VII. THE FUTURE OF ANTARCTIC 

 DISCOVERY. 



The object of the preceding chapters has been to present 

 to the reader a general view of the whole of our present 

 knowledge of the Antarctic regions. We have exhibited 

 the history of the gradual expansion of this knowledge, 

 the distribution of land and of water as far as it is known. 

 We have discussed the results of the scanty observations 

 made on the climatic elements, and on the sequence of 

 phenomena due to them, as well as the predominance of 

 the ice, and in short outlines the most important forms 

 of organic life, both animals and plants, and yet all this 

 merely shows that for the geographer the south polar 

 regions are little more than an emphatic point of in- 

 terrogation, a frank confession that on every branch of 

 geographical knowledge we stand before a riddle, the 

 solution of which belongs to the future. It is not 

 merely because the number of unknown regions on our 

 earth has been largely reduced, but mainly because all 

 branches of geography have gained in depth, that the 

 necessity is more and more forced upon science of 

 energetically attacking the long-neglected study of the 

 south polar regions, since it is impossible to conceive 

 a complete system of geographical theories so long as 

 such knowledge is wanting. 



In the last sections of the "History of Discovery" 

 mention has been made of the stimulus given and the 

 efforts made to reanimate Antarctic research by its most 



eminent living advocate and representative. Georg 



(274) 



