The lands of silence

by Sir Clements R. Markham

Koch

The latest journey across Greenland from the east to the west coast was specially interesting because ponies were used instead of dogs. Captain Koch, the accomplished companion of Mylius Erichsen, when he decided upon undertaking a much more northern crossing, resolved to attempt the difficult enterprise with ponies. Sixteen of these were landed, but unfortunately there was a stampede and only ten ponies were recaptured. The companions of Captain Koch were three Danes named Larsen, Wegener, and Vigfus. The intention was to winter at the interesting Dronning Luisa nunatak, but after two months of hard work it was found that the complete ascent could not be made before winter set in, and it became necessary to establish winter quarters on the icy ascent. To add to their misfortune Captain Koch fell down a crevasse and broke his leg. They had brought the materials for a house, which was duly erected, and served its purpose well during the winter, though—72° Fahr. was registered. Several ponies died and others were used for food.

By the spring Captain Koch had recovered from his very serious accident and the march across Greenland, a distance of 700 miles on this meridian, was commenced on April 20th with five ponies and five sledges. Violent storms had to be faced and the ponies suffered severely from exhaustion and snow blindness. No land was seen from May 6th until July 2nd. A height of nearly 9800 ft. was attained in 43° W. and 74° 30′ N. On July 4th the margin of the ice on the west side was reached, and the last remaining pony was killed. The descent was made, and a fjord called Lax (salmon) Fjord was crossed on a raft constructed of the sledge and poles. They were then weather-bound without food for 35 hours. The party was ultimately rescued by a sailing boat, which took them to the Danish settlement of Proven.

The difficulties encountered, the dangers faced and overcome, the sufferings bravely endured, the scientific work throwing light on the climatic conditions and physiography of the Greenland interior, place all these Danish enterprises very high in the glorious record of polar discovery.

CHAPTER XLIV
CONCLUSION

The long and glorious story of Arctic discovery is drawing to a close. Two unknown areas of unequal importance remain. One is the extensive region now known as Baffin Island, which needs thorough exploration, and will doubtless receive it from the Dominion Government in due time. The other is the part known as the Beaufort Sea, a much more extensive unknown area from Prince Patrick and Baring or Banks Islands westwards to the Liakhov Island between the 70th and 80th parallels of North Latitude, and indeed much further to the north. Future explorers have still before them the problem of the distribution of land and water over this unknown region. Ever since I collected vestiges of Eskimo encampments along the shores of the Parry Islands and became convinced that the wanderers came from the west, I have been inclined to expect the discovery of land in this area. The description of the ice off the west coast of Banks Island confirmed me in the belief of a land-locked sea. Deductions from the additional knowledge furnished by the Nares Expedition rather shook my belief on some grounds, but the apparent impossibility, if there is no land, of all the ice over so vast an ocean escaping between Spitsbergen and Greenland was an argument on the other side. Professor Spencer and Dr Harris support the view that there is undiscovered land northward over the Beaufort Sea on grounds connected with tidal phenomena. Dr Harris’s view is that this land is of great extent, stretching away far to the north. The existence of an archipelago, of continental land, or of a continuous ocean is the problem to be solved—the remaining Arctic achievement of the future.

Impressed with this conviction I read a paper at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on November 13th, 1905, on “The Next Great Arctic Discovery,” and subsequently Einar Mikkelsen very gallantly undertook the enterprise, but with inadequate means. He was only able to show his pluck, energy, and resourcefulness. He made a fine journey over the ice to the northward of the Alaska coast, and ascertained the position of the edge of the continental shelf. He encountered a wide lane of water stopping his return, but at once set to work to contrive a means of crossing, and succeeded. The difficulties Mikkelsen overcame by his resourcefulness and the way in which he met disasters proved that, with funds at his command, he was fitted for the leadership of a large expedition. At the same time that the gallant young Dane was struggling with adversity, including the loss of his little vessel, Mr. Harrison was doing excellent geographical work in the delta of the Mackenzie River and making himself thoroughly acquainted with the Eskimo inhabitants. The discovery of this region was later undertaken by the Government of Canada, but the expedition ended in failure.

We may now look back on all the expeditions, extending over more than a thousand years, that we have passed in review, and sum up the result as regards Arctic lands. The islands on the continental shelves and the bordering continental lands must be regarded as comprising the whole of the terrestrial Arctic Regions, and geographers should look upon problems connected with those regions from that point of view. On the Siberian side the shelf is described to us from careful personal observation by Nansen. We see the group of New Siberian Islands rising from it, with their mammoth ivory and cliffs of fossil wood. We then contemplate the land masses of Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, and Spitsbergen rising from the Barentsz and Kara Seas, with the marvellous tale they tell of the former condition of the region in recent geological times. Next, on the further side of the great southerly ice-stream, is the continental mass of Greenland, with its glaciation only surpassed in grandeur and extent by the Antarctic ice-cap. Then come the somewhat analogous land masses of Baffin and Ellesmere Islands, with the separating straits and channels, and finally the intricate Parry Archipelago to the north of the American continent. These lands bordering on or rising from the continental shelf form the Arctic Regions as we know them. But between the Parry Archipelago and the Siberian shelf there is the vast area in and to the north of the Beaufort Sea, to which I have just referred and of which we know almost nothing. Our knowledge of the Arctic regions will remain incomplete until this area has been discovered and explored.

When we now look back on the history of Arctic enterprise from the earliest times it is impossible not to be struck with the high qualities it brought so frequently to light, and the fine record of courage and endurance it presents for our admiration. The objects have differed, but there has throughout been the same splendid contempt for danger and hardship, and the same resourcefulness and habit of quick decision brought out by the nature of the work on which the explorers were engaged.

The Norsemen, and afterwards the Danes, have been the colonisers, undertaking the hardest and most difficult work of all, and they furnish a record of commercial success and civilising influence on the natives which places them in the first rank among Arctic labourers in a hard but fruitful field. Next come the English adventurers seeking for a shorter route to India by the north-west, the north-east or the north; and thereafter the period of fishers and trappers, when it was shown of what immense value were the products of the Arctic regions. First the Dutch established whale-fisheries in Spitsbergen and Davis Strait, and then the English who, in the person of Scoresby, combined commercial profit with scientific research. The labours of these daring whale-fishers enriched and gave prosperity to numerous communities, while beginning later, but working contemporaneously, we see the Hudson’s Bay Company opening up the wilderness, accumulating wealth, and largely influencing Europeans and natives for good.

The Russians, too, achieved a great work in delineating the whole northern coast of Siberia. Then came the great era of Ross, Parry, and Franklin; a time of heroic effort, of vast discoveries, and above all of the ceaseless training of men in ice-work, the training of men, that is, alike for science and for war. In this Arctic work we see the nursery of a Nelson, a Riou, a Nias, a Sherard Osborn, and such men as Sabine, Beechey, and Foster.

The expeditions in search of Sir John Franklin and his gallant companions raised Arctic work to the highest plane it has yet attained. The motive was the highest that has ever actuated polar or any other discovery, the cause of humanity. Very extensive discoveries were made and the art of sledge travelling with men was brought nearly to perfection.

After the completion of the Franklin search and the return of the Nares expedition, Americans, Norwegians, Swedes, and Austro-Hungarians stepped in. The best of the American Arctic leaders were Greeley and De Long, although their expeditions ended in misfortune, for they were instructed officers, with a strong feeling of responsibility and of the obligations of duty. The work they did was well done and reliable. The expeditions of Nordenskiöld and Nansen stand by themselves owing to the personality of those leaders. The Swede was a man of high scientific and literary attainments, the Norwegian alike a man of action and a profound student, an unusual combination. He is endowed with rare gifts. His ideas almost amounted to prescience, and he was equally sagacious in working them out to practical conclusions. He drew back the veil which had concealed the Arctic secret. Although the English occupy the first place in Arctic discovery, yet it was begun and was completed by Scandinavians—by Erik the Red and Fridtjof Nansen.

In the history of mankind since the Christian era, the annals of Arctic discovery occupy a very glorious place. They run like a bright silver thread through the darker tales of war and crime, for the most part showing the nobler side of the qualities of our race.

PART II
THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS

CHAPTER XLV
THE GREAT SOUTHERN CONTINENT

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 pole[180].

The Antarctic regions were first approached by Europeans by following the coast line of the continent which stretches furthest south. Magellan, with that indomitable perseverance which characterised him, continued, in spite of all difficulties, to force his way south until he discovered the strait which led him into the Pacific Ocean. After that it was the contrary winds, driving ships to the south, which led to further discoveries in an Antarctic direction. The next Spanish fleet which passed through the Strait after Magellan was under the command of Garcia Jofre de Loaysa, with Sebastian del Cano as second in command. Seven vessels sailed from Coruña in 1525, one of the smallest being the St Lesmes, with Francisco de Hozes as captain. This little craft of 80 tons was blown out of the strait, and driven down as far south as 55°, sighting land, the eastern end of Staten Island. Adverse gales also drove Sir Francis Drake to new discoveries. In October, 1578, he thus unintentionally fell in with “the uttermost part of lands towards the South Pole.” The latitude was 56° S. and “there was no maine nor iland to be seen to the southwards; the Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea meeting in a most large and free scope.” Drake named this southern cape of the island after the great Queen, Cape Elizabeth, the Cape Horn of the Dutch. Twenty years afterwards another discovery-causing gale produced results. An expedition of four vessels and a small pinnace left Holland in June, 1598, under the command of Jacob Mahu, whose death placed it under Simon de Cordes. The object was to visit the coasts of Chile and Peru for plunder, and then cross the Pacific. After leaving the Strait of Magellan all the ships were scattered. The flag-ship Hope reached Japan in April, 1600, where the pilot, an Englishman named William Adams, was detained until his death, though he was able to send home very interesting letters. The little pinnace of 18 tons named Blijde Boodschap (Good News) was driven down to 64° S., where her Captain, Dirk Gerritsz, saw “high land with mountains covered with snow, like the land of Norway[181].” M. Gerlache has named the islands which he discovered, and which, with Graham Land form the Gerlache channel—“Dirk Gerritsz Archipelago,” for his latitude shows that this was possibly the land he sighted. Returning northwards in search of his consorts, Dirk Gerritsz put into Valparaiso, where his ship was taken by the Spaniards and he was wounded. He was sent a prisoner to Lima, but news of his proceedings reached Holland, though not of his fate.

On June 14th, 1615, an expedition left Holland apparently with the object of finding a way to the Pacific to the south of Magellan’s Strait. Willem Cornelisz Schouten of Hoorn commanded the Eendracht of 220 tons, with Jacob le Maire, a son of the owner, as principal merchant. In January, 1616, Schouten discovered the strait between Tierra del Fuego and an island which he named Staaten Island. The strait was named after Le Maire. He thought the island was part of the Antarctic Continent. On the 29th the most southern land was sighted—the Cape Elizabeth of Drake—and named Cape Horn. When the Spanish Government heard of these proceedings they fitted out an expedition to verify the Dutch discoveries. It consisted of two caravels commanded by two brothers named Nodal. They carried out their instructions with ability and success from September, 1618 to July, 1620, passing through the Strait of Le Maire, rounding Cape Horn, and being the first to circumnavigate Tierra del Fuego. They gave the name of San Ildefonso to Cape Horn. Moreover they got still nearer to the Antarctic regions, discovering rocks in 56° 31′ 8″, fifty-seven miles S.W. of Cape Horn, which they named Diego Ramirez after their pilot.

Ortelius’ Map of the World

While the explorers, by the action of adverse gales, were thus painfully making discoveries in the far south, the map-makers were presenting geographical students with a vast southern continent. In the map of the world by Ortelius (Antwerp, 1570) the outline of this “Terra Australis” is carried round the world as far north, in some places, as the tropic of Capricorn. Australia is included in it, but New Guinea is an island. There is the mysterious gold-yielding province called Beach, on a peninsula near Java Minor. In the G. de Jode’s map of 1578, New Guinea is made part of Terra Australis. Mercator, in his Duisburg map of 1587, has the Beach province and Java Minor, following Ortelius. The map of 1589 makes New Guinea an island again. The southern continent is shown in the same way on the Molyneux globe. The Mercator Atlas, published by Hondius at Amsterdam in 1623, represents the Terra Australis in the same way as Ortelius, as does the Hexham Atlas, even after the return of Schouten and Le Maire. All these maps treat Tierra del Fuego as a promontory of the great Terra Australis. This vast continent of the map-makers originated in some idea that the amount of land in the two hemispheres should balance each other. Its effect was, on the whole, useful, for it led to a desire among men of action to look for and discover the unknown land, and it is always a good thing when anyone undertakes to look for anything.

It was while serving with Mendaña, in his second voyage, that Pedro Fernandez de Quiros conceived his grand project, after studying and pondering over the maps of the world with their great southern continent. He thought that here might be a discovery as famous as that achieved by Columbus or Da Gama. After long waiting he at length obtained an order from Philip III to the Viceroy of Peru, to fit out an expedition with himself in command, for the discovery of the Antarctic continent. Quiros proceeded to Lima in 1603, but it was two years before the two small vessels were equipped and ready for sea. The plan of Quiros was to steer E.S.E. from Callao until he reached the latitude of 30° S., when he fully expected to have arrived at the southern continent shown on the maps. He continued on this course from December 21st to January 22nd, when he was in 26° S. There was a great swell from the south, and the men became alarmed. Quiros then came to the unlucky resolution of altering course to E.N.E. His excuse was that the crew were mutinous and that he was ill in bed. If he had gone on he would have discovered New Zealand. Thus ended, rather ignominiously, the first intended Antarctic voyage. Quiros discovered the New Hebrides, and his second in command finally separated Australia from New Guinea by discovering Torres Strait, but the Antarctic project came to an end.

About this time there was a Memorial written by a Chilean lawyer named Juan Luis Arias, on the discovery of an antarctic continent and the conversion of its inhabitants. This Memorial contains the statement that Juan Fernandez, the navigator who discovered the quickest route from Callao to Valparaiso, led an expedition from Chile which discovered the coast of the southern continent, landed on it, and had communication with the natives. But the story is not authentic[182]. More than a century passed without any further thought of the reputed continent round the antarctic pole. In 1675 an English merchant named Anthony La Roche, returning from the South Pacific, discovered the land to which Captain Cook afterwards gave the name of South Georgia. In 1738, the French East India Company sent two vessels under the command of Captain Lozier Bouvet to discover a peninsula in the South Atlantic said to form part of the southern continent. Bouvet sighted land in 54° S. and 11° E., but did not ascertain whether it was a peninsula or an island. He called it Cap Circoncision[183].

Hitherto the discoveries in the far south had for the most part been accidental, and there had only been one real antarctic expedition, that of Quiros, which too soon altered course from south, hesitating near the threshold, and met with failure in consequence.

CHAPTER XLVI
CAPTAIN COOK—BELLINGSHAUSEN

It was a bright page in English history when our Government awoke to its duties in taking a lead in discovery. In the instructions, dated June 17th, 1764, to Commodore Byron, who was despatched to the Pacific in that year, that duty is recognised in a very noble passage:—

Whereas nothing can redound more to the honour of this nation as a maritime power, to the dignity of the crown of Great Britain, and to the advancement of the trade and navigation thereof than to make discoveries of countries hitherto unknown; and whereas there is reason to believe that lands and islands of great extent, hitherto unvisited by any European Power may be found, His Majesty, conceiving no conjuncture so proper for an enterprise of this nature as a time of profound peace, which his kingdoms at present happily enjoy, has thought fit that it should now be undertaken.

In this spirit our Government resolved to despatch an expedition with the object of deciding the question of the existence of a great southern continent such as had long been delineated on maps of the world. Two vessels built at Whitby, the Resolution (462 tons) and Adventure (336 tons) were selected, and carefully fitted out at Woolwich and Deptford with great store of antiscorbutics. Captain Cook received his appointment on November 28th, 1771, with Captain Furneaux as his second, on board the Adventure. Cook had with him two of the Lieutenants who were in his first voyage, Clerke and Pickersgill. Another Lieutenant, James Burney, was the future Admiral and author of Voyages to the South Sea[184]. One of the midshipmen, Vancouver, was the future explorer and surveyor of the north-west coast of America. Johann Reinhold Forster and his son were appointed as naturalists, and the Board of Longitude sent Mr Wales to make astronomical observations. The Board also supplied four chronometers, three by Arnold, and one by Kendall on Harrison’s principle[185]. This was the first British Antarctic Expedition.

On November 22nd, 1772, the expedition left the Cape with the object of examining the edge of the ice between that meridian and that of New Zealand. The course was south, the two vessels keeping company, and after some very severe weather the first iceberg was sighted on the 10th December in Lat. 50° 20′ 3″ and 2° east of the Cape. On the 14th, after passing many icebergs, the edge of the pack ice was reached. The 17th January, 1773, was a memorable day, for in the forenoon the Antarctic Circle was crossed for the first time in the history of civilised man, in 39° 35′ E. The latitude at noon was 66° 36′ 30″ S., and in the evening 30 icebergs were in sight, and much sailing ice. Captain Cook perseveringly continued to examine the edge of the ice for many days, until on March 26th, 1773, after being 122 days at sea and sailing over 3660 leagues, but never once sighting land, Dusky Bay in New Zealand was reached.

Tahiti and other islands were then visited, and on November 26th, 1773, the Resolution left New Zealand to resume her Antarctic work. On December 14th she was among icebergs and loose ice in 64° 55′ S. and 163° 20′ W. Captain Cook continued his course to the south and on the 20th December crossed the Antarctic Circle for the second time, surrounded by icebergs and loose pack, with very thick weather. On the 26th the sea was dotted with more than 300 bergs. A closely-packed mass of ice, extending east and west as far as could be seen, was reached on the 30th January, 1774. Captain Cook counted 97 ice hills within the pack, many of them very large, and looking like a ridge of mountains rising one above another until they were lost in the clouds. Cook adds that a mile within the pack there was solid ice in one continuous compact body, rather low and flat, but seeming to increase in height as it was traced to the south, in which direction it extended beyond their sight. The latitude was 71° 10′ S., longitude 106° 54′ W.

Cook did not believe that it would have been impossible to force a way through this pack, but he thought that it would not be justifiable to take a ship like the Resolution into such danger. He therefore shaped a northern course from this point, arriving at Easter Island on the 11th March, 1774.

After making numerous important discoveries during the rest of the year 1774, the great navigator left New Zealand on November 10th and the Resolution sailed across the South Pacific, making for Cape Horn. On the 19th of December they anchored in a bay on the south-west coast of Tierra del Fuego, called Christmas Sound. On the 28th they resumed their voyage, rounded Cape Horn, passed through the Strait of Le Maire, and sailed along the north coast of Staten Island, of which Cook wrote an interesting account. On the 15th January, 1775, land was sighted in latitude 54°, consisting of some small islands to which the name of South Georgia was given. On the 31st another discovery was made, which received the name of Sandwich Land. The Cape was reached on March 21st. The expedition arrived at Portsmouth in July, 1775.

Captain Cook had made the circuit of the southern ocean in a high latitude, and had entirely swept away the vast and imaginary Terra Australis of the map-makers. He was, however, of opinion that there was continental land of great extent nearer the pole, and that he had seen part of it when he was at his extreme south. He was thus the first to see land within the Antarctic Circle. It was also his belief that the antarctic continent extended furthest to the north opposite the southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans owing, for one reason, to the greater degree of cold. In this he was quite correct.

* * * * *

Many years passed before any further attempts at geographical discovery were made in this region. At length, however, the Russian Government, in July, 1819, sent an expedition to the southern seas, consisting of two vessels, the Vostak under Captain Bellingshausen, commander of the expedition, and the Mirnyi under Captain Lazareff. Bellingshausen, like Cook, made the circuit of the southern ocean in high latitudes. He reached the edge of the pack in 69° 30′, and in March, 1820, arrived at Van Diemen’s Land. In October of the same year he again sailed and kept to a high latitude, between 60° and 67°, in the South Pacific. In January 1821 he reached 70°, his furthest south, in Long. 92° 10′ W. a short distance to the eastward of Cook’s furthest, but not so far south. On the 11th of this month he discovered an island in 69° S. and 91° W., nine miles long and apparently of very considerable altitude, but he was a long way off. He named it Peter Island. The discovery is important as indicating the extension of the continental shelf to that point. Alexander Land was sighted further east, in the same high latitude, but at a distance of 40 miles. In July, 1821, Bellingshausen’s expedition returned to Cronstadt.

CHAPTER XLVII
THE SOUTH SHETLANDS. FOSTER—WEDDELL

Discovery south from Patagonia made very slow progress. After three hundred years knowledge had only reached Cape Horn, the rocks of Diego Ramirez, and the distant view of land in 64° seen by Dirk Gerritsz. His discovery, granting the latitude, must have been the string of islands near the north-west coast of Graham Land. At last a vessel on her way from Monte Video to Valparaiso was, like the Good News of Dirk Gerritsz, driven far to the south. This was a brig called the Williams of Blythe, commanded by Captain William Smith. She was in 61° S. when land was sighted in February, 1819, and in a subsequent voyage, in October, Captain Smith entered a bay, named by him George’s Bay, in one of the largest of a group of islands. The group lay between 61° and 63° S. and 54° and 63° W. A chart was drawn by William H. Goddard, no doubt one of Captain Smith’s officers, and the group was named the South Shetlands. There were twelve islands reported and innumerable rocks. A channel over 300 miles in width separates the South Shetlands from Tierra del Fuego.

When Captain Smith arrived at Valparaiso in November 1819, he found there the senior officer, Captain Shirreff, R.N., of H.M.S. Andromache. Captain Shirreff took a great interest in the discovery of the South Shetlands, and it was agreed that the discoverer should take Mr Bransfield, the Master of the Andromache, with three other officers[186] and some bluejackets to carry out an extensive survey. The agreement was dated December 16th, 1819; and Mr Bransfield received full instructions for his guidance in making a survey of the newly discovered land. The Williams of Blythe, with the naval surveyors, arrived at George’s Bay on the 16th of January, 1820. The season was late, but Mr Bransfield surveyed the islands discovered by Smith and got as far south as 63°. He returned to Valparaiso May 27th[187].

Graham Land and South Shetlands

The South Shetlands were the breeding grounds of immense numbers of fur seals, and the news of this wealth spread with incredible rapidity, so that in the very next year there were from 30 to 50 American sealing vessels among the islands, altering Captain Smith’s names, and committing ruthless destruction. The pitiless slaughter could have but one result and in two or three years the fell work was done—the seals were practically exterminated. Fanning[188], the historian of these voyages, tells us that the objects were sealing and discovery, but there can be little doubt which was the preponderating motive. It is much to be regretted that there was no authority to keep within some bounds the cupidity of the sealers. In two years 320,000 fur seals had been destroyed, besides at least 100,000 young, owing to the loss of their mothers.

In 1821, the American Captains Pendleton, Williams, Dunbar, and Palmer were at work. The volcano on Deception Island was found to be active, and some islands to the S.W. were discovered, not including Trinity Island of the Admiralty Charts, which has been called Palmer Island, in 63° 25′ S. and 57° 55′ W. Trinity Land is on Bransfield’s chart. Captain Palmer continued to make sealing voyages until 1829. The South Orkney Islands were discovered by the English sealing captain Powell in 1820.

In 1829 Captain Foster came to the South Shetlands in the course of his scientific voyage, with the object of taking pendulum observations, which occupied him for two months[189]. He also explored the volcano on Deception Island. This very distinguished scientific Arctic officer, born in 1796, began his career in the Conway under Captain Basil Hall. He was with Clavering on the east coast of Greenland, with Parry in his third voyage, and also surveying in Spitsbergen in 1827, and his observations were so meritorious that he was elected F.R.S., and received the Copley Medal. He commissioned the Chanticleer in 1827 for pendulum observations and other scientific work, and made an excellent survey of Staten Island, and some of the South Shetland Islands. He was accidentally drowned in the river Chagres in 1831, and a monument was erected to his memory in the church of his native village, Woodplumpton. Some officers were serving on board the Chanticleer with Captain Foster who were afterwards well known in the service, Austin the Commodore of the chief Franklin search expedition, Collinson, leader of another search expedition and Deputy Master of the Trinity House, and Kendall the eminent surveyor[190]. Dr Webster, the surgeon, wrote the narrative of the voyage of the Chanticleer.

Thus was discovery in the direction of the Antarctic regions, on the South American meridians, slowly prosecuted, and the South Shetland Islands were an important step in advance. But they are north of the Antarctic Circle, and thus do not strictly speaking come within the range of this book, belonging rather to the geography of South America.

The first Antarctic voyage after the return of Bellingshausen penetrated much further to the south, under a very able leader. James Weddell was born in London (or Ostend?) August 24th, 1787, and his father, who was a working upholsterer, died soon after James was born. The boy was bound apprentice in a Newcastle collier, and afterwards made several voyages in a West Indiaman until 1808, when having got into trouble owing to a disagreement with his captain, which resulted in his knocking the latter down, he was sent on board H.M.S. Rainbow. Here he was rated a midshipman. He read much, carefully studied navigation, and in 1810 was appointed Master of the Firefly, and later of the Thalia. In 1812 he was appointed to the brig Avon under Commander George (afterwards Sir George) Sartorius. After 1814 he was for three years on half pay. Sir George Sartorius spoke of Weddell as one of the most efficient and trustworthy officers he had met with in the course of his professional life.

In 1822 Mr Strachan of Leith engaged Captain Weddell to conduct a sealing adventure in the Antarctic seas in the brig Jane of Leith, 160 tons, with a crew of 22 officers and men. The cutter Beaufoy of London, 65 tons, 13 officers and men, was to be her consort, commanded by Matthew Brisbane.

Sailing from the Downs on the 17th September, 1822, Weddell proceeded direct for the Antarctic ice, and on January 12th, 1823, he was in sight of the east end of the South Orkneys. He landed there on the 15th and secured 116 sea leopard skins. Still sailing south, Weddell found himself on the 7th February among many icebergs, one of them two miles long and 250 feet high. He crossed the Antarctic Circle, and on the 14th, in Long. 68° 28′ W., there were 66 icebergs in sight. The current was flowing N. 58° E., 27 miles in four days. But on February 16th, in 70° 26′ S. the sea was smooth and the bergs had nearly disappeared. In 72° 33′ S. there was not a particle of ice to be seen. Weddell’s furthest south was attained on the 20th February 1823, in 74° 15′ S. and 34° 16′ W. There were three icebergs in sight, many whales, and innumerable birds, and it was very clear weather. The sea received the name of “King George IV his Sea.” In returning, Weddell met with less ice in 65° S. in the end of February than he did in the end of January. On the 12th March he sighted South Georgia (54° 2′) and anchored in Adventure Bay.

It should be remembered that Weddell was only incidentally a discoverer, and that his business was sealing. His age was 35 when he reached his furthest south. He continued to command merchant vessels, and in May, 1831, in the Eliza, he gave assistance to Biscoe in Tasmania. He died unmarried on September 9th, 1834, in Norfolk Street, Strand, in very straitened circumstances. In 1839 Weddell’s portrait was presented to the Royal Geographical Society by Mr John Brown, the author of a work on the search for Sir John Franklin. Captain Weddell was a fine specimen of a courageous and thoroughly efficient British seaman.

CHAPTER XLVIII
ENDERBY AND HIS CAPTAINS: BISCOE—KEMPE—BALLENY

Charles Enderby is a name which should ever receive honour from geographers. Though engaged in the Antarctic sealing trade, his captains always had orders to pay as close attention to geographical research and discovery as their work permitted them, and he was well served in this respect by the able navigators in his employment. Mr Enderby was for ten years on the Council of the Royal Geographical Society, and was an old and respected friend of the present writer.

The most important Enderby voyages of discovery were under the command of Captain John Biscoe, who, like Weddell, was a naval officer. He left the Falkland Islands in 1830 in a brig named the Tula, with the cutter Lively, Captain Avery, in company, steering south, and before the end of December he was amongst pack ice and bergs. On December 29th he was off the Sandwich Land of Cook, which he was instructed to visit; but no vestige of seal or sea elephant could be found. Biscoe, therefore, continued his voyage. On the 21st of January, 1831, he crossed the Antarctic Circle. By the 25th February the Tula was in 66° 8′ S. and 43° 54′ W. In the morning there was appearance of land, in the intervals of snow squalls, with many bergs and ice fields round the ship. The icebergs became innumerable, and there was a strong N.E. swell. Captain Biscoe considered that he could proceed no further with safety. The land appeared to be like the North Foreland, the cliffs being about the same height, probably ice cliffs resting on land. From the fore top Captain Biscoe, with a good glass, could trace the coast for 30 or 40 miles. He made an effort to reach the land in a boat, but the ice was too closely packed. On February 28th, the latitude being 66° 7′ S., longitude 49° 6′ E., high land was again sighted, with black peaks rising above the snow. For two days an attempt was made to reach it. Biscoe named a clearly seen point Cape Ann, in 65° 25′ S. and 49° 18′ E. Next day a furious gale was encountered, lasting without intermission until the 8th of March. These gales were frequent, and scurvy broke out among the crew. In April only one man, one boy, the two mates, and Biscoe himself were able to stand, so it was thought advisable to shape a course for New Zealand. The newly discovered land received the name of Enderby Land.

The Tula reached the Derwent river in Tasmania, and luckily found the Eliza, Captain Weddell, at anchor. The veteran Antarctic navigator at once sent a boat’s crew to moor the Tula and the sufferers from scurvy were all sent to the hospital.

On October 10th, 1831, the Tula and her consort sailed from Tasmania, and continued their voyage of discovery. Biscoe’s plan, in crossing the South Pacific, was to pass over Captain Cook’s track, and seek for land W.S.W. of the South Shetlands. On the 15th February, 1832, in Lat. 67° 15′ S., Long. 69° 29′ W., land was sighted at a distance of about three miles. Biscoe named the island after Queen Adelaide. He wrote:—

It has a most imposing and beautiful appearance, having one very high peak running up into the clouds., occasionally appearing both above and below them. One third of the mountains, which are about 4 miles in extent from north to south, have only a thin scattering of snow over their summits. Towards the base the other two thirds are buried in a field of snow and ice of the most dazzling whiteness. This bed of snow and ice is about four miles in extent, and slopes gradually down to cliffs 10 or 12 feet high; it is split in every direction, for at least 2 or 300 yards from its edge inwards, and appears to form icebergs, only waiting for some severe gales or other cause to break them adrift and put them in motion.

During the following days distant high mountains were in sight, and the Tula passed several islands. On the 19th February a small island in 65° 20′ S. and 66° 38′ W. was more closely examined, and named Pitt Island. On the 21st Biscoe went away in a boat, and explored a deep inlet of the mainland. He named the highest mountain after the king, Mount William, in 64° 45′ S., and the second highest Mount Moberly, after one of his old captains. On the 3rd March the Tula and her cutter were safely anchored in New Plymouth, South Shetland.

The new discovery received the name of Graham Land after the First Lord of the Admiralty. It was an island or long promontory with a lofty mountain range occupying its interior, extending from an unknown distance in the Antarctic regions across the circle, and far into the south temperate zone.

Very severe weather was encountered at the South Shetlands, and the Tula was in great danger, but she arrived safely at Berkeley Sound in the Falkland Islands on April 29th, 1832, with a cargo of sea-elephant skins.

Another of Enderby’s captains named Kempe, on board the Magpie in 1832, sighted land to the eastward of Enderby Land, which has been named Kempe Land, but no journal or report has been preserved.

Enderby was not discouraged by some losses, and in 1838 he determined, in conjunction with some other merchants, to send another expedition to the south. The captain had special instructions to push as far south as possible in hopes of discovering land in a high southern latitude. There were two vessels, the schooner Eliza Scott of 154 tons, commanded by John Balleny, and the cutter Sabrina, H. Freeman, Master. We have the narratives of Captain Balleny, and of John McNab, second mate of the Eliza Scott. On the 3rd December the two little vessels anchored in Chalky Bay, at the S.W. extremity of the middle island of New Zealand; and on the 7th January, 1839, they proceeded on their Antarctic voyage. Running southwards through pack ice and amongst bergs, they had reached 68° S. by the 2nd February. On the 9th land was sighted in 66° 37′ S. and the captain soon made out three islands. Next day Balleny stood towards the land, and made out high perpendicular cliffs, but was prevented from a nearer approach by the ice. The observed latitude was 66° 22′ S. In the evening of the 12th Captains Balleny and Freeman approached the shore in the cutter’s boat. The cliffs were perpendicular, the gullies filled with ice, and smoke was seen to be rising from the mountain peaks. Freeman jumped out and picked up a few stones, but there was no beach and he was up to his waist in water. The group consisted of five islands, three large and two small, the highest, called Young Island, rising to a peak to which the name of Freeman was given, this being the island on which he landed. The five islands were given the names of the five merchants who co-operated with Enderby in the venture—Young, Borradaile, Buckle, Sturge, and Row. The whole group was named the Balleny Islands.

Captain Balleny then steered westward near the Antarctic Circle, encountering severe weather and much ice. In the night of March 4th the two little vessels were in a hazardous position, surrounded by icebergs in thick weather, with severe snow squalls which compelled them to heave to. On March 2nd in 64° 58′ S. and 121° 8′ E. they sighted land to the southward, the vessels being surrounded by drift ice. The land was seen both by Balleny and by McNab the second mate, who thought it was not more than one mile to windward. It received the name of Sabrina Land. The appearance of land was again seen on March 3rd. The fixed character of the ice to the south showed the proximity of land of considerable extent.

This voyage of the Eliza Scott and Sabrina is very remarkable. That such tiny little vessels should have passed along that dangerous coast, amidst fogs and snow squalls, in imminent danger of collision with bergs and heavy drift ice on all sides, speaks volumes for the seamanlike skill, watchfulness, and nerve of the navigators. They must be credited with the discovery of a third part of the coast of the southern continent.

Great credit is also due to Mr Enderby, the patriotic promoter of the expeditions which carried out this hazardous work. The discovery of Graham Land, of three points of the north coast of the Antarctic continent—Enderby Land, Kempe Land, and Sabrina Land, and of the Balleny Islands, is due to the enterprise and perseverance of one who may justly take rank with the merchant adventurers of the days of the great Queen.

CHAPTER XLIX
DUMONT D’URVILLE AND WILKES

In the year 1840 there were two exploring expeditions in the Pacific, a French and an American, and the commissions of both were drawing to a close. Both, however, intended to make runs towards the Antarctic Circle before returning home. Captain Dumont D’Urville had two ships, the Astrolabe and the Zélée, Com. Jacquinot, under his command. When he sailed southward from Hobart Town on January 1st, 1840, his intention was only to make a new exploration along the edge of the pack ice. Icebergs were first encountered on the 16th January, and on the 19th as many as 59 were counted round the ships. Their perpendicular walls towered over the masts, and the spectacle was at once grand and terrifying. D’Urville imagined himself in the narrow streets of a city of giants. Having threaded his way among the icebergs, he found the newly-discovered land only a few miles distant, covered with snow, and rising to a height of 6000 feet. D’Urville sailed along the coast to the westward, noticing some projecting headlands and shallow bays, but always faced by an ice wall which rendered all landing impossible. Some bare islets were seen, and each ship sent a boat towards them with two officers, MM. Duroch and Dubourget. After two hours’ hard pulling the boats reached one of the islets and the observers landed, collected rock specimens, and hoisted the French flag. The islet was one of a group of eight or ten, separated from the nearest coast by rather less than a mile.

Dumont D’Urville gave the name of Adélie to the newly-discovered land, and Cape Découverte to a promontory sighted in the morning.

For some days the French corvettes encountered a furious gale while surrounded by icebergs, and were in considerable danger, but the wind moderated and on January 30th they came in sight of an ice cliff, varying in height from 100 to 150 feet, and forming a long line westwards. D’Urville gave it the name of the Côte Clarie.

The French expedition bade a final farewell to the polar regions on February 1st, 1840, and returned to Hobart Town. Important discoveries had been made, officers and men all vieing with each other in zeal and loyalty. It was a well conducted and successful voyage.

Dumont D’Urville had also previously surveyed part of the South Shetlands in 1838. He passed Clarence and Elephant Islands and, sailing down Bransfield Strait, discovered the north end of Graham Land without knowing it, which he named after Louis Philippe. An island to the east was named after the Prince de Joinville. He also saw a channel with the coast of Graham Land on one side, and Trinity with other islands on the other. To this he gave the name Orleans Channel.

* * * * *

The American expedition was commanded by Captain Wilkes, its object being chiefly to explore the Pacific, in a voyage of circumnavigation. Captain Wilkes concluded it with a visit to the edge of the ice south of Australia, following in the wake of Captain Balleny and also of Captain Dumont D’Urville.

The American squadron consisted of the Vincennes, Captain Wilkes, the Porpoise, Peacock, and Flying Fish tender. The tender parted company in 48° S. and went back. The Peacock also returned owing to severe injuries received from the ice. The Vincennes and Porpoise continued the voyage and on the 16th January they were at the edge of the ice, nearly on the Antarctic Circle and in 154° 30′ E. Here land was reported by the Porpoise “mountains seen”; “two peaks distinctly seen, very clear, few clouds.” Wilkes saw some land himself, and called it Ringgold’s Knoll. Land was also visible from the Vincennes, “every appearance of land, believed to be such by all on board.” All this was nevertheless a mistake, due to the deceptive appearance of ice and clouds.

In 1850 Captain Tapsell, in a sealer called the Brisk, sighted the Balleny Islands and then sailed west to Long. 143° E., finding no land. It is now known that the coast trends S.E. from Adélie Land, and could not possibly have been sighted from Wilkes’s position. Wilkes reported having sighted land or appearance of land 3000 feet high several times, seen over the fast ice, and he was within a few miles of a coast beyond Sabrina Land, which he called Knox Land. He then stood to the north and reported land ahead trending north in 64°, which he called Termination Land, but we now know that this does not exist.

Captain Wilkes’s theory has been proved to be quite correct—that there is a continuous land forming a coast-line of 2000 miles and more, and he certainly made out the distant land on several occasions, as Balleny and Dumont D’Urville had done before him, but his subsequent controversies are to be deplored.

CHAPTER L
FIRST ANTARCTIC VOYAGE OF SIR JAMES ROSS

The great Antarctic expedition commanded by Sir James Ross had magnetic research and not geography for its immediate object. It originated with Colonel Sabine, who read a paper on terrestrial magnetism at the meeting of the British Association at Newcastle in August, 1838, which led to a deputation being nominated to approach the Government. The deficiency in our knowledge of terrestrial magnetism in the southern hemisphere, it was considered, should be supplied by observations of magnetic direction and intensity in high southern latitudes between the meridians of New Holland[191] and Cape Horn, and Her Majesty’s Government was urged to appoint a naval expedition expressly directed to that object.

Lord Melbourne acceded to the request, and Sir James Ross received his commission to command the expedition on the 8th April, 1839. The Erebus, a bomb vessel of 370 tons, strongly built and with a capacious hold, was selected for Sir James Ross, and the Terror, of 340 tons, a similar vessel which had been thoroughly repaired after her disastrous voyage with Sir George Back, was chosen for Ross’s second in command, Commander Crozier. The complement of each ship amounted to 64 persons.

The officers were not only thoroughly efficient; there were among them men who were distinguished in their profession and whose record is worthy of remembrance. Sir James Ross was by far the most experienced Arctic officer then living. He had passed through no less than nine Arctic winters and seventeen navigable seasons, was the most eminent magnetic observer next to Sabine, an admirable collector, and an unequalled navigator. Crozier was his old friend and messmate in the Arctic regions, and was also a practised magnetic observer.

The first Lieutenants were worthy to serve under such men. Lieutenant Bird of the Erebus, son of the Rev. Godfrey Bird, Rector of Little Witham, was a distinguished Arctic officer, highly thought of by Parry as well as by Ross. Knowing his work thoroughly he was steady, reliable, and calm in moments of danger. As a midshipman he had seen service at the blockade of Brest and the battle of Algiers. Archibald M’Murdo of the Terror, grandson of Major M’Murdo, the friend of the poet Burns, was an officer of more than ordinary ability, whose brother Sir Herbert was equally distinguished as a soldier, and as the right hand of Sir Charles Napier in Sind. Archibald served in the Blonde with Sir Edmund Lyons in the operations against the Turks in the Morea, and later in the Alligator under Captain Lambert in the East Indies and New Zealand. He was promoted in 1836 for his intrepidity and skill in recovering a crew of wrecked whalers from the clutches of the Maoris. He served in the disastrous voyage of the Terror with Sir George Back, who had a very high opinion of his capacity, and he was first Lieutenant of that ship until ill health obliged him to return home. He afterwards commanded the Contest on the coast of Africa, became a Rear-Admiral, and died in December, 1875.

Of the other Lieutenants John Sibbald was a steady, capable officer, and Wood a good surveyor. Phillips of the Terror, a very active enthusiastic officer, was a good seaman, and a man of ability and sound sense. He afterwards showed those qualities in the Arctic regions under Sir John Ross, when I knew him well.

Of the Mates, Oakley was a good observer and a useful young officer, and Alexander Smith was well known to Sir James Ross, having served under him in Davis Strait, on board the Cove. Moore was a young officer endowed with no ordinary ability, energy, and tact. He commanded the Pagoda afterwards, when she was sent south to complete some of Ross’s magnetic work. In command of the Plover he made a boat voyage to Cape Barrow; he became a Rear Admiral, Fellow of the Royal Society, and Governor of the Falkland Islands 1855–62. He died in 1870.

Dr M^cCormick and Dr Robertson undertook the geology and zoology. M^cCormick, enthusiastic, energetic, and tireless, had been Assistant-Surgeon in the Hecla with Sir Edward Parry. Afterwards he commanded a boat to examine the western side of Wellington Channel in 1852 during the Franklin search. In his old age Dr M^cCormick published an interesting narrative of his three polar voyages, and was quite indefatigable in helping and advising us when we were fitting out for the search expedition in 1850. Dr Robertson of the Terror was equally hard working, but not so excitable and sensitive. He was afterwards Surgeon of the Enterprise with Sir James Ross in the first Franklin search expedition.

Of the Assistant-Surgeons, Sir Joseph Hooker, though then a very young man, was already a skilled botanist. He was a most valuable member of the expedition, and his future eminence had some of its roots within the Antarctic circle. His colleague Dr Lyall of the Terror, a zealous botanist, was a scientific student of rare ability and had a distinguished career. He was afterwards naturalist of the Acheron, New Zealand surveying ship from 1847 to 1852, then surgeon of the Pembroke during the Russian war, and afterwards of the Plumper, surveying ship in the North Pacific. He was surgeon of the Assistance in the Arctic expedition of 1852–54, and made a valuable collection of plants in Wellington Channel. Dr Lyall, after a very useful career, died as a Deputy Inspector, on the 25th February, 1895.

Mr Tucker, Master of the Erebus, was a very capable and efficient officer, afterwards Staff Commander and a useful member of the Thames Conservancy Board. Mr Cotter was Master of the Terror. Henry Yule, the second Master of the Erebus, was a good surveyor and continued his service in that capacity on the Home Survey. John Davis, second Master of the Terror, was an officer of much ability, a good surveyor, and an excellent artist. He had previously served under Captain FitzRoy on board the Beagle in Magellan’s Strait. He executed the charts and drawings for Sir James Ross, for which he received the special thanks of the Hydrographer. Afterwards he was employed as a surveyor in the Fox with Sir Allen Young in 1862, and Naval Assistant to the Hydrographer from 1863 to 1876. His most interesting letter to his sister in 1843 was printed in 1891. Retired as Staff Captain in 1876, he was the author, jointly with his son, of the Azimuth Tables. Captain Davis died on the 30th January, 1877.

Mr Hallett, Purser of the Erebus, had previously been with Sir James Ross in the Cove in 1836. He afterwards served on the coast of Africa, where he died. George Moubray, the clerk in charge of the Terror, was thought so highly of that he received the very responsible appointment of Naval Agent and Storekeeper at Constantinople during the Crimean war, and was afterwards Storekeeper at Malta for some time, retiring as a Paymaster-in-Chief with the Greenwich pension. The gunner of the Erebus must not be left out, as he was a very exceptional character and had very wide Arctic experience. Thomas Abernethy, born at Peterhead in 1802, was an experienced seaman when he joined the Fury in Parry’s third Arctic expedition in 1824, and was very active and useful in all the work at Fury Beach. He was with Parry again in 1827, and second mate of the Victory with the Rosses during the Boothian expedition 1829–33. When the boatswain of the Erebus fell overboard in a heavy sea on the voyage out and was drowned, Abernethy and Oakley commanded the two boats that were lowered for his rescue. Oakley’s boat was struck by a sea which knocked four of the crew out of her. Abernethy, whose boat was again alongside ready to be hoisted up, immediately pushed off and succeeded in saving the crew of Oakley’s boat from their perilous position. Abernethy was a splendid seaman. He served again with Sir James Ross in the Enterprise, and finally with old Sir John Ross in the Felix. He died at Peterhead on April 13th, 1860[192].

With this exceptionally distinguished staff and two well-equipped and strongly built ships, Sir James Ross sailed from the Thames on his great enterprise on the 30th September, 1839. After visiting and exploring Kerguelen Island, the expedition arrived at Tasmania on August 16th, 1840. Sir John Franklin was then Governor, and gave every assistance in his power. The chief thing was the erection of an observatory for synchronous observations. Sir John selected the site and, with convict labour, the building, with its pillars carried down to the bed rock, was erected in nine days. Sir John named it Rossbank. Lieutenant Kay, R.N., was placed in charge, with two Mates named Dayman and Scott as assistants. Kay, who was a Fellow of the Royal Society, had served in the Chanticleer with Captain Foster, and in the Rainbow with Sir John Franklin. The magnetic observations of the expedition were under the immediate superintendence of Commander Crozier, and were continued uninterruptedly every hour throughout the day and night[193].

Sir James Ross heard of the voyages of Dumont D’Urville and Wilkes, and received advice from the latter about the best places he had seen for entering the ice. But Sir James had no intention of shaping a course in their direction. Captain Balleny had been much further south than either of them, having attained a latitude of 69° S., finding an open sea. Sir James, therefore, resolved to proceed on Balleny’s meridian, about 170° E.

On November 13th, 1840, the expedition sailed, Sir John Franklin remaining on board the Erebus until she reached the mouth of the Derwent, when he returned in his tender. Sir James Ross touched at Auckland Island and Campbell Island, and on January 1st the Antarctic Circle was crossed, and the warm clothing supplied by the Admiralty was served out. Passing a great many icebergs with a strong breeze from the N.W., the main pack was reached on the 5th, and Sir James resolved to put the bows of the two old sailing ships straight on to it and force his way through. The pack is always closest and most difficult to penetrate at the edge, and more open inside. After about an hour’s hard bumping, and receiving several heavy blows, the outer edge was forced, and the inside ice was found to be much lighter and more scattered than it appeared to be when viewed from a distance. During the following days the ships were bored through the pack, steering south for the supposed position of the magnetic pole.

They had been six days in the pack when, on January 10th, in the middle watch, Lieutenant Wood reported that land was distinctly visible right ahead. It rose in lofty peaks, but was still very distant. They were in 71° 15′ S. Next day they were fairly close to the land, the northern point of which was named Cape Adare. Soundings were obtained in 160 fathoms. The mountains, crowned with snowy peaks, attained a height of from 7000 to 10,000 ft. They were named the Admiralty Range, and the peaks were called after the then Lords of the Admiralty. The principal peak, nearly 10,000 feet high, was, however, named after Sir Edward Sabine, who was with Ross in two Arctic voyages.

Here the variation was 44° and the dip 86°, which according to Sir James Ross’s calculation placed the magnetic pole in 76° S. and 1450 26′ E., or about 500 miles inland[194].

With some difficulty Ross, Crozier, and several officers landed on a small island near the coast, covered with penguins, in 71° 56′ S. and 171° 7′ E., giving it the name of Possession Island. In very bad and stormy weather a further range of lofty mountains came in sight whose peaks were named after friends of the Royal Society and the British Association, while an island received the name of Coulman, and its northern point Cape Anne, the name of Sir James’s fiancée.

On the 27th January the ships were in sight of another island which was named after Sir John Franklin. The two captains with several officers went on shore in two boats. There was a heavy surf beating on the rocks but Ross and a few others effected a landing. Hooker, however, fell into the sea, and was nearly drowned before he could be hauled into the boat, more dead than alive from the intense cold. His condition made it necessary to return to the ship as soon as possible, Ross having collected several specimens of rock. The island is in 76° 8′ S., and is 12 miles long by 6 broad.

On the same day the ships sighted a mountain 12,400 ft. high, emitting flame and smoke in great profusion. Sir James Ross named it Mount Erebus, and an extinct volcano to the eastward 10,900 ft. high, Mount Terror. A small round island, which had been in sight all the morning, was called Beaufort Island.

Ross and his officers were astonished at the sight of a mighty ice cliff 100 feet high, with a uniform level summit, stretching away to the eastward from the peninsula or island of the volcanoes. It was a bitter disappointment, as they hoped to have gone much further south. As the ships approached the volcanoes two capes were recognised and named after Crozier and Bird, Sir James Ross taking the opportunity of expressing his affectionate regard for his two old Arctic messmates, who were giving him such invaluable help. The bay formed by the island of volcanoes was called after M’Murdo, the first Lieutenant of the Terror, “a compliment that his zeal and skill well merited.” The ice cliffs were higher than the masthead, so that little could be seen, but some peaks were made out, rising above the line of cliffs, and looking more distant than they really were owing to the haze. These Ross named the Parry mountains, after his revered old commander with whom he had served in all but one of his Arctic voyages. The peaks were really the tops of islands at the back of the volcanoes, but the mistake was natural, indeed inevitable under the circumstances.

When within three or four miles of the great ice barrier, Sir James Ross altered course to the eastward to ascertain its extent. Mount Erebus was then emitting smoke and flames in great volume, affording a grand spectacle. Good progress was made in sailing along the ice barrier but no rent or fissure could be seen throughout its whole extent. On the 29th, after sailing along the barrier for a hundred miles, the ships being in 77° 47′ S., it was still seen stretching away to the east. The soundings showed that the outer edge of the ice was not resting on the ground. Bad weather came on with much snow, and the barrier was only seen at intervals as they continued their course to the east. Ross wrote of the barrier as a “mighty and wonderful object, far beyond anything we could have thought of or conceived.” The furthest south of the two ships was in 78° 5′ S.

Mt Erebus from the South

On the 13th February Ross gave up any attempt to go further along the barrier and resolved to steer for the magnetic pole and seek for a harbour in which to winter. The course was set for Franklin Island. On the 16th Mount Erebus was again sighted, and there was a splendid view of the whole line of coast. A great number of whales of two kinds were visible. Upon the cape ahead of the ships was conferred the name of Professor Gauss of Göttingen “who has done more than any other philosopher of the present day to advance the science of terrestrial magnetism.” The range of mountains which Ross considered to be the seat of the magnetic pole was called after Prince Albert.

The course was now northward along the coast. Two capes named after Captain Washington, the Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society, and Captain Johnson, R.N., were seen to enclose a bay which was called after Lieutenant Wood of the Erebus[195]. On February 20th the breeze freshened to a gale and next day they were off Cape Adare. Rounding this, the northern coast was reached, the furthest point seen being Cape North. The line of coast presented perpendicular ice cliffs, and no landing was possible. The course was therefore set to the N.W., and on the 2nd March land was seen ahead appearing like two islands, but really peaks of one of the Balleny Islands. On the 6th April, 1841, the Erebus and Terror arrived in the Derwent river, Tasmania.

CHAPTER LI
SECOND ANTARCTIC VOYAGE OF SIR JAMES ROSS

The Erebus and Terror were refitting at Hobart Town from April to July, 1841, when they proceeded to Port Jackson. The chief object of Captain Ross was to obtain a series of magnetic observations for comparison with those made at Hobart Town. From Port Jackson the expedition went to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. During these visits Dr Hooker had opportunities of making collections and observations which are embodied in his great work, the Flora Antarctica.

On November 23rd, 1841, the expedition sailed from New Zealand, and Sir James Ross shaped a course for Chatham Island, chiefly for magnetic purposes. After a short visit he steered south for the main pack and pushed boldly into the ice on the 18th December. Christmas Day was passed closely beset in the pack, near a chain of eleven icebergs, and in a thick fog.

On New Year’s eve they were in the same place. This would be called an impenetrable pack. But there is no such thing as an impenetrable pack for men like Sir James Ross, and he had resolved to force the ships through it. On the 9th January they were still at the same place as on Christmas Day, with no apparent prospect of moving. But Sir James still persevered. On the 20th it blew a gale of wind, and they were in the midst of large masses of ice with a very heavy swell. No ordinary ship would have stood the hammering from the masses of ice for half-an-hour. The rudder of the Terror was broken and rendered useless. When the weather moderated it took a whole day to ship the spare rudder owing to the gudgeons being bent. Both ships had been in imminent danger, and for the first time Sir James Ross looked anxious and careworn. They had been 40 days going a hundred miles. On the 20th February they encountered a frightful gale, the spray dashing over the ships and becoming ice as it touched the deck. Sir James would not turn back, and on the 28th they reached a latitude of 78° 10′ S. The great ice barrier was in sight; not so high as the part they had seen the previous year, but more irregular.

The season was advanced and it became necessary to give up further exploration and turn the ships’ heads in a northerly direction. On the 1st March a magnificent range of icebergs was in sight, extending in an unbroken chain as far as the eye could discern from the masthead. On the 4th a furious gale was encountered and on the 12th several bergs were again seen during thick weather. There were constant squalls of snow concealing the bergs from view. Suddenly a large berg was seen ahead, and quite close. The Erebus was hauled to the wind on the port tack with the expectation of being able to weather it. At that moment the Terror came in sight running down upon her consort. It was impossible for her to clear both the berg and the Erebus, so that collision was inevitable. The Erebus hove all aback to diminish the violence of the shock, but the concussion was terrific nevertheless. Bowsprit and fore-topmast were carried away and the ships, hanging together, dashed against each other with fearful violence. The Terror’s anchor and cat-head were carried away, the yard-arms came in contact at every roll, smashing the booms and boom irons. All this time there was a heavy sea, and both ships were drifting on the berg. The men behaved splendidly when ordered up to loose the main topsail. Sir James resolved to brace the yards bye, and haul the main tack on board, sharp aback, an expedient that had never before been resorted to in such weather. It was three quarters of an hour before this could be done. The ship gathered stern way, plunging her stern into the sea and washing away the gig and quarter boats, while her lower yard arms actually scraped the rugged face of the berg. In a few minutes the ship reached the iceberg’s western end, the under-tow alone preventing her from being dashed to pieces against it. No sooner had the ship cleared it than another iceberg was seen astern, against which the ship was running. The space between the bergs did not exceed three times the breadth of the ship. The only chance was to pass between the bergs. This was happily accomplished. She dashed through the narrow channel between two perpendicular walls of ice, and the next moment she was safe in smooth water under their lee. As Sir James said, “the necessity of constant and energetic action to meet the momentarily varying circumstances of our situation left us no time to reflect on our imminent danger.”

Sir James Ross then shaped a direct course round Cape Horn to the Falkland Islands before strong westerly gales, and on April 6th the two ships sailed up Berkeley Sound and anchored in Port Louis. Commander Crozier and Lieutenant Bird had been promoted, and Smith the Mate had also received his Lieutenancy. Lieutenant M’Murdo was invalided, and Lieutenant Sibbald took his place on board the Terror. On the 22nd June the Carysfort, Captain Lord George Paulet, arrived, with a large supply of provisions sent by Commodore Purvis, as well as a new bowsprit.

The refitting of the Erebus and Terror proceeded steadily, and by the end of July both ships were in good order and ready for sea. During the stay of the Antarctic Expedition at the Falkland Islands the Governor, Captain Moody, supported by the opinion of Sir James Ross, removed the settlement from Port Louis to Port William, Lieutenant Sibbald was left at Port William to carry on a system of magnetic observations upon such a plan as to secure a satisfactory record, while the ships proceeded to Cape Horn for synchronous observations.

On the 8th September, 1842, the Erebus and Terror sailed from Port William, and encountered very severe weather during their voyage towards Cape Horn. But the day was fine when they sighted the famous promontory on the 18th, passing it at a distance of a mile and a half and anchoring off St Martin’s Cove in 55° 51′ 20″ S., 67° 32′ 10″ W. An observatory was set up on Hermit Island. While the magnetic work was proceeding, Dr Hooker made a specially interesting botanical collection. On November 13th the expedition returned to the Falkland Islands, meeting the Philomel, Captain Sulivan, who was engaged in surveying the group. The Falkland Islands were left again on the 17th December for a third visit to the Antarctic. All hands on board had been diligently at work; careful magnetic, meteorological, and tidal observations being taken wherever they were.

The first iceberg was met with on December 24th in 61° S., soon afterwards the main pack came into view, and on the 28th land was sighted which appeared to be the northern cape of Dumont d’Urville’s Joinville Island. An examination of part of the South Shetland Islands was then begun.

CHAPTER LII
THIRD ANTARCTIC VOYAGE OF SIR JAMES ROSS

Sir James Ross began his survey of part of the South Shetland Islands when he reached the north-west coast of Joinville Island of Dumont d’Urville. On December 28th, 1842, he sighted the conical islet to which he gave the name of Etna, then passed an enormous glacier descending from an elevation of 1200 feet into the ocean, where it presented a vertical cliff 100 feet high. Near it, and evidently broken away from its face, was the greatest aggregation of icebergs that Sir James ever remembered to have seen collected together. Shaping a southerly course, numerous rocky islets appeared amongst heavy fragments of ice which completely concealed them until the ships were quite close. They were named Danger Isles, and the southernmost islet received the name of Charles Darwin. A great number of the largest sized black whales were seen here, and Sir James thought that a valuable whale fishery might be established in these localities.

A point of land supposed to be the southern point of Joinville Island, but since found to be on a separate island, was given the name of Commodore Purvis, commanding the Alfred on the Brazilian station; a remarkable peak was called Mount Percy after the Admiral at the Cape, and an island off Cape Purvis after Lord George Paulet. There appeared to be a passage between Joinville Island and Louis Philippe Land (the northern end of Graham Land) into Bransfield Strait. The most striking feature in these discoveries was considered to be Mount Haddington (7050 ft.), named after the First Lord of the Admiralty. It is on the large island to the south, since known as James Ross Island. The great gulf between Graham Land and Joinville Island was called Erebus and Terror Bay. A very small brown islet to the south, a quarter of a mile across, with a crater-like peak of 760 ft. was given the name of Admiral Sir George Cockburn. On January 6th, 1843, Captains Ross and Crozier landed on this volcanic islet, and Dr Hooker, who was with them, found that the flora consisted of nineteen species, all mosses, lichens, and algae. Two out of the five mosses were new. Cockburn Island is in 64° 12′ S. and 59° 49′ W. The inlet between James Ross Island and Seymour and Snow Hill Islands—afterwards found to be a channel—was named after the Admiralty; and what was thought to be a promontory and called after Admiral Sir George Seymour, has since been found to be an island (Seymour Island), rendered famous in after years for its yield of fossils.

From Seymour Island a course was shaped to the S.S.W. on January 7th, passing along Snow Hill Island. Upon the southern point of James Ross Island the name of Captain Foster of the Chanticleer, Ross’s lamented old Arctic messmate, was conferred.

On the 8th there was a dense fog, and icebergs with much loose ice surrounded the ships, which were secured to the land ice until the 12th, when Sir James resolved to endeavour to trace this land ice to the S.E. But the ships were quite enclosed, and it was accordingly determined to force them through the pack, a long and arduous as well as a hazardous struggle, for they were sustaining severe pressure. On the 4th February however, in latitude 64° S., the vessels were clear of the ice with which they had been battling for nearly six weeks. The hope was that on reaching the meridian of 40°, where Weddell had penetrated so far to the southward, Ross and Crozier would also find the sea so clear as to admit of their reaching a high southern latitude.

On the 14th February Weddell’s track was crossed in 65° 13′ S., but there was a dense pack. Dumont d’Urville found the same conditions and not so far south. In the following days there were snow-falls, and a heavy sea, yet on March 1st the Erebus and Terror once more crossed the Circle and entered the Antarctic regions, accompanied by several whales, a sooty albatross, blue and white petrels, and Cape pigeons. On the 4th they passed the highest latitude attained by Bellingshausen and crossed the 70th parallel. Next day they were in 71° 10′ S. and ran into the pack for thirty miles, but the young ice was so strong and the season so late that it became necessary to work out again, after reaching 71° 30′ S. A gale sprang up with a heavy snow-fall, the sea was running very high, and the thick weather caused continual apprehension of collision with one of the numerous bergs. It was a fearful night, and next day there was not the least mitigation of the force of the gale. Sir James expressed his admiration at the seamanlike manner in which Captain Crozier and the officers of the Terror kept their station in the face of such difficulties, and at the vigilance, activity, and cool courage of Commander Bird.

The third Antarctic voyage of Sir James Ross was now drawing to a close, and he resolved to shape his course for the Cape of Good Hope. On the 4th April, 1843, the two ships anchored in Simon’s Bay, close to the Winchester, flag-ship of Admiral Percy. There was not a single individual in either ship on the sick list. Refitting, refreshing the crew, and comparing instruments occupied the time until the end of the month, and on April 30th the voyage home was commenced. The ships arrived at Woolwich and were paid off in September, 1843.

In the conduct of these Antarctic voyages by Sir James Ross the first thing that strikes one is his extraordinary skill in ice navigation, his fearlessness and resolution. Very few captains would have persevered, in the face of such imminent dangers, in the long struggle with the pack for forty days; but Sir James was determined to examine the further end of the great ice barrier, and nothing could stop him. In the collision close to the icebergs, under circumstances of appalling danger, this great commander showed a seamanlike skill, a presence of mind, and a quickness of decision such as has never been surpassed. These rare gifts and his unfailing nerve saved the ship. His next great quality was his perseverance in conducting the magnetic observations, his unceasing care in taking every opportunity to secure advantageous positions for observing, and in obtaining accuracy. He took the same care as regards meteorological observations, deep sea soundings, and tidal observations[196]. He was most attentive in promoting the welfare and health of his officers and men, and in all his work he certainly was assisted by an exceptionally diligent and accomplished staff.

Referring to the uninterrupted observations that were taken during the course of the expedition he himself said “they will elucidate several points of importance and interest in science, while they present others for elucidation and afford a basis of comparison, should a sound mode of prosecuting inquiry be adopted.”

Ross’s geographical discoveries were of the utmost importance and interest. They threw a completely new light on the economy of the southern continent, and pointed the way to future discoveries in the far south[197].

At the request of Sir James Ross Admiral Percy, Commander in Chief on the Cape Station, chartered a merchant vessel called the Pagoda with the object of taking a series of magnetic observations in the direction of Enderby Land. The command was given to Mr Moore, who had served in the Terror. He was accompanied by Captain Henry Clerk of the Royal Artillery, a scientific officer, son of Sir George Clerk, Bart., M.P., of Penicuick, and by Dr Dickson, Assistant-Surgeon of the Winchester, flag-ship at the Cape. The duty was satisfactorily performed during 1844–45, and an account of the voyage was afterwards written by Dr Dickson in the United Service Magazine for June and July 1850.

CHAPTER LIII
ANTARCTIC OCEANOGRAPHY

After the days of Sir James Ross various causes led to the development of what was almost a new science, that of Oceanography. It included not only measurement of depths, but also of the temperatures at different depths, the study of plankton or surface ocean life, and of life in the depths. I remember what a revolution it caused in one’s ideas. When I went to sea we were taught that there was enormous pressure at great depths, sufficient to prevent the existence of life, for in descending the sea water got heavier and heavier under pressure. It was held that at 2000 fathoms a man would bear on his body a weight equal to 20 locomotive engines each with a goods train loaded with pig iron. The answer to this is that water is almost incompressible, so that the density of sea water at 2000 fathoms is scarcely appreciably increased. Facts send theories to the four winds.

Sir James Ross was himself much impressed with the importance of deep sea sounding with serial temperatures, and he was the first to adopt the method of sounding by time with weight and marked line, the principal conditions to ensure accuracy being rapidity of descent and regularity. The advance of the science depended on the invention of improved apparatus and instruments until they were brought to perfection.

The project of laying cables across the Atlantic gave the first impetus to these improvements. Brooke’s[198] sounding-apparatus was on the principle of disengaging weights. In 1856 the American Captain Derryman took twenty-four deep sea soundings with Brooke’s apparatus on a great circle from St John’s to Valentia. In July, 1857, Lieutenant Dayman on board H.M.S. Cyclops was ordered to carry a line of soundings from Valentia to Trinity Bay, using an apparatus which was a modification of that invented by Brooke. Thirty-four soundings were taken. They were singularly uniform, 1700 to 2400 fathoms, and showed a light brown muddy sediment, and minute hard particles, animal organisms (Foraminifera) with skeletons composed of carbonate of lime. In the autumn of 1858 Lieutenant Dayman, in H.M.S. Gorgon, took another line of soundings from the S.E. angle of Newfoundland to Fayal, and from Fayal to the Channel. In the following year, in H.M.S. Firebrand, he took another series across the Bay of Biscay and along the coast of Portugal to Malta. Later, Captain Shortland, in H.M.S. Hydra, took deep sea soundings from Malta to Bombay.

Great energy continued to be shown, and in 1860 the Bulldog was commissioned by Sir Leopold M’Clintock, to take a line of soundings from the Faroes by Greenland to Labrador. The sounding machine was an adaptation of Ross’s deep-sea clam with Brooke’s principle of disengaging weights. The Bulldog brought up specimens from 600 to 2000 fathoms.

Hitherto oceanographic operations had been chiefly directed to the practical purpose of preparing for the laying of cables on the bed of the ocean, but the obtaining of specimens at great depths caused science to step in. Dr Carpenter and Dr Wyville Thomson were anxious to go into the whole question of the physical and biological conditions of the sea bottom, and in the autumn of 1868 the Admiralty lent the Lightning gunboat, in which the two savants worked for two stormy months between Scotland and the Faroes. They found that there was abundance of animal life at the bottom of the sea, and that the fauna was in many respects peculiar. The results were considered so interesting that the Admiralty placed the Porcupine gunboat at the disposal of Dr Carpenter, Dr Wyville Thomson, and Mr Gwyn Jeffreys for two successive seasons. They then succeeded in dredging to a depth of 2435 fathoms and found that even at that depth the invertebrates were fairly represented. An invention to protect the thermometer bulbs from being irregularly compressed under great pressure made the deep sea temperature determinations fairly trustworthy. Dr Wyville Thomson found that “public interest was now fairly aroused in the new field of research.”

A circumnavigating expedition was then suggested to traverse the great ocean basins, and prepare sections showing their physical and biological conditions. Mr Lowe, who was then Chancellor of the Exchequer, approved the plan, and the Challenger, a corvette of 2306 tons and 1234 h.-p., was selected for the service. All but two of her guns were taken out and she was fitted out entirely for deep sea sounding and dredging operations. The Challenger sailed in January, 1873, under the command of Captain Nares, with Dr Wyville Thomson as head of the scientific staff. There were four Lieutenants, Maclear, Aldrich, Bromley, and Bethell, and five scientific assistants to Dr Wyville Thomson, Buchanan (Physicist) Moseley, John Murray, Willemoes-Sühn, and Wild. The ship was fitted with all the latest inventions that twenty years of study and experience had produced.

After having thrown much light on the depths and the fauna of tropical oceans, the Challenger approached the Antarctic regions early in 1873. She met with dense fogs in 65° 42′ S. on February 19th, but Captain Nares continued a southward course and the vessel crossed the Antarctic Circle in 78° 22′ E. She then followed the edge of the pack for 150 miles eastward to within 15 miles of Wilkes’s supposed Termination Land. The soundings gave depths of from 1250 to 1975 fathoms. Westward of 80° E. very few icebergs were met with, but eastward of 92° E. they were very numerous. It was thought that there was no land for a considerable distance between 70° and 80° E. The depths showed that the continental shelf had not been reached on those meridians. This particular region to the east of Kempe Land has not since been visited and it offers a very interesting, and possibly a successful route for future explorers.

The science of oceanography has progressed considerably since the days of the Challenger; great improvements have been made in the varied apparatus connected with it, and the work has become at once more easy and more accurate. Steam power is indispensable, rendering reliable deep sea soundings possible and ice navigation much easier.

Some years after the return of the Challenger, the Germans despatched the Valdivia on a deep sea sounding expedition. She left the Cape in November, 1898, and reached the drift ice in 56° 45′ S. Further progress was stopped in 64° 15′ S. and 54° 20′ E. A depth of 3000 fathoms was obtained, and specimens of gneiss, granite, and schist, as well as a mass of red sandstone, were brought up, probably dropped by icebergs. The ocean floor between Kerguelen Island and Enderby Land was strongly folded, a depth of 1300 fathoms alternating with great abysses of 2000 and 3000 fathoms. Many lines of soundings are still needed from the known areas near the southern extremities of America, Africa, Australia, and New Zealand to the southern continental shelves, as well as along the edges of the shelves themselves. Great progress, however, has been made in this respect within the last fifteen years, large collections have been obtained, and the Antarctic ocean depths have been sounded in several directions with important physical and biological results.

CHAPTER LIV
REVIVAL OF ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION

After the return of Sir James Ross a quarter of a century elapsed and the Antarctic regions remained neglected. While Sherard Osborn and I were working for the despatch of an Arctic expedition, we were equally resolved to use every effort for the revival of Antarctic research and to see Sir James Ross’s splendid discoveries continued by a worthy successor. From 1872 Osborn was collecting data for an Antarctic expedition, but my accomplished and energetic old messmate died in 1875. Still I had others to help, Sir Vesey Hamilton, Sir Joseph Hooker, who was always encouraging, and above all Captain Davis, who served with distinction under Sir James Ross as surveyor and artist. On February 26th, 1869, Captain Davis read a paper on antarctic discovery, proposing Sabrina Land, discovered by Balleny, as a station for the transit of Venus. He also presented the Geographical Society with a large map of the Antarctic regions, showing the tracks of explorers. Then on March 19th, 1870, Sir Vesey Hamilton read a critical paper on a book purporting to be the voyages of an American, Captain Morrell, showing that the statements were impossible, and the whole story apocryphal and of no use to us for reference or in any other way. These papers aroused some interest, and in September, 1885, the British Association appointed an Antarctic Committee which in 1887 reported in favour of further exploration.

Sir Graham Berry, the representative of the Colony of Victoria in London, took a great interest in our efforts, and induced the colonial authorities to promise a vote of £5000 if Her Majesty’s Government would give another £5000. I saw Sir Graham on November 30th, 1887, and arranged to have private representations made to the Ministers concerned. But on January 3rd, 1888, Her Majesty’s Government refused to join the Colony of Victoria in granting £5000, enclosing a characteristic report from the Board of Trade to the effect that there were no trade returns from the Antarctic regions. Then Oscar Dickson, the munificent Swedish promoter of polar voyages, offered to give the £5000 to the Victoria Government which our Government had refused, but then the Colony drew back. During this time we were warmly supported by Baron Müller of the Botanical Gardens at Melbourne, by Captain Pascoe, R.N., and by other geographers in that colony. From Baron Müller especially I received most enthusiastic letters, Sir Erasmus Ommanney actively supported and raised the Antarctic question at the Berne Congress, while Captain Davis continued to work steadily in the good cause until his death.

In 1892 I heard from Captain David Gray that it was intended to send three Scotch whalers to the south, in consequence of the numbers of whales mentioned in the narrative of Sir James Ross. Accordingly the Active, Balaena, and Diana were despatched, but the result was disappointing. They never even crossed the Antarctic Circle. The Active, in South Shetland waters, found that what was supposed to be Joinville Island really consisted of two islands, one much larger than the other; the smaller one, which the Active sailed round, was named Dundee Island. That was all: the voyage was not pecuniarily successful and was not repeated.

The Norwegian, Captain Larsen of the Jason, was much more enterprising. He landed on Sir George Seymour’s Island in 1892, and found several pieces of fossil wood and some fossil bivalves, a most important discovery. His voyage was considered so promising in Norway that in the following year he was sent again in the Jason with two other vessels in company, the Hertha and Castor. On the 18th November, 1893, Larsen again landed on Sir George Seymour’s Island to make collections, and then proceeded down the east coast of Graham Land, the best side for an advance south. In 65° 44′ S. he named a lofty peak Mount Jason. He observed several deep fjords, and the ice terraces resting on the slope of the mountains with their bases on the sea bottom. They are similar to the ice-foot up Smith Sound, but on a gigantic scale. On the 6th December Larsen had reached 68° 10′ S. and could have gone further, had he not remembered that his chief business was sealing. On the 9th December he discovered an island quite snow-covered, which he named Veiro. In 65° 20′ S. Robertson Island was discovered, and two other islands—one of them the cone of a volcano—were named Christensen (after the well-known builder at Sandefjord who fitted out the Jason) and Lindenberg Sukkertop. Captain Larsen went over the ice on ski to Christensen Island, and from it he saw five volcanic islets which were named Oceana, Castor, Hertha, Jason, and Larsen. Captain Eversen of the Hertha made his way to the west side of Graham Land and sighted Adelaide Island, in November, 1893. He went as far south as 69° 10′ S.

When Captain Larsen returned to Sandefjord he came to see me at Laurvik on July 23rd, 1894, and presented me with some of the fossil wood found on Sir George Seymour’s Island. Sir Archibald Geikie, to whom I afterwards gave them, was inclined to think that it was drift-wood, because it showed perforations. Larsen’s two voyages, in their way so important, were certainly a great help to our efforts by interesting geographers, and it was with no small degree of pleasure that I presented Captain Larsen with one of the Geographical Society’s awards—that bequeathed by Sir George Back.

When I was elected President of the Royal Geographical Society in 1893, I resolved that no efforts should be spared to secure the despatch of a properly equipped Antarctic expedition: the main object being to make further discoveries in connection with the great Antarctic continent which had received the name of Antarctica. No sooner was this known than enterprises sprang up in all directions—Norwegian, Belgian, Scottish, German, Swedish, and French. Without any concerted action, except as regards the Germans, none of these touched Antarctica, but roved as free lances, so that it will be quite convenient to deal with them separately before treating of the preparations for the Antarctic expedition of the Royal and Royal Geographical Societies.

CHAPTER LV
PRIVATE EXPEDITIONS—BORCHGREVINK—GERLACHE—NORDENSKIÖLD—BRUCE—DRYGALSKI—CHARCOT—FILCHNER