Antarctic exploration

“ I am sure that in the near future these wild wastes of the antarctic, with their million of bird-inhabited islands, will form an island empire of thrifty fur-farmers. What nation shall guard the interests of this coming race of hardy pioneers?
Independent of material results, a continued exploration of the antarctic will certainly disclose priceless scientific acquisitions. A region of the globe nearly eight million square miles in extent, into which the foot of man has not yet trodden, is not likely to prove barren of scientific data. ”

“ The frequency of enquiries as to the practical value of Antarctic research shows that popular interest in the subject still values results from what it chooses to call their 'usefulness.' Information as to the meteorology and magnetic phenomena of the Antarctic regions may prove of value in navigation and weather prediction. Unexpected stores of economic products may be found on land or at sea. Nevertheless it must be admitted that the hope of practical rewards is a less powerful incentive to Antarctic exploration than the desire for new facts of theoretical value. ”

“ The struggles, the disappointments, and the endurance of this small party of Britishers, hidden away for nearly two years in the fastnesses of the Polar ice, striving to carry out the ordained task and ignorant of the crises through which the world was passing, make a story which is unique in the history of Antarctic exploration. ”

“ As regards land work in the Antarctic Regions, this can be undertaken more satisfactorily after we have obtained a more definite idea of the confines of the Great Southern Ocean around Antarctica. At present there is too much hazy conjecture, and we find what one believes to be part of Antarctica itself another declares to be an island. But the land work has begun, and to the keen landsman there is no reason why it should not be going ahead. ”

“ The work of the Challenger, Valdivia, Gauss and Scotia in the South Atlantic and South Indian Oceans has given us a clue to the possible connections between Africa, South America and Antarctica, and now it is of great interest and importance to get more soundings to the south of Australia and New Zealand, to show more exactly what the conformation of the floor of the ocean is in those longitudes. That is one of the most important investigations for future Antarctic exploring ships to carry out. ”

“ The zoological collections of that expedition were most important and furnished the first evidence that a rich fauna existed in Antarctic seas at all depths from the surface to the bottom. The deep-sea exploration of the Challenger in relatively high southern latitudes furnished further concrete evidence that there existed in Antarctic seas a very rich fauna of fishes and invertebrates, and also indicated to us that great results might be obtained by an exploring ship equipped for deep-sea work that was also fitted out for doing that work well within the Antarctic ice-pack. ”

“ Those who are interested in the proposed expedition in Australia are right in believing that a thorough knowledge of Antarctic conditions would be of the greatest service to a continent whose climate must be largely determined by those conditions ; doubtless also the whaling industry might gain much by the information which the proposed expedition would obtain. Arctic exploration has in these respects been of the greatest: service to the northern hemisphere. ”

“ To know that there is always in readiness a perfect supply of the most excellent fresh water is one of the greatest boons to ships navigating in the Arctic Regions, and a luxury which is forbidden to ships navigating in other seas. In the Antarctic, since one seldom or never meets with such pools, one has to pick out a nice old hummocky piece of sea ice or a bergy bit that has been chipped off one of the great bergs, and take some boat-loads of this ice on board. The ice is put into large tubs or barrels, and steam is blown through. ”

“ Antarctic exploration had never attracted so much attention as that of the far north; partly because an almost impossible ice barrier a hundred feet high was known to extend across the southern ocean at about the parallel of the Antarctic Circle. In 1908, however, an English expedition under Lieutenant Shackleton managed to penetrate beyond this barrier in the region south of New Zealand and reached to within less than two hundred miles of the pole. ”

“ For the last two hundred years the Arctic Ocean has been a theatre of exploration; but, as for the Antarctic, no expedition has attempted to make any persistent exploration, or even to winter there." It is noteworthy, too, that in the voyages which have been made not a ship nor a life has been lost south of the circle. ”

“ Shackleton hanging round the doors of rich men! Scott writing begging letters for months together! Is the country not ashamed?
Modern civilized States should make up their minds to the endowment of research, which includes exploration; and as all States benefit alike by the scientific side of it there is plenty of scope for international arrangement, especially in a region where the mere grabbing of territory is meaningless, and no Foreign Office can trace the frontier between King Edward's Plateau and King Haakon's. The Antarctic continent is still mostly unexplored ”

“ I must beg leave to differ with the prevailing opinion, regarding polar exploration, that there is no commercial or material reward commensurate with the expenditure of time and money. In the antarctic there are several prospective industries, and much of the future work has a direct bearing upon commerce. There are seals, penguins, and whales in abundance around the circumpolar area. Every rock which offers an accessible beach is covered with either seals or penguins, and every channel of open water between the pack-ice or around the ice-sheltered lands is alive with whales. ”

“ Should there be sufficient funds, it would be well to have a second ship for the express purpose of carrying an extra supply of stores and a house, rather than lumber up the oceanographical ship with all this material. If the lie of the land be found to be as expected, a serious attempt would be made to cross the Antarctic Continent and to emerge somewhere along the coast of the Ross Sea, the journey being made more or less along the meridian of Greenwich on the Atlantic side, and continuing on about the 180th meridian on the Pacific side. ”

“ But the most remarkable discovery made in Antarctica was that of Sir J. C. Ross, who had been sent by the Admiralty in 1840 to identify the South Magnetic Pole, as we have seen he had discovered that of the north. With the two ships Erebus and Terror he discovered Victoria Land and the two active volcanoes named after his ships, which he found pouring forth flaming lava amidst the snow. In January, 1842, he reached farthest south, 78°. After the return of the Ross expedition little was attempted toward the exploration of the Antarctic regions for more than half a century. ”

“ Is there not embosomed in the antarctic continent a Mediterranean, the shores of which are favourable to the growth and the launching of icebergs of tremendous size? and is not the entrance to this sea near the meridian of Cape Horn, perhaps to the west of it? Circumstances like these beget longings, and we sigh for fresh antarctic explorations. Surely, when we consider the advantages which the improvements of the age, the lights of the day, would afford an exploring expedition there now ”

“ One thing is perfectly clear, and that is that there is an immense field for most interesting exploration of the most useful kind open to those who wish to explore in the South Polar Regions. There is no form of exploration more fascinating and more important than oceanography—physical and biological—in any part of the world, and in no region is it more interesting and important to carry on these investigations than in the seas round about the South Pole. Interesting as is the exploration of Antarctic lands, the exploration of Antarctic seas is not less so. ”

“ As they sailed to their winter quarters in an [Pg 302] easterly course, they passed the locality where the ships of the American expedition had reported a discovery of land forming part of the great Antarctic continent. A sharp lookout was kept for it, but no indications were seen, and, when the two ships sailed over the spot where the continent was supposed to exist, the conclusion was forced upon the leaders that the Americans had been misled, as they had themselves on more than one occasion, into regarding the combination of ice and cloud as land. ”

“ The possibilities of exploration in the far south are many, and properly to understand them we must first review the regions actually known. Perhaps it is not correct to say that anything antarctic is actually known. ”

“ Captain Armitage has told me that on board the Discovery during her voyage southward along this route he had no ice navigation, except for a day or so in the vicinity of Cape Adare, and even that could have been avoided had he kept the vessel farther off the land. In spite of so many expeditions choosing this, the easiest route to the far south in Antarctic seas, we have not many serial sea temperature observations in these longitudes ”

“ The sea in the neighbourhood had shoaled to less than 100 fathoms and the ice-barrier in places was so low that the “Discovery” was able to lie alongside as at a quay. A captive balloon ascent was made from the barrier but nothing was seen to the south. Returning to McMurdo Bay the “Discovery” found that Mts Erebus and Terror were on an island, the “bay” being really a sound. The ship was secured in winter quarters in 77° 49′ S. 166° E., and a hut erected on shore. From this base land-exploration in the Antarctic was initiated, and the history of exploration entered on a new phase. ”

“ Brief reference has already been made to some of the polar animals and their habits, but it is necessary to give a more detailed account of this aspect of Polar Regions. The striking feature of the Antarctic Regions, with one partial exception, is the entire absence of land vertebrates. There are no land mammals—no bears, wolves, foxes, or lemmings; no musk-oxen, reindeer, or hares, neither are there any land birds with the exception of the sheath-bill (Chionis) , which is only a summer visitor to the shores of most Antarctic lands. ”

“ Sir C. R. Markham, DeLong, A. W. Greely, Nansen, Peary, etc., and on antarctic exploration the articles Dumont D’Urville, Charles Wilkes, Sir James C. Ross, etc. The article Polar Regions includes an elaborate account of the physiography of the Arctic region (p. 954, Vol. 21) and of the Antarctic (p. 969 of same Vol.) , dealing with geology, climate, pressure, flora, fauna, people, ocean depths, temperature and salinity, and marine biological conditions, etc. ”

“ Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised. ”

“ A better fate, I trust, awaits the treasures that the hoped-for Expedition will bring back, for so prolific is the ocean that the naturalist need never be idle, no, not even for one of the twenty-four hours of daylight during a whole Antarctic summer, and I look to the results of a comparison of the oceanic life of the Arctic and Antarctic regions as the heralding of an epoch in the history of biology. ”

“ The Continent itself appears to have been sighted for the first time in the year 1820, but no human being actually set foot on it until 1895. The Belgian expedition under de Gerlache was the first to experience the Antarctic winter, spending the year 1898 drifting helplessly, frozen in the pack-ice, to the southward of America. In the following year a British expedition under Borchgrevinck, wintering at Cape Adare, passed a year upon the Antarctic mainland. ”

“ The meteorologist had always in view the effect of Antarctic climate on the other southern continents, the geologist looked on ice from a seaman's point of view, and the biologist not unwillingly put whales in the forefront of his programme. The accounts which follow on these very practical points show how closely scientific work in the Antarctica is in touch with, and helps on the economic development of, the inhabited lands to the north. ”

“ That the primitive home of humanity-of all life, indeed-may have been the North Pole, many sober men of science believe. If similar conditions are found to have existed in the Antarctic continent as formerly did in Greenland, a term of great value will be contributed to one of the most interesting problems of science. ”

“ On the 11th of January, 1841, in latitude about 71° S., and longitude 171° E., the Antarctic Continent was first seen, the general outline of which at once indicated its volcanic character; rising steeply from the ocean in a stupendous mountain range, peak above peak, enveloped in perpetual snow, and clustered together in countless groups resembling a vast mass of crystallisation, which, as the sun's rays were reflected on it, exhibited a scene of such equalled magnificence and splendour as would baffle all power of language to portray or give the faintest conception of. ”

“ They rise almost without a break to a height of thirteen thousand feet. Between us and them is the Barrier to the south, and the sea to the north. Unless a blizzard is impending or blowing, they are clearly visible, a gigantic wall of snow and ice and rock, which bounds our view to the west, constantly varied by the ever-changing colour of the Antarctic. Beyond is the plateau. ”

“ That the Antarctic continent, if it exists—it may be an archipelago—is covered with a thick ice-sheet there can be no doubt; but that the character of the land differs from that of Greenland is evident from the table-shaped form of the icebergs, so different from the rugged masses met with in the Arctic seas. From the purely scientific -standpoint it would be of the highest interest to ascertain the nature of the fossil plants which exist in the Antarctic land, if, indeed, there are any. That Greenland, even in the tertiary age, had a climate like that of Southern Europe, has been demonstrated ”