II. 



Antarctic Exploration. 



THE restless activity and love of adventure which characterised the 

 mariners of the Elizabethan era, and urged them on through 

 difficulty and danger to cross the threshold of the unknown and to 

 open up the seas of the world to the commerce of their native land, 

 has lost none of its intensity and is as powerful in the Victorian age 

 as in that of the Virgin Queen. As the area for exploration became 

 less and less, and sea after sea yielded up its secrets, there remained 

 for conquest only the ice-bound waters which surround the poles ; 

 and the problem of the " North-West passage " was persistently 

 attacked, until its ultimate solution proved the worthlessness of the 

 quest. Then Nordenskjold forced his way from the North Atlantic 

 eastward to the Pacific, to be followed by Wiggins, who is still 

 engaged in his life's object of opening a trade route through the Kara 

 Sea to the mighty rivers of northern Siberia, while Nansen, after 

 having conquered the Greenland ice-cap, has embarked on the daring 

 attempt to enter a supposed polar current, and drift with the ice 

 across the Pole itself. So far from the glamour of the Arctic having 

 lost its spell, its votaries are more numerous than ever, and all the 

 maritime nations are pressing northward in a race for the Pole. 



Of all these aspirants to polar fame few think of winning distinc- 

 tion for themselves and their country by exploring the seas of the 

 Antarctic regions. Since 1774, when Cook in his wonderful second 

 voyage reached Latitude 71 10' S., the 70th parallel of South Latitude 

 has, it is believed, been crossed only twice, namely, by Weddell in 

 1823 an d by Ross in 1842; and, marvellous as were the discoveries 

 of the latter, we cannot but believe that, under the exceptionally 

 favourable circumstances which fell to his lot, had he been possessed 

 of all the appliances of modern science and aided by steam-power, the 

 result would have been infinitely greater. Since that time, with the 

 exception of the brief visit of the " Challenger," which, although 

 possessing steam-power, was totally unsuitable for ice navigation, 

 these seas have been unvisited, and it has been left for commerce to 

 take up the problem where Ross left it fifty years ago : the hope of 

 gain, as on so many previous occasions, has furnished the incentive for 

 ivork which science was powerless to prosecute. 



