INTRODUCTION 



anything to do with any expedition not provided at the 

 outset with funds sufficient to ensure success. The govern- 

 ment of Victoria took the matter up and offered to con- 

 tribute £5000 to an expedition if the Home Government 

 would support it; the British Association, the Royal 

 Society, and the Royal Geographical Society reported in 

 favour of the scheme, but in 1887 the Treasury definitely 

 declined to participate. 



In 1892 a fleet of four Dundee whalers set out for 

 Weddell Sea, in order to test Ross' belief that the whale- 

 bone whale existed there, and two of them, the Balaena 

 and Active were fitted up with nautical and meteorological 

 instruments by the Royal Geographical Society and the 

 Meteorological Office, in the hope that they would fix 

 accurate positions and keep careful records. Dr. W. S. 

 Bruce, an enthusiastic naturalist, accompanied the Balaena 

 and Dr. C. W. Donald accompanied the Active, com- 

 manded by Captain Thomas Robertson. The ships made 

 full cargoes of seals in Weddell Sea, but did not go 

 beyond 65° South, nor did they repeat the venture. A 

 Norwegian whaler, the Jason, was sent out at the same 

 time by a company in Hamburg and her master, Captain 

 Larson, picked up a number of fossils on Seymour Island, 

 and saw land from Weddell Sea in 64° 40' South. The 

 Hamburg Company sent out three ships in 1893, the 

 Jason to Weddell Sea, where Captain Larsen discovered 

 Oscar Land, no doubt the eastern coast of Graham Land, 

 in 66° South and 60° West, and pushing on farther he 

 discovered Foyn Land, the Jason being the second steamer 

 to enter the Antarctic regions proper. On his way home 

 along the coast he charted many new islands and dis- 

 covered active volcanoes near the place where Ross' 

 officers had seen smoke rising from the mountains, though 

 that cautious explorer decided that as it might be only 

 snowdrift he would not claim the discovery of volcanoes 



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