Morning journal and courier., 1889-02-22
THE ANTARCTIC CIRCLE. Regions Which No Human Foot Has
 Ever Travelled.

The marine animals in the anarctic re- gions prey one upon the other, according to their position in the scale of creation, all being eventually nourished by the minute infusorial organisms filling the ocean in such inconceivable numbers. On the ice and in the water are innumerable seals. Three species were observed by Ross, and they varied considerable in their size and color ing. Their colors ranged from a dark gray, beautifully marbled with spots and stripes of much darker hue, to almost uni form swhite. The largest in size which were much less numerous than the small CT species, were armed with formidable tusks, by which, and from the shape of their head they resembled polar bear; and they equally dangerous animals to approach. The largest killed in the expedition under Ross weighed $50 pounds and yielded 16 gallons of oil; it was nearly 12 feet long and feet in circumference, and it's stomach was found to contain 2S pounds of fish. The middle-sized seal, called the sea leopard from the markings on it's fur, we'll the white antarctic seal, are so tame that they may be approached and killed with impu nifty.
 Then there are sea- lions and sea elephants, which have been seen in great numbers south of the Horn. The sea-lions of the fe- male sex fercely protect their young, the males endeavoripg to intimidate intruders by their roars of lusty defiance. The gashes seen on them bear evidence of savage en- counters among themselves. Of the marine produce, however, the most important to our fisheries is the whale. Whales have been seen by all anarctic voyagers, though their number have more recently been greatly diminished by the activity of the whaling vessels. They are almost exclus- iveiy of the fnbacked species, and chiefly haunt the pack edge. Some of those seen by Ross, especially to the south of the Falk- lands, were of enormous size, and sometimes so tame that they did not even get out of the way of the ships keel. Grampuses are also to be met with. Penguins abound on heard above the storm at places as remote as 100 miles from any known shore; they are very large birds, varying in weight from 60 to 75 pounds, and they feed chiefly off the crustaceous animals. On being opened, from to 10 pounds of pebbles have fre- quently been dislodged from the stomach. White petrels, which frequent the pack and thus give warning on the approach of any large body of ice, stormy petrels, and blue petrels are found in great numbers; and sooty albatrosses, Cape pigeons, skua gulls, and other oceanic birds are also met with
 
 air are full of life.
 The ice conditions naturally present the most interesting and characteristic features of the anarctic regions. The voyager, on leaving the temperate zone to penetrate into the forzsn waters of the far south, would require to have a very considerable know ledge of navigation among ice as his chief equipment, and in order to make any length of stay there he would need a vessel of more than ordinary strength, capable of withstanding an occasional 'snip'' from the battering rams of the dangerous Hoes.
 What is the life history of these floating ice islands and ieebergsa They are all shed from the parent icecap that surrounds the pole. Extremes of frost and the gradual projection or the icecap into the sea are the causes of their disruption. Here, for centuries, perhaps, the great icecap grows and moves like a living thing. Each season a fresh layer of snow is added to it's thick ness. which the rays of the sun convert in to ice more or less solid. Slowly the huge cumbrous mass moves over the lower lying lands and through the valleys toward the sea, grinding under its enormous weight rocks and boulders, which, from the CO., hesive nature of ice, it sometimes gathers up and conveys along with it, and this de- bris is eventually deposited on the sea bot tom.
 The coloring of the bergs is magnificent. The general mass closely resembles the loaf sugar, the caves and crevices are of the deepest and purest azure blue; at night they emit luminous glow, and, there are reasons to believe that many are to some extent phosphorescenr Like the bergs of the arc tic seas they are bounded by perpendicular cliffs on all sides. Some of them are more than two miles, and some as many as four miles in circumference, while bergs four miles in diameter have also been seen. They have a uniform height of about 175 feet, 90 per cent of their volume submerged.