454 



SCIEN'CE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 223 



and birds. For ten years we do not hear of any 

 further attempts. Then one Mr. Enderby of Lon- 

 don fitted out several vessels, and sent them to 

 the Antarctic Ocean for sealing and exploring 

 purposes. The first expedition, in 1830, was un- 

 der command of Captain Biscoe, who discovered 

 the coast of Graham Land and Enderby Island. 

 He was followed by Kemp in 1834, who discovered 

 Kemp Island. The problem of the south pole 

 then suddenly attracted the attention of all nations. 

 Balleny, who commanded another of Enderby's 

 expeditions, discovered in 1839 the volcanoes of 

 Balleny Island and Clarie and Sabrina Land, — two 

 points of the extensive Wilkes Land, the existence 

 of which was later on so much contested. 



In the following year, Dumont d'Urville came 

 in sight of Ad^lie Land, which is situated between 

 the eastern and western discoveries of Balleny. 

 He estimated the height of the land to be about 3,500 

 feet. It is covered with ice, and no bare patches 

 were seen. On efi'ecting a landing, however, he 

 found some rocks, which proved it to be land, and 

 not drifting ice. Later on, he sighted Clarie Land, 

 which he describes as an ice wall four hundred 

 feet in height. In 1838, d'Urville had visited 

 Graham Land, without making noteworthy dis- 

 coveries. In the same year, when d'UrviUe made 

 his discoveries south of Australia, Wilkes visited 

 that region, and sailed all along the coast of the 

 land which bears his name to-day. Ashe did not 

 approach it very closely, some of his land may 

 have been drifting ice. Ross, on his expedition of 

 1840-45, sailed over the place east of Balleny 

 Islands, where Wilkes had put land on his map. 

 In 1842 Ross reached latitude 78*^ 10' south, the 

 farthest point ever reached. He discovered the 

 highlands of Victoria Land, with volcanoes 12,000 

 feet in height, and sailed along the formidable ice 

 wall which he found attached to the eastern side 

 of this land. His voyage is by far the most 

 prominent among the antarctic expeditions, on 

 account of the experience of the commander in 

 ice navigation, his perseverance and boldness, and 

 the valuable observations on the physical geogra- 

 phy and topography of the antarctic regions. 



On the accompanying map the most southern 

 points reached by these explorers are connected by 

 a broken line which includes the unknown area 

 around the south pole. 



Except the short journeys of Moore in 1845, and 

 Nares in 1874, no further attempts to penetrate 

 into the Antarctic Ocean have been made. It seems 

 that the singularity of phenomena presented in 

 the antarctic regions did not excite as much inter- 

 est as did those of regions the borders of which 

 were known. Here the fragmentary state of our 

 knowledge was brought to mind whenever vague 



news of the unknown parts reached us, while no 

 reports from the icy south pole kept up the faint 

 interest it may have attracted at one time. 



The geographical problems of this part of the 

 world, nevertheless, are of the greatest impor- 

 tance. It is well known that the polar regions, 

 particularly the south polar region, regulates 

 the circulation of the oceans, and that its cur- 

 rents must be studied before it will be possible 

 to understand thoroughly the currents of the 

 southern hemisphere. The distribution of land 

 and water, the depth of the ocean, the amount of 

 ice, its thickness and distribution, must be studied 

 for this purpose. Besides this, the meteorological 

 phenomena of the southern hemisphere depend on 

 those of the antarctic region, and our knowledge 

 of the meteorology of the earth will be incomplete 

 until such phenomena of the south polar region 

 are thoroughly studied. The southern hemisphere 

 is to a great extent covered by the ocean, and the 

 land consists of narrow strips which have no great 

 effect on the physical phenomena of the atmos- 

 phere : therefore they are not so complicated as 

 those of the northern hemisphere, and their study 

 will further the theory of meteorology. It is 

 hardly necessary to mention the importance of 

 researches on terrestrial magnetism in the antarctic 

 regions. The important bearing of these problems 

 on practical questions cannot be overrated. The 

 seaman cannot dispense with the knowledge of the 

 currents, winds, and magnetic elements, and there 

 is hardly a class of people who will not be bene- 

 fited by the progress of meteorology. 



But, besides this, the scientific problems of the 

 antarctic regions are of great importance. It is 

 possible that in former times the arctic zone 

 was a centre from which the organisms of the 

 present period spread over the northern hemi- 

 sphere. It will be important to know whether the 

 south polar zone played a similar part in the 

 southern hemisphere. The formation of the an- 

 tarctic ice is probably very different from that of 

 the arctic ice, because the summer temperature 

 seldom rises to the freezing-point. The glaciation 

 of this region is extremely extensive, and its in- 

 fluence on the formation of the surface of the 

 land can best be studied there. Our knowledge of 

 the geography of the earth will remain a frag- 

 ment so long as an area of this extent remains 

 unknown, particularly as the physical geograpliy 

 of the southern hemisphere depends to a great ex- 

 tent on that of this region. From this stand-point, 

 the resumption of antarctic explorations is even 

 more important than the continuation of arctic 

 expeditions. Fortunately the chances of success 

 are very good, as the Antarctic Ocean seems to be 

 far more navigable than the arctic seas. The ice 



