ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION AND RESEARCH 255 



Between this Wilkes Land and Queen Mary Land several landfalls 

 were reported during the first half of last century. However, doubt 

 has been cast on most of these by the fact that the vessel Aurora of 

 the Australasian Antarctic Expedition did not find land in certain 

 of the reported locations. Nevertheless the soundings suggest that, 

 were the pack-ice conditions to allow of navigation to the south, land 

 would probably be met at no great distance from the locations as- 

 signed. Consequently it is not likely that the margin of the continent 

 recedes far from the Antarctic Circle in this region. 



The evidence vaguely recorded by Wilkes for the existence of his 

 Knox Land was substantiated by the Australasian Antarctic Expedi- 

 tion, so that its existence can now no longer be doubted. 



Queen Mary Land was charted by the Australasian Antarctic 

 Expedition, as also was Kaiser Wilhelm II Land as far as Gaussberg. 

 Prior to that Drygalski's Gauss expedition had discovered and mapped 

 the immediate locality of Gaussberg. 



Between Gaussberg and Enderby Land a southerly sweeping in- 

 dentation of the margin of the continent is strongly suggested by the 

 distribution of the pack ice and soundings as noted by the Challenger, 

 the Gauss, and the Aurora. 



A vague report of land by a whaling captain almost a hundred 

 years ago led to the appearance on the map of Kemp Land. But its 

 existence has never been verified and is therefore in question. Ender- 

 by Land was seen by Biscoe in the year 1831. Perusal of Biscoe's 

 report^ leaves no doubt as to the existence of land thereabouts. Judg- 

 ing by the continuous high offshore winds experienced by Biscoe, 

 this land will in all probability be found to lead south to a high ice- 

 plateau region. 



To the westward of Enderby Land is a great area concerning 

 which we are entirely ignorant. The chances are that it is similar 

 to the Coats Land coast. 



We now arrive at a section that has been charted by the labors 

 of the expeditions of Bruce, Filchner, and Shackleton. Here, in Coats 

 Land and Prince Luitpold Land, an ice sheet on a rocky base descends 

 to the sea, but no solid rock formation is visible above the ice. 



As regards the western margin of the southerly extension of the 

 Weddell Sea, its location and its nature are still unknown. 



This brings us to the long, narrow peninsula which extends from 

 the Antarctic unknown up towards South America. This is now well 

 charted as the result of a deal of careful mapping principally by the 

 expeditions of Bellingshausen, Dumont d'Urville, Ross, Gerlache, 

 Larsen, Nordenskjold, and Charcot. 



^ J. K. Davis: Future Exploration: The African Quadrant of Antarctica, Rept. i6ih Meeting 

 Australasian Assn. for the Advancement of Sci., Wellington Meeting, 1923, Wellington, 1924, pp. 488-492; 

 extracts from Biscoe's journal on pp. 490-492. 



