Purnaui,—0n Antaretic Eaploratión, 85 
how much more he would probably have done had he been aided by steam, 
On his second voyage, when he attained the highest latitude ever reached, he 
was 56 days in the pack, which was 1000 miles through, and by the time he 
had got out of it and reached the ice barrier it was time to return. With 
steamers he would probably have pierced the pack in two or three weeks, 
In the event of the expedition being unable to winter in the ice, I should 
propose that the explorations be renewed in the next and following years, 
thus making three attempts to accomplish the objects in view. 
It cannot, however, be denied that the antarctic explorer has a harder 
task to encounter than his northern comrade. The cold is more intense; 
storms more frequent; while a constant heavy swell of the sea adds to the 
dangers of the navigator. Describing the state of the ice barrier on Feb- 
ruary 9, 1841, Ross says, “ gigantic icicles depended from every projecting 
point of its perpendicular cliffs, proving that it sometimes thaws, which 
otherwise we could not have believed, for at a season of the year equivalent 
to August in England we have the thermometer at 12°, and at noon not 
rising above 14°; this severity of temperature is remarkable, also, when 
compared with our former experience in the Northern Seas, where, from 
every iceberg you meet with, streams of water are constantly pouring off 
during the summer.” There is not the smallest trace of vegetation visible 
in these inhospitable regions, even in the middle of summer. The most 
southerly spot where vegetation has been seen is Cockburn Island, one of 
the South Shetland Group, situated in latitude 64° 12’ S. ; but it only con- 
sists of a few mosses, alge and lichens. No land animals have been 
observed. Whales, seals, penguins, petrels, and skua gulls are the only 
visible living creatures in the highest latitudes that have been reached. 
The winter is rather longer and the summer shorter than in the Arctic Seas. 
These peculiarities would of course prove great hindrances to land explora- 
tions, which would, even if they could be undertaken at all, have to be made 
under different and more arduous conditions than those attaching to land 
journeys in the North Polar regions. 
The determination of the existence, or non-existence, of an Antarctic 
Continent is the principal problem to be solved by a South Polar expedi- 
tion. It must, however, be also borne in mind that the geographical 
discoveries which have already been made are of the baldest nature. 
Certain lands are known to exist and that is all. They have never been 
explored. Louis Philippe Land and the other land to the south of Cape 
Horn are the only Antarctic Lands of whose geography and productions 
we have any real knowledge, and that is very limited, But the explorer's 
foot has never trodden Victoria Land, Terre Adélie, Sabrina, or Enderby 
