RETURN OF ROSS 17 



has constituted almost the exclusive source of our knowledge 

 of magnetic conditions in the higher southern latitudes. It 

 might be said that it was James Cook who defined the Antarctic 

 Region, and James Ross who discovered it. 



This great expedition is brought curiously close to our own 

 time when it is remembered that of those who took part in it 

 there is yet one survivor. The young assistant surgeon of the 

 ' Erebus ' has become the renowned botanist and traveller Sir 

 Joseph Hooker, and has lived not only to take a share in 

 sending forth a second expedition to the same region, but to 

 welcome it back to our shores nearly sixty years after his own 

 return from the far south. 



The ' Erebus ' and ' Terror ' reached the shores of England 

 in September 1843, and for fifty years the map of the Antarctic 

 remained practically unaltered, though during this period some 

 important light was shed on the general conditions of the 

 region, and the advance of science caused a gradual awakening 

 of interest in it. The results of the few voyages to the Antarctic 

 area during this long period, or indeed down to the close of 

 the nineteenth century, may be summed up in a very few 

 words. 



Tempted by Sir James Ross's report of the large number of 

 whales seen during his voyage, in 1892 a number of Scotch 

 whalers set sail for the south, and touching the Antarctic lands 

 in the neighbourhood of Joinville Island, threw some further 

 light on that region ; but as they found no sign of the whales 

 which they sought, the voyage was commercially a failure, and 

 the vessels soon turned to the north again. In the following 

 year, however, Captain Larsen, of the whaler ' Jason,' bent on 

 much the same errand, managed to sail down the east coast of 

 Graham Land, and to reach a latitude of 68.10 S. in longitude 

 60 W, This voyage has been very little noticed, though from 

 a geographical point of view it is of great importance, as with 

 Biscoe's discovery to the west, it showed the attenuated form 

 which Graham Land possesses, at any rate until it is well south 

 of the Antarctic Circle. Looking over the whole Antarctic 

 area, 1 can scarcely see a place where geographical discovery 

 VOL. I. c 



