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.
[Illustration: VIEW OF CAPE HORN.]
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.
[Illustration: LISBON IN THE 16TH CENTURY. (_After an Engraving of the
period._)]