& 



242 



COLD OF THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS. 



[Ch. XII. 



more 



voluminous. I call the reader's 



7 



attention to this fact, because, in speculating on a change of 

 climate due to altered geographical conditions, it is too often 



must 

 temp 



>/ 



regions 



The cold of the antarctic 



regions was conjectured by Cook to be due to the existence of 

 a large tract of land between the 70th degree of south lati- 

 tude and the pole. The soundness of these and other specu- 

 lations of that great navigator has since been singularly 

 confirmed by the exploring expedition of Sir James Ross in 

 1841. He observed that the temperature south of the 60th 

 decree of latitude seldom rose above 32° Fahr. During the two 



(January and February), of the year 1841, 



Fahr. ; 



and scarcely once rose above the freezing point. He also 

 ascertained that Yictoria Land, extending from 71° to 79° 

 south latitude, was skirted by a great barrier of ice, and here 



summer 



o-ft of the thermometer was between 11° and 32 



New 



from 



v - — — "-' — •/ O ' 



Mt. Melbourne. This elevated region is opposite 

 nd and Tasmania ; the whole of it was entirely 

 covered with snow, except a narrow ring of black earth 

 (scoriae?) surrounding the huge crater of Mt. Erebus, an active 

 volcano, which rises 12,400 feet above the level of the sea. 

 Another part of the antarctic land, namely, that which ap- 

 proaches nearest to South America or Cape Horn, as, for ex- 

 reaches also 



Graham 



om 



4,000 to 7,000 feet. The exist- 

 ence of such heights and of so vast an area of land — proba- 

 bly exceeding in dimensions the whole of Australia — may well 

 account for the intense cold, which reaches to the 60th degree 

 of latitude, and sometimes farther, towards the equator in the 

 southern hemisphere. Captain Biscoe, in 1831-2, describes 

 Graham's and Enderby's Lands, between latitudes 64° and 

 68° south, as presenting a most wintry aspect in summer, and 

 as being nearly destitute of animal life. In corresponding 

 latitudes of the northern hemisphere, owing chiefly to the in- 

 fluence of the Gulf-stream, we not only meet with herds of 

 wild herbivorous animals, but with land which man himself 



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