Antarctic Regions

ANTARCTIC REGIONS. The remoteness of the antarctic regions from the centres of civilization delayed their exploration until comparatively modern times. The existence of zones of climate similar to those in the northern hemisphere had been pre dicted by the Greek philosophers, but it was not until Prince Henry the Navigator began in 1418 to encourage the penetration of the torrid zone in the effort to reach India by circumnavigating Africa that the exploration of the southern hemisphere began. Successive explorations set a southern limit to the great known continents without approaching the true antarctic regions. The rounding of Africa by Bartholomew Diaz, in 1487; of South America by Magellan, in 152o, and of Tierra del Fuego by Schouten and Lemaire in 1615 established the main objects of the day by finding routes to the east, and there was, therefore, no inducement to further search towards the south. Nevertheless, the geographers of the time sketched in imagination a vast southern continent just beyond these known routes, and the history of further exploration is largely that of the diminution of this great south land by minor discoveries, until Captain Cook's voyage led the world to the opposite extreme of doubting whether there was any south land at all.

The search for this great south land or third world was a leading motive of explorers in the 16th and the early part of the 17th centuries, and no illusion ever died a harder death. Voyagers round the Horn frequently met with contrary winds and were driven southward into snowy skies and ice-encumbered seas; but so far as can be ascertained none of them bef ore 177o reached the Antarctic Circle, or knew it, if they did. It may safely be said that all the navigators who fell in with the southern ice up to 175o did so by being driven off their course and not of set purpose. An exception is the determined effort on the part of the French naval officer, Picrre Bouvet, to discover the south land, which resulted in the discovery of Bouvet island in 54° 1o' S., and in the navigation of 48° of longitude of ice-cumbered sea in 55° S. in 1739. In 1771 Yves Joseph Kerguelen sailed from France with instructions to proceed south from Mauritius in search of "a very large continent." He lighted upon a land in 5o° S. which he called South France, and believed to be the central mass of the southern continent. He was sent out again to com plete the exploration of the new land, and found it to be only an inhospitable island which he renamed in disgust the Isle of Deso lation; posterity has recognized his courageous efforts by nam ing it Kerguelen Land.

James Cook.—Sailing in 1772, under the orders of the British Admiralty, with the "Resolution," a vessel of 462 tons, under his own command, and the "Adventure," of 336 tons, under Captain Tobias Furneaux, Cook first searched in vain for Bouvet island, then sailed for 20° of longitude to the westward in lat. S., and then 3o° eastward for the most part south of 6o° S., a higher southern latitude than had ever been voluntarily entered before by any vessel. On Jan. 17, 1773, the Antarctic Circle was crossed for the first time in history and the two ships reached 67° 15' S. in 35' E., where their course was stopped by ice. There Cook turned northward to look for South France, of the discovery of which he had received news at Cape Town, but from the rough determination of his longitude by Kerguelen, Cook reached the assigned latitude 10° too far east and did not see it. He turned south again and was stopped by ice in 61° 52' S. and 95° E. and continued eastward nearly on the parallel of 6o° S. to 147° E., where on March 16 the approaching winter drove him northward for rest to New Zealand and the tropical islands of the Pacific. In Nov. 1773 Cook left New Zealand, having parted company with the "Adventure," and reached 6o° S. in 177° W., whence he sailed eastward keeping as far south as the floating ice allowed. The Antarctic Circle was crossed on Dec. 20 and Cook remained south of it for three days, being compelled after reaching 67° 31' S. to stand north again in 135° W. A long detour to 50' S. served to show that there was no land connection between New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego, and turning south again Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle for the third time in 109° 3o' W., and four days later his progress was blocked by ice in 71 ° S., 106° 54' W. This point, reached on Jan. 30, 1774, was the farthest south attained in the 18th century. In Nov. 1774 Cook started from New Zealand and crossed the South Pacific without sighting land between 53' and S7° S. to Tierra del Fuego; passing Cape Horn on Dec. 29 he discovered the Isle of Georgia and Sandwich Land, the only iceclad land he had seen, and crossed the South Atlantic to the Cape of Good Hope between 55° and 6o° S., thereby exploding the myth of a habitable southern continent. Cook's most southerly discovery of land lay on the temperate side of the 6oth parallel, and he convinced himself that if land lay farther south it was practically inaccessible and of no economic value.

Soon after Cook's return sealers set out on voyages to South Georgia both from England and America. In Feb. 1819, William Smith of the brig "Williams," rounding the Horn with a wide sweep to the south, saw land in 62° 4o' S. Repeating the voyage in October he saw the land distinctly, and named it New South Shetland. The "Williams" was chartered by the British naval commander on the Pacific station, and in 182o Edward Brans field, master, R.N., surveyed the group and went as far as 64° 3o' among the islands. Meanwhile American sealers from Stonington, Conn., had begun operations on the newly discovered land, and one of these, N. B. Palmer, discovered the mountainous archipelago still farther south which bears his name. In 1821-22 George Powell, apparently a British sealer, discovered and sur veyed the South Orkney islands which, though typical antarctic lands, lie outside the Antarctic Circle.

Bellingshausen.

A voyage only second in importance to that of Cook was planned in Russia and sent out by the emperor, Alexander I., under the command of Fabian von Bellingshausen in the "Vostok," with Lieutenant Lazareff in the "Mimi" in com pany, both vessels being about 500 tons. The object of the expedition was to supplement that of Cook by circumnavigating the antarctic area, taking care to keep as far south as possible in those longitudes where Cook had made his northward detours. Bellingshausen entered on his exploring work by sighting South Georgia at the end of Dec. 1819, discovered the Traverse islands, sighted the Sandwich group and met a solid ice-pack in 6o° S., to get round which he made a wide detour, sailing east to the south of Cook's tract, and getting south of the 6oth parallel in 8° W. On Jan. 26 he crossed the Antarctic Circle in 3° W. and by Feb. I had reached 69° 25' in I° I I' W., a latitude which has never been surpassed on that meridian. Being stopped by ice, Bellingshausen turned northward and then continued to the east well to the south of Cook's track, getting south again as the ice permitted and reaching 69° 6' S. in 18° E. On this occasion he was able to sail for 3° of longitude within the circle before being forced north of it by a succession of heavy gales. He still kept eastward south of 65° S. and crossed the circle once more in E., where the number of birds seen suggested the proximity of land, and, in fact, Enderby Land was not very far off, though out of sight. A storm of unexampled violence drove the ships northward, but they still held to the east south of 60° S. as far as 87° E., having followed the edge of the ice through those meridians south of Kerguelen Land where Cook had made a great detour to the north. Bellingshausen now made for Sydney, and there heard of the discovery of the South Shetlands; leaving early in November, he reached the both parallel a month later in long. 143° W., and sailing eastward kept south of that parallel through 145° of longitude during 65 days, never out of sight of the ice, keeping close along the pack edge through the great gap left by Cook south of New Zealand. He managed to cross the circle three times more, in 164° 30' W., in 12o° W. and in 92° Jo' W., where he reached 69° 52' S., the culminating point of the voyage. On Jan. 22, 1821, the day after reaching his highest latitude, Bellingshausen sighted the first land ever seen within the Antarctic Circle, the little island named after Peter I. A week later another and larger land, named after Alexander I., was seen at a distance of 4om. and sketches made of its bold out line in which the black rock stood out in contrast to the snow. Bellingshausen then made for the South Shetlands, where he met the American sealers, and thence returned to Russia.

Weddell, Biscoe and Balleny.

During the next few years, several determined attempts were made to penetrate farther to the south. Most of these had as their first object the discovery of areas suitable for whaling or sealing, and must be intimately connected with the name of the famous firm of Enderby of Lon don, which was always ready to encourage their whaling and sealing masters to take every opportunity that offered for ex ploration. In 1823 James Weddell, a retired master, R.N., in command of the "Jane," a brig of 160 tons, with the cutter "Beaufoy," of 65 tons, sailed into the sea which now bears his name and on Feb. 20 he reached the highest latitude yet attained, 74° 15' S. in 34° 17' W. In 1830 John Biscoe, R.N., in command of one of the Enderby brigs, sailed to the eastward from the South Sandwich islands and found himself forced to coast along the impenetrable ice-pack, until he crossed the Antarctic Circle in I° E. He remained south of the circle for over four weeks, and was rewarded by the discovery of land in 49° r8' E., which he saw, but was unable to reach. This land is now known as Enderby Land. Biscoe recruited his crews in Tasmania and New Zealand, and again sailed for the south, crossing the whole of the southern Pacific in a high latitude in Feb. 1832, and dis covering the islands and main land south of South America, since known as the Biscoe islands and Graham Land. In 1833 another of the Enderby captains, named Kemp, reported the discovery of land about io° E. of Enderby Land, while in 1839 John Balleny, sailing south from New Zealand, crossed the Antarctic Circle in 178° E., and discovered the Balleny islands, one of which rises to a height of 12,000 feet.

Dumont d'Urville.

About 1835 the importance of obtain ing magnetic observations in the far south, and the scientific interest of the study of the south polar regions led to plans being put forward for expeditions in the United States, France and Great Britain. The French were first in the field ; an expedition, equipped in the frigates "Astrolabe" and "Zelee" under Jules Dumont d'Urville for ethnological research in the Pacific islands, was instructed to make an attempt to surpass Weddell's latitude in the South Atlantic ocean, and this d'Urville tried to do with conspicuous ill-success; he never reached the Antarctic Circle. Two years later, after fulfilling the main purpose of his expedition in the Pacific, d'Urville resolved for the glory of France to attempt to reach the magnetic pole. He left Hobart Town on Jan. 1, 1840, and on the 2oth he crossed the 66th parallel in 14o° E. and discovered land 3,000 or 4,000ft. high, which he named Adelie Land. Ten days later in 64° 30' S. d'Urville cruised westward along a high ice-barrier, which he believed to be con nected with land, from longitude 131° E. and he named it the Clarie coast. A few days later he left the Antarctic regions for the Pacific.

Wilkes.

As early as 1836 the United States Congress had authorized an American exploring expedition in the programme of which antarctic exploration had a leading place. Lieutenant Charles Wilkes was appointed to command the expedition of five vessels in Aug. 1838, and his instructions, dated in that month, required him amongst other things (1) to follow Weddell's route as far as possible; (2) to visit the most southerly point reached by Cook in the antarctic; and (3) to make an "attempt to penetrate within the antarctic region, south of Van Diemen's Land, and as far west as long. 45° E., or to Enderby Land." In spite of great difficulties Wilkes fulfilled his programme. In following Weddell's route Wilkes, in March 1839, fared no better than d'Urville in the previous year, but the "Flying Fish," of 96 tons, under Lieutenant Walker reached 7o° S. in ios° W., thus nearly reaching Cook's position of 1774. The third item of the antarctic programme was made the subject of the most strenuous endeavour. Wilkes sailed from Sydney in the "Vin cennes" on Dec. 26, 1839, accompanied by the "Peacock," the "Porpoise" and the "Flying Fish." They went south to the west of the Balleny islands, which they did not see, and cruised westward along the ice-barrier or as near it as the ice-pack allowed towards Enderby Land nearly on the Antarctic Circle. The weather was bad with fogs, snowstorms and frequent gales, and although land was reported (by each of the vessels) at several points along the route, it was rarely seen distinctly. There can be no doubt that Wilkes saw land along the line where Adelie Land, Kemp Land and Enderby Land are known to exist, even if the positions he assigns are not quite accurate. It seems no more than due to a gallant officer, who did his best in most difficult circumstances, to leave the name of Wilkes Land on the map of the region he explored.

Ross.--Unlike the other two expeditions, that equipped by the British Government in 1839 was intended solely for antarctic ex ploration and primarily for magnetic surveys in the south polar seas. There were two ships, the "Erebus," of 370 tons, and the "Terror," of 34o, stoutly built craft specially strengthened for navigation in the ice. Captain J. Clark Ross, R.N., was in com mand of the "Erebus" and of the expedition; Commander F. R. M. Crozier of the "Terror." A young surgeon, J. D. Hooker, joined the royal navy in order to go on the expedition, and he lived to take a keen interest in every subsequent antarctic expedition down to that of Captain Scott in .191o. Ross had intended to make straight for the meridian of the magnetic pole, but, finding that d'Urville and Wilkes had already entered on those seas, he de termined to try to make a high latitude farther east, and leaving Hobart Town on Nov. 12, 1840, he crossed the Antarctic Circle on Jan. I, 1841, and entered the pack ice on the 5th in 174° E., which they penetrated in five days and reached open water. Sail ing towards the magnetic pole they found a chain of great moun tains rising from a coast which ran due south from a prominent cape (Cape Adare) in 71° S. The continent was taken formal possession of for Queen Victoria by landing on Possession island, the mainland being inaccessible, and the ships continued south ward in sight of the coast of Victoria Land, where the loftiest mountain was named Mt. Melbourne after the prime minister, until the twin volcanoes, named Erebus and Terror, were sighted in 78° S. on Jan. 28. From Cape Crozier, at the base of the mountains, a line of lofty cliffs of ice ran eastwards, the great ice barrier, unlike any object in nature ever seen before, rising per pendicularly from the water to the height of 200 or 3oof t. and continuing unbroken for 25o miles. Along the barrier the highest latitude of 78° 4' S. was attained, and the farthest point to the east was 167° W., whence Ross turned to look for a winter harbour in Victoria Land, being desirous to winter near the south magnetic pole. As he could not reach the land on account of ice extending out from it for i5 or 16m., after sighting the Balleny islands at a great distance, on March 2 the ships returned to Hobart. For striking discoveries this was the most remarkable antarctic voyage ever made.

In Nov. 1841 the "Erebus" and "Terror" returned to antarctic waters, steering south-east from New Zealand and entering the ice-pack in about 6o° S. and 146° W., the idea being to approach the great barrier from the eastward. After much severe weather the barrier was sighted on Feb. 22, 1842, and the ships reached 78° 10' S. in 161° 27' W., the highest latitude attained for 60 years. To the eastward the barrier surface rose to a mountainous height, but although Ross believed it to be land, he would only treat it officially as "an appearance of land," leaving the con firmation of its discovery as King Edward Land to the next cen tury. No more work was done in this quarter; the "Erebus" and "Terror" turned the edge of the pack to the northward and on getting into clear water sailed eastward to Cape Horn.

After wintering in the Falkland islands, Ross made his third and last attack on the southern ice, and for six weeks he cruised amongst the pack off Joinville island and Louis Philippe Land trying in vain to reach the Antarctic Circle. Failing in this attempt he turned to follow Weddell's route and skirted the pack eastward in 65° S., crossing Weddell's track on Feb. 14, 1843, more than a degree farther south than d'Urville in his attempt f our years before, but on the edge of an equally impenetrable pack. Coasting it eastward to 12° W. the "Erebus" and "Terror" at last rounded the pack and found the way open to the south, crossing the circle on March 1. Four days later the pack was met with again and the ships were forced into it for 27m. to lat. 71° 30' S. in 14° 51' W., 19° east of Weddell's farthest south.

"Challenger..

No further attempt at south polar explora tion was made for nearly 3o years, except a short cruise by Tapsell in the "Brisk," one of Enderby's ships which in Feb. 185o, after passing the Balleny islands, proceeded eastward to 143° E. at a higher latitude than Wilkes without sighting land. The first steamer to cross the Antarctic Circle was H.M.S. "Challenger," on Feb. 16, 1874; she penetrated only to 66° 40' S., in 78° 30' E., south of Kerguelen Land ; but she continued her course to Australia for some distance in a high latitude, passing within I 5m. of the position assigned to Wilkes's Termination Land without seeing any sign of land. Her dredgings and soundings yielded evidence as to the nature of the unknown region farther south. Sir John Murray believed that the soundings showed a general shoaling of the ocean towards the antarctic ice, indicating the approach to a continent. By collecting and analysing all samples of deep-sea deposits which had been secured from the far south, he discovered a remarkable symmetry in the arrangement of the deposits. The globigerina ooze, or in deeper waters the red clay, carpeting the northern part of the southern oceans, merges on the southward into a great ring of diatom ooze, which gives place in turn, towards the ice, to a terrigenous blue mud. The fine rock particles of which the blue mud is composed are such as do not occur on oceanic islands, and the discovery of large blocks of sandstone dropped by icebergs proved the existence of sedimentary rocks within the Antarctic Circle.

Larsen.

A Norwegian sealer, the "Jason," Captain Larsen, visited those seas in 1892 ; the captain landed and collected fossils at several points north of 65° S. In 1893-94 the "Jason," accom panied by two other Norwegian vessels, the "Hertha" and the "Castor," returned to the antarctic and entered the ice-laden waters in November at the very beginning of summer. Captain Larsen in the "Jason" made his way as far south as 68° io' in 60° W. on the eastern side of Graham Land, but several miles from the coast, which was bordered by a high ice-barrier. The "Hertha," Captain Evensen, reached the South Shetlands on Nov. 1, 1893, and worked her way southward along the west side of Palmer Land and past the Biscoe islands reaching the Antarctic Circle on Nov. 9 without meeting ice. This was the first time the Antarctic Circle had been crossed since the "Challenger" did so 20 years before. Captain Evensen sighted Alexander Land, and without experiencing any trouble from ice-floes he reached his farthest south, 69° 10' S. in 76° 12' W. (Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft, Hamburg, pp. In 1894 the well-known Norwegian whaler, Svend Foyn, sent out one of his vessels, the "Antarctic," Captain Christensen, to try his luck off the coast of Victoria Land. The "Antarctic" sailed from Melbourne in September, having on board Carstens Egeberg Borchgrevink, a young Norwegian resident in Australia. The "Antarctic" entered the pack in 62° 45' S., 171° 30' E., on Dec. 8, 1894. The Balleny islands were sighted on Dec. 14, and Cape Adare on Victoria Land two days later. On Jan. 22, 1895, the farthest point was reached at Coulman island in 74° S.; the sea was then easily navigable to the south. On Jan. 23 a small party, including the captain and Borchgrevink, landed on the mainland near Cape Adare, the first people to set foot on the Antarctic continent.

Gerlache: "Belgica..

Efforts had been made from time to time by Prof. Georg von Neumayer in Germany and by Sir John Murray and others in Great Britain, to induce learned societies to inaugurate a new era of scientific antarctic research under Government or at least under national auspices. In 1895 Sir Clements Markham, as president of the Royal Geographical Society and of the International Geographical Congress, also took the matter up, and interest in the antarctic regions began to be aroused in every civilized country. Captain Adrien de Gerlache organized and led a Belgian expedition, for which he raised the funds with difficulty. Their ship was named the "Belgica," and amongst the members of the expedition were Roald Amundsen and Dr. F. A. Cook. The "Belgica" crossed to the west of Graham Land and made surveys of the archipelago there. It finally penetrated the pack as far south as 71° 30', where it had the misfortune of being frozen in. For more than a year the ship drifted with the ice, and although scientific work of great importance was carried out, the members suffered severely from depression and one member died. Though it made few discoveries of land, its scientific collections were of unique value, and it was one of the first antarctic expeditions to have its results pub lished in a suitable form.

Borchgrevink.

The first expedition to spend a winter on the antarctic continent was that of Borchgrevink, which left England in 1898, and landed a party at Cape Adare, the north east point of Victoria Land. The choice of headquarters was an unlucky one, as no sledge journeys to the south were possible, but the land party made observations and collections of consider able value during their stay, though they had the misfortune to lose their biologist. Before returning, Borchgrevink sailed south to the Ross barrier and discovered that the edge of the ice was considerably farther south than it had been when visited by Ross in 1842.

Discovery.

In the autumn of 1901 three well-equipped ex peditions left Europe for antarctic exploration. The British national antarctic expedition was organized by a joint committee of the Royal Society and the Royal Geographical Society, and equipped under the superintendence of Sir Clements Markham. For this expedition a new departure was taken, in that a ship, named "Discovery," was specially built for the work. She was of 700 tons register, and was made entirely non-magnetic amid ships. The expedition sailed under the command of Commander R. F. Scott, R.N., and included in the expedition were Lieutenant Shackleton, R.N.R., and Dr. E. A. Wilson. It was decided that the ship should remain south for one winter in the ice, for which purpose Scott, after cruising along and surveying the edge of the Ross barrier, selected McMurdo sound at the south-west corner of Ross sea, as his headquarters. Before laying up for the winter, he cruised to the eastward of the farthest point reached by Ross, and discovered land of a continental character, which he named King Edward Land.

The winter quarters proved to be suitable, but it was some time before the party were able to develop a technique for their sledg ing journeys and commence a series of explorations from their base. The expedition initiated a new phase of exploration in the antarctic in working from a settled base. Symptoms of scurvy appeared during the winter, but with early spring a series of sledging journeys were commenced. The main journey was that of Captain Scott, with Shackleton and Wilson, who travelled with dogs over the surface of the barrier towards the south, in which journey, after many vicissitudes, caused chiefly by the failure and death of the dogs, they reached, on Dec. 3o, their farthest south in 82° 17' S. During the return march Shackleton broke down and had to be invalided home in the relief ship which visited the "Discovery" in the summer. Meanwhile, Armitage had pioneered a route to the plateau to the west of the headquarters. By the end of the summer it was obvious that the "Discovery" would not be able to get clear of the ice, and it was determined to spend a second winter in the south.

The second year's work was chiefly remarkable for a great journey led by Scott, in which without dogs he reached a point 3oom. west of the ship having penetrated over 25om. inland and finding it to be a high plateau averaging 8,000ft. above sea level. The ship was reached again on Dec. 25, and on Jan. 5 the "Morning" arrived accompanied by a larger vessel, the "Terra Nova," sent out by the Admiralty with orders to Captain Scott to abandon the "Discovery" and return at once. Fortunately, al though all the stores and collections had been transferred to the relief ships, the "Discovery" broke out of the ice on Feb. 16, 1904, and Captain Scott had the satisfaction of bringing her home in perfect order. The relief ships had provided so little coal that a most promising voyage to the westward of the Balleny islands had to be abandoned in 155° E. ; but it showed that the land charted by Wilkes east of ii,at meridian did not exist in the latitude assigned.

Drygalski:

"Gauss."—Simultaneously with the "Discovery" expedition and in full co-operation with it as regards simultaneous meteorological and magnetic observations, the German Govern ment equipped an expedition in the "Gauss" which was specially built for the occasion. The expedition was under the charge of Prof. Erich von Drygalski. A supplementary expedition set up a station for simultaneous observation on Kerguelen Land. The "Gauss" crossed the parallel of 6o° S. in 92° E. early in Feb. 1902 and got within 6om. of the charted position of Wilkes's Ter mination Land, where a depth of 1,730 fathoms was found with no sign of land. The pack made it necessary to turn south-west ward and land was seen to the eastward on Feb. 1902 on the Ant arctic Circle in the direction of Termination Land. Soon after wards the "Gauss" was beset and spent the winter in the ice. Land of considerable extent was seen to the south and was named Kaiser Wilhelm II. Land; the most conspicuous feature on it was a hill of bare black rock with an elevation of about I,000ft., which was called the Gaussberg, and was situated in 67° S., 90° E. This was the only bare land seen, and its neighbourhood was thoroughly investigated by sledge parties, but no distant journey was under taken.

Nordenskjold and Bruce.

Two private expeditions organ ized by men of science were in the antarctic region simultaneously with the British and German national expeditions, and the syn chronous meteorological and magnetic observations added to the value of the scientific results of all the parties. Dr. Otto Nor denskjold, nephew of the discoverer of the north-east passage, led a Swedish party in the "Antarctic," with Captain C. A. Lar sen in command of the ship, and reached the South Shetlands in Jan. 1902. The "Antarctic" succeeded in penetrating the pack in the Weddell sea almost to the circle in 50° W., where d'Urville and Ross had failed to get so far south. A second winter was spent at the base on Snow Hill island, and, the ship having been lost in the ice on her way to take them off, the party was rescued by a brilliant dash of the Argentine gunboat "Uruguay," under Captain Irizar, before the relief ship sent from Sweden arrived.

Meanwhile Dr. W. S. Bruce equipped a Scottish expedition in the "Scotia," with Captain Thomas Robertson in command of the ship, and a large scientific staff. The "Scotia" made valuable oceanographical investigations in the Weddell sea in 1903 and returning again the next summer she sighted the land now known as Coats Land. In addition to her very thorough exploration of the eastern side of the Weddell sea her oceanographical work throughout the southern ocean was of very great value in the solution of a number of disputed points.

Charcot.—In Jan. 1904 Dr. Jean B. Charcot, a man of science and an accomplished yachtsman, left the Fuegian archipelago for the antarctic in the "Francais," in command of a French explor ing expedition equipped at his own instance. He cruised along the western side of Graham Land to 67° S. A mishap to this ship caused him to return from this point but he returned again in 1908 in the "Pourquoi Pas" wintering in 1909 on Petermann Island, 65° S. In the next summer he pushed further south and west and established the continuity of Graham Land with Alex ander Land and its general trend to the westward to more than half the distance from Graham Land to King Edward Land.

Shackleton.

Af ter his return invalided from the "Discovery," Lieutenant Shackleton planned a fresh expedition, and started in the small whaler "Nimrod" from Lyttelton, New Zealand, on Jan. 1, 1908, being towed by a steamer to the Antarctic Circle, in order to save coal. The expedition established itself at Cape Royd on Ross island, some tom. north of Scott's winter quarters of 1904, a hut being built and the ship returning to New Zealand for the winter. A new departure in antarctic sledging was initiated by the use of Manchurian ponies. Before the winter set in a party under Prof. T. W. E. David reached the summit of the active vol cano, Mt. Erebus. In the succeeding summer the same leader made a very notable sledge journey to the south magnetic pole, situated in lat. 72° 2 5' S., 155° 16' E. at an altitude of over 7,000 feet.

The greatest achievement of this remarkable expedition was the journey made by Shackleton himself with three companions who reached the latitude of 88° 23' S., discovering a route on to the plateau by way of the gigantic Beardmore glacier, and pioneer ing the way to the Pole itself. This must rank as the greatest sledge journey ever made without the help of supporting parties. The party narrowly escaped disaster from causes somewhat sim ilar to those which destroyed the Scott party four years later, but it reached the ship just in time and the whole expedition re turned without losing a man.

Scott.—Captain R. F. Scott left England in 1910 with a new expedition, promoted by his own exertions, in the "Terra Nova," manned by a carefully selected crew and a large scientific staff. The main objects of the expedition were a journey to the South Pole and a very comprehensive programme of scientific investiga tion of the Ross sea area. The main party established itself on the west side of Ross island between Scott's former winter quarters and Cape Royd. A subsidiary party of six men, led by Lieutenant Campbell, were sent to the east in the ship to establish a base in King Edward Land. Steaming along the face of the barrier, carrying out a survey the party entered a deep bay and were amazed to find the "Fram" of north-polar fame, with a Norwe gian party under Captain Roald Amundsen. This expedition, in tended for the north-polar regions, had changed its plans and de cided to attempt to reach the South Pole instead. Secrecy was deemed necessary and the "Fram" made an extraordinary voy age from Madeira to Ross sea without calling at any port, landed the party and returned for the winter to Buenos Aires.

Amundsen relied entirely on his dogs and after some very suc cessful depot-laying journeys he set out on Oct. 20, 191I, for the Pole, accompanied by four companions on ski with 52 dogs. They found a new route up to the polar plateau by way of the Axel Heiberg glacier in 85° S. and reached the Pole on Dec. 14. The return journey took but 38 days and they arrived at their winter quarters with 12 dogs and ample food supply in hand. No at tempt was made at any serious scientific work by the expedition, but it performed the journey at by far the fastest rate of any sledge party yet in the antarctic, the dogs doing all the transport work.

Meanwhile Scott had sent his subsidiary party to Cape Adare where they wintered in the hut of Borchgrevink's expedition of 1899-190o. They were compelled to make a hazardous land jour ney of 3oom. back to Cape Evans along the coast of Victoria Land, wintering on the way with improvised equipment. A very remarkable winter journey to Cape Crozier was carried out by Dr. E. A. Wilson, Lieutenant Bowers and Cherry-Garrard in con ditions of unprecedented severity, and unique specimens of the eggs of the emperor penguin were secured. The Pole party started from Cape Evans on Oct. 24, 1911, in three divisions using re spectively motor-sledges, ponies and dogs. The motors broke down before the journey was well begun, the last of the ponies was shot before reaching 83° 30' S., here also the dog-teams were sent back to the base, and on Dec. to Scott with II others began the ascent of the Beardmore glacier, following Shackleton's route of 1909, with three man-hauled sledges. On Dec. 21 four men with one sledge were sent back from 85° 7' S., and on the 3i st the last supporting party of three under Lieutenant E. R. G. R. Evans returned from 86° 56' S. and reached the base after narrowly escaping death from scurvy.

The Polar party—Scott, Wilson, Bowers, Captain Oates and Petty-Officer Edgar Evans—with one sledge and equipment orig inally designed for f our men, reached the Pole on Jan. 18, 1912, where they found a tent left by Amundsen. All were tired out by their 69 days' march and bitterly disappointed to find that they had been forestalled. The weather on the return journey was worse than it had ever been known before, and disasters followed one another. Edgar Evans broke down on the Beardmore glacier and after delaying the march died on Feb. 17. Oates, at the end of his strength, and resolved not to be a burden, sacri ficed himself on March 17 in 79° 50' S., by walking out into the blizzard. The supply of fuel oil at the last depot had been de ficient and tom. remained, to reach the next. The three survivors struggled on heroically for 1 om., raised their tent for the last time and, being bound to their camp by a blizzard which lasted for nine days, nothing remained but to await death with quiet fortitude. Lieutenant Evans, the second in command, had been invalided home on the "Terra Nova," and the search parties sent out to meet Scott had been unfortunate, so that it was not until after another winter that Dr. Atkinson, then in command at the base, found the tent with the frozen bodies on Nov. 12, 1912.

Douglas Mawson.

Dr. Douglas Mawson organized the Aus tralian antarctic expedition which set out in the "Aurora" in Dec. 1911. The main base was established in Adelie Land and a wireless mast erected. Here Mawson with 17 companions built a hut on the shore of Commonwealth bay (67° S., 142° 4' E.) while the ship under the command of Captain J. K. Davis pro ceeded 1,5oom. to the westward where Queen Mary Land was dis covered and Frank Wild landed with a party of seven men and a hut to form the western base in 66° S., 94° E. His climatic ob servations are quoted below in the section on climate. Sledge parties started from the main base in Nov. 1912, diverging to explore inland towards the magnetic pole and eastward and west ward near the coast. The sledge parties made their way for 3oom. or more from the base. All got back without disaster except the leader, whose two companions, B. B. S. Ninnis and X. Mertz, perished, leaving him with scant stores loom. from Common wealth bay. He reached the hut on Feb. Io, 1913, by an effort of almost superhuman endurance and found that the "Aurora" had just sailed to relieve Wild, leaving a volunteer rescue party with whom he awaited the return of the ship in Dec. 1913. Sir Douglas Mawson was knighted in 1914. He revisited the Antarctic, redis covering Kemp Land (reported in 1833) in December 1929, and making further discoveries in the Enderby Land region.

Shackleton.

Sir Ernest Shackleton planned the Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition in 1914, intending to cross the antarc tic continent from the Weddell sea to the Ross sea by way of the South Pole. On board the "Endurance" he entered the ice-pack in the Weddell sea early in Dec. 1914 and worked his way in adverse climatic conditions southward between 15° and 2o° west. He discovered the Caird coast between Coats Land and Luitpold Land on Jan. I1, 1915, but he found no landing-place. The ship, beset in the ice on Jan. 18, drifted northward. She was crushed in a terrific ice pressure and abandoned on Oct. 27, in 69° 5' S., and the 28 men camped on the ice-floe, which continued to move northward until April 9, 1916, when the floe broke up in 62° S., 54° W. after a drift of 457 days. The party took to their three small boats and landed six days later after extraordinary hardships on Elephant island where they camped on a narrow beach below vertical ice cliffs. Shackleton with five men suc ceeded in reaching South Georgia, 75om. distant, in a 22ft. boat and after three unsuccessful attempts to return to Elephant island through the ice-floes he succeeded with the Chilean trawler "Yelcho" in rescuing all his men on Aug. 3o, 1916. The expedition had a section in Ross sea for the purpose of laying depots for the transcontinental party. This party, under Captain Macin tosh, executed their task but the ship "Aurora" was carried off in the pack ice in which she drifted for 315 days before getting free. The leader and two others perished.

Sir Ernest Shackleton's last expedition sailed on the "Quest," a small and defective vessel, in Sept. 1921 to explore the Enderby quadrant of the antarctic (o° to 9o° E.). The leader died at South Georgia on Jan. 4, 1922, but Frank Wild, second in command, carried on the voyage as far as the lateness of the season per mitted. He reached 69° 17' S. in 17° E., in spite of great diffi culties, and got important soundings in a little-known area.

The royal research ship "Discovery" was commissioned in 1925 by the Colonial Office with funds supplied by the Falkland islands Government to study the life history of whales with a view of regulating and perpetuating the industry in sub-antarctic waters and returned in 1927. (See WHALES AND WHALING.) Later Exploration.—Results of exploration since the begin ning of the century have been the attainment of the South Pole, the discovery of the general configuration of the antarctic conti nent and the perfecting of methods of polar travel and residence.

During the summer of 1928 two aeroplane expeditions to the Antarctic were planned. Commander Byrd proposed to form a base on the Ross barrier due south of New Zealand and to ex plore by aeroplane to the south and east, seeking to discover the course of the great mountain ranges which border the Ross sea and to reach the South Pole. Sir Hubert Wilkins planned to start from the same base and to fly eastward about 3,00o miles over entirely unknown parts of the ice-sheet of Antarctica to Graham land due south of Cape Horn. Sir Hubert Wilkins arrived at his base on Deception island, Nov. 7, and made a successful flight a fortnight later. Commander Byrd later established a base in the region about 165° W., which he named Little America, and made successful explorations. On Nov. 28, 1929, Byrd set out in the tri-motored plane "Floyd Bennett" for the South Pole with Bernt Balchen, Captain A. C. McKinley and Harold June, successfully reached the pole and returned to his base on Nov. 29, using the sun compass and completing the flight in slightly under 19 hours. On a second expedition, Byrd extended his ex plorations over what he called Marie Byrd Land, wintering alone at a post 123 miles south of his base and making the first mete orological observations in the interior of the new continent.