THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



By Lieut. Ernest H. Shackleton 



Copyright, 1909, by J. B. Lippincott Company 



In the April, 1909, number of the National Geographic Magazine there was 

 printed a summary of the geographical results of Lieutenant Shackleton's South 

 Polar Expedition of 1908-09. The narrative of the extraordinary achievements 

 of his party, -which included reaching a point -within no miles of the South Pole, 

 attaining the South Magnetic Pole, and climbing the lofty summit of the volcano. 

 Mount Erebus, is published this month by J . B. Lippincott Company of Philadel- 

 phia, and b\> courtesy of the publishers the folio-wing extracts and illustrations are 

 reprinted here. 



Lieutenant Shackleton' tells the story of his -work simply and modestly in two 

 handsome volumes, beautifully illustrated from photographs and -with large maps 

 in colors. An introduction by Hugh Robert Mill summarizes the work of previous 

 south polar expeditions. 



MEN go out into the void spaces 

 of the world for various rea- 

 sons. Some are actuated sim- 

 ply by a love of adventure, some have 

 the keen thirst for scientific knowledge, 

 and others again are drawn away from 

 the trodden paths by the "lure of little 

 voices," the mysterious fascination of the 

 unknown. 1 think that in my own case 

 it was a combination of these factors that 

 determined me to try my fortune once 

 again in the frozen south. 



I had been invalided home before the 

 conclusion of the Discovery expedition, 

 and I had a very keen desire to see more 

 of the vast continent that lies amid the 

 Antarctic snows and glaciers. Indeed, 

 the stark polar lands grip the hearts of 

 the men who have lived on them in a 

 manner that can hardly be understood 

 by the people who have never got out- 

 side the pale of civilization. 



The Discovery expedition had gained 

 knowledge of the great chain of moun- 

 tains running in a north and south direc- 

 tion from Cape Adare to latitude 82 17' 

 south, but whether this range turned to 

 the southeast or eastward for any consid- 

 erable distance was net known, and 

 therefore the southern limits of the Great 

 Ice Barrier plain had not been defined. 



The glimpses gained of King Edward 

 VII Land from the deck of the Discovery 

 had not enabled us to determine either 

 its nature or its extent, and the mystery 

 of the Barrier remained unsolved. It 

 was a matter of importance to the scien- 

 tific world that information should be 

 gained regarding the movement of the 

 ice-sheet that forms the Barrier. Then 

 I wanted to find out what lay beyond the 

 mountains to the south of latitude 82° 

 17' and whether the Antarctic continent 

 rose to a plateau similar to the one found 

 by Captain Scott beyond the Western 

 Mountains. 



There was much to be done in the field 

 of meteorology, and this work was of 

 particular importance to Australia and 

 New Zealand, for these countries are af- 

 fected by weather conditions that have 

 their origin in the Antarctic. Antarctic 

 zoologv, though somewhat limited, as re- 

 garded the range of species, had very in- 

 teresting aspects, and I wanted to devote 

 some attention to mineralogy, apart from 

 general geology. 



The Aurora Australis, atmospheric 

 electricity, tide movements, hydrography, 

 currents of the air, ice formations and 

 movements, biology and geology, offered 

 an unlimited field for research, and the 



