HISTORY OF DISCOVERY. 129 



western side of the Biscoe Islands, passed through the 

 Bransfield Straits and the waters to the east of Joinville 

 Island, where, as already stated, he fell in with Pedersen 

 and Larsen, and sailed with them to Ushuaya in Tierra 

 del Fueeo and to the Falkland Islands. He, too, made a 

 second voyage to the waters of Joinville Island in the 

 second half of January, returning to the Falkland Islands 

 in March, and to Norway in the beginning of July. 



Both voyages, that of the Hertha and, more especially, 

 that of the Jason, are decidedly the most important since 

 those of Ross for the extended knowledge of Antarctic 

 geography. The most surprising fact in the experience 

 of both vessels is the remarkable absence of obstructing 

 ice in the waters they visited, especially if the time of 

 year be considered. The November of the southern 

 hemisphere corresponds to the June of the northern, a time 

 in which all progress in southern waters is generally stopped 

 by dense pack-ice. And it cannot be argued that the ice 

 in the south was perhaps not detached so early in the 

 season, thus blocking the sea to the north later on, for 

 it does not appear that Larsen and Evensen found any 

 change worth mentioning in the condition of the ice on 

 their second voyage south in January. 



In the same year, 1894, in which the vessels of the 

 Hamburg Oceana Company had returned home, a Nor- 

 wegian ship set out from Melbourne for the south. This 

 was the steam whaler Antarctic, belonging to the well- 

 known shipowner, Svend Foyn of Christiania, with a 

 record of twenty-three years' service behind her. A 

 young Norwegian naturalist, C. Egeberg Borchgrevingk, 

 was on board as common sailor, for in his enthusiasm 

 for South Polar exploration he had first resolved to ship 

 as a passenger, only to find his scheme impossible. His 

 description of his voyage, though not contributing much 

 that is new, nevertheless contains some interesting parti- 

 culars. The Antarctic left Melbourne on the 20th of 



9 



