The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-12-19

busy keel ruffies the wave or smoke or
painting steamship ningles with the pure,
keen air-how strange that il should for
so long have been allowed to maintain
its primitive seclusiOnl Those appalling
barriers 10 apparently eternal ice, along
which Ross sailed for hundred OF miles,
watching with an indescribable fascina-
ton the baffied pillows hurl themselves
against the glitterihg cliffs that rose sheer
from the sea for hundreds of feet-what
lies behind them? Those burning noun
tains flaming high amid their frozen fast
nesses, and lighting up the gloomy sky
for many leagues throughout the long.
long winter night have they no story to
cell? And. in spite of all belief 20 the con-
trary, 1t may be that land fauna viii be
found, that some animals may have been
fitted to live in that wonderful country,
which, as far as is yet known, is abso-
iutely sterile.
Many firmly believe that a warm polar
region exists at the southern end of the
earths axis, but with recent light upon
the theory of a warm Arctic sea, within
the encircling barrier of ice. there can
be little expectation that any such marvel
VIII be found in the Antarctic. The ex-
plorers will be fired with the thought that
whatever their hardships, a virgin field
hes before them If by any means they can
get behind the icy barrier that seems to
smut off Antarctica from a prying world.
ana that alone, apart from any discover
les they may make,is sufficient inducement
10 adventurous men to make them face
any hardship. To stand where human foot
mas never before trodden, to come with
the torch of science into the very penetra-
liza of nature, for this men in all times
have risked all that life held dear. and In
so doing have rendered incalculable serv--
ices TO their kind. One by one, the closed
doors have been flung wide open, the Sc
crets have been made manifest, and now
at the close of the nineteenth century only
this one remains.
What should encourage an those who
nope for great things from Antarctic re-
searches is the fact that the earliest ex-
plorers were able to reach such high latl-
tudes in small weak sailing vessels. We'd
dells voyage was made in brig. the
Jane, of 100 tons; and he was accompan-
led by cutter, the Beaufoy, of 65 tons
lie was totally unequipped for conflict
with the ice unprovided with instruments
Tor taking observations he was lust a
humble sealer earning a precarious liveli-
hood. Yet he reached a latitude GA Is 81
only about one hundred miles short of that
attained by the Well-found and specially
sent expedition under Ross and Crozier
For both Weddell and Ross were depend-
ent upon the wind entirely for propulsion.
and consequently dared not risk what even
a iow-powered steamship might do with
impunity Besides this. their inability 10
get swiftly from place to place hindered
them from finding any sheltered nook
where they might have laid their vessels
up for the winter in case they had wished
to do so in order to begin their Iabors a g
early in the ensuing spring as possible.
But it is hardly necessary to enlarge upon
the immense advantages latter-day ex-
plorers possess in steam; they are sulh
GENTLY obvious. So, too. with all the other
accessories which science has provided for
her servants, most of the suffering and
hardship attendant upon all these conflicts
with the primeval forces of nature has
been greatly mitigated where not alto
gether removed