THE RENEWAL OF ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION. 357 



tai tlier north in the Atlantit; aud Indian oceans than elsewhere, and 

 says : "^ 



"It is true liowever that the greatest part of tliis southern continent 

 (supposing there is one) must lie within the Polar Circle, where the sea 

 is so pestered with ice that the land is thereby inaccessible. The 

 risque one runs in exploring a coast in these unknown and icy seas is 

 so very great that I can be bold enough to say that no man will ever 

 venture farther than I have (b»ne, and that the lands which may lie to 

 the south will never be explored. Thick fogs, snowstorms, intense cold, 

 and every other thing that can render navigation dangerous, must be 

 encountered, and these difiliculties are greatly heightened by the inex- 

 l)ressibly horrid aspect of the country, a country doomed by nature 

 never once to feel the warmth of the sun's rays, but to lie buried in 

 everlasting snow and ice. The ports which umy be on the coast are, in 

 a manner, wholly filled up with frozen snow of vast thickness; but if 

 any should be so far open as to invite a ship into it, she would run a 

 risque of being fixed there tV)r ever, or of coming out in an ice island. 

 The islands and fioats on the coast, the great falls from the ice-cliffs in 

 the port, or a heavy snowstorm attended with a sharp frost, would be 

 equally fiital.'' 



Two navigators have however ventured farther th.an Cook. Wed- 

 dell in 1823 penetrated to 74"^ south, but saw^ no land. Sir James Clark 

 Iloss iu 1841 and 1812 reached the seventy-eighth parallel, and discov- 

 ered Victoria Land. These three explorers, Cook, Weddell, and Koss, 

 are the only ones who have passed beyond the seventieth parallel of 

 south latitude. 



A great many ex])editions have sailed between the sixtieth and sev- 

 entieth parallels, and nearly all of them have discovered land in these 

 southern latitudes. In 1819 Smitli discovered the South Shetlands to 

 the south of Cape Horn, and soon afterward a brisk seal fishery among 

 English aiul American sealers sprang up in these waters, the seal skins 

 bringing a high price in China. Bellingshausen discovered the islands 

 of Alexander and Peter the Great; D'Urville discovered Adelie Laud; 

 the [Juited States exploring expedition discovered Wilkes' Land; 

 Powell discovered the South Orkneys; Biscoe discovered Euderby's 

 Land; Balleny discovered the Balleny Islands aud Sabine Land, and 

 Dallman more recently discovered Kaiser Wilhelm Islands and Bis- 

 nnirck Strait to the north of Graham's Land. 



The greatest, the most successful and most important expedition to 

 the Antarctic was, however, that of Sir James Clark Ross, just referred 

 to, between the years of 1839 and 1843. He has furnished more trust- 

 worthy information than all the ])receding and succeeding expeditions 

 put together. The chief object of the expedition was to make magnetic 

 observations, and these were carried out with marked success. Ross, 

 wiio had previously planted the flag of his country on the north mag- 

 netic pole, even sailed within 1(50 miles of the south nnignetic i)ole. 

 During the expedition Ross threw a fiood of new light on the physical 

 and biological conditions of the Antarctic. He discussed his meteoro- 

 logical observations, and })ointed out the permanently low^ atmospheric 



