I. POSITION AND LIMITS. 



The very word Antarctic indicates the situation of the 

 region to be described in the following pages ; it is the 

 opposite, the antipodes, of the Arctic region : in other 

 words, the tracts surrounding the South Pole, as those 

 surround the North Pole. It is thus the polar cap of the 

 southern hemisphere of our planet to which we turn our 

 attention, and we immediately dispense with the limits 

 indicated by longitude, since the region before us includes 

 the whole circumference in the higher southern latitudes. 

 The inquiry as to the limits of latitude to be assigned 

 to the Antarctic regions is not so readily met, and it is 

 by no means easy to decide what may justly be con- 

 sidered its limits. A glance at the map shows that the 

 terms Antarctic and southern polar zone cannot be strictly 

 regarded as convertible terms. The latter is limited by 

 the south polar circle, a purely mathematical line owing 

 its significance to the relative position of our earth to the 

 sun, and the consequently varying length of the day — 

 a variation that (within the polar circle) lies between 24 

 hours and o. On the other hand, the countries hitherto 

 discovered round the South Pole, and unconnected with 

 the land of any other portion of the earth, universally 

 though only slightly exceed the limits of the polar circle 

 in the direction of the equator. It is well known that 

 the same difference is to be found between the north 

 polar zone and north polar lands, since a large portion 

 of Greenland as well as the essentially polar country 

 of Baffin's Bay both extend to the south of the Arctic 



