Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1889-09-27
THE SOUTHERN POLE


The golden age Of Antartic discOv-
cry arrived when Captain, afterward
Sir James, Rose was dispatched from
England in 1910 to fix the position OF
the South magnetic pole and ACy 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 forestalling him. OF 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 Antartic
Circle, and almost due south from New
Zealand. Balleny could not land on
the islands, but he made sure OF their
existence, and afterward. sailing far
to the westward, he saw many more
signs OF land, and suspected the exist
ence of much which he could not Ger
taiuly vouch for. What Balleny thought
he saw was probably much what the
french expedition under Dumont d Ur-
Vile actually did See in the following
year, several long lines of coast, which
might be joined to one another, and
might even run on to join Enderby
Land in the west. and II SO might Ger
tainly be parts of the Antarctic Cont
nent that D'Urville was anxious to
find. Not less anxious was Wilkes,
the leader of the United States ex-
ploring expedition, who, only a month
after the Frenchman, arrived within q
degree or two Of the Antarctic Circle,
to the south of New Zealand, and, after
seeing land where Balleny had GER
tainly seen it before, began to fancy
that he saw it also where none had
seen it before, and unfortunately.
where no one has seen it since. For
some days, indeed, Wilkes doubted
whether what he beheld were mount
aims or clouds, objects which his crew
watched eagerly, to see If with the
setting of the sun they would change
their color. But after running west
ward along the edge of the pack for a
few days lie made sure that he now
saw land, and somewhat inconse-
quently assumed it for certain that
what he had seen before was land
also. The discovery Of an Antarctic
continent was announced as a GER
tainty; large land, with a barrier Of
ice before it and a range Of mountains
upon it was laid down on the
map; and copy of the map
was handed by the rash but gen.
erous explorer TO Ross, who left
Tasmania in the autumn Of the same
year to look for the magnetic pole,
with the two ships Erebus and Terror,
which afterwards bore Sir John Frank
lin to his fate at the other end Of the
world. The coast ran almost due
north and south, and along its east
ern face Ross advanced steadily till he
had beaten Cooks record and also
Wedell's, and gone further south than
any before him. Buthe could find nc
landing place on the main land, sc
choked was every inlet with snow and
ice; only on q small island were the
adventurers able to touch Antarctic
earth, a few men among thousands Of
screaming and biting penguins. Fresh
mountains came constantly into view
as they moved southwark; at last one
in latitude II degrees. over which
what seemed a cloud of snow
was. blowing; but when they came
nearer they saw that the cloud was
smoke, and gave the name of Noun
E ebus to q giant volcano higher thar
Etna, which belches forth smoke ant
| fire in land where all things ar,
frozen. Before Mount Erebus lie
Cape Crozier, and round Cape Crosie,
Ross hoped to find way to the west
ward, 80 as to reach the magneti
. pole by the back of the new land h,
had found. But as they approached
they saw stretching from Cape Crozie
'as far as the eye could discern t,
the eastward" a slow, white line,
the nature Of which they did no
understand till they came clos
enough to see the truth with thei
eyes. It was wall of ice 100 fee
high, without break or slope, but on
PlitterinQ, DerDendiculDr steen