Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-12-28
The New SOush poIar Expedition.

a AND NAN AHa AH"AAA AhAEANAAANAHA
la a short time now the Italians will
send forth into the Antarctic regions
one If the best prepared and most
promi ing expeditions that has ever
0raved the perils of polar ice. The
leader Of this new south polar expedi
ton is Lieutenant Bove, who wa
with Professor Nordenskjold in the
Vega when he made the now cele-
brated northeast passage around Arctic
Asia. The object in view is the ex-
p~loration Of the Antarctic continent
as Jar as possible, together with the
I elucidation Of the laws Of terrestrial
magnetism, the discovery of new whale
beds aud guano islands in the south
seas, and the penetration of the sea
entered by Sir James Ross in l84l
with a view to a nearer approach 10
the south pole.
The Italian explorers will be the
first to carry a steamship into the re
mote south, and with the aid Of steam
power they may expect to accomplish
more 10 this direction than has ever
yet been essayed. In 1902, Mr.
John BiscOe, R. N, made a voyage Of
discovery ina brigbelonging to Messrs
EDderby and discovered EDderby and
Graham Land in 81 degrees south lat
itude, and 1870 Dumont D'Urviiie
discovered La Terre Adele and Cote
Clarie, going as far south as Go deg. 30
min. BalleDy, in 1899, discovered the
islands which bear his name, as also
Sabrina, near sixty sixth southern
parellcl, but his investigations were
soon after to be outstripped by Ross,
who left England in that year, his
expedition moving in the sailing ships
Erebus and Terror, crossed the Ant
arctic circle, preached the great icy bar
rier and discovered Victoria Land
in January, 1911. Sir James at
tanned by ship to latitude 78 degrees
4 minutes south in longitude 1877 de-
Rrees east, and established the con-
tinuity of the southern continent from
the 10th to the 10Th parallel-within
little over twelve hundred miles Of
the south pole. The English explorer.
however, without the aid of steam,
had a terrible conflict with the ice,
being engaged at one time not less
than A days in working his vessels
through an ice stream near 500 miles
in width. Beyond this ice belt the
intrepid and skiliiul commander found
a comparatively %iceless and open sea
where his prsdece. sors, Cook, Balleny
and Wilkes, had supposed the frozen
masses were piled in i~mpregnable
grandeur. I'VE sustained mary severe
Shocks" said Ross, Sin breaking
through the interposing barriers OF
closer ice, but We accomplished the
object Of our exertions and found our
selves again in a clear ser, and not a
particle Of ice was to be seen from the
masthead"
Twice did Ross, unarmed by steam.
pierce the Antarctic ice belt. The
vast moving PACE, drifting northward
on the folar current, at times com
pletely beset his heavy sailing ship +:
but, though compelled TO engineer his
way through its meshes, he courage.
ously reasoned, 1T must have left
clear water at the place il originally
occupied and from which it drifted. .
It is Of the highest importance to geog-
rapby to follow up the wonderful sue
cess realized by Ross in a region where
Wilkes, d Urvillo and all other navi
gators before him despaired Of fuding
ingress. The secret of their failure
was that none Of them. entered the
Antarctic seas on the merldians withs
in which the great volume OF warm
equatorial water pours itself into
the South polar basin. The pow
erful Mozambique current after
passing southwark along the
African coast loses itself in Antarctic
waters, and the line Of its extreme ex
tns'op toward the south pole would
apparently mark, as Captain Bent has
long argued, a most promising track
for an approach to that extremity Of
the globe. The same may be said Of
the line pursued by the warm Austria
liam current, along which Ross approx
imately shaped his course. the plans
and route Of the Italian expedition are
not yet published. but it will, nc
doubt, occur to Lieutenant Bove h
follow the guides now indicated as far
as they will conduct him toward his
coal