THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. 275 



It is singular how confidently geographers have 

 spoken of the great Antarctic continent, when we re- 

 member that only an inconsiderable extent of coast 

 line has even been seen by Antarctic voyagers in any 

 longitudes, except where Koss made his nearest approach 

 to the South Pole. There is absolutely not a particle 

 of evidence for believing that the ice-barriers which 

 have been encountered Sabine Land, Adelie Land, 

 Victoria Land, and Graham Land belong to one 

 and the same land region. It is not, indeed, certain 

 that all the mapped coast-line is correct for it must 

 not be forgotten that where Commodore Wilkes charted 

 down a coast line Ross found an open (or only ice- 

 encumbered) sea, and sailed there. 



Yet Dr. Jilek, in the Text-book of Oceanography, in 

 use in the Imperial Naval Academy of Vienna, writes 

 thus confidently respecting the Antarctic continent : 

 'There is now no doubt,' he says, 'that around the 

 South Pole there is extended a great continent, mainly 

 within the polar circle, since, although we do not know 

 it in its full extent, yet the portions with which we 

 have become acquainted, and the investigations made, 

 furnish sufficient evidence to infer the existence of such 

 with certainty. This southern or Antarctic continent 

 advances farthest in a peninsula S.S.E. of the southern 

 end of America, reaching in Trinity Land almost to 

 62 degrees south latitude. Outwardly these lands 

 exhibit a naked, rocky, partly volcanic desert, with 

 high rocks destitute of vegetation, always covered with 

 ice and snow, and so surrounded with ice that it is 



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