INTRODUCTION 



^out^ polar exploration in t^e ILagt 

 fiwDreD gears • 



By HUGH ROBERT MILL, D.Sc, LL.D. 



AN" outline of the history of recent Antarctic exploration 

 is necessary before the reader can appreciate to the 

 full the many points of originality in the equipment of the 

 expedition of 1907-1909, and follow the unequalled ad- 

 vance made by that expedition into the slowly dwindling 

 blank of the unknown South Polar area. 



From the beginning of the sixteenth century it was 

 generally believed that a great continent, equal in area 

 to all the rest of the land of the globe, lay around the 

 South Pole, stretching northward in each of the great 

 oceans far into the tropics. The second voyage of Captain 

 James Cook in 1773-75 showed that if any continent 

 existed it must lie mainly within the Antarctic Circle, 

 which he penetrated at three points in search of the land, 

 and it could be of no possible value for settlement or trade. 

 He reached his farthest south in 71° 10' South, 1130 miles 

 from the South Pole. 



In 1819 Alexander L, Emperor of all the Russias, 

 resolved of his good pleasure to explore the North Polar 

 and the South Polar Regions simultaneously and sent 

 out two ships to each destination. The southern expedition 

 consisted of the two ships Vostok and Mirni, under the 

 command of Captain Pabian von Bellingshausen, with 

 Lieutenant LazarefF as second in command. They made 



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