384 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
vians grew up with December, the month without a sun- 
rise, as the dark background of their life; and whalers 
liable to be caught in the ice as they lingered to the 
end of their short working season, grew expert in de- 
vices for counteracting the effects of intense cold and 
month-long darkness and inaction. But the winter of 
the south remained absolutely unknown, the only clue 
to its severity being the solitary minimum reading of — 5 0 
on Deception Island when the registering thermometer 
left by H. M. S. Chanticleer was recovered by Captain 
Smiley. The importance of observing winter conditions 
in the Antarctic had become a plank in the platform of 
the few indefatigable enthusiasts who were still hopeful 
of securing the dispatch of a properly equipped expedi- 
tion capable of utilising to the full opportunities which 
whalers, who had to pay their way, could only recognise 
and pass unused. 
The meeting of the Sixth International Geographical 
Congress in London in 1895 under the presidency of Sir 
Clements Markham was made the occasion of an interest- 
ing discussion following a long historical paper by Dr. 
von Neumayer and an account by Mr. Borchgrevink of 
Captain Kristensen’s successful landing on the Antarctic 
continent. Sir Joseph Hooker, the last survivor of 
Ross’s great voyage, Sir John Murray, representing the 
Challenger expedition, and Sir Erasmus Ommanney, 
whose efforts at one time seemed likely to launch a new 
ship for the south, took part in the discussion. The Con- 
gress adopted a resolution, which may be looked upon as 
the formal beginning of the strenuous efforts to explore 
the Antarctic at the close of the nineteenth and the open- 
ing of the twentieth centuries. It ran: 
“ That the Congress record its opinion that the explora- 
