CHAPTER XXXII.

THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS.

Has the South Pole been Neglected?—The Antarctic even more Inhospitable than the Arctic—The Antarctic Summer—Search for the _Terra Australis_—Early Explorers—Captain Cook’s Discoveries—Watering at Icebergs—The Southern Thule—Smith’s Report—Weddell’s Voyage—Dead Whale Mistaken for an Island—D’Urville’s Adélie Land—Wilkes Land—Voyages of James Ross—High Land Discovered—Deep Beds of Guano—Antarctic Volcanoes—Mounts Erebus and Terror—Victoria Land.

One might well inquire, without a previous knowledge of the reasons, why the South Pole has not received the attention which has been lavished on the North. The fact is that while the Arctic regions do not present many attractions for travel, and certainly even less for residence or settlement, the Antarctic regions are still more unpromising in both particulars. The extreme intensity of Antarctic cold is found to commence at a much higher latitude than in the northern hemisphere. In the Arctic seas large icebergs are rarely found till the 70th parallel of latitude is reached, while stationary fields are met in a still higher latitude. In the South Pacific both occur at from 50° to 60° of southern latitude. The mountains of Cape Horn, of Terra del Fuego, and outlying islands, are covered with perpetual snow quite to their sea-coasts. “This contrast,” say Professor Tomlinson, in one of the few general works we possess on the subject,(42) “has been ascribed to the shorter stay which the sun makes in the southern hemisphere than in the northern. But this difference, amounting to scarcely eight days, has been proved to be exactly compensated by the greater nearness of the earth to the sun during the southern than during the northern summer. Another cause must therefore be sought, and as it is a fact that water becomes less heated by the same amount of sunshine than any solid substance, this cause will be found in the vast extent of the Antarctic seas, the total absence of any great surface of land, and the form of the continents which terminate towards the south almost in points, thus opening a free and unencumbered field to the currents from the Polar seas, and allowing them to push forward the icy masses in every direction from the south pole towards the southern and temperate zone.”

The word _Antarctic_ explains itself as that part of the earth opposite to the Arctic.(43) Winter in the one corresponds to summer in the other, and _vice versâ_. When the Arctic circle is delighting in one long summer day, the Antarctic regions are oppressed by the darkest gloom. When we in England are, or should be, enjoying the bright days of midsummer, the southern Polar regions are pitchy dark, while at our Christmas-tide that part of the earth is bathed in floods of sunshine.

It has been seen that our knowledge of the North Polar seas has been largely the result of explorations in search of a north-western or north-eastern passage or strait to the Pacific. The exploration of the Antarctic regions is mainly due to quests after a continent in the southern seas—the _Terra Australis incognita_ of many old geographers. The belief in the existence of such a land can be traced back as far as 1576, when Juan Fernandez is reported to have sailed southward from Chile, and to have arrived after a month’s voyage at a _tierra ferme_, a charming fertile land inhabited by friendly and almost civilised natives. If the story be not altogether apocryphal, it may possibly have been some part of New Zealand. At the same period there were wild reports in circulation concerning the discovery by Alvaro Mendana de Neyra of some southern islands abounding in silver. That navigator, however, could not find them at all in a later voyage, and perished miserably, with many of his companions, at Egmont, or Santa Cruz Island. His pilot, Pedro Fernandez de Quiros, in 1605-6 made a professed voyage in search of the southern continent, his voyage resulting in the discovery of Pitcairn’s Island, the New Hebrides, and other lands, while one of his captains, Luis Vaes de Torres, passed through the strait between Australia and New Guinea now named after him. The first actual approach to the then unknown southern polar lands appears to have been made by one Dirk Gerritz, a Dutchman, in January, 1600. This vessel was in the East India service, and was driven by a gale from the immediate latitude of the Straits of Magellan far to the south, where he discovered a barren, craggy, snow-covered coast, similar to that of Norway. His accounts were discredited, but have since proved to have been accurate enough, and the land is now known as New South Shetland, and has been proved to cross the Antarctic circle. The expeditions of Kerguelen, sent out for the purpose of exploring the southern regions, resulted only in the discovery of the group of islands now known by his name. It is to the celebrated Captain Cook that we owe the earliest careful explorations of the south polar regions.

Late in November, 1772, H.M. ships _Resolution_ and _Adventure_ left the Cape of Good Hope in search of the unknown continent, and early in December of the same year were driven by several gales among and in dangerous proximity to icebergs, one of which is described as flat at its top, about fifty feet in height, and half a mile in circuit. A large number of penguins and other birds were on these bergs, and this was deemed a reason for thinking land near. The ice islands yielded excellent fresh water, large detached lumps being taken on board and the sea water allowed to drain off on deck, when there was hardly a trace of salt perceptible to the taste. Part of it was kept as ice, while a quantity was melted in coppers. Cook said that it was the most expeditious way of watering he had seen. In the middle of February they had fair weather, with clear serene nights, when the beautiful Aurora Australis, or Southern Lights, were seen. “The officer of the watch observed that it sometimes broke out in spiral rays, and in a circular form; then its light was very strong, and its appearance beautiful. He could not perceive that it had any particular direction, for it appeared at various times in different parts of the heavens, and diffused its light throughout the whole atmosphere.” Bad weather followed, making navigation dangerous among the bergs, while it was bitterly cold. A litter of nine pigs was killed a few hours after their birth by the cold, in spite of all the care taken to preserve them. This was in the Antarctic summer, which, however, improved considerably afterwards. Captain Cook was then tempted to advance a few degrees to the south, but soon altered his mind when the weather again changed for the worse.

It was not till the 31st of January, 1775, on the same voyage, that Cook, who had become “tired of these high southern latitudes, where nothing was to be found but ice and thick fogs,” made a discovery of land. They had been sailing over a sea strewed with ice, when the fog lifting, three rocky islets of considerable elevation disclosed themselves at a distance of three or four miles, one terminating in a lofty peak like a sugar-loaf. It was named _Freezeland Peak_. To the east of this a high coast, with lofty snow-clad summits, appeared, and soon another broken coast-line came in sight, to which the name of _Southern Thule_ was given, as it was the most southerly land yet discovered. Other coasts, promontories, and mountains, soon came in view, which Cook tells us had land apparently between them, leading him to the conclusion that the whole was connected. Prudence forbade him venturing nearer the coast. The reader must remember that his were not the days of steam.

New land appeared next morning, with outlying islands, named the _Candlemas Isles_ in honour of the day on which they were discovered. The whole of the new land was named _Sandwich Land_, and was supposed to be either a group of islands, or the point of a continent. Cook firmly believed in a tract of land near the Pole as the source of most of the icebergs in those seas, but did not attempt a further exploration.

It was not till the year 1819 that the commander of the brig _William_, Mr. William Smith, sailing south-east from the latitude of Cape Horn, noted in latitude 62° 30’ S. and longitude 60° W., an extensive snow-covered land, on the coasts of which seals were abundant. As he was bound with a cargo to Valparaiso, he could not follow up his discovery; but on arrival at that port informed H.B.M. Consul, Captain Sheriff, of the fact he had ascertained, and that gentleman dispatched Mr. Edward Barnsfield, master of the frigate _Andromache_, to explore the new-found land. It was found to consist of a group of islands, numbering twelve, with innumerable rocky islets between them. There was little doubt that it was a part of the same land sighted by Gerritz more than two centuries before, and now known as the South Shetlands. They were further explored in 1820 by Mr. Weddell, whose crews obtained an immense number of sea-elephants and fur seals. These islands are nearly inaccessible, being ice-bound, while almost any part of them, other than perpendicular cliffs, is perpetually snow-covered. There are a few small patches of straggling grass where there is any soil, and a moss similar to that found in Iceland. In 1821 other additions were made to our knowledge of islands adjacent to the South Shetlands by Captains Powell and Palmer, the latter an American, and by the Russian navigator, Bellinghausen, who reached a very southern point. They are respectively known as _Trinity_, _Palmer’s_, and _Alexander’s Lands_. A voyage in 1822 has importance, as it led to valuable results, in a commercial point of view. The brig _Jane_, of Leith, Captain Weddell, with a crew of twenty-two officers and men, accompanied by a cutter, set sail in September of that year on a voyage to the South Seas for the purpose of procuring fur seals. At the beginning of January, 1823, the vessels first came in sight of the land of the high southern latitude, and the next day reached the South Orkneys. The tops of the islands mostly terminated in craggy peaks, and looked almost like the mountain tops of a sunken land. Proceeding southward, they one evening passed very close to an object which appeared like a rock. The lead was immediately thrown out, but no bottom could be found. It turned out to be a dead whale, very much swollen, floating on the surface. Weddell obtained at South Georgia a valuable cargo. From the sea-elephant no less than 20,000 tons of oil were obtained in a few seasons, the cargoes always including a large number of fur sealskins. American sealers also took large cargoes of these skins to China, where they sold for five or six dollars a skin. The Island of Desolation, described by Cook, was also a source of great profit. “This is a striking, but by no means uncommon example of the commercial advantage to be derived from voyages of discovery.” In 1830, Captain Biscoe, commanding the sealing brig _Eliza Scott_, made the discovery of another range of islands, since named after him. In 1839, Captain Balley, in a ship belonging to Messrs. Enderby, the owners of the last-named vessel, discovered land in latitude 66° 44’ S., which was in all probability a portion of the same territory sighted by Wilkes and D’Urville a year afterwards. Thus, while America and France claim the honour of having discovered an “Antarctic continent,” Balley seems to have forestalled them. It is extremely doubtful whether the patches of land seen by these explorers can be considered to form a great southern continent.(44)

D’Urville, after describing the “lanes” of tall icebergs by which his ship was enclosed and impeded, states that they sighted land, some few miles off, with prominent peaks 3,000 feet and upwards in height, and surrounded with coast ice. Some boats were sent off to make magnetic observations, and one of the officers succeeded in landing on a small rocky islet, on which the tricolour flag was unfurled. Not the smallest trace of vegetable life could be discovered. Numerous fragments of the rock itself were carried off as trophies. Close at hand were eight or ten other islets. The land thus discovered was named Adélie Land (after Admiral D’Urville’s wife). A projecting cape, which had been seen early in the day, was called Cape Discovery, and the islet on which the landing was effected was named Point Geology.

Wilkes describes his discoveries in similar terms to those of previous explorers already mentioned. Stones, gravel, sand, mud, &c., were noted on a low iceberg, proving the existence of land somewhere about, but it must be borne in mind that a landing on anything but ice was not effected.

An attempt on the part of Captain (afterwards Sir James) Ross to establish magnetic observations in the southern hemisphere was unsuccessful, but resulted in a discovery of importance. On January 11th, 1841, land was sighted, rising in lofty snow-covered peaks, the elevation of some of which was stated to be from 12,000 feet to 14,000 feet. Various peaks were named after Sabine and other distinguished philosophers who had advocated the cause of the expedition. With some difficulty they landed on an island, on which they planted our flag, and drank a toast to the health of the Queen and Prince Albert. It was named Possession Island. There was no vegetation, but “inconceivable myriads of penguins completely and densely covered the whole surface of the island, along the ledges of the precipices, and even to the summits of the hills, attacking us,” says Ross, “vigorously as we waded through their ranks, and pecking at us with their sharp beaks, disputing possession; which, together with their loud coarse notes, and the insupportable stench from the deep bed of guano, which had been forming for ages, and which may at some period be valuable to the agriculturists of our Australasian colonies, made us glad to get away again, after having loaded our boats with geological specimens and penguins.” Whales were very numerous; thirty were counted at one time in various directions.

Further south the interesting discovery was made of an active volcano, a mountain 12,400 feet altitude, emitting flame and smoke at the time. It was named after the _Erebus_, one of the vessels employed, while a second volcano, scarcely inferior in height to the first-named, was called Mount Terror, after our staunch old friend the vessel which so well withstood the ice in Sir George Back’s expedition. “On the afternoon of the 28th,” says Ross, “Mount Erebus was observed to emit smoke and flame in unusual quantities, producing a most grand spectacle; a volume of dense smoke was projected at each successive jet with great force, in a vertical column, to the height of between 1,500 and 2,000 feet above the mouth of the crater, when, condensing first at its upper part, it descended in mist or snow, and gradually dispersed, to be succeeded by another splendid exhibition of the same kind in about half an hour afterwards, although the intervals between the eruptions were by no means regular. The diameter of the columns of smoke was between two and three hundred feet, as near as we could measure it; whenever the smoke cleared away, the bright red flame that filled the mouth of the crater was clearly perceptible; and some of the officers believed they could see streams of lava pouring down its sides until lost beneath the snow, which descended from a few hundred feet below the crater, and projected its perpendicular icy cliff several miles into the ocean.”

The whole of the land traced to the seventy-ninth degree of latitude was named Victoria Land. Ross “restored to England the honour of the discovery of the southernmost known land,” which had previously belonged to Russia, as won twenty years before by the intrepid Bellinghausen. A second and a third visit was made by Ross, on the latter of which he made some discoveries of minor importance.