ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION

The explo­ra­tion of the Antarctic regions dates back much less far than that of the Arctic. In 1772 Captain James Cook first crossed the Antarctic Circle and penetrated the Antarctic regions. After him came the Russian Bellingshausen in 1819, who discovered the first land within the Antarctic Circle. Then came Weddell the British sealer, who in 1823 pushed his sailing ship south into the great bight southeast of Cape Horn, named after him Weddell Sea, to 74° 15´ south latitude, 241 miles beyond Cook’s record, and not exceeded in that region until the last year. At Weddell’s farthest no land or field ice was to be seen, and only three icebergs were in sight.

From “On the Polar Star,” by the Duke of the Abruzzi. Copyright, Dodd, Mead & Co.

THE POLAR STAR

Landing the stores while the ship was nipped by the ice.

In 1839–1841 occurred the important voyage of Sir James Ross. Ross a few years before had located the North Magnetic Pole. He was now in command of the Erebus and Terror, two ships that a few years later were to bear the Franklin expedition to its fate near the same North Magnetic Pole. Ross discovered South Victoria Land, directly south of New Zealand, with its long stretch of southerly trending savage coast line from Cape Adare to 78° 10´ south latitude, where he found an active volcano, Mt. Erebus. From here Ross followed the edge of the great ice barrier some three hundred miles to the eastward. The great indentation in the Antarctic continent thus discovered and navigated by Ross, and named after him Ross Sea, has since been the base of operations from which the South Pole was twice attained.

AT THE NORTH POLE

Photograph taken at the “Top of the World.”