voyage to Australia in a high latitude beating against contrary
gales, a condition to which all previous experience pointed as
likely to occur.
No further attempt at South Polar exploration was made for nearly thirty years, except a short cruise by Mr Tapsell in the “Brisk,” one of Enderby's ships which in February 1850, after passing the Balleny Islands, proceeded eastward to 143° E. at a higher latitude than Wilkes “Challenger.”without sighting land. The first steamer to cross the Antarctic Circle was H M.S. “Challenger,” on the 16th of February 1874: she only penetrated to 66° 40′ S., in 78° 30′ E., south of Kerguelen Land; but she continued her course to Australia for some distance in a high latitude, passing within 15 m. of the position assigned to Wilkes's Termination Land without seeing any sign of land. Her dredging and soundings yielded evidence as to the nature of the unknown region farther south. Sir John Murray believed that the soundings showed a general shoaling of the ocean towards the Antarctic ice, indicating the approach to a continent. By collecting and analysing all samples of deep-sea deposits which had been secured from the far south, he discovered a remarkable symmetry in the arrangement of the deposits. The globigerina ooze, or in deeper waters the red clay, carpeting the northern part of the Southern Oceans, merges on the southward into a great ring of diatom ooze, which gives place in turn, towards the ice, to a terrigenous blue mud. The fine rock particles of which the blue mud is composed are such as do not occur on oceanic islands, and the discovery of large blocks of sandstone dropped by icebergs proved the existence of sedimentary rocks within the Antarctic Circle.
During the southern summer in which the “Challenger” visited Antarctic waters, a German whale-ship, the “Grönland,” under Captain Dallmann, visited the western coast of the Antarctic land south of Tierra del Fuego, and modified the Dallmann.chart in several particulars. The chief discovery was a channel, named Bismarck Strait, in 65° S., which seemed to run between Palmer Land and Graham Land.
When the International Circumpolar observations were set on loot in 1882, two scientific stations were maintained for a year in the southern hemisphere in order to obtain data for comparison with the observations at twelve stations round the North Pole. One of these was occupied by French observers in Tierra del Fuego in 55° S., the other by German observers at Royal Bay on South Georgia in 54° 30′ S. The magnetic and meteorological observations were of considerable importance.
In 1892 four steamers of the Dundee whaling fleet—the “Balaena,” “Active,” “Diana” and “Polai Star”—went out to test Ross's statement that the “right whale” inhabited Antarctic waters. The surgeons of two of the vessels—on the “Balaena” Dr W. S. Bruce, on the “Active” Dr C. W. Donald—were selected for their scientific tastes, and equipped with all requisite instruments for observations and collecting. The result of the experiment was disappointing. No whales were obtained, and the ships devoted their attention to sealing on the east of Joinville Island and Louis Philippe Land, not going farther south than 65° S. (Geographical Journal, 1896, vii. 502–521, 625–643).
A Norwegian sealer, the “Jason,” Captain Larsen, also visited those seas in the same season, but the captain landed and collected L fossils at several points north of 65° S. In 1893–1894 the “Jason,” accompanied by two other Norwegian vessels, the “Hertha” and the Larsen.“Castor,” returned to the Antarctic and entered the ice-laden waters in November at the very beginning of summer. Captain Larsen in the “Jason” made his way as far south as 68° 10′ in 60° W. on the eastern side of Graham Land, but several miles from the coast, which was bordered by a high ice-barrier. The land beyond this barrier was named Foyn Land, after a famous Norwegian whale ship owner. Returning northwards, two small islands, Lindenberg and Christensen, were discovered and found to be active volcanoes. Meanwhile the “Hertha,” Captain Evensen, had reached the South Shetlands on the 1st of November 1893, and worked her way southward along the west side of Palmer Land and past the Biscoe Islands, reaching the Antarctic Circle on the 9th of November without meeting ice. This was the first time the Antarctic Circle had been crossed since the “Challenger” did so twenty years before. Captain Evensen sighted Alexander Land, and without experiencing any trouble from ice-Hoes he reached his farthest south, 69° 10′ S. in 76° 12′ W. (Mitteilungen der Geographischen Gesellschaft, Hamburg, 1895, pp. 245–304).
In 1894 the well-known Norwegian Whaler, Svend Foyn, sent out one of his vessels, the “Antarctic,” Captain Christensen. to try his luck off the coast of Victoria Land. The “Antarctic” sailed from Melbourne in September, having on board Carstens Egeberg Borchgrevink, young Norwegian resident in Australia, who, being determined to take part in a voyage he could join in no other way, shipped as Borchgrevink, 1894. an ordinary seaman. He made notes of the voyage, and published an account of it on his return to Europe (Report of Sixth International Geographical Congress, London, 1895, pp. 169–175). The “Antarctic” entered the pack in 62° 45′ S., 171° 30′ E., on the 8th of December 1894. The Balleny Islands were sighted on the 14th of December, and Cape Adare on Victoria Land two days later. On the 22nd of January 1895 the farthest point was reached at Coulman Island in 74° S.; the sea was then easily navigable to the south. On the 23rd of January a small party, including the captain and Mr Borchgrevink, landed on the mainland near Cape Adare, the first people to set foot on the Antarctic continent.
Efforts had been made from time to time, by Professor Georg von Neumayer in Germany and by Sir John Murray and others in Great Britain, to induce learned societies to inaugurate a new era of scientific Antarctic research under Government or at least Gerlache; “Belgica.”under national auspices. In 1895 Sir Clements Markham, as president of the Royal Geographical Society and of the International Geographical Congress, also took the matter up, and interest in the Antarctic regions began to be aroused in every civilized country. Captain Adrien de Gerlache organized and led a Belgian expedition, for which he raised the funds with difficulty. M. Georges Lecointe, captain of the “Belgica,” and Lieut. Danco, magnetic observer, were Belgians; Mr Roald Amundsen, the mate, a Norwegian; M. Argtowski, the geologist and physicist, a Pole; M. Racovitza, the biologist, a Rumanian; and Dr F. A. Cook, the surgeon, an American. On the 14th of January 1898, already long past midsummer, the “Belgica,” left Staten Island for Antarctic waters. She sighted the South Shetlands on the 21st and proceeded to Hughes Gulf, from which a channel, Gerlache Strait, was explored leading south-westward between continuous land, named Danco Land, on the east (the northern extension of Graham Land), and Palmer Land on the west. Palmer Land was found to be a group of large islands. On the 12th of February the “Belgica” reentered the open sea to the west at Cape Tuxen in 65° 15′ S. Much fog was experienced, but on the 16th Alexander Land was sighted in the distance. Continuing on a westerly course, the “Belgica” made every effort to enter the pack, which was successfully accomplished after a heavy storm on the 28th. By taking advantage of the leads, the expedition advanced to 71° 30′ S. in 85° 15′ W. by the 2nd of March, but the ship was blocked next day by the growth of young ice soldering the pack into one continuous mass. For more than a year further independent movement was impossible; but the ship drifted with the ice between the limits of 80° 30′ W. and 102° 10′ W., and of 69° 40′ and 71° 35′ S., which was the highest latitude attained (May 31, 1898). The sun did not rise for seventy days, and all on board suffered severely from depression of spirits and disorders of the circulation, which Dr Cook attributed to the darkness and to improper food. Lieut. Danco died during the period of darkness. On the 13th of March 1899, when a. second winter in the ice began to seem probable, the “Belgica” was released in 69° 50′ S. and 102° 10′ W. The geographical results of this expedition were insignificant so far as the discovery of land or penetration to a high latitude is concerned. The ship passed several times to the south and west of Peter I. Island, proving that the land seen by Bellingshausen at that
