452 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OP THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



continent advances farthest northward in a peninsula S.S.E. of 

 the southern end of America, reaching in Trinity Land almost to 

 62^ south latitude. Outwardly these lands exhibit a naked, 

 rocky, partly volcanic desert, with high rocks destitute of vege- 

 tation, always covered with ice and snow, and so surrounded 

 with ice that it is difficult or impossible to examine the coast 

 very closely. * * * 



842. Antarctic expeditions.— '' The principal discoverers of 

 these coasts are (Wilkes), D'Urville, and Ross (the younger), of 

 whom the latter, in 1842, followed a coast over 100 miles between 

 72° and 79° south latitude, and 160° and 170^ east longitude, to 

 which he gave the name Victoria Land, and on which he dis- 

 covered a volcano (Erebus) 10,200 feet high in 167° east longi- 

 tude and 77° south latitude, as well as another extinct one 

 (Terror) 10,200 feet high, and then discovered the maimetic 

 south pole." * 



CHAPTER XXI. 



§ 850-880.— THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS AND THEIR CLIMATOLOGY. 



850. Indications of a mild climate about the south pole.— DvLrma- 

 our investigations of the winds and currents, facts and circum""- 

 stances have been revealed which indicate the existence of a mild 

 climate— mild by comparison— within the antarctic circle. These 

 indications plead most eloquently the course of exploration there 

 TJe facts and circumstances which suggest mildness of climate 

 about the south pole are these : a low barometer, a high degree of 

 aerial rarefaction, and strong winds from the north. 



851. The story of the winds.— The winds were the first to whisper 

 Of this strange state of things, and to intimate to us that the 

 antarctic climates are in winter very unlike the arctic for ri-our 

 and seventy. In dividing the sea into wind-bands (§ ^62) or 

 longitudinal belts 5° of latitude broad each, I excluded from 

 the table on the next page, observations from those parts of 

 the sea, such as the North Indian Ocean, the China Sea, and 

 others where monsoons prevail. The object of this exclusion was 

 to investigate the general movements of the atmosphere, hence 



