The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-08-25
LAND OF ICE AND FIRE.
THE NEW CONTINENT AT THE
SOUTH POLE.

with Active Volcanoes.
From the New Orleans Times-Democrat.
Washington.-The most sensational
scientific discovery Of the decade has just
been made b. c. Egeberg Borehgrsvlncl..
a Norwegian. To him belongs the credit OF
being the first man to set foot upon the
great land mass Of the South Pole. He is
the Columbus Of Antarctica-a continent
which has been up to date the big blank
spot on the geographical globe. Certainly
It is not a country calculated to attract
settlers, being nothing more nor less than
an icy desert. with no inhabitants save sea
birds that have rookeries in places along
the coast. There are no land animals and
no Towering plants whatever. though
Borchgrevinck came across some mosses
and lichens.
Previous navigators have described An
tarctica as an irregular mass of land, hav-
ing somewhat the shape Of a deformed
foot with a swelled ankle. The bulk Of it
is in the eastern hemisphere. 1t is very
imperfectly defined on charts and maps.
As good guess as any as to it's area
states the latter at 100000 miles. making
the continent rather larger than Australia
As it is approached the bed of the ocean
rises, and for long distance around the
waters are not very deep. 1t is a fact that.
owing to the revolution of the earth on its
axis. the seas near the poles are compar-
atively shallow. on the shores of the
mainland are numerous islands of volcanic
formation, most of them precipitous, up
lifted from the bottom.
The famous Capt. Cook was the first
man to inspect Antarctica seriously and
| he did not venture very close to il. In 1913
| he sailed entirely around it, but only once
did he approach the SEVENTEEN parallel of
| south latitude. Then he got as far as n
degrees and 10 minutes. 1t was a wonder
full achievement for sailing vessel and
its brave commander expressed the opin-
| ion that nobody would ever surpass his
| record. He described the country as of an
| inexpressedly horrid aspect, beset by vio-
lent winds, snowstOrms and fogs-doomed
never to feel the warmth Of the suns rays,
but TO lie buried in everlasting snow and
ice. Said he:
THE ports which may be on the coast
are wholly filled with ice and snow If
one Of them should be so far open as to
! invite ship to enter, the latter would run
a risk Of being fixed there forever, or per-
haps coming out some day on an ice is
land. The land will never be explored.
In short, Antarctica is a region where
i nothing lives apparently save only the sea
! birds already referred to. The snowfalls
are excessively heavy, and the temporal
ture rarely rises above freezing point even
| in summer. II is covered with huge noun
/ tains and glaciers, many of the former be-
| ing active volcanoes, which continually
| belch forth streams Of molten lava, so that
fire and frost seem to contend with each
other for control. To make a landing on
any part of the coast is almost out of the
/ question, the shore line being marked by
continuous cliffs OF solid ice hundreds OF
feet high. From this barrier extends sea-
ward fringe of field ice outside of which
countless icebergs float about, menacing
any ship that may come near.
Nobody ever saw a native human inside
Of the Antarctic circle. The outlying vol
canic islands are themselves covered with
snow and ice, and on many Of them arc
active volcanoes of great size. The main
land seems to be true continent, with
fundamental formation Of gneiss, and la
ter fossil-bearing strata of sandstone and
limestone. The ocean, in its neghbor-
hood, is full of animal life-seals, whales
and porpoises. here are no fur seals APP
parently. Borchgrevinck shot one seal of
a species hitherto unknown, which seemed
to have no external ears. In 1892, whaling
vessels from Scotland tried to find the
whalebone-producing whale in those seas,
but without success, though there were
plenty of "humpbacks'' and blue"
whales, the latter jumping out of the water
like salmon. so as to show their whole
length.
The geology of Antarctica is an inter-
esting problem. Borchgrevinck brought
back with him specimens of rocks which
indicate that minerals of economic value
might be found. In that strange land the
mountains are actually built to some ex-
tent out OF snow, layers of which occur
between strata of lava and ashes, This is
explained by the fact that the ashes
thrown out by volcanoes fall cold and
form a solid cake which is one of the
best non-conductors known. Volcanoes
are built out Of the products of their own
eruption, being composed of debris piled
around vent. Ashes and lava are depos-
tied around the crater in alternate layers,
7 and between these lie strata of snow that
falls at intervals. Molten lava may flow
over the crust of ashes without melting
the snow beneath. Thus glaciers are some
times sealed up under layers of lava.
Borchgrevinck left Melbourne Austria
liza. in the whaler Antarctic, Sept 20,
1884. He shipped as an able seaman the
purpose OF the expedition being to look
for sperm whales in southern seas His
diary makes note of a large white al
batross that took refuge on the vessel
Oct IS, in terrific snowstorm. On Nov.
they had reached 5S AZ south latitude,
and the ice barrier of the mysterious con-
tinent was sighted fifty miles away. 1t
I extended for southeast to northwest
as far as the eye could see apparently
about 600 feet high and of a dark gray
hue. They entered the pack ice Dec I.
and about that time they saw many
blue" whales, white petrels and seals
Some Of the seals taken were marked with
big scars and scratches. A like
phenomenon was noticed by Ross half a
century ago, who supposed that the
wounds had been inflicted by sea Loop
ards. Borchgrevinck does not coincide
with this opinion, but thinks that some
unknown enemy is responsible for the
mischief. In some cases the wounds ex-
tended far into the blubber and even into
the flesh beneath.
On Dec. II they reached Balleny Island.
in latitude &C, This island was crowned
with lofty mountains, whose peaks.
shrouded in mist. lowered two miles into
the sky. There were many glaciers Two
days later the ship was moored to an
imemnse foe of pancake" ice, that ex-
tended to the limit of the vision in all d.