468 PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE SEA, AND ITS METEOROLOGY. 



permit such a large portion of its surface any longer to remain 

 unexplored. For the last 200 years the Arctic Ocean has been 

 a theatre for exploration ; but as for the antarctic, no expedition, 

 has attempted to make any persistent exploration, or even to 

 winter there. 



879. Former- expeditions. — England through Cook and Ross; 

 Russia through Billingshausen ; France through D'Urville ; and 

 the United States through Wilkes, have sent expenditions to the 

 South Sea. They sighted and sailed along the icy barrier, but 

 none of them spent the winter or essayed to travel across and 

 look beyond the first impediment. The expeditions which have 

 been sent to explore unknown seas have contributed largely ta 

 the stock of human knowledge, and they have added renown to 

 nations, lustre to diadems. Kavies are not all for war. Peace^ 

 has its conquests, science its glories ; and no navy can boast of 

 brighter chaplets than those which have been gathered in the 

 fields of geographical exploration and physical research. 



880. An appeal for others. — The great nations of the earth, 

 have all, with more or less spirit, undertaken to investigate cer> 

 tain phenomena touching the sea, and, to make the plan more- 

 effectual, they have agi-eed to observe according to a prescribed 

 formula. The observations thus made have brought to light 

 most of the facts and circumstances which indicate the existence- 

 within the antarctic circle of a mild climate— mild by compari- 

 son. The observations which have led to this conclusion were 

 made by fellow-labourers under all flags. It is hoped that this 

 circumstance may vindicate, in the eyes of all, the propriety of 

 an appeal in this place for antarctic exploration, and plead for it 

 favourable consideration among all nations. 



CHAPTER XXII. 



§ 881-895. THE ACTIXOMETRY OF THE SEA. 



881. A neio field. — One of the columns in the man-of-war log 

 of the Brussels Conference calls for the temperature of the water 

 below as well as at the surface of the sea. Only a few entries 

 have been made in this column ; but these, as far as they go, 

 seem to indicate that the warmest water, especially in tropical 



