142 



so, the project will proba.bly be brought forward at that 

 meeting, and some definite pilan arranged. 



It has been suggested that befoie any costly large Expedi- 

 tion is despatched, it would be advisable to send out a pioneer 

 vessel to examine certain unknown parts, to select suitable 

 places for winter quarters, and make preliminary observations. 

 The Geographical Society of Australasia and the Eoyal 

 Society of Victoria are anxious that this preliminary Expedi- 

 tion should be undertaken by Australia, and have invited the 

 co-operation of the various Governments and learned Societies 

 of these colonies, hence the communication which we have 

 arranged to discuss this evening. There are about half a 

 dozen members of the Geographical Society of Australasia 

 residing in Tasmania, and as one of them I have been 

 requested on behalf of that Society to place the subject 

 before you. I have, therefore, compiled some information 

 from the best available authorities, in the hope that the 

 Fellows of this Society, and the public of Tasmania generally, 

 may be induced to take an interest in the matter, and assist 

 in securing the proper representation of Australia in any new 

 exploration of these Southern Seas. And I appeal to the 

 sympathy of this Society all the more confidently because 

 there are some of you — Mr. Barnard, our chairman, is one — - 

 who, as members of the Tasmanian Society, the parent of our 

 Society, enjoyed the personal friendship of those heroes of 

 Polar discovery, Sir John Franklin, Sir James Eoss, and 

 Captain Crozier, and heard them narrate their now world- 

 renowned adventures. 



In compiling this paper I have availed myself of Sir James 

 Eoss's Voyages, Wilkes's Voyages, Dr. Neumayer's papers in 

 the 7th Volume of Nature, papers by Sir Wyvill Thompson 

 and Mr. Moseley, of the Challenger staffi, addresses delivered 

 in Melbourne by Baron von Mueller, Mr. G. S. Griffiths, Mr. 

 Macdonald, and others, as well as the articles upon the 

 subject in the 19th volume of the Encyclopaedia Brittanica. 

 With this acknowledgment, I plead guilty to having fre- 

 quently adopted the very language of my authorities. 



To understand what has already been done, a brief history 

 of Antarctic discovery is necessary ; and before entering upon 

 that narrative it may be mentioned that as far back as the 

 Kith century geographers argued the existence of a large 

 southern continent, necessary in their opinion to balance the 

 weight of land in the Northern Hemisphere ; and just as 

 there are to be found vague accounts of prehistoric dis- 

 coveries in the Arctic regions, so we may discover similar 

 accounts of supposed discoveries in Southern Seas. 



In January, 1600, one Dirk Gerritz, a Dutchman, on a 

 voyage from the East Indies, falling in with tempestuous 



