The New York herald., 1873-10-25
Antarctic Exploration.

An interesting contribution to science has
recently been made by the Meteorological De-
partment at London upon the meteorology
of the Antarctic. This investigation is mainly
designed to furnish the basis of organization
for any expedition that may be sent to the
southern seas for observing the transit of
Venus in 1874, the best view point for which
is known to be within the Antarctic circle
The exploration of these antipodal regions is
unquestionably the most promising now in re-
serve for the geographer and the scientist
Since the year 1910, when the three national
expeditions French, under d. Urville; the
American, under Wilkes, and the English,
under Ross-penetrated and partially discov-
cred this South Polar world, Antarctic research
has slumbered, although the results OF the
three great voyages were richly remunerative.
1t was reserved for Ross, who had few years
previously seen-what no mortal eye had before
seen--the magnetic needle in directly ver-
teal position at the north magnetic pole, to
witness the same magnetic wonder at the
south magnetic pole, and thus to furnish the
world, what would otherwise have been i'm
possible, a correct chart of the magnetic lines
over the whole habitable globe. The intrepid
navigator, after spending three summers in
the south seas, returned, however, leaving un-
solved the great problem whether the South
Pole is surrounded by an icy ocean or a great
continent; and this problem still continues to
engage universal interest
e -,
arctic survey is the determination and correct
charting Of the vast iceberg currents by which,
over an area of 100000 square miles, the
navies and merchant vessels of all nations
are, from lack of information, annually i'm
perilled and often beset. From Australia
to New York and Liverpool the run of home
ward bound ships is necessarily on high
southern attitudes, because, to avoid facing the
fierce westerly gales and to use them by cam
vas, they must pass Cape Horn. So powerful
and continuous are these gales that a stanch
vessel, guarding against ice, may make an
average steamship speed; but the ice is the
terror Of navigation, and the present ice
charts, made from old and fragmentary
exploration, are felt to be untrustworthy.
But besides the practical issues involved in
new Antarctic surveys there is the great ques-
ton to be settled whether the South Polar
region is covered by land or water. II land
mass of vast dimensions encircles the South
Pole completely it might offer in the Antarctic
summer peculiar facilities for attaining the
highest southern latitude and thus solving the
old problem. In 1640 Admiral d Urville sighted
an iceberg off the Cape of Good Hope thir-
teen miles long and Of great height and the
enormous ice drifts from the far south-said to
be sufficient in size and number to stud the
Continent Of Asia-indicate immense Antarctic
watersheds as the receptacles for the glaciers
out of which these ice islands are made,
and from which, by their accumulated weight,
they are launched seaward. The present state
of our knowledge Of these regions is not such
as TO warrant any satisfactory statement ns to
;he oxiain- and source Of lhe Mighty Antarctic