EXPLORATION OF THE SOUTH POLAR 
4 REGIONS 
FN the various explorations which the last few years 
| have seen, it must be admitted that the South Pole 
een neglected, and its rival, the North Pole, has had. 
tall its own way. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, 
hat Dr. Neumayer, with whom the Exploration of the 
South Polar regions has been a cherished project from 
his youth, and who for many years has lived in the hope of 
some day having the privilege granted him of taking part 
n an expedition on board a German ship that might have 
ne honour of penetrating the South-Polar circle, and 
ring up the mystery that lies beyond, will allow 
state of things to continue without protest. Since 
hope has been time after time frustrated, and 
ause he fears that now it may never be realised, he 
etermined to do what he can to rouse an active in- 
tt in the subject among scientific men. By lectures 
various parts of Germany, and otherwise, he endea- 
oured some little time ago to set afoot an exploring party, 
whose observations might have been of great use in connec- 
ion with the now not very distant Transit of Venus, but in 
this, too, he failed ; so that now there remains only the hope 
hat, in connection with thescientific expeditionstothesouth 
or the observation of that momentous astronomical event, 
ymething may be done towards the realisation of the 
‘darling scheme of his youth.” Hence, to awaken a 
eneral interest in antarctic explorations, as well as to 
how what remains to be done, Dr. Neumayer has re- 
nted, in the form of a pamphlet, a long article of his 
m the “Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fiir Erdkiinde,” on 
subject, referring to his numerous lectures and 
ritings on the subject, and has given a brief sketch of 
he progress of discovery in the South Polar regions, and 
admirable summary of the points to which any expe- 
jon should direct its attention—to which, anxious to 
iecond his efforts, we gladly draw attention. 
_ Of maritime expeditions, those to the Polar regions have 
lad a lasting interest for geographers, both as leading to 
he solution of important scientific problems, and as being 
f value from a more material point of view. The im- 
jortance of scientific observation inside the Polar circle 
S evident, Dr. Neumayer declares, to all who have any 
howledge of the phenomena on the surface of the globe. 
Vithout such observations there exists a void and a 
imentable one-sidedness in our knowledge, offering a 
rtile field for numberless, and mostly worthless, hypo- 
aeses. What have been the results of efficient observation 
the far north for the confirmation and correction of 
ur. knowledge in the departments of magnetism, clima- 
ology, the geographical distribution of plants and 
nimals, the laws of ocean currents, is shown by a 
uperficial glance at the history of the development of 
hese departments of science. But Dr. Neumayer main- 
ains that for the purpose of discovering ‘those general 
aws which are necessary as guides and standards in the 
hterpretation of phenomena in climatology and physical 
€ography generally, the South Polar regions are much 
er adapted than those of the North. A glance at the 
lobe, he maintains, shows that such results can be 
No. 159—-VoOL. vi. 
obtained only by the expenditure of vast means and 
laborious research in the north, on account of the nature 
of the division of the land and water, which also throws 
difficulties in the way of a satisfactory study of the 
phenomena; whereas no such difficulties and distur- 
bances are presented by the prevailing sea of the South 
Polar regions. These statements could be proved by 
many examples from physical geography, but it is only 
necessary to refer to the valuable additions which have 
been made by researches in high south latitudes to our 
knowledge of the laws of the relation between the distri- 
bution of the pressure of the air and of heat, and of the 
laws of winds. Moreover, Dr. Neumayer maintains that 
very valuable light would be thrown on the laws of the 
distribution of living organisms by explorations in this 
quarter, where there is scarcely any land but a few 
scattered islands. 
Dr. Neumayer then proceeds to give a sketch of the 
history of discovery in the South Polar regions, dividing 
it into three periods. The first of these periods begins 
with the sixteenth century, and ends with the determi- 
nation of the south point of America by Schoelten and 
Lemaine in 1616. The second period extends to the 
beginning of the present century, and the third from that 
time onwards. 
The voyages embraced in the first period were not 
Polar voyages in the strict sense, for no one stepped over 
the Polar circle, and their main object was to fix the route 
to India and the Spanish colonies on the west coast of 
South America. The expeditions which went south dur- 
ing the second period had for their purpose to discover 
and fix the limits of the great southern continent which 
theoretical geographers supposed must exist in those re- 
gions in order that the balance of land might be main- 
tained. The expeditions which have gone out to this 
quarter during the present century have had for their 
purpose mainly the observation of phenomena for scientific 
purposes, 
Of the great voyagers belonging to the first period, it 
can hardly be said that any made discoveries in what is 
generally considered the Antarctic region. Sebald de 
West, in January 1600, saw a group of islands in 50° 40’ 
S. and 59° W., which were called Sebald’s Islands, and 
which were possibly the same as the Falkland Islands, 
whose proper discovery falls to a later time. One of the 
minor voyagers of this period, Dick Gerritz, discovered 
an island group in 61° S. lat. and seems to have reached 
64°. This ice-bound group was probably the same as 
that now called South Shetland, although it is possible 
Gerritz had seen Palmer’s Land. During this period dis- 
coveries only reached the higher latitudes south of Cape 
Horn ; in other circumpolar parts the 4oth parallel had 
only been reached at the Cape of Good Hope; andin the 
Indian Ocean, on the way to Batavia, the islands of St. 
Paul and New Amsterdam were already known in the 
beginning of the 17th century. 
The earliest of the discoveries of the second period were 
those of the famous Abel Tasman. The maps of Mer- 
cator in 1628 attach the north coast of New Holland to 
the great continent of Australasia, that spreads itself all 
over the South Polar region, and annexes the discoveries 
of Dick Gerritz to South America, The unrestrained 
fancy of the geographers of the time even leads them to 
c 
