INTRODUCTION 



there. Meanwhile, in Bellingshausen Sea, Captain Even- 

 son, of the Hertha, got beyond 69° 10' South after 

 visiting the Eiscoe Islands, and he sighted Alexander I 

 Land for the first time since its discovery. 



The next visit to the Antarctic was due to the Nor- 

 wegian whaler, Svend Foyn, who sent out the Antarctic, 

 under Captain Kristensen, with Mr. Bull as agent, to 

 Ross Sea. They had agreed to take Dr. W. S. Bruce, but 

 he found it impossible to reach Melbourne in time to 

 join the ship. A young Norwegian resident in Australia, 

 who was partly English in ancestry, Carstens Egeberg 

 Borchgrevink, shipped as a sailor, having an insatiable 

 desire to see the Antarctic regions and being refused a 

 passage on any other terms. The Antarctic sighted the 

 Balleny Islands and was nearly six weeks in working 

 through the pack, but on January 14, 1895, she was the 

 first steamer to enter the open water of Ross Sea. A 

 landing was made on Possession Island, where Borch- 

 grevink discovered a lichen, the first trace of vegetation 

 found within the Antarctic Circle; the ship went as far 

 as 74° South looking for whales and on her way back 

 the first landing on the Antarctic continent was made on a 

 low beach at Cape Adare. 



Mr. Borchgrevink described this voyage at the meet- 

 ing of the Sixth International Geographical Congress in 

 London in 1895, where a great discussion of the possi- 

 bility of renewing Antarctic exploration had previously 

 been arranged for. Dr. von Neumaer gave an able his- 

 torical paper on Antarctic exploration, Sir Joseph Hooker 

 spoke as a survivor of Ross' expedition, Sir John Murray 

 as a member of the scientific staff of the Challenger, 

 and Sir Clements Markham as President of the Congress. 

 The Congress adopted a resolution to the effect that the 

 exploration of the Antarctic Regions was the greatest 

 piece of geographical exploration remaining to be under- 



xlii 



