1909.] RE-EXPLORE WILKES LAND. 41 



arctica, cannot vanish into thin air or disappear in a hole in the 

 ground : it must have a northern and western edge somewhere. 

 And common sense points out that the northern and western edge 

 of this great ice plateau is Wilkes Land. 



II. 



While it is perhaps impossible to determine positively who first 

 suggested an American Antarctic expedition, it is probable that it 

 was Dr. Frederick A. Cook. As far back as 1894, he published a 

 paper "A Proposed Antarctic Expedition. "^^ Dr. Cook wished to 

 explore the northern mainland and islands of West Antarctica, and 

 thought $50,000 would cover the expenses. His proposition un- 

 fortunately met with no response, or the discoveries of Palmer and 

 Pendleton would doubtless have been verified and enlarged by 

 Americans. 



In the year 1899 Mr. Albert White Vorse published a strong 

 plea^* in favor of an American Antarctic expedition, winding up in 



What, then, is the profit in dragging out of the dust of libraries its 

 forgotten scandals? There can be but one excuse for it: the hope that 

 national pride may be moved to send forth a second Antarctic expedition 

 that shall retrieve the mistakes of the first one. ... Is it well for the 

 United States to be behind in scientific research, or to permit other nations 

 either to disprove or verify the report of its first attempt at foreign ex- 

 ploration? 



Mr. Vorse's words, however, were barren of result. 



In 1903, an Englishman, Dr. Hugh Robert Mill — whose recent 

 excellent book " The Siege of the South Pole " is so different from 

 old-fashioned works about Antarctic history — in a note to Science 

 in reply to one of the writer's, also suggested sending an American 

 expedition to the Antarctic. Dr. Mill said :^^ 



Yours is a land of millionaires : the Antarctic is still scarcely touched by 

 ■explorers, and all nations would rejoice to see a well-equipped American 

 expedition sent out to help to solve the present problems which, after all, 

 are those most nearly concerning us. 



""Around the World," Philadelphia, February, 1894, P- 55- 

 ^*Scribner's Magazine, 1899, Vol. 36, p. 704. 

 the following words : 



'^Science, Vol. XVIII., August 7, 1903. 



