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ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION. 

 (By Chas. P. Spbbnt, Deittty-Stjrveyor-General.) 



During the last three years the subject of Antarctic 

 Exploration has frequently been brought forward and dis- 

 cussed by the Scientific Societies of Europe, America, and 

 Australia* and a general desire has been expressed to see a 

 renewal of scientific investigations in those almost unknown 

 regions. The North Polar regions have been so far explored 

 that no new discoveries of any importance are to be looked 

 for in that quarter ; the theory of an open Polar Sea has 

 been annihilated by the discoveries of Sir George Nares and 

 Lieut. Greeley, and it is now clearly understood that the 

 North Pole is surrounded by a frozen sea of ancient ice, the 

 Palaocrystic Sea, over whose rugged surface travelling is so 

 painfully slow that all hope of reaching the Pole by 

 ordinary means of progression has been abandoned. For 

 forty-three years no scientific expedition has visited the 

 Antarctic Seas, and as during that period immense advances 

 have been made in all branches of scientific enquiry, it is 

 only natural that, with the hope of acquiring new facts, as 

 well as of verifying recorded facts, the attention of the 

 scientific world is being directed to the South Polar regions, 

 where so little has been done in the way of exploration that, 

 with the exception of a few detached pieces of coast-line, 

 nothing whatever is known of an area of the globe fully as 

 large as the Continent of Europe. Baron von Mueller, the 

 President of the Victorian Branch of the Geographical 

 Society of Australasia, referred to the subject in his annual 

 address in 1884, and last year he dealt with it more fully. 

 His remarks appear to have attracted some attention, for the 

 Geographical Section of the British Association, under the 

 presidency of Lord Abedare, have now taken up the subject 

 and given it their powerful support. In September of last 

 year the Association appointed a Committee, consisting of 

 Sir Leopold McClintock, Sir George Nares, Sir Joseph 

 Hooker, Dr. Carpenter, Mr. Clements Markham, and others, 

 to bring up information. 



Admiral Sir Erasmus Ommanney, who was appointed 

 Secretary, read a paper before the Association setting forth 

 the history of previous explorations, the results achieved, and 

 the problems to be solved by future exploration. Unfortu- 

 nately, no copy of this report is to be found in Hobart, but I 

 notice that, as the project meets with much support both in 

 England and on the Continent, it is probable that_ an 

 Expedition will shortly be organised. I notice also that it is 

 likely the British Association will visit Sydney next year ; if 



