The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-13
sourn ro1An coNrLNENr.

of tho United states and Captain Ross of England, Both About 1SdO, Whan Land was Sighted.
 From tho New York Wordl
 The most remarkable part of the earth, and as large as all North Amer ica, still uneXplored! This astonishing fact was announced only month ago before the International Geographical Congress by a brave and venturesome Norwegian who had but recently ser foot on this great terra incognita and had come back to tell of his wonderful experience. Borchgrevinck aroused the intensest interest by his narrative, and all the great geographers and eX- plorers have ever since been discussing the possibilities of trio to Antartica,
 Borchgrevinck's claim that he is the first man who ever set foot upon the mainland of the southern circumpolar continent is probably true. Possibly whalers have been driven far out of their course and touched it's outlying confines, but what they learned of its character, if they ever returned to the haunts of men to tell is nowhere on record. But few navigators have en- .deavored to cross within the circle and it's mysteries remain to this day.
 It is over fifty years since any sclen- tific expedition sailed into those lonely waters Within the next twelve or eighteen months an expedition will start due south from Australia; Dr. Frederick A. Cook will set sail from New York, and a fleet of whalers from Dundee, in search of new schools of Jonah-swallowers, will head their ves- sels to the same point of the compass. Last and not least, Baron Nordensjold expects soon to find himself far in the south in search of the unknown conti- nent. It is likely, therefore, that be- fore the close of this century we shall know considerably more about the great land which has long been be- 1ieved to exist.
 That great body of land is situated at the antipodes of the north pole was favorite belief of navigators almost as far back as the time of Columbus. During that wonderful period of enter prise and discovery following the land ing of the Spaniards upon the shores of the western continent, the spirit of the conquerors could not rest while any section of the globe remained unvis- fted.
 In 1567 Lope Garcia de Castro, gover- nor of Peru, sent his nephew, Alvaro Mendena, in search of the fabled terra Australis incognita of the Southern ocean. This young man made no i'm portant discoveries, however. Tn 1605 Pedro Fernandez de Quirros sailed from Callao and discovered land, which he called Australia del Espiritu Santu now known to have been one of the New Hebrides. In 1899 Captain Dirk Gerritz, of Rotterdam, was blown out of the Straits of Magellan in a storm and found land in latitude 6S degrees minutes. This was one of the south Shetlands.
 In 1871 La Roche discovered the soli- tary island now known as South Geor- gia. Even Kerguelen Island, in lati- tude AS degrees fl minutes-almost the latitude of England-was not found till 1772 That great navigator, Captain Cook, crossed the antarctic in the good ships Resolution and Adventure in January, 1773, and was stopped by the ice after reaching 67 degrees 15 min- utes. In January, 1774, he reached IS degrees 15 minutes, which was his high est latitude. Tn this last voyage Cap tain Cook circumnavigated the south- ern pole.
 Tn 1920 the Russian expedition under Bellinghausen discovered the islets of Petra and Alexandria. In 1921 Captain George Powell discovered the South Orkneys. In 1881 Captain John Brscoe discovered Enderby's Land, but did not get within twenty miles of it by reason of the ice He also discovered Adelaide island and landed on it. To him must be given the credit of the first discov- cry of any part of the antarctic conti- nent Tn 1888 Captain John Bellew and Captain Freena discovered a group of volcanic islands, one peak of which rose to a height of twelve thousand feet. Tn 1859 Dumont d'Urville discov- cred Terre Adelie and Cote Clair, two islands.
 It remained, however, for Captain Charles Wilkes, commanding the Uni ted States exploring expedition, during the years 189S-42, to really discover, ex- plore and make certain the existence of continental Iand around the southern pole England claimed the credit of this discovery, and asserted that Wilkes did not find the land as de- scribed. France likewise claimed the honor of the first discovery of the an- tarctic continent
 "However willing I might be in a private capacity" said Wilkes, "to avoid contesting their statements, feel it due to the honor of our flag to make proper assertion of the priority of the claim of the American expedi- tion, and of the greater extent of it's discoveries and researches" Wilkes held that no one prior to 184o, either in this country or in Europe, had the least idea that any large body of land exist ed to the south of New Holland. And who is there that now doubts the fact" he asked, whether he admits it to be vast continent or contends that it is only 8 collection of islands," It is cer- tain that all the maps and charts pub- lished up to that time had no trace of such land upon them.
 Towards the close of December, 1899, Captain Wilkes and his squadron, con- sisting of the United States flagship Vincennes, the Peacock, the schooner Flying Fish and the brig Porpoise, left Sydney New South Wales, with all