Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-07-08
THE SOUTH POLE.
What We Know Of HAWAII OF Ice 100
Feet High.
From cAsseirs Family Magazine.

From CAsseiIs Family Magazine.
The golden age of antarctic discovery ar
rived when Captain. afterward SIR James,
Ross was dispatched from England in 1910 to
hx the position Of the south magnetic pole
and any other position he could discover on the
way there. Before Ross could reach the scene
OF his labors Other explorers. English. French
and American. were busy forestallinc him. o.
these the first was the Englishman. Balleny,
who, sailing in Enderby's ship. the Eliza
Scott, discovered in 1889 the islands which
bear his name. and which lie almost under the
antarctic circle and almost due south from
New Zealand. B.lleny could not land on the
ISLANDS, but he made sure or their existence.
ana afterward. sailing far to the we ward.
he saw many more signs of land and
suspected the existence of much which
he could not certainly vouch for.
What Balleny thought he saw was proba-
bly, much what the Frence expedition under
pumont dUrville actually did see in the fol-
lowing year, several long lines of coast which
might be joined 10 one another. and might
even run on TO JOIN Enderby Land in the west,
and II so might certainly be nrrts 90 N ant
artlc continent that D'Urville was anxious to
hnd. Not less anxious was Wilkes. the leader
OF the United States exploring expedition who.
only month after the Frenchman. arrived
within degree or two Of the antarctic circle
10 the south of New Zealand. and. after seeing
land where Balleny had certainly seen Il be-
Tore, began TO fancy that he IL also where
none had seen IL before, and unfortur Htelv
where no one has seen il since For some days
indeed Wilkes doubted whether what he be-
held were mountains or clouds. objects which
his crew watched eagerly TO see II with the
setting sun they would change their color.
But after running westward along the edge OF
the pack for a few days he made sure at he
now saw land. and some what inconsequently as
sumed II for certain that what he had seen be-
fore was land also. The discovery of an antarctic
continent was announced az a certainty; q
very large Land. with barrier of ice before IL
and range of mountains upon IL. was laid
down on the r0r0, and a copy of the map Was
handed by tn r.sl but generous explorer 20
Ross, who left tasmania ia the autumn Of the
same year 10 look for the magnetic pole with
the two ships Erebus and Terror. which after
ward bore Sir John Franklin TO his fate at the
other end of the world. Ross had so little
doubt that the antarctic continent was discoy-
cred already that he seems TO have been almost
disappointed when his way ~ the ms-netic
pole was barred by an unknown land Aet this
land, which lay south of the seventeen PARALLEL
and eastward of Balenys islands was the most
soCtherly hitherto seen in the world and ON il
rose mountains thousands of feet high. plain
and mountain alike ROBBED in stainless snow, ex-
cept on the cliffs by the shore, where the black
rock came ouf. tIH coast ran almost due north
and south, and long Its eastern face Ross adj
vanced steadily till he had beaten Cook record
and also Meddelis and gone further south than
any before HIM. But he could lind 10 lalding
place on the main land. so choked was every
inlet with snow and ice; only on a small island
were the adventurers able TO touch ant
arctic earth, a few men among thousands Of
screaming and biting penguins. Fresh noun
tains came constantly into view as they moved
southwark, at last one in latitude a. dc srees,
over which what seemed cloud of snow was
blowing, but when they came nearer they saw
that the cloud was smoke. and gave the name
OF Mount Erebus % giant volcano higher than
Etna, which bF'-Ies forth smoke. and fire in a
land where al things are frozen. Before
Mount Ereous lies Cape CrozIer and round
Cape Crozier Ross hoped TO find way TO the
westward, so as TO reach the magnetic pole by
the back of the new land he had found But
as they approached they saw stretching from
Cape Crozier. las far as the eye could discern
to the eastward" low white line" the
nature of which they did not understand till
they came close enough TO see the truth with
their eyes. 1t was a wall of ice $50 feet high,
without break or slope, through which, as Ross
said. one might as easily pass as through the
cliffs of Dover. Along THIS cleaning rampant
Ross ran eastward for ESQ miles. and in the
succeeding year, 1912, for 200 more without
coming TO its end, on both OF which occasions
he reached the high latitute of IS degrees
south, which has never since been approached
by any man.