The Russellville Democrat., 1880-12-30
Tho Nsw sausn-rasar Expedition.


 In a short time r0w the Italians will send forth into the Antarctic regions one of the best prepared and most promising expeditions that has eyer braved the perils of polar ice The leader of this new south-polar expedition is Lieutenant Boye, who was with Prof Nordenskjeld in the Vega when he made the now cele- brated northeast passage around Arctic Asia. The object in view is the explora- ton of the Antarctic continent as far us possible, together with the elucidatiou of the laws of terrestial magnetism, the dis covery of new whale beds and guano islands in the south seas, and the pene- tratlon of the sea entered by Sir James Ross in lS4l with view to nearer ap- preach to the south pole.
 The Italian explorers will be the first to carry steamship into the remote south, and with the aid of steam power they may expect to accomplish more in this direction than has ever yet been es- sayed. In 1S30-32 Mr. John Biscoe, R. N., made voyage of discovery in brig belonging to Messrs. Enderby and dis covered Enderby and Graham Land iii 67 degrees south latitude, and in lS37-40 Dumont DUrville discovered La Terre Adele and Cote Clarie, going as far south as 66 degrees 30 minutes. Balleny in lS39 discovered the islands which bear his name, as also Sabrina near the sixty sixth southern parallel, but his investiga | tlons were soon after to be outstripped 1 by Ross, who left England in that year, his expedltIon moving in the sailing ships Erebus and Terror, crossed the Antarctic | circle, reached the great icy barrier and discovered Victoria Land, in January, l lS4l. Dir James attained by ship to lati- l tude 7s degrees minutes south in longi- l tude k7 degrees east and established the l continuity of the Southern continent from te seyentieth to the seventy-ninth paralIs within little over twelve hum dred niles of the south pole The En- glish xplorer, however, without the aid of stean, had terrible conflict with the ice, beng engaged at one time not less | than frty-four days in working his ves- sels trough an ice stream nearly five hundrd miles in width Beyond this ice bot the intrepid and skilful com mandr found comparatively iceless and opensea, where his predecessors, Cook,
 Bailey and Wilkes, had supposed the
 froze masses were piled in impregnable
 graneur. We sustained may severe
 shoes" said Ross, fin breaking through
 thetterposing barriers of closer ice, but
 we;tomplished the object of our exer- ti0rknd found ourselves again in a clear
 sea, and mot a particle of ice was to be
 seeIfrom the masthead"
 Tice did Ross, unarmed by steam,
 pieIe the Antarctic ice belt. The vast
 molng pack, drifting northward on the
 pol current at times completely beset
 hiSeavy sailing ship; but, though com
 pelM to engineer his way through it's
 meses, he courageously reasoned. fit
 mus have left clear water at the place it
 origlally occupied and from which it
 dritd." It is of the highest importance
 to eography to follow up the wonderful sucsss realized by Ross in region where
 Wi.es, D'Urville, and all other naviga-
 torbefore him despaired of finding in- gres. The secret of their failure was tIe none of them entered the Antarctic SIS on the meridians within which the gut volume of warm equatorial water prs itself into the south polar basin. , 1T powerful Mozambique current after pSing southward along the African cost loses itself in Antarctic waters, and | Il line of it's extreme extension towards | u south pole would apparently mark, , aJaptain Bent has long argued, a most , lpmising track for an approach to that , eremity of the globe. The same may
 said of the line pursued by the warm
 Astralian current, along which Ross approximately shaped his course. The
 ans and route of the Italian expedition 9 not yet published, but it will no I 'ubt occur to Lieutenant Bove to follow f ,e guides now indicated as far as they
 i'll conduct him toward his goal.