AVERTED INTEREST 
337 
for the general benefit of mankind as it was for the glory 
of this country but nothing followed. 
Maury next sent a letter appealing for consideration 
to the Ministers of all the chief Powers at Washington, 
and the letter addressed to Lord Lyons was transmitted 
by him to the Foreign Office who referred it to the Ad- 
miralty, and the Admiralty sent it to the Secretary of 
the British Association by whom it was put before the 
Department of Meteorology at the Manchester meeting 
in 1861. The letter set forth reasons for believing that 
though the summer in the Antarctic region was colder 
than that in the Arctic the winter would probably be 
milder in the south than in the north. Accordingly 
Maury suggested that an expedition should be dispatched 
with a base in Australia to search for a safe harbour in 
which one or two vessels to be sent south the following 
year could winter for two or three seasons, with relief 
provided each year from the base. His arguments did 
not lack force or eloquence. After referring to the ex- 
peditions of D’Urville, Ross and Wilkes (he used the 
alphabetic order) Maurv proceeded: 
“ But since that time the world has grown in knowl- 
edge, and man has gained wonderfully in his power for 
conquest in this field of research. We have now the sea- 
steamer, which former Arctic Explorers had not; the 
experience acquired since their day, in polar explora- 
tion about the Arctic regions, enables us to overcome 
many an obstacle that loomed up before them in truly 
formidable proportions. The gold of Australia has built 
up among the Antipodes of Europe one of the most exten- 
sive shipping ports in the world. By steam, it is within 
less than a week’s sailing distance of the Antarctic Cir- 
cle ; and thus those unknown regions of the south 
22 
