GEOGRAPHIC PROGRESS KELTIE. 503 



itself has been located amid thick-ribbed ice. Besides these geo- 

 graphical discoveries, substantial contributions have been made to 

 other departments of science which enable us to understand better 

 the regime of these inhospitable regions in the general economy of 

 our earth. There still remains much to be done, especially in the 

 wide region to the north of Bering Strait, before our knowledge is 

 complete. 



Turning to the other end of the earth, there is a great gap between 

 the work of Ross, Wilkes, D'Urville, and Bellingshausen, and the 

 outburst of enterprise in the exploration of the Antarctic continent in 

 quite recent years. Borchgi'evinl^ and the Belgians under Gerlache 

 began the campaign some 18 years ago. But undoubtedly the first 

 organized attempt on a great scale to scatter our ignorance of a 

 continent as large as Europe, though probably of little use to human- 

 ity, was made by the great expedition under Capt. Scott, whose 

 tragic and heroic death with his four companions some years latet 

 places them high up on the nation's roll of honor. Amundsen, who 

 discovered a new and easy route, rushed in and reaped the fruits of 

 the 10 years' labors of these indomitable British explorers. Then 

 there is Drygalski's expedition, and we have Bruce, Shackleton, and 

 Mawson (from Australia) and Charcot on the Graham Land side. 

 John Murray saw the land from the Challenger in the seventies, and 

 with his usual insight surmised that here lay a great continent. 

 Before the campaign began the only big gap was that made by Ross 

 in the Ross Sea and along the great ice barrier, with somewhat hypo- 

 thetical patches elsewhere. Now, it may be said truly that in the 

 period with which we are dealing, and especially in the last 18 years, 

 enormous additions have been made to our knowledge of the outline, 

 and even a large extent of the interior, of the most repellent land on 

 the face of the earth. It may be said that with Ross's discovery as 

 a basis within the last 15 years the whole coast line of the Antarctic 

 continent has been laid down from King Edward VII Land to 

 Kaiser AVilhelm Land, considerably more than a quadrant of the 

 circumference, a.nd that from the observations which have been made 

 the interior is a lofty ice-covered plateau, bordered in parts by still 

 higher mountain ranges, with indications that in past ages a climate 

 favorable to temperate or even subtropical vegetation must have 

 existed. The meteorological work carried out, especially by Mawson's 

 expedition, may turn out to be of practical service to meteorology in 

 general and to that of Australia in particular. In the interests of 

 science at least, it is hoped that the entire outline of the Antarctic 

 Continent will be laid down and further investigations carried out 

 sufficient to satisfy our natural curiosity as to the past history of this 

 great ice-bound land. 



