LATER NINETEENTH CENTURY VOYAGES 19 



farthest point reached by Cook in 1773. Equipped with 

 modern apparatus and ideas, this expedition, if it did not add 

 greatly to geographical knowledge, contributed much by its 

 investigations in other scientific departments to the general 

 cause of Antarctic discovery. 



But by far the most important event in the history of 

 Antarctic research, after the great voyage of Ross and before 

 the close of the nineteenth century, remains yet to be described. 

 This was the crossing of the Antarctic Circle by the famous 

 'Challenger' Expedition in 1874. 



The ' Challenger,' under Sir George Nares, stood to the 

 south on the meridian of 80 E., and after crossing the Circle 

 turned to the north-east, and later to the east, remaining 

 altogether some three weeks in the region of icebergs. During 

 this time she pursued her customary employment of sounding 

 and dredging in the depths of the ocean, and here, as else- 

 where, this resulted in a rich harvest of fresh information. 

 Amongst the specimens thus secured were numerous rocks of 

 continental origin ; there could be no doubt that these had 

 been borne by ice from some Southern land, and therefore 

 they showed that continental land must exist within the 

 Antarctic Circle almost as conclusively as if the land itself had 

 been seen. 



But the importance of the ' Challenger ' expedition as 

 regards the Antarctic Regions lay not so much in the dis- 

 coveries made as in the fact that they drew the attention of 

 scientific men to the interest of the problems which yet 

 remained to be solved in that area. From the return of this 

 famous expedition and the publication of its results dates that 

 revival of interest in the Far South which, fostered by a few 

 eminent men, continued to spread and culminated in the 

 despatch of the various expeditions which co-operated with the 

 * Discovery.' 



This desire for further Antarctic research arose principally 

 in Germany and England, but in both countries it was equally 

 slow in arriving at a practical result. In Germany the repeated 

 and energetic representations of the great magnetician Georg 



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