288 THE BORDERLAND OF SCIENCE. 



Victoria Land that a continuous coast-line of any con- 

 siderable extent has been discovered. Wherever land 

 has been seen, it has been mountainous and rugged 

 a circumstance which suggests great irregularity of 

 outline in the land-regions, and the high probability 

 that these regions are broken up into islands resembling 

 those in the north-polar seas. 



Certainly, there is much in what has been learned 

 or may be inferred respecting the Antarctic regions, to 

 suggest the wish that further explorations may one 

 day be undertaken. When we consider what has been 

 done with sailing ships, it seems by no means un- 

 likely that with steam-ships suitably constructed the 

 Antarctic seas might be successfully explored. I 

 would not encourage the idle ambition to penetrate so 

 many miles farther southward than has hitherto been 

 found practicable. But there are many and legiti- 

 mate considerations in favour of further exploration. 

 ' Within the periphery of the Antarctic circle,' says 

 Captain Maury, ' is included an area equal in extent to 

 one-sixth part of the entire land surface of our planet. 

 Most of this immense area is as unknown to the 

 inhabitants of the earth as the interior of one of 

 Jupiter's satellites. With the appliances of steam to 

 aid us, with the lights of science to guide us, it would 

 be a reproach to the world to 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 ex- 



