Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1924-08-06

prepared by the National Geographic So
ciety. Washington. D. c.
South Geo. gia, due east of Cape
Horn in the South Atlantic ocean, is
the typical outpost of the Antarctic
as Iceland is Of the Arctic, but it is a
much smaller island than the latter
and lacking it's temperi7 Gulf stream,
has never been possible of colonial
ton. But If it has no extensive his
history Of geographic discovery, for
it was the first South Polar land
known to man and was found during
the golden age Of exploration. And
1t later came to be an Ell Dorado of
seal skins for brave Yankee shippers.
Until the latter part of the Eight
eenth century, maps of the world COM
monty Included a conjectured land
mass lying south of the known CONT
nents and labeled Terra Australis In
cognita. From time to time since the
discovery of America, vague reports
of southern land had been brought to
Europe by mariners who had been
blown southwark out of their course,
and contemporary geographers had
held persistent hopes for the discov-
cry and exploitation of an austral
continent which might add a second
New World to the globe
In 1875, Capt. James Cook, COM
mander of H. M. S. Resolution on
voyage in search of this terra in
cognita, was cruising along the coast
of an ice-covered island in latitude
81 degrees 80 minutes south. The
AISLE had appeared Unexpectedly in the
path of the Resolution, and it was
the first assurance of the disappoint-
ment in store for mankind.
The discoverer was somewhat de-
pressed on seeing the barrenness of
the new land, whose rocky shore and
cliffs Of ice were but gloomy auguries
for a habitable territory lying still
nearer the Southern pole
The Isle of Georgia.
Referring to his blighted hope of
fair Antarctic land, he said: ITO
sudge of the bulk by the sample, it
would not be worth the discovery. f. :.
Who would have thought that an is
aand of no greater extent than this,
situated between the latitude Of ga
degrees and 55 degrees, should, in the
very height of summer, be in a man.
ner wholly covered, many fathoms
deep, with frozen snow?"
Cook took possession Of the coun-
try for England and named it the Isle
of Georgia; and after charting the
coast, he proceeded on mis- famous
circumnayigation of the world.
South Georgia, as the island came
80 be called, was destined not to be
forgotten, for the brave tales of Cap
tain Cook were popular reading dur
ang the early years of American in
dependence. 1t may be that his word
~sea-bears" was the lure that started
the first follower In the wake of the
Resolution. Certain 1t is that before
the close of the Eighteenth century
bold Yankee mariners from New Lon
don, Stonington, and other Long Is
land sound ports had begun to reap
She harvest Of fur-seals skins at South
Georgia.
When the supply of lucrative fur
seals first began to fail, the other
amphibious monsters mentioned by
Cook, the sea-elephants. were forced
60 pay the costa of the ruthless voy-
ayers. The sea-elephant is the larg-
est Of seals, and is thiekly invested
with blubber which yields an oil lit
tie inferior to the product of the
sperm whale; hence, elephant hunt
ing" became an important industry at
most of the subantarctic islands. In
many of its haunts the species was
soon exterminated, and, although at
South Georgia it still persists, it's days
are numbered unless absolute protec-
tion be soon enforced.
But the tale of human industry at
the barren isle is not yet told, and
the latest development already over
shadows a century of sealing. Eight
cen years ago Norwegian seafarers,
vikings still, found field unspoile ed
by the bloody dynasty of their Amer
lean predecessors, and they have made
South Georgia the headquarters Of the
greatest whale fishery on earth.
Between 1910 and 1920 more than
10000 whales, representing value of
roughly fifty millions of dollars, have
been shot on the offshore banks and
towed to the bustling whaling stations
OF the island. In single year (sea-
son of 1915-1e16) the South Georgian
catch numbered $50 whales.
Glaciers Are Mighty.
Small though South Georgia is, its
glaciers are as mighty as those OF
Spitzbergen. and there In ample evi.