The Arizona sentinel., 1888-05-12

i iIdlla, Jllc group WHICH lOrln , one Ol
 the bones of contention between
 France and England. They have nc
 relation whatever 10 the South Pole,
 but the expedition being sent in that
 direction they had in those days tc | pass for such.
 The South Shetland islands were
 discovered Tn 1898 by Dutch vessel
 from Rotterdam, which passing round
 Cape Horn. got separated from the
 fleet with which it was associated. and was driven to the southward by stress
 of weather. Kerguelen island. which is long distance from the Pole, was
 discovered about the same time, and
 reckOned in the southern cir
 cumpolar region. Captain Cook
 started well 10 the Southward
 in one of his voyages. but cOm-
 ing in contact with numerous icebergs.
 and fearing that lie would find it diff
 cult 10 escape, he shaped his course
 towarI New Zealand. A Russian nav
 igator in 1920 discovered two small
 islands not far from the Antarctic
 circle. which he named after Peter the
 Great and Alexander l. II 1888 a French commander. DImont d' Urville.
 discovered several small islands in
 nearly the same latitude. which he
 named after Louis Philippe and Prince
 de Jo nvilIc. He made Tasmania the starting point of his voyage.
 The captains of some whalers in the employ of the Enderby Company of London made numerous discoveries during the early part of the century, giving the name of En derby to a mass of land which they did not circumnav- igate. The most imp, rtant voyages ever made to th, Antarctic regions
 were those under the command of Captain James Ross. They were un- deriaken by scientific Englishmen for the purpose of magnetic ob- servation. There were placed at the disposal of Captain Ross two vessels of limited tonnage, the Erebus and Terror The time oc- cupied was from 1889 to 1S43. In the fall of 1889 the exnedilion started from the Cape of Good Hope and spent the brief summer in Kerguelen island. The following season Tas- mania was the point of departure. It reached and passed Auckland New Years DIy, 1S41, entering the ice pack immediately. Soon afterward land of considerable extent was discovered, which was called Victoria Land Along the shore for the distance of four hun dred and fifty miles, was a smooth perpendicular wall of ice without Assure. rising from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet above the water and descending eight hundred feet below. Its surface was level and over it could be seen range of mountains with two volcanoes, one ten thousand feet high in state of violent action. the other twelve thou sand five hundreed feet high and ap- parently extinct. New ice beginning 10 form. Captain Ross escaped north ward with difficulty, aided by strong breeze. He went South again in No- vember. He passed through eight hun- dred miles of floating ice and this time reached 7S deg. II min., a higher latitude than any one had then or has since gone. He came north when the seas were on the point of being closed by the ice and passed the winter at the Falkland Islands. In December he left Port Louis 10 go south, visiting this time the islands discovered by Dumont dUrville. In the summer of 1913 he returned home. There have been few discoveries by other navi- gators, but they were unimportant. The last was lhe voyage of the Chal- lenger in 1874. which added nothing in the way If geographical or scien- tific knowledge to that already in the worlds possession.
 The chief difficulties in approach ing the Antarctic regions have been specified. The land, whether it ex- ists in the form of islands or con- tinents, is in most cases surrounded by barrier of ice, even in summer, sometimes extending so far into the water that it is impossible to detect the shore line. Few navigators have been able 10 do more than put foot on the land they have discovered. None have been able 10 penetrate into the interior. A great part of them have been only able to observe the land from the deck of their vessels. The mass of floating ice between the clear water and the land is broad and difficult of passage Harbors where ship could safely winter seem never to have been dis covered. Captain R ss came North every winter, and it appears from his that it woull have been diff ficult to have passed it there, even had his vessels been built and provisioned like those of the present day.
 These are some of the problems the new expedition will have to solve, if it goes with the serious purposes it is said to entertain, and prepared with every resource and expedient that the many experiences in northern seas have shown to be necessary. It can accomplish little more than has al- ready been done unless it spends at least one winter near the localities to be explored. Whether this can be ventured is the point to be determined. Should the ship winter at the highest latitude reached by Ross, or near it. it might, in the early part of the fol- lowing summer, go even nearer the South Pole than any American expe-