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THE AMERICAh\N ATURALIST [Vol. XL 



EXPLORATION 



Scott's Voyage of the 'Discovery '.i— At the beginning of the 

 seventeenth century, knowledge of the Antarctic regions was so meager 

 that Quiros, a Portuguese favored by Pope Clement VIII, obtained 

 permission from Phillip III, the King of Spain, to "prosecute a voyage 

 to annex the South Polar continent and to convert its inhabitants to 

 the true faith." Quiros never reached the Antarctic Circle but since 

 that time, the occasional visits of navigators have added slightly to 

 our scanty knowledge of this distant part of the earth, although real 

 scientific work did not begin until the middle of the eighteenth century, 

 when, in 1773, James Cook, with two vessels especially fitted for 

 exploration, first crossed the Antarctic Circle. x\bout 1820, Bellings- 

 hausen discovered the first known land (Peter Island) within the 

 Antarctic Circle, and later in the century other expeditions touched 

 at various points of the Antarctic continent and brought back more 

 or less fragmentary and imperfect accounts of that region. 



The last decade has seen great activity and interest in the investiga- 

 tion of this area, so that in 1901 no less than three expeditions, work- 

 ing in cooperation, were sent out to undertake a more exact study 

 of the Antarctic seas and lands. The German expedition was led 

 by Drygalski, the Swedish was in charge of Dr. O. Nordenskjold, 

 while the third, under the auspices of the Royal Geographical Society 

 of London was commanded by Captain Robert F. Scott, R. N. The 

 two volumes here reviewed, present a straightforward narrative of 

 the work of the English party as modestly told by Captain Scott 

 himself. 



The preliminary chapters deal briefly with the previous explorations, 

 the circumstances leading up to the organization of the expedition, 

 the construction of the Discovery especially built for hard work in the 

 ice, the equipment of the vessel, and the personnel of her officers and 



Sailing from England in July, 1901, the Dlsmrmi rcn. lir.l X(>\v 

 Zealand in due course and on December 24, folh.w !ii<:, ^t< ( iv(i south 

 for Victoria I^and, the portion of the Antarctic (oiiiinciit assjirncd to 

 this expedition for exploration. The n iiiaiiidcr nf the short polar 



1 Scott, Robert F. The Voyage of th. ' Di'scun r;/.' N. u York and London, 

 •Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905. 8vo, 2 vols., iUus. $10.00. 



