risk the lives of his second crew, but he got south to 67° S. in 72° W., and here, on the 14th of February, he again sighted land, which, in ignorance of Bellingshausen's discoveries in the same region, he believed was the most southerly land yet known. He named it Adelaide Land after the queen. A few days later he passed a row of low ice-covered islands-the Biscoe Islands-running from W.S.W. to E.N.E. Beyond these islands lay the mountains of an extensive land of which Biscoe took possession in the name of King William IV., and to which the name of Graham Land was subsequently given. Biscoe returned home after an arduous two months' sealing in the South Shetlands, and the splendid results of his relentless determination as an explorer won for him the gold medals of the young Geographical Societies of London and Paris.

In 1833 another of Enderbys' captains named Kemp reported the discovery of land in 66° S. and 60° E. about 10° east of Enderby Land. The last of the great voyages of Balleny.

of the "Eliza Scott " under the command of John Balleny, with the cutter "Sabrina " in company. This voyage is interesting because it was the first attempted in high latitudes from east to west, and all those made in the opposite direction had suffered much from the buffetings of head winds. Balleny left Campbell Island south of New Zealand on the 17th of January 1839 and crossed the Antarctic Circle in 178° E. on the 29th. Heavy pack ice stopped him in 69° S., a higher latitude than had previously been reached in that region. On the 9th of February, after the little vessels had been working north-westward along the edge of the pack ice for more than a week, land was seen and found to be a group of mountainous islands-the Balleny Islands-one of which rose to a height of 12,000 ft., and another was an active volcano. Captain Freeman of the "Sabrina" made a momentary landing on one of the islands and was nearly drowned in the attempt, but secured a few stones which showed the rocks to be volcanic. The vessels held on their way westward between latitudes 63° and 65° S., far south of any earlier voyager, and land, or an appearance of land, to which the name of the Sabrina was given, was reported in 121o E. In 103° 40′ E. an iceberg was passed with a rock embedded in the ice, clear proof of land existing to the southward. A few days later the "Sabrina" was lost in a gale, but Balleny returned in safety.

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In 1829 Captain Henry Foster, R.N., in H.M.S. "Chanti-exploration due to Enderby Brothers was the cruise cleer" spent some months in the South Shetlands carrying on pendulum and gravity observations at the most southerly harbour that could be found, and though he did not go south of 63° 50′ S. the careful observations which were made threw much light on the physical conditions of the Antarctic regions. The firm of Enderby Brothers of London took a conspicuous part in the exploration of the Antarctic seas during the first four decades of the 19th century. They encouraged Biscoe. the masters of the whaling and sealing craft which they sent to the southern seas to take every opportunity that offered for exploration and to fix the position of any land seen with the greatest possible accuracy. The voyage of the Enderbys' brig" Tula," under the command of John Biscoe, R.N., with the cutter "Lively " in company, is worthy to rank with Cook's and Bellingshausen's expeditions, for it repeated and advanced upon their achievements with a mere fraction of their resources. Biscoe, who apparently had never heard of Bellingshausen's discoveries, was a keen explorer and a man given to thinking over and reasoning upon all that he saw, and in many of his conclusions he was far in advance of his time. At the beginning of January 1831 Biscoe, who had been hunting vainly for seals on the Sandwich group, started on a voyage easterly to look for new islands, and in trying to get south of 60° S. he had to coast the impenetrable ice-pack as far as 10° W., and continuing he got within the Antarctic Circle in 1° E. on a track parallel to that of Bellingshausen but farther east. Contrary winds delayed the little vessels, no seal-bearing lands were to be found, but in spite of difficulties, constant danger from fogs and icebergs, and disappointed crews he held on eastward for five weeks far to the south of Cook's track, and, except at one or two points, to the south of Bellingshausen's also. Though his highest latitude was only 69° S. in 10° 43′ E. on the 28th of January, he remained south of the Antarctic Circle, or within a few miles of it, for another month, when, in longitude 49° 18′ E., he was rewarded by the discovery of land. But just as he was entering on a clear lead of water running straight for a promontory which he named Cape Ann, a terrific storm descended on the vessels, damaged them seriously and drove them helpless before it with the driving ice. A fortnight's struggle with the wind and ice brought Cape Ann into sight again on the 16th of March but the weather was not to be conquered, the sea was beginning to freeze and half the crew were helpless with the effects of exposure, so Biscoe was compelled to give up the fight and reluctantly let the land-now known as Enderby Land-drop out of sight astern. With only three men able to

Dumont
D'Urville.

About 1835 the importance of obtaining magnetic observations in the far south, and the scientific interest of the study of the south polar regions led to plans being put forward for expeditions in the United States, France and Great Britain. The French were first in the field; an expedition, equipped in the frigates "Astrolabe " and "Zelée " under Jules Dumont D'Urville for ethnographical research in the Pacific Islands, was instructed to make an attempt to surpass Weddell's latitude in the South Atlantic Ocean, and this D'Urville tried to do with conspicuous ill-success, for he never reached the Antarctic Circle though he spent the first two months of 1838 round the edge of the ice-pack south of the South Shetlands and the South Orkneys. Some portions of the land south of the South Shetlands were charted and named Joinville Island and Louis Philippe Land; but the addition to knowledge was not great. Two years later, after fulfilling the main purpose of his expedition in the Pacific, D'Urville resolved for the glory of France to attempt to reach the Magnetic Pole, towards which he was aware that a British and an American expedition were directing their course. He left Hobart Town on the 1st of January 1840, and on the 20th he crossed the 66th parallel in 140° E. and discovered land 3000

or 4000 ft. high, which he named Adélie Land and took posses- | from a prominent cape (Cape Adare) in 71° S. The continent sion of by landing on a rocky islet off the icebound coast. Ten days later in 64° 30' S. D'Urville cruised westward along a high ice-barrier, which he believed to be connected with land, from longitude 131° E. and he named it the Clarie Coast. A few days later he left the Antarctic regions for the Pacific.

Wilkes.

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As early as 1836 the United States Congress had authorized an American Exploring Expedition in the programme of which Antarctic exploration had a leading place. Lieut. Charles Wilkes was appointed to command the expedition of five vessels in August 1838, and his instructions, dated in that month, required him amongst other things (1) to follow Weddell's route as far as possible, (2) to visit the most southerly point reached by Cook in the Antarctic, and (3) to make an attempt to penetrate within the Antarctic region, south of Van Diemen's Land, and as far west as longitude 45° E., or to Enderby Land." The ships were in bad repair and illadapted for navigation in the ice, and many of the officers were not devoted to their chief; but in spite of great difficulties Wilkes fulfilled his programme. In following Weddell's route Wilkes in March 1839 fared no better than D'Urville in the previous year, but the "Flying Fish" of 96 tons under Lieutenant Walker reached 70° S. in 105° W., thus nearly reaching Cook's position of 1774. The third item of the Antarctic programme was made the subject of the most strenuous endeavour. Wilkes sailed from Sydney in the “ Vincennes on the 26th of December 1839, accompanied by the "Peacock" under Lieut. William L. Hudson, the "Porpoise" under Lieut. Cadwaladar Ringgold, and the "Flying Fish" under Lieut. Pinkney. They went south to the west of the Balleny Islands, which they did not see, and cruised westward along the ice-barrier or as near it as the ice-pack allowed towards Enderby Land nearly on the Antarctic Circle. The weather was bad with fogs, snowstorms and frequent gales, and although land was reported (by each of the vessels) at several points along the route, it was rarely seen distinctly and the officers were not agreed amongst themselves in some cases. Unfortunate controversies have arisen at intervals during sixty years as to the reality of Wilkes's discoveries of land, and as to the justice of the claim he made to the discovery of the Antarctic continent. Some of the land claimed at the eastern end of his route has been shown by later expeditions not to exist; but there can be no doubt that Wilkes saw land along the line where Adélie Land, Kemp Land and Enderby Land are known to exist, even if the positions he assigns are not quite accurate. No one, however, could establish a claim to the discovery of a continent from sighting a discontinuous chain of high land along its coast, without making a landing. It seems no more than due to a gallant and much-persecuted officer, who did his best in most difficult circumstances, to leave the name of Wilkes Land on the map of the region he explored.

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Unlike the other two expeditions, that equipped by the British government in 1839 was intended solely for Antarctic exploration and primarily for magnetic surveys in Ross. the south polar seas. There were two ships, the Erebus "of 370 tons, and the "Terror" of 340, stoutly built craft specially strengthened for navigation in the ice. Captain James Clark Ross, R.N., was in command of the "Erebus " and of the expedition; Commander Francis Rawdon Moira Crozier of the Terror." A young surgeon, Joseph Dalton Hooker, joined the Royal Navy in order to go on the expedition, and he lived to take a keen interest in every subsequent Antarctic expedition down to that of Captain Scott in 1910. Ross had intended to make straight for the meridian of the Magnetic Pole, but, finding that D'Urville and Wilkes had already entered on those seas he determined to try to make a high latitude farther east, and leaving Hobart Town on the 12th of November 1840 he crossed the Antarctic Circle on the 1st of January 1841 and entered the pack ice on the 5th in 174° E. Instead of proving an impenetrable obstacle, the pack let the two ships work through in five days, and they emerged into open sea. Sailing towards the Magnetic Pole they found a chain of great mountains rising from a coast which ran due south

was taken formal possession of for Queen Victoria by landing on Possession Island, the mainland being inaccessible, and the ships continued southward in sight of the coast of Victoria Land, where the loftiest mountain was named Mt Melbourne after the Prime Minister, until the twin volcanoes named Erebus and Terror were sighted in 78° S. on the 28th of January. From Cape Crozier, at the base of the mountains, a line of lofty cliffs of ice ran eastwards, the great ice-barrier, unlike any object in nature ever seen before, rising perpendicularly from the water to the height of 200 or 300 ft. and continuing unbroken for 250 m. Along the barrier the highest latitude of 78° 4′ S. was attained, and the farthest point to the east was 167° W., whence Ross turned to look for a winter harbour in Victoria Land. Being desirous to winter near the South Magnetic Pole, Ross did not explore McMurdo Bay between Mt Erebus and the north-running coast, where, as we now know, a harbour could have been found, and as he could not reach the land elsewhere on account of ice extending out from it for 15 or 16 m., after sighting the Balleny Islands at a great distance, on the 2nd of March the ships returned to Hobart. This was the most remarkable Antarctic voyage for striking discoveries ever made.

In November 1841 the "Erebus " and " Terror" returned to Antarctic waters, steering south-east from New Zealand and entering the ice-pack in about 60° S. and 146° W., the idea being to approach the great barrier from the eastward, but by the end of the year they had just struggled as far as the Antarctic Circle and they, together with the pack, were several times driven far to the northward by heavy gales in which the ships were at the mercy of the floating ice. During a storm of terrible severity on the 18th of January the rudders of both ships were smashed, and not until the 1st of February did they break out of the pack in 67° 29′ S., 159° W. The barrier was sighted on the 22nd and the ships reached 78° 10' S. in 161° 27′ W., the highest latitude attained for 60 years. To the eastward the barrier surface rose to a mountainous height, but although Ross believed it to be land, he would only treat it officially as "an appearance of land," leaving the confirmation of its discovery as King Edward Land to the next century. No more work was done in this quarter; the "Erebus" and "Terror" turned the edge of the pack to the northward and on getting into clear water sailed eastward to Cape Horn, meeting the greatest danger of the whole cruise on the way by colliding with each other at night while passing between two icebergs in a gale.

After wintering in the Falkland Islands and making good the damage received, Ross made his third and last attack on the southern ice, and for six weeks he cruised amongst the pack off Joinville Island and Louis Philippe Land trying in vain to reach the Antarctic Circle. Failing in this attempt he turned to follow Weddell's route and skirted the pack eastward in 65° S., crossing Weddell's track on the 14th of February 1843, more than a degree farther south than D'Urville in his attempt four years before, but on the edge of an equally impenetrable pack. Coasting it eastward to 12° W. the "Erebus and "Terror" at last rounded the pack and found the way open to the south, crossing the circle on the 1st of March. Four days later the pack was met with again and the ships were forced into it for 27 miles to latitude 71° 30′ S. in 14° 51′ W., nineteen degrees east of Weddell's farthest south. No sign of land was seen, a deep-sea sounding showed 4000 fathoms with no bottom, and although this was a mistake, for the real depth was later proved by Dr Bruce to be only 2660 fathoms, it showed at least that there was no land in the immediate neighbourhood.

This was Ross's last piece of Antarctic work, but the magnetic observations of his expedition were continued by Lieut. T. E. L. Moore, R.N., in the hired barque "Pagoda," which left Simon's Bay in January 1845 and proceeded south-east, crossing the Antarctic Circle in 30° 45′ E. and reaching a farthest south of 67° 50′, nine degrees farther east. An attempt to reach Enderby Land was frustrated by the weather, and Moore continued his

voyage to Australia in a high latitude beating against contrary gales, a condition to which all previous experience pointed as likely to occur.

No further attempt at South Polar exploration was made for nearly thirty years, except a short cruise by Mr Tapsell in the "Brisk," one of Enderby's ships which in February "Challen- 1850, after passing the Balleny Islands, proceeded ger." eastward to 143° E. at a higher latitude than Wilkes without sighting land. The first steamer to cross the Antarctic Circle was H.M.S. " Challenger," on the 16th of February 1874: she only penetrated to 66° 40′ S., in 78° 30' E., south of Kerguelen Land; but she continued her course to Australia for some distance in a high latitude, passing within 15 m. of the position assigned to Wilkes's Termination Land without seeing any sign of land. Her dredgings and soundings yielded evidence as to the nature of the unknown region farther south. Sir John Murray believed that the soundings showed a general shoaling of the ocean towards the Antarctic ice, indicating the approach to a continent. By collecting and analysing all samples of deep-sea deposits which had been secured from the far south, he discovered a remarkable symmetry in the arrangement of the deposits. The globigerina ooze, or in deeper waters the red clay, carpeting the northern part of the Southern Oceans, merges on the southward into a great ring of diatom ooze, which gives place in turn, towards the ice, to a terrigenous blue mud. The fine rock particles of which the blue mud is composed are such as do not occur on oceanic islands, and the discovery of large blocks of sandstone dropped by icebergs proved the existence of sedimentary rocks within the Antarctic Circle.

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Dallmann. of the Antarctic land south of Tierra del Fuego, and

modified the chart in several particulars. The chief discovery was a channel, named Bismarck Strait, in 65° S., which seemed to run between Palmer Land and Graham Land.

When the International Circumpolar observations were set on foot in 1882, two scientific stations were maintained for a year in the southern hemisphere in order to obtain data for comparison with the observations at twelve stations round the North Pole. One of these was occupied by French observers in Tierra del Fuego in 55° S., the other by German observers at Royal Bay on South Georgia in 54° 30′ S. The magnetic and meteorological observations were of considerable importance.

In 1892 four steamers of the Dundee whaling fleet-the "Balaena,' 99 66 Active," ," "Diana" and "Polar Star "-went out to test Ross's statement that the "right whale" inhabited Antarctic waters. The surgeons of two of the vessels on the 66 Balaena "Dr W. S. Bruce, on the "Active" Dr C. W. Donald -were selected for their scientific tastes, and equipped with all requisite instruments for observations and collecting. The result of the experiment was disappointing. No whales were obtained, and the ships devoted their attention to sealing on the east of Joinville Island and Louis Philippe Land, not going farther south than 65° S. (Geographical Journal, 1896, vii. 502-521, 625-643).

reaching the Antarctic Circle on the 9th of November without meeting ice. This was the first time the Antarctic Circle had been crossed since the " Challenger " did so twenty years before. Captain Evensen sighted Alexander Land, and without experiencing any trouble from ice-floes he reached his farthest south, 69° 10' S. in 76° 12′ W. (Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft, Hamburg, 1895, PP. 245-304).

Borchgre.

In 1894 the well-known Norwegian whaler, Svend Foyn, sent out one of his vessels, the " Antarctic, " Captain Christensen, to try his luck off the coast of Victoria Land. The “Antarctic" sailed from Melbourne in September, vink, 1894. having on board Carstens Egeberg Borchgrevink, a young Norwegian resident in Australia, who, being determined to take part in a voyage he could join in no other way, shipped as an ordinary seaman. He made notes of the voyage, and published an account of it on his return to Europe (Report of Sixth International Geographical Congress, London, 1895, pp. 169-175). The "Antarctic" entered the pack in 62° 45′ S., 171° 30′ E., on the 8th of December 1894. The Balleny Islands were sighted on the 14th of December, and Cape Adare on Victoria Land two days later. On the 22nd of January 1895 the farthest point was reached at Coulman Island in 74° S.; the sea was then easily navigable to the south. On the 23rd of January a small party, including the captain and Mr Borchgrevink, landed on the mainland near Cape Adare, the first people to set foot on the Antarctic continent.

Efforts had been made from time to time, by Professor Georg von Neumayer in Germany and by Sir John Murray and others in Great Britain, to induce learned societies to inGerlache;

During the southern summer in which the " Challenger augurate a new era of scientific Antarctic research "Belgica." visited Antarctic waters, a German whale-ship, the " Grönland," | under Government or at least under national auspices. under Captain Dallmann, visited the western coast In 1895 Sir Clements Markham, as president of the Royal Geographical Society and of the International Geographical Congress, also took the matter up, and interest in the Antarctic regions began to be aroused in every civilized country. Captain Adrien de Gerlache organized and led a Belgian expedition, for which he raised the funds with difficulty. M. Georges Lecointe, captain of the "Belgica," and Lieut. Danco, magnetic observer, were Belgians; Mr Roald Amundsen, the mate, a Norwegian; M. Arctowski, the geologist and physicist, a Pole; M. Racovitza, the biologist, a Rumanian; and Dr F. A. Cook, the surgeon, an American. On the 14th of January 1898, already long past midsummer, the "Belgica," left Staten Island for Antarctic waters. She sighted the South Shetlands on the 21st and proceeded to Hughes Gulf, from which a channel, Gerlache Strait, was explored leading south-westward between continuous land, named Danco Land, on the east (the northern extension of Graham Land), and Palmer Land on the west. Palmer Land was found to be a group of large islands. On the 12th of February the "Belgica" reentered the open sea to the west at Cape Tuxen in 65° 15′ S. Much fog was experienced, but on the 16th Alexander Land was sighted in the distance. Continuing on a westerly course, the 'Belgica" made every effort to enter the pack, which was successfully accomplished after a heavy storm on the 28th. By taking advantage of the leads, the expedition advanced to 71° 30′ S. in 85° 15′ W. by the 2nd of March, but the ship was blocked next day by the growth of young ice soldering the pack into one continuous mass. For more than a year further independent movement was impossible; but the ship drifted with the ice between the limits of 80° 30′ W. and 102° 10' W., and of 69° 40′ and 71° 35′ S., which was the highest latitude attained (May 31, 1898). The sun did not rise for seventy days, and all on board suffered severely from depression of spirits and disorders of the circulation, which Dr Cook attributed to the darkness and to improper food. Lieut. Danco died during the period of darkness. On the 13th of March 1899, when a second winter in the ice began to seem probable, the “Belgica " was released in 69° 50′ S. and 102° 10' W. The geographical results of this expedition were insignificant so far as the discovery of land or penetration to a high latitude is concerned. The ship passed several times to the south and west of Peter I. Island, proving that the land seen by Bellingshausen at that

Larsen.

A Norwegian sealer, the " Jason," Captain Larsen, also visited those seas in the same season, but the captain landed and collected fossils at several points north of 65° S. In 1893-1894 the "Jason," accompanied by two other Norwegian vessels, the "Hertha" and the " Castor," returned to the Antarctic and entered the ice-laden waters in November at the very beginning of summer. Captain Larsen in the " Jason "made his way as far south as 68° 10′ in 60° W. on the eastern side of Graham Land, but several miles from the coast, which was bordered by a high ice-barrier. The land beyond this barrier was named Foyn Land, after a famous Norwegian whaleship owner. Returning northwards, two small islands, Lindenberg and Christensen, were discovered and found to be active volcanoes. Meanwhile the "Hertha," Captain Evensen, had reached the South Shetlands on the 1st of November 1893, and worked her way southward along the west side of Palmer Land and past the Biscoe Islands,

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