150 
president's address. 
expedition under Sir James Ross and Captain Crozier in the 
Erebus and Terror in 1839-1843. 
Dr. Murray remarked in his address to the Royal Geographical 
Society last year that it was now nearly two thousand five hundred 
years since the Phoenicians sent out the expedition under the 
command of Necho into the Southern Hemisphere. They arrived 
at the Cape of Good Hope, about 600 B.C., and reported that 
when rounding the Cape, heading westwards, they had the sun 
on their right hand, a statement of which Herodotus says, " This 
for my part I do not believe; but others may." Since the time . 
of this voyage of the Phoenician sailors in their frail craft, we 
have no reason to be proud of the rapidity of geographical 
exploration in the Southern Hemisphere. 
Until the beginning of this year only three exploring parties 
had passed beyond the limit of 70° S. lat., Cook in 1773, Weddell 
in 1823, and Ross in 1841 and 1842. This year, however, the 
whaler Antarctic, which has just returned to Melbourne, has had 
the honour of being the first ship for the last 52 years to penetrate 
beyond the 70th parallel, reaching lat. 74° S., in long. 171° E. 
As a result of his explorations, Cook, as quoted by Murray, 
was convinced that " the greater part of this Southern Continent 
must lie within the Polar circle, where the sea is so pestered with 
ice that the land is thereby inaccessible. The risque one runs in 
exploring a coast in these unknown and icy seas is so very great 
that I can be bold enough to say that no man will ever venture 
further south than I have done." To prophecy thus is also risky, 
as both Weddell and Ross did subsequently venture much further 
south, as already stated. 
The explorations of Ross, the discoverer of the North Magnetic 
Pole, stand pre-eminent in the record of Antarctic work. In his 
case the path of duty was the way to glory. His orders were to 
try and discover the Magnetic Pole, and accordingly he steered as 
straight as he could towards where previous observations showed 
that the Magnetic Pole probably lay, and this proved to be also 
the best direction for successful geographical exploration. Sir 
Joseph Hooker, one of the only two members now surviving of 
