364 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
whales though not of the most valuable kind. His com- 
mercial results were not encouraging enough to secure 
the dispatch of other steamers, but the first visit of the 
German flag to the edge of the Antarctic must be looked 
upon all the same as a very creditable exploit. 
The recent researches of Mr. Balch amongst the records 
of Stonington, Connecticut, have revealed the fact that 
American sealers continued to visit the South Shetlands, 
and, before and after Dallmann, sailed along the coast 
of Graham Land and made landings to the south of 
Gerlache Strait, but they kept their results to themselves, 
or a careless public failed to see the interest and impor- 
tance of the sealing cruises. 
Projects for the renewal of Antarctic whaling were 
frequently mooted, and in 1875 it almost seemed as if 
New Zealand and the Australian colonies would combine 
their resources and endeavour to establish the industry 
from one of the Australasian ports. It would be tedious 
to cite the different rumours or to detail the various 
schemes which were started during the following ten 
years, for the subject was never out of sight. Dr. von 
Neumayer continued both in Germany and in England to 
urge the dispatch of a scientific expedition, but on the 
return of the Challenger in 1876 the scientific director, 
Sir Wyville Thomson, deprecated anything of the kind. 
In a lecture on the experiences of the Challenger in the 
Antarctic he referred to the long series of disasters and 
the frightful hardships that had marked the history of 
Arctic exploration, and concluded : “ We can only antici- 
pate disasters multiplied a hundredfold should the South 
Pole ever become a goal of rivalry among the nations.” 
The argument is not a sound one, for the risk of disas- 
ter has ever been the finest incentive to the true explorer, 
