ScHAW. — Oti Antarctic Besearch. 63 



they went on to say they "arrive at this conclusion, how- 

 ever, with sincere regret, and would have been glad to have 

 co-operated with the Australian Colonies in an enterprise 

 having something more than a merely commercial purpose. 

 Perhaps, however, my Lords may be allowed to regard the 

 present proposal as an indication that if any like expedition 

 be undertaken hereafter by the Imperial Government some of 

 the British colonies more closely interested in it might not be 

 unwilling to contribute to its cost." 



This proposed expedition, therefore, was abandoned, and 

 the subject dropped out of notice, until it was revived by 

 Dr. John Murray, one of the distinguished members of the 

 late " Challenger " expedition, in a paper read by him 

 before the Koval Geographical Society on the 27th November, 

 1893. 



In this most valuable and exhaustive paper he related the 

 history of antarctic explorations. He showed that Captain 

 Cook was the first to penetrate within the antarctic circle, 

 having reached lat. 71° 10' S., at a point to the south-west 

 of Patagonia, " when he probably saw the ice-barrier and the 

 mountains beyond." This was in his second voyage, in 1774, 

 after his circumnavigation of New Zealand in his first voyage. 

 Since then two navigators have penetrated further south than 

 Cook : " Weddell, in 1823, reached 74° S., but saw no land. 

 Sir James Clark Eoss, in 1841 and 1842, reached the 78th 

 parallel, and discovered Victoria Land, south of New Zealand. 

 No other explorers have passed beyond the 70th parallel of 

 south latitude." 



In the course of his paper Dr. Murray referred to the 

 explorations carried out under Smith in 1819, who discovered 

 the South Shetland Islands, and the consequent seal-fishery 

 which sprang up, and resulted in the extermination of the 

 seals. Bellingshausen discovered the island named Peter the 

 Great, and Alexander the First Land; D'Urville discovered 

 Adelie Land ; the United States Exploring Expedition dis- 

 covered Wilkes Land; Powell discovered the South Orkneys; 

 Briscoe discovered Enderby's Land; Balleny discovered the 

 Balleny Islands and Sabine Land ; and Dallman, more re- 

 rently, discovered Kaiser Wilhelrn Islands and Bismarck 

 Strait, to the north of Graham's Land. Dr. Murray gave 

 unstinted praise to the good work done by these and other 

 explorers, who, with vessels unstrengthened to resist ice, 

 and with imperfect means, have added so much to our know- 

 ledge of antarctic regions ; but he pointed out that Eoss's 

 expedition, which was better provided, and the vessels well 

 strengthened, was, under its splendid commander, able to do 

 more than any other ; and his observations on the geology, 

 meteorology, and magnetic phenomena of those regions, as 



