Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-02-07
A TERRA lyC0GNlTA.
THE SOUTH POLAR REs,oN lNvIT-
ING TO TIE EXPLORER.
0apt. Cook the First TO Cro<. the Ant
arctic Circle Sir jaime. Clark
Ross-Littie Accomplished the
Last Forty -Four Years

lLondon ST. dr-ii
glance is cast ovcr map OF the
south Atlantic AMI 4 acinc. the efforts Of
the chartographer seem TO exhaust them
selves in series OF shadow islands on
the very ou skirts of The earth Victoria
land. Wilkes laad s.arie land, North
= land, Sahrina land ;IIld land Knox
land. Term nation land } nderby lans-
: Trinity land AMI Graham land all appeai
like imperfec " trace isani In reality,
49, Il may be f1un that the are oniy cspes
or other head ands of a vast Antarctic
continent which an,ears in fragments
about the South Polar BASIN. To us.
however these spots of earth are little
more than names. for the mig ghty barrier
of southern ice extepds much further
north than the corresponding obstacles TO
navigation do south in the North Polar
basin Hence the navigators who. al
wide intervals and along different meri-
. dians. have tried 70 penetrate il have
been able only TO catch glimpses OF this
hidden world .
SIR JAMES CLARK ROSS.
Sir James Clark Ross saw the volcano
Ers5us Of Nictoria land belching forth
flames in lurid majesty over the snowy
wastes below. But how far this land
stretches, and what is the nature Of this
continent or of these continental islands.
We can only guess. Capt Cook was the
frst sailor 70 cross the Antarctic circle,
but he did not consider it. prudent TO 60
> further cut Of his course. with the bound
less Pacific and its still unseen islands all
= before him; and Bellinghausen, who fol-
lowed him forty-six years later. only sue
3 ceeded Ia adding few isiets 70 those
which the famous Englishnan had dis
covered
Nor. must we forget the many sealing
captains and others who. before Sir james
Clark Ross sailed on his memorable
expedition, Contributed something
Wilkes-who. as commander Of the
Son ,acinto. attained an unenvisble no.
toriety in after years-fgured it 1889 a.
An Antartic navigator. unfortunately,
however. q large portion of the country
laid down by his expedition had aleady
been seen by his predecessors, while the
rest has since then been proved not to
exist
Sir James Clark Ross Is indeed. slmoss
the only Antarctic explorer in the strict
sense of the term. He alone has sSirted
Victoria land. lying in about 7s degrees
Of south latitude. though he could only
report lofty mountains with peaks 10, 600
feet high and glaciers pouring through
their vsileys to the sea -Four degrees
further south he came in sight Of Mount
Erebus. 300 feet high, and sighted TO
the eastward an extinct volcano not much
lower. which was named in honor of the
Terror. A perpendicular wall of ice from
$50 to 100 feet high stopped all further
progress. and to the south nothing more
could be seen. except the Parry range
appearing over the ice-felds-
LITTLE HAS BEEN ADDED.
Since that day, forty four years ago,
little. If anything. has been added TO the
information gained by Ross The Cbal-
lenger ran some distance south But,
though the officer made many useful
scientific observations. which 60 far 10
confirm the idea that the polar -islets"
are really the hesdlands Of continent,
the gain to geography from their voyage
lin this direction has been comparatively
slight
Here. then. is . terra incognita for a
new expedition. equipped with means
which were not at the disposal of Ross or
little difficulty, provided the season be
fairly "opens in penetrating as far south
a. the Erebus and Terror di :, and then
the entire stretch Of Victoria land lies be
fore the explorers IL Is difficult TO be-
Eeve that the huge ice barrier which Ross
saw does not come to an end before the
circuit of the Antarctic basin is made, and
II once IL Is penetrated, or the supposed
continent terminates abruptly, il is quite
psssibie that the so-csiled barrier win be
found TO be merely the seaward termina-
don of an inland ice. like that VIII ch
reaches the ses in the great glacier Of
Hum oldt along the northern shores Of
Greenland A