The successes of Scott and Shackleton still further stimulated interest
in the Antarctic problem, and in 1910 and 1911 Great Britain, Norway,
Germany, Australia, and Japan sent expeditions into the field; the
United States unfortunately, as in the past, being unrepresented.
Four of these expeditions--the Japanese, Australian, Norwegian,
and British--selected the Ross Sea region south of New Zealand and
Australia for their work; while the German expedition selected the
Weddell Sea region southeast of Cape Horn, the most promising of all
points of attack upon the Antarctic continent. All these expeditions
have now returned. The Japanese expedition explored an unknown section
of the coast of King Edward VII Land east of Ross Sea, the Australian
expedition explored a long stretch of Wilkes Land west of Ross Sea,
the German expedition made new discoveries in Weddell Sea, reaching a
point farther south than ever before attained in that region; while
Amundsen’s Norwegian expedition, from its base in the southeast angle
of Ross Sea, attained the South Pole, December 14 to 17, 1911, and
Scott’s British expedition, from its base in the southwest angle of
Ross Sea, attained it a month later, January 18, 1912, Scott and his
four companions dying of cold and starvation on the return.
[Illustration: Reproduced from “The Heart of the Antarctic,” by Sir
Ernest H. Shackleton. Copyright, J. B. Lippincott Co.