OBJECTS AND RESULTS OF POLAR RESEARCH. 637 



plorers have been chiefly of that stock. The Romanic nations, 

 no less seafaring people, have kept away from the north pole ; 

 but France has done something in south polar exploration. 



The south pole has been comparatively neglected on account 

 of the unfavorable character of its surroundings. Large masses 

 of land are wanting, and the immense wastes of water of the 

 South offer only a few islands possessing neither large mammals 

 nor human inhabitants ; while the Eskimos of the North are of in- 

 calculable advantage to exploration. Magellan's southern voyage 

 was not followed up for two hundred and fifty years. The first 

 after him to reach high southern latitudes was James Cook, in 

 1774, and no other similar expeditions followed for fifty years 

 more. Those best known were those of the French under Du- 

 mont d'Urville in 1839, of the Americans under Wilkes, and of the 

 English under James Ross, who in 1842 penetrated to the seventy- 

 eighth degree, the highest southern latitude yet attained. After 

 a year's maintenance of a German station on the South Georgian 

 Islands and of a French station at the southern point of America, 

 both of which belonged to the international system of 1883, and 

 after a few dashes southward in later years, a number of nations 

 Germany, Austria, England, the United States, and others are 

 again preparing to co-operate in another polar siege at the 

 austral end of the world for the benefit of science. 



The question rises, What is the good of all this effort, this toil, 

 this risk incurred in seeking inaccessible regions ? The prospect 

 of adventure, of witnessing strange scenes and experiencing un- 

 wonted conditions, of displaying prowess and achieving victory 

 over formidable obstacles, may account in part for the readi- 

 ness with which individuals are tempted to go into arctic expedi- 

 tions, but not so with governments. And governments can not 

 expect any practical material gain from such enterprises suffi- 

 cient to justify the expenditures which they willingly lavish 

 upon them. 



Yet there is a real gain in a higher sense to be derived from 

 them. They contribute to the enlargement of our knowledge, 

 to the widening of our circle of view, to the increase of our 

 mental capacity and ability ; they make us better acquainted 

 with the planet on which we live, and help us achieve a mastery 

 over it. 



Nowhere are more questions to be found for which to seek 

 answers than in the polar regions. Here the magneto- electric 

 light of the earth manifests itself in the wonderful phenomenon 

 of the northern lights. All the wind currents of the earth press 

 toward the pole, and the sea currents too. Curious dispositions of 

 Nature are found here, with great volcanoes, the outer cones of 

 which are constituted of strata of ice covered with lava, and 



