ANTARCTIC OCEAN, the sea round the south pole, as the Arctic ocean is the sea round the north pole. It is otherwise called the Southern ocean, comprising all the sea to the south of the Atlantic, the Indian, and the Pacific oceans. In this view, the A. 0.'s northern limit may be conveniently divided into three straight lines—the first between cape Born in South America and cape Agulhas in Africa; the second, between cape Agullias and the southern extremity of the Auckland islands as an appendage of New Zealand; and the third, between the southern extremity of the Auckland islands and cape Horn. This appears to form the true boundary of the polar regions of the southern hemisphere. The most northerly isles which it incloses are New Georgia, at the mouth of the Atlantic, and Kerg.uelen's land, at the mouth of the Indian ocean. The latter tells its own story in its other title of " The Land of Desolation:" and the former pre sented to Cook, even in the middle of summer, perpendicular cliffs of ice, and valleys covered with everlasting snow.
It is usual, Indeed, to define the A. 0. and the corresponding ocean to the north, as being contained each within its own polar circle. But with regard to both oceans alike, this appears to be inadmissible. It is only at two points—the head of the Pacific and the head of the Atlantic—that the Arctic sea can possibly reach the Arctic circle at all; while, in point of fact, it overlaps it at Behring's strait by nearly a degree, and falls several degrees short of it between the northern half of Norway and the s.e. shore of Greenland. The A. 0., again. is nowhere practically limited by the definition in question: not a single voyager hesitates to use the expression long before he arrives at lat. 66' 30' s.; nor yet is a single authority consistent in the use of the arbitrary nomenclature.
The A. 0. has been explored, more or less satisfactorily, by various navigators, as far as 79° s. With a few exceptions, however, little of it is accurately known, the difficulties
and dangers of its navigation rendering thorough and continuous investigation almost impracticable. The names that will recur in their proper places are New Georgia, Ker guelen's land, Sandwich land, New South Shetlands, New Orkneys, Enderby's land, Graham's Laud, Balleny, Sabrina, and Victoria land.
Taken as a whole, these lands bear a very small proportion to the extent of an ocean which embraces half the latitudes and all the longitudes of the southern hemisphere, exceeding its kindred sea to the north, as a glance at the map will show, by nearly half of Asia and North America, and the whole of Europe. Such of these lands as are really accessible at all times, have been more or less valuable in connection with the whale and sea fisheries.
The features of the A. 0. itself may be briefly stated to be constant fogs, baffling cur rents, innumerable icebergs, and magnificent manifestations of the aurora australis. On the coast of Victoria land, beyond the parallel of 70°, two mountains have been observed to be of a height altogether unequaled in such a latitude—mt. Terror, of 10,000 ft., and nit. Erebus, of 12,400. The latter is a volcano, being, it is apprehended, the only phenomenon of the kind in either of the frigid zones.
Of the two circumpolar oceans, the southerly one has excited much less interest than the northerly. The open passages round the two capes respectively into the Indian ocean and the Pacific, have, from the very beginning, rendered unnecessary any such voyages as those which, for nearly three centuries, aye developed so much patience and fortitude in the heroic explorers of the Arctic shores.