While the desire to penetrate into the mysteries of the North held the mind of mankind from the earliest times, the very existence of a similar world of ice, at the opposite pole, was undreamed of until a few centuries back. At the time when the world was generally held to be a flat disc, this is not to be wondered at, seeing that there could only be one other side possible under that belief, and that side the "under world," into which it was not desirable that human beings should ever penetrate. But the time came when the world was demonstrated to be a sphere, and the more thoughtful of men realised the necessity of having some theory wherewith to explain what form the world would take at the opposite pole to the North. The theory which found most general acceptance was that which contended for a similar distribution of sea and land at the South as was currently supposed to exist at the North Pole. It was argued that only by such a distribution could the balance of the earth be maintained. Nor did the theorists stop there. The ancient geographers delighted their hearts by imagining a southern division of land and sea inhabited by identical animals, covered with the same kind of verdure and plants, and occupied by similar races of men to the North. In the absence of any evidence to contradict it, this theory held for many years.
In the Middle Ages, when the Portuguese and Spaniards were sailing from sea to sea, and later, when their successors, the Dutch, roamed the ocean, carrying their flags to the East and the West, none seem to have penetrated into the ice-bound regions of the South. The Cape of Good Hope was doubled. Cape Horn was sailed round. Australia was located, and even the south of Tasmania was visited. But further south the world was still unknown.
An explanation of this may be found in the fact that in southern latitudes the drift of ice is very much further away from the Pole than is the case in the north. In the northern hemisphere massive ice-floes are not encountered until the 70th parallel of latitude has been passed, while it is not until the 75th parallel is passed that the ice becomes so packed as to appear to be stationary. In the southern latitudes, on the other hand, drift ice is encountered in the 50th parallel, and by the time the 60th parallel is reached, the ice is found to be as close set as it is in the 80th parallel in the north. In the islands off Tierra del Fuego the mountains remain covered with snow down to the water's edge through all the summer months, though the latitude is only 54° S.
This may be due, in a large measure, to the small quantity of land existing in the south, as compared with the north. The heat of the sun does not radiate from the sea with the same intensity as it does from the earth, whence the ice, drifting from the south into the oceans nearer the equator, melts more slowly, and is consequently enabled to travel longer distances, thus lowering the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere and still further delaying the melting process. At a comparatively recent period, the limit of the floes, in the southern oceans, was much nearer the equator than it is to-day, for the most southerly parts of Africa, Australia, and America all show unmistakable evidences of having, within recent times, been under a great ice covering.
It was not until 1600 that the first contact was made with the southern world of ice. Dirk Gerritz, a Dutch navigator, sailing with a squadron for the East Indies, was separated from his other ships while passing through the Straits of Magellan and was driven as far as 64° S. He discovered, in that latitude, a rocky coast line covered with snow. The discovery did not excite any great interest at the time, and, for a period of nearly two centuries, nothing was done to probe further into the mysteries of the South. In 1769 an expedition was sent out under Captain Kerguellen to explore the regions lying to the south of the Cape of Good Hope. He was successful in locating the group of islands, still known as Kerguellen Islands, and sailed thence to Australia, demonstrating that no land, other than these islands, existed between the Cape of Good Hope and Australia.
In 1772, Captain Cook, who had already done so much to reveal the southern hemisphere to the knowledge of man, left the Cape of Good Hope with two ships, the Resolution and the Adventure, in search of the continent believed to exist somewhere beyond the regions hitherto visited. In 48° 41' S. latitude, and 18° 24' E. longitude, a sudden fall in the temperature from 67° to 38° Fahr. was experienced. On the following day an iceberg, fifty feet in height and nearly half a mile in length, was sighted. The course was continued to the south, but the third day after sighting the first berg the sea had become so full of ice that no further progress to the south was possible, although the latitude was only 54° 50' S., the corresponding latitude in the northern hemisphere being that of the city of Hull.
Skirting the ice-packs and working always to the southward, the vessels managed to reach 55° 16' S. during the next three days, some few seals, penguins, and other birds being seen on the floating ice as the ships passed. The temperature was never above freezing, the sails were frozen and the rigging covered with icicles. The fact that the ice was found to be composed of fresh water, convinced Cook that there must be land still further to the south, lying behind the ice-floes. He, therefore, kept on to the east, always sailing as far to the south as the line of the ice permitted. In reality, he was sailing round the Antarctic, from west to east, skirting along the ice limit. In January 1773 the vessels were in 61° S. and 139° E. longitude. A month later he was nearly five hundred miles to the south of the course Tasman had sailed when he discovered Tasmania, but still no land was seen amongst the ice. This being the summer season in the southern hemisphere, it was necessary to seek winter quarters to the north if the ships were to escape imprisonment in the ice for the season.
After a winter passed in the Pacific Ocean, Captain Cook took his ships again to the south, towards the end of the year, and by January 30, 1774, they were in 71° 10' S. latitude and 106° 54' W. longitude. Further progress to the south was barred by a line of high ice cliffs. Describing the circumstances Captain Cook wrote:—
"At four o'clock A.M. we perceived the clouds, over the horizon to the south, to be of an unusual snow-white brightness, which we knew announced our approach to field ice. Soon after, it was seen from the topmast head, and at eight o'clock we were close to its edge. It extended east and west, far beyond the reach of our sight. In the situation we were in, just the southern half of our horizon was illuminated by the rays of light, reflected from the ice, to a considerable height. Ninety-seven ice hills were distinctly seen within the ice-field, besides those on the outside. Many of them were large and looking like a ridge of mountains rising one above another till they were lost in the clouds. The outer, or northern, edge of this immense field was composed of loose or broken ice, close packed together, so that it was not possible for anything to enter it. This was about a mile broad, within which was solid ice in one continued compact body. It was rather low and flat (except the hills), but seemed to increase in height as you traced it to the south, in which direction it extended beyond our sight.... I, who had ambition, not only to go further than any one had gone before, but as far as it was possible for man to go, was not sorry at meeting with this interruption, as in some measure it relieved us, at least, shortened the dangers and hardships inseparable from the navigation of the southern polar regions."
Returning again to the Pacific in order that his men might recuperate after their hardships in the ice region, Captain Cook made a third attack upon the Antarctic problem the following year—1775—when he sailed to the south along the 27th meridian of west longitude. In latitude 59° S. three rocky islets were discovered. They rose to a considerable height, one of them terminating in a lofty peak shaped like a sugar-loaf, to which the name of Freezeland Point was given, not, as it might very well have been, in description of the land itself, but after the man who first sighted it. Far to the east of this peak there appeared a long coast line with lofty, snow-capped mountains, the summits often rising higher than the clouds. To the extremity of this coast the name of Cape Bristol was given. Land sighted still more to the south was named Southern Thule.