1909] RE-EXPLORE WILKES LAND. 49 



sentative collection from Antarctica, and therefore one of the most 

 fruitful results of an American expedition would be to bring home 

 specimens of all kinds. 



But geography is the most pressing science. The interior of 

 Antarctica is almost unknown. The coast line is not half laid 

 down, even if the continental shelf has been traced by soundings 

 in several places where land has not been sighted as yet. And the 

 paramount geographic duty for Americans should be a more accu- 

 rate charting of the coast line of Wilkes Land, which could be 

 largely done even in one southern summer by two steam whalers. 



Starting about the middle of December from Australia, an 

 American expedition should aim for Finer Bay in about 140° east 

 longitude, and thence it should sail eastward to about 170° east 

 longitude. It should, while avoiding getting caught in the ice, 

 hug the coast as much as possible. Such a cruise would settle for 

 all time the question of the existence of the great land mass of 

 East Antarctica. It would also prevent any possible wrangling in 

 the future about Case Land, and Alden Land, and Hudson Land, 

 which will all probably turn out to be fifty or seventy-five miles 

 further south than Wilkes charted them. 



Is there now any way of bringing about such an expedition? 

 The United States government, practically speaking through Mr. 

 Newberry, Acting Secretary of the Navy, declined to take the 

 matter up. What can be done either to induce the government to 

 rescind its negative decision, or towards finding some private indi- 

 viduals to finance the undertaking? 



It would seem as though the first thing to do would be to arouse 

 more general interest among scientific men. The American Geo- 

 graphical Society has already shown approbation. Would not some 

 of the learned societies in the United States, such as the American 

 Philosophical Society, the Smithsonian Institution, and the Amer- 

 ican Museum of Natural History endorse the project in some shape 

 or other? 



If some of the geographic and scientific societies would put the 

 seal of their approval on an American Antarctic expedition, the 

 next step forward would seem to be the formation of an Antarctic 



