TERMINATION LAND 



THE WESTERN END OF THE ANTARCTIC CONTINENT 

 DISCOVERED BY THE AMERICAN WILKES 



In the deserved congratulations that are being showered on Captain Scott, of the 

 British Antarctic Expeditioti ; Captain Drygalski of the German ; Captai?i Bruce 

 of the Scottish, and Captaiii Nordenskjold of the Swedish, for their gallant achievements 

 in the Far South, the world is apt to forget that the American naval co?nmander 

 Wilkes discovered i?i i8j.o, and first announced to the world the antarctic continent, 

 called ' 'East Antarctica, ' ' of which Wilkes Layid is a part, a?id that another American, 

 Captain Palmer, was the pioneer explorer of the opposite side of the antarctic region 

 known as " West A?itarctica." The story of the bold ventures of these Americans in 

 puny sailing vessels is told by Mr Edwin Swift Batch in his ' 'Antarctica, ' ' the clearest 

 and most accurate accoimt of south polar exploration that has been published. * 



ON the 17th of February, 1840, 

 Lieut. Charles Wilkes.U. S. N., 

 at the most westerly point of 

 his memorable cruise which first re- 

 vealed to the world the existence of 

 a south polar continent, saw appear- 

 ances of land to the southwest. It 

 was only another point of the conti- 

 nental shore along which he had al- 

 ready sailed for some fifteen hundred 

 miles, and all he says of it is the following 

 sentence:f "On the 17th, about 10 a.m., 

 we discovered the barrier extending in a 

 line ahead, and running north and south 

 as far as the eye could reach. Appear- 

 ances of land were also seen to the south- 

 west, and its trending seemed to be to the 

 northwest. . . . We were now in 

 longitude 97 ° 37' E., and latitude 64 ° 

 01' S. " Wilkes charted this land as ex- 

 tending from about latitudes 63 ° 30' 

 south to 65 ° south, and from about lon- 

 gitudes 95 west to 97 west, and he gave 

 it the name of Termination Land. 



Just recently Dr Erich von Drygalski 

 published a paper and chart % giving the 

 results of the cruise of the Gauss to the 

 Antarctic. Onhis map Dr von Drygalski 

 charts a coast line, ' ' Hohes Eisbedecktes 

 Land," in about 66° south latitude and 

 93 west longitude, as discovered by him- 



self. Entirely north of 65 south lati- 

 tude and entirely east of 95 ° west longi- 

 tude he places the words "Termination 

 Land ? " In his paper, page 23, Dr von 

 Drygalski says: "Als Stiitze dieser 

 Annahme gait ein von Wilkes als Ans- 

 chein von Land bezeichnete und mit dem 

 Namen Termination Land belegte sich- 

 tungzwischen 95 und96° O. L. v. Gr. 

 und zwischen 64 und 65 S. B., welche 

 jedoch, wie wir heute annehmen miissen, 

 auf Taiischung beruht hat." And at 

 page 26 he writes : ' ' Nach zwei verge- 

 blichen Versuchen, die uns nur iiber das 

 Nichtvorhandensein von Termination 

 Land kunde brachten. ' ' In other words, 

 Dr von Drygalski coolly proposes to 

 throw out Admiral Wilkes' discoveries 

 entirely in order to take all the credit to 

 himself. 



But a comparison of Admiral Wilkes' 

 chart with Dr von Drygalski' s chart 

 shows that the latter' s " Hohes Eisbe- 

 decktes Land ' ' can be nothing but the 

 west coast of Termination Land ; for if 

 on Wilkes' chart we draw a line due 

 southwest from the position of the Vin- 

 cennes on the 17th, this line will go 

 through the center of Termination Land; 

 artd if on Drygalski' s chart we draw a 

 similar line from the position which he 



* Antarctica. E. S Balch. Philadelphia: Allen, Lane & Scott. 1902. $2.50 net. 



f Narrative of the United States Exploring Expedition, Philadelphia, 1845, vol. 2, p. 327. 



iZeitschrift der Gesellschaft fiir Erdkundzu Berlin, 1904, No. 1. 



