THE RENEWAL OF ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.* 

 15y .loiiN Mttrray, LL. D., 



Of till! " Challeiif/er" Expedition. 



Wlien we cast a retrospective glance at the history of knowledge 

 concerning' onr phinet, Me find that nearly all the great advances in 

 geography took place among commercial — and in a very special manner 

 among maritime — peoples. Whenever primitive races connnenced to 

 look upon the ocean, not as a terrible barrier separating lands, but 

 rather as a means of comnumication between distant countries, they 

 soon acquired increased wealth and power, and beheld the dawn of 

 new ideas and great discoveries, Down even to our own day the 

 power and progress of nations may, in a sense, be measured by the 

 extent to which their seamen have been able to brave the many perils, 

 and their learned men have been able to unravel the many riddles, of 

 the great ocean. The history of civilization runs parallel with the 

 history of navigation in all its wider aspects. 



Horace and many other poets have sung the i)raises of the sailor 

 who '' iirst put forth on cruel ocean, in the frail rude bark. " Rutin 

 navigation, as m all other branches of human activity, there has been 

 a slow, gradual, and laborious development from the construction and 

 management of the simple rait by the river side up to the ironclad and 

 Atlantic greyhound of our own day. Many active and original minds, 

 many stout and brave hearts, have contributed to these linal results. 

 The tempest-tossed sea is now no obstacle and no terror for the 

 instructed mariner with a well-found ship. Tlie " severance of the 

 sea'' has disappeared along with the ideas associated with the expres- 

 sion. Not only so, but the most i^rofound depths of the wide myste- 

 rious ocean have in our own time been forced to yield up their hidden 

 treasures to the persistent efforts of the modern investigator. 



Is the last great piece of ma: itime exploration on the surface of our 

 earth to be undertaken by Britons, or is it to be left to those who may 



*• Paper read at tLe meeting of the Koyal Geographical Society-, November 27, 

 1893. (From The Geographical Journal, Loudon, vol. iii, pp. 1-27.) 



Si^l 93 23 .^3 



