The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1890-06-18
ANTARCTIC EXP oRArloNs.
Baron EordensISjoId to start on an Exps-
dition Next Year.

| The rumors which have been current
during the last few years to the effect
that Baron Nordenskiold was about to
| undertake an expedition to the south
| pole have at length assumed practical
form, says the New York Tribune, and
at the recent meeting of the Royal
| Academy Of Science. Of Stockholm, the
| successful navigator of the northeast
! passage announced that he had made
arrangements to start on his voyage of
Antarctic exploration in the summer of
1891. The Australian governments
have already placed sum of so, 000
ut his disposal for the purpose, and Os-
| car Dickson, the enlightened and mu-
nifcent patron of his former eXpedi-
tions, has contributed similar sum.
The conditions in the Antarctic are,
! however, very different from what they
are in the seas around the northern
| pole, and, if good results are to be OBJ
tanned. will probably involve a consid-
erably larger outlay than the $50, 900
already subscribed. Among other
things It will be necessary to spend the
first winter as far south as possible,
and that in itself will be a costly affair.
Baron Nordenskjold has been so sue
| cessful and has had so great an expert
ence in all conditions of ice that his de-
termination to embark upon the expe-
dition in question implies his confidence
of achieving great results. As the ex-
tent of the latter, however, will in
measure depend on the amount of
money at the disposal of the promoters
Of the undertaking we trust in the in
terest of universal science that the bar
on's appeal to the world for additional
contributions toward the enterprise,
which was contained in his address to
the Swedish academy of science, will
meet with the generous response which
it deserves.
Although the Antarctic ocean attract
ed scientific and geographical attention
long before the Arctic sea did. vet
much less is known of it than of the
latter-the totally uneXplored regions
of the two bearing the proportion of
almost three to one. The navigators
who have attempted to penetrate the
great precipitous walls of ice so graph
ically described by Capt. Cook as en-
circling the southern pole are few in
number; and the highest point touched
by Commodore Wilkes of the United
States navy in 1910, and by Sir James
Ross of the British service year later,
falls far short of the latitude reached
by many of the northern expeditions.
The results achieved by the two COM
manders in question were limited to
the discovery of barren and sinister
looking coast, crowded by two lofty
volcanoes of an altitude of some 5000
feet, which received the appropriate
names of Mount Terror and Mount
Erebus. The two officers noted, more
over, that none of the islands of the far
south showed traces of being inhabited
by any land mammals, differing in
this respect from the Arctic regions,
where large and varied animals have
been observed almost as far north as
man has penetrated. Since these dis
coveries, half century ago, no further
expedition has been sent out in the di-
rection of the south pole, all the efforts
of explorers being concentrated around
the north pole of the globe. The con-
sequence is that the Antarctic regions
remain to this day shrouded in almost
as impenetrabfe a mystery as they were
in the last century, when they figured
on the maps of the period as Terra
Australis incognita.n
The years which have elapsed since
the memorable voyage of the Vega
have been worthily employed by Baron
Nordenskjold in geographical explora-
ton of a somewhat different nature
He has visited all the famous libraries
of Europe in turn for the purpose of
forming collection of specimens of
the most ancient maps and charts in
existence. These he has reproduced in
a magnificent work which illustrates
the progress and development of geo.
graphical science from the earliest
times. One of the most interesting
features of the collection is the COM
plete series of the first maps of Ameri-