372 THE RENEWAL OF ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION. 



for a whokMioimnissioii, so as to extend over three summers and two 

 winters. Early in the first season a wintering party of about ten men 

 sliould be hmded somewhere to the south of Cape Horn, probably about 

 Bismarek Strait at Graham's Laud, The expedition should then i>ro- 

 ceed to Victoria Land, wheie a second similar ])arty should winter, 

 probably in Macmurdo Bay, near Mount Erebus. The shii)S should 

 not become frozen in, nor attempt to winter in the far south, but 

 should returu toward the north, conducting- observations of various 

 kinds along the outer margins of the ice. After the needful rest and 

 outtit at the Falklands or Australia, the i^ositiou of the ice and the 

 temperature of the oceau should be observed in the early spring, and 

 later the wintering parties should be communicated with, and, if neces- 

 sary, reinforced with meu and supplies for another winter. During the 

 second winter the deep-sea observations should be continued north- 

 ward, aiul in the third season the wintering parties should be picked 

 up and the expedition return to England. The wintering parties 

 might largely be com|30sed of civilians, and one or two civilians might 

 be attached to each ship; this plan worked admirably during the 

 CluiUenycr expedition. 



What, it nuiy be asked, would be the advantages to trade and com- 

 merce of such an expedition ? It nuist be confessed that no definite or 

 very encouraging answer can be given. We know of no extensive 

 fisheries m these regions. For a long time seal and sea-elephant fish- 

 eries have been carried on about the islands of the Southern Ocean, 

 but we have no indication of large heixls or rookeries within the Ant- 

 arctic (circle. A whale fishery was at one time carried on in the neigh- 

 borhood of Kerguelen,but this right whale, if distinct from or identical 

 with Bulana ai(str((lis, appears to have become nearly, if not cpiite, 

 extinct. Some expressions of Ross would lead one to suppose that a 

 whale corresponding to the Greenland right whale inhabits the seas 

 within the Antarctic ice, but we have no definite knowledge of the 

 existence of such a species. Although " sulphur bottoms" [Bahvnop- 

 tera musculus), "finbacks" {Bakvrioptera sibbaldii), and "humpba(;ks" 

 {Megaptera boojys) are undoubtedly abundant, they do not repay cap- 

 ture. IJoss and Mc( 'ormick report the sperm whale within the Antarctic 

 ice, but there is some doubt on this point. Though penguins exist in 

 countless numbers they are at pre.sent of no commercial value. Deposits 

 of guano are not likely to be of any great extent. But it is impossible 

 to speak with confidence on the commercial asi)ects of such an expedi- 

 tion — the unexpected may ({uite well happen in the way of discovery. 



With great confidence, liowever, it may be stated that the results of 

 a well-organized expedition would be of capital imi)ortance to British 

 science. We are often told how much more foreign governments do for 

 science than our own. It is asserted that we are being outstripi^ed by 

 foreigners in the cultivation of almost all departments of scientific 

 -^ork. But in the pr3,ctical study of all that concerns the ocean this is 



