750 REPORT— 1895. 



! FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13. 



The following Papers were read : — 



1. A Voyage to the Antarctic Sea. By C. E. Borchgrevink. 



More than half a century ago Sir James Clark Ross discovered the South 

 Victoria Continent. 



Nobody had visited those southern shores until last year, yvhen the whaler 

 ' Antarctic ' forced her way through the ice-fields and ran into that large ice-free 

 bay which stretches from Cape Adare down to the volcanoes Erebus and Terror. 

 It seems strange that fifty-four years should have elapsed without any attempt 

 having been made to finish tbat work which was so bravely commenced by an 

 illustrious Briton. The more strange does this fact seem as the journals of the 

 Erebus and the Terror tell about vast new and promising fields for science and 

 commerce. 



The recent antarctic expedition was a commercial one, and it was com- 

 mercially a failure because we did not find the black or ' right ' whale, so valuable 

 for its whalebone. 



The ' Antarctic ' was fitted out for the hunt of that particular kind of whale, 

 but I have nevertheless no doubt that the commercial result of the recent expedi- 

 tion would have been much better had we worked under more favourable 

 auspices. 



I by no means consider the fact of our not having met with ' right ' whales in 

 those seas as a proof of their not existing in the bay at South Victoria Land. It 

 would seem to be incredible that Sir .Tames Clark Ross made a mistake as to the 

 existence of this valuable whale in southern latitudes. 



Of great commercial importance are the guano beds which we discovered, and 

 which ought to be well worth the attention of enterprising men of business. 



From the analysis of specimens of rocks which I brought back from the main- 

 laud, the presence of valuable minerals on the continent is proved, although the 

 lava flows and volcanic aspect of the coast-line do not speak favourably for the 

 presence of heavy metals near the surface. The discovery of a brownish grey 

 mica schist, evidently a very ancient sedimentary rock converted by heat and 

 pressure operating through a long period of time into its present schistose and 

 crystalline condition, together with the presence of ' granoUte,' indicates the possi- 

 bility of finding ore deposits, and is strongly in favour of a probable continuity 

 of land from Victoria Land across the south pole to Graham Land. Somewhat 

 similar schistose rocks are known to occur in the South Shetlands, south-east 

 from Cape Horn. 



The specimens from Possession Island are entirely composed of volcanic rocks. 

 They are chiefly fragments of what seems to be a basaltic rock apparently 

 belonging to flows of two diff'erent ages. The fragments belonging to the older 

 flow show evidence of the lava having been much frothed up by steam escaping 

 from its pores. It is of a reddish to pinkish brown tint. The newer lava is more 

 dense and is of a blackish grey colour. It is, however, impossible to describe 

 these rocks in detail until microscopic sections of them are completed. 



An investigation of the origin and consequences of the north-east current 

 which we experienced in the Victoria Bay is of great interest. When we look 

 upon the phenomena which cause and accompany the great currents of the ocean 

 in the northern hemisphere, we are justified in anticipating that also in the 

 southern hemisphere similar phenomena occur. 



The meteorology of the antarctic circle might throw a valuable light on the 

 origin of oceanic currents ; and it is not improbable that the warm current in the 

 bay at Victoria Land plays a similar, if even an inferior, part in the southern 

 hemisphere to that of the Gulf Stream in the northern. 



The constant light pressure of the air within both the arctic and the antarctic 

 circles seems remarkable. There is probably a similar movement from and towards 



