§ 839,840. THE WINDS OF THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE. 45 1 



839. The unexplored area around the south pole is about twice 

 Their extent; Plate ^^ large as Europe. This untraveled region is cir- 

 "^^^ cular in shape, the circumference of which does not 

 measure less than 7000 miles. Its edges have been penetrated 

 here and there, and land, wherever seen, has been high and rugged. 

 Plate XIY. shows the utmost reach of antarctic exploration. The 

 unexplored area there is quite equal to that of our entire frigid 

 zone. Navigators on the voyage from the Cape of Good Hope 

 to Melbourne, and from Melbourne to Cape Horn, scarcely ever 

 venture, except while passing Cape Horn, to go on the polar side 

 of 55° S. The fear of icebergs deters them. These may be seen 

 there drifting up toward the equator in large numbers and large 

 masses all the year round. I have encountered them myself as 

 high up as the parallel of 37° — 8° S. The belt of ocean that encir- 

 cles this globe on the polar side of 55° S. is never free from ice- 

 bergs. They are found in all parts of it the year round. Many of 

 them are miles in extent and hundreds of feet thick. The area on 

 the polar side of the 55th parallel of south latitude comprehends 

 a space of 17,784,600 square miles. The nursery for the bergs, to 

 fill such a field, must be an immense one ; such a nursery can not 

 be on the sea, for icebergs require to be fastened firmly to the 

 shore until they attain full size. They therefore, in their mute 

 way, are loud with evidence in favor of antarctic shore lines of 

 great extent, of deep bays where they may be formed, and of lofty 

 clifis whence they may be launched. 



840. There is another physical circumstance which obtains gen- 

 k physical law con- erally with regard to the distribution of land and 

 tSJ'ofilSd and wa- watcr ovcr the surface of the earth, and which, as 

 *^^' far as it goes, seems to favor the hypothesis of much 

 land about the south pole ; and that circumstance is this : It seems 

 to be a physical necessity that land should not be antipodal to land. 

 Except a small portion of South America and Asia, land is always 

 opposite to water. Mr. Gardner has called attention to the fact 

 that only one twenty-seventh part of the land is antipodal to land. 

 The belief is, that on the polar side of 70° north we have mostly 

 water, not land. This law of distribution, so far as it applies, is in 

 favor of land in the opposite zone. Finally, geographers are agreed 

 that, irrespective of the particularized facts and phenomena which 

 we have been considering, the probabilities are in favor of an ant- 

 arctic continent rather than of an antarctic ocean. 



