Antarctica

“ There in the White South, beyond the Antarctic Convergence that runs across three oceans to mark the physical boundary of Antarctica, is the Bulgarian base St. Kliment Ohridski on Livingston Island in the Antarctic Peninsula region of Western Antarctica.
People still know little about that continent. It is the highest, driest and coldest place on earth, a land of penguins, seals, glaciers and icebergs, stretching over a vast area of 14 million square kilometres around the South Pole. A continent where few people have had the chance to step on and get touched by its beauty. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ Names of persons who have made outstanding discoveries in Antarctica or, through their work with Antarctic expeditions, have made outstanding contributions to scientific knowledge or to the techniques of Antarctic exploration ”

“ A study of the oceanic depths suggests that the Antarctic connexion is the more probable. A comparatively slight elevation would connect Patagonia and the Falkland Islands with the South Shetlands and Graham Land, and an elevation of 12,000 feet would give a large land connexion between Australia and the opposite coast of Antarctica via Kerguelen. Forbes even postulates an immense Tertiary Antarctica in which several forms of [116] animals and plants were able to evolve, but except possibly in the case of the edentates this supposition is not necessary. ”

“ East Antarctica is colder than West Antarctica because of its higher elevation; Antarctic Peninsula has the most moderate climate; higher temperatures occur in January along the coast and average slightly below freezing Terrain: about 98% thick continental ice sheet and 2% barren rock, with average elevations between 2,000 and 4,000 meters; mountain ranges up to nearly 5,000 meters; ice-free coastal areas include parts of southern Victoria Land, Wilkes Land, the Antarctic Peninsula area, and parts of Ross Island on McMurdo Sound ”

“ It had always been desired that that portion of the coast of Antarctica which faces Australia, along which Balleny, and afterwards Wilkes and Dumont d’Urville, had sailed more than sixty years ago, should be landed upon and explored. The coast is not one that faces eastward, and much accessible land could not be expected. It was assumed that there would probably be ice cliffs for the most part, and the ice-cap inland. ”

“ With regard to climate in general, Antarctica has the lowest mean temperature and the highest wind-velocity of any land existing. This naturally follows from the fact that it is a lofty expanse of ice-clad land circumscribing the Pole, and that the Antarctic summer occurs when the earth is farther from the sun than is the case during the Arctic summer. ”

“ In late Tertiary times an elevation of at least 12,000 feet in the South Polar regions caused a great increase in the area of Antarctica, which was united to South America on the one hand and Australia on the other. The northern shores of this continent were far to the north of their present position, and though the interior was very cold the coast lands had at first a moderate temperature, and for a short time allowed animals to migrate from Australia to South America or vice versa. ”

“ People Antarctica Population: no indigenous inhabitants, but there are both permanent and summer-only staffed research stations
note: 26 nations, all signatory to the Antarctic Treaty, operate seasonal (summer) and year-round research stations on the continent and in its surrounding oceans; the population of persons doing and supporting science on the continent and its nearby islands south of 60 degrees south latitude (the region covered by the Antarctic Treaty) varies from approximately 4,000 in summer to 1,000 in winter ”

“ Transportation Antarctica Ports and harbors: there are no developed ports and harbors in Antarctica; most coastal stations have offshore anchorages, and supplies are transferred from ship to shore by small boats, barges, and helicopters ”

“ Economy - overview:
Scientific undertakings rather than commercial pursuits are the predominate human activity in Antarctica. Fishing off the coast and tourism, both based abroad, account for Antarctica's limited economic activity. ”

“ The Far South waited much longer for the attention of mankind than the Arctic regions. Antarctica has had no dwellers on the threshold, no demigod clearing its circle on Sleipner or any other fabled horse, no Norsemen daring its icy solitudes, scarcely even a tradition; although the anonymous Franciscan, in the fourteenth century, when he was in Prester John’s country, heard that the four rivers of Paradise flowed from an inaccessible mountain of great height at the south pole180. ”

“ This continent is surrounded by the Great Southern Ocean, and, over the region occupied by that ocean, within the average limit of floating ice, there are even in summer time wintry conditions; so much so that most of the precipitation that occurs is in the form of snow instead of rain. In midsummer, when cruising in the vicinity of the Antarctic continent, blizzards off the land cause the temperature to fall even below zero Fahrenheit, and in winter on Antarctica itself a temperature has been recorded as low as 68 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, or 100 degrees of frost. ”

“ Neither are there any fresh-water fishes, as there are practically no rivers and only a few pools which are scarcely ever free of ice. This striking fact makes inland journeys in the Antarctic Regions very much more serious business than the inland journeys in the Arctic Regions, since every pound of food required for a journey has to be carried by the explorers. There is no food in the interior of Antarctica. There is not a single living thing, except possibly a stray lichen or moss, which may harbour an insect or two, or some microscopical invertebrates and unicellular algæ. ”

“ Since then many adventurers have gone forth; most of the prominent civilized nations taking their share in exploration. By their joint efforts some, at least, of the mystery of Antarctica has been dispelled. ”

“ In one of these individuals I found upwards of a pound of small fragments of rocks; comprising, basalt, greenstone, porphyry, granite, vesicular lava, quartz, scoriæ, and pumice; but none of them ever brought me a vestige of aqueous rocks,—all were volcanic,—and such the appearance of the Antarctic lands, even at a distance, would proclaim them to be. [2] We saw three species of penguins within the Antarctic circle. The larger kind, "Aptenodytes antarctica," attains a great size. I preserved one, weighing seventy-five pounds. It is a scarce bird, generally met with singly ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ 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 ”

“ It is very tempting to suppose that, like the Gulf Stream in the north, there is a warm highly saline current pushing southward along the surface from the Atlantic, which dips under the colder but less saline water on the surface of the Antarctic seas, and that getting cooled, this water sinks whilst abutting against the Antarctic continent, and by the ever-flowing southward upper current is pushed northward underneath along the floor of the ocean, finding its way into the deeps to the east of South America. ”

“ In the Antarctic regions there are extensive highlands and lofty mountains, and these are everywhere exposed to the influence of moist sea-air; and it is here, accordingly, that we find the nearest approach to a true ice-cap covering the whole circumference of the Antarctic continent, and forming a girdle of ice-cliffs which almost everywhere descend to the sea. Such Antarctic islands as South Georgia, South Shetland, and Heard Island, are often said to have perpetual snow at sea-level ”

“ The sea is the warm place of the Antarctic, for the temperature never falls below about 29° Fahr., and a seal which has been lying out on the ice in a minus thirty temperature, and perhaps some wind, must feel, as he slips into the sea, much the same sensations as occur to us when we walk out of a cold English winter day into a heated conservatory. On the other hand, a seaman went out into North Bay to bathe from a boat, in the full sun of a mid-summer day, and he was out almost as soon as he was in. ”

“ Except for the little touch of colour at sunrise this morning, the weather has been one of a type which we now style gray days. These gray days are entirely characteristic of the antarctic. There is no brightness, no sparkle, no moving wind or water, nothing to infuse new life or to lighten our spirits. The atmosphere is heavy, but not opaque, the sky is low and gray, the extensive pans and bands of new ice are a smoky colour, the water is leaden, and only the snow-decked old pans form a contrast to the gray monotony, and even these take on a dirty aspect. ”

“ LOUIS PHILIPPE LAND, Off which the Expedition was so long beset amid pack-ice and a chain of bergs, in the last attempt to penetrate south, is, like other Antarctic lands, apparently of igneous formation. The first portion of it that we made appeared like a vast wreath of snow banked up against the horizon, extending from W. to S.E. by S. The central and highest part might be estimated at about 2000 feet above the level of the sea; sloping gradually down on either side to a low point. ”

“ Sir James Ross, in his most successful South Pole Expedition, during the years 1839-43, sailed over some of this land, and confirmed the rest. The Antarctic, as well as the Arctic honors he secured for England, by turning a corner of the land, and sailing far southward, along an impenetrable icy barrier, to the latitude of seventy-eight degrees, nine minutes. It is an elevated continent, with many lofty ranges. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Geographical knowledge of the Antarctic is at present on two grades; in some areas the pioneer exploration has been done as far as concerns work at sea; of other areas we know nothing. Our knowledge is of the first grade in respect to only two or three areas; they are Graham Land with its associated islands and the coast of Victoria Land with the adjacent Ross Sea; perhaps we should also include in this category the northern shore of Wilkes Land, though it is known only at intervals and one of its most important areas, the angle between it and Victoria Land, is quite unknown. ”

“ Could there be a more melancholy, a more maddening, or a more hopeless region than this? We are passing rapidly into the polar summer, the time when, in other zones, all Nature smiles;—even the sister zone, the arctic, has striking attractive features at this time. The birds fill the air with music, new animals make their appearance, and on land even flowers and mosquitos serve to make life interesting; but here, in this icy antarctic wilderness, the charm of Nature is dead. We see the sun so seldom that it is, indeed, a surprise when its unobstructed rays fall upon the frosted whiteness. ”