The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-01-10

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become interested in South polar ex-
ploration also, and in 1886 congress
authorized an expedition which was to
make discoveries, upon which our prin-
cipal claims to ownership Of land in
Antarctica were to be based. Com
mand of the expedition was given to
Lieut.. Charles Wilkes of the United
States navy and in command of six
ships, the sloops Vincennes and
Peacock, the storeship Relief, the
brig Porpoise and the tenders Sea
Gull and Flying Fish, he set sail
from Hampton Roads, Va, for the
polar regions on August Is. 1888.
His long wanderings in the Antarc-
tic regions are recorded in detail in
the five-volume narrative of the expe-
dition written by Wilkes himself, so
only a brief summary of what he ac-
complished can be given here. EN-
barking from Sydney, Australia, on
December 26, 1889. Wilkes made Mac
quarie island the first rendezvous. He
had already lost the Sea Gull and all
its crew in the South Pacific below
South America, and within week aft
er leaving Sydney the Flying Fish and
the Peacock dropped out of sight in
the fog. Then the Porpoise disap-
peared but Wilkes pushed on south
ward in the Vincennes.
By January 16, 1910, he had reached
&c degrees south latitude and had
found the Peacock and the Porpoise.
They were now confronted by an ice
barrier, but the crews Of the remain
ing ships reported that appearances
beyond the barrier seemed to indicate
land, and in his report Wilkes sets
January 16. 1910, as the date of the
discovery of new continent. For the
next two weeks the ships cruised
about independently and repeatedly
saw appearances of land" On jan
uary 80 the Vincennes entered an in
dentation of the ice-bound coast which
was named Piner's Bay. "We ap-
preached within half mile Of the
dark volcanic rocks which appeared
on both sides of us, and saw the land
gradually rising beyond the ice to the
height of 5000 feet" says Wilkes. "It
could be seen distinctly extending to
the east and west of our position fully
sixty miles. / gave the land the name
of the Antarctic Continent"
After skirting the Antarctic coast
for some LOO miles and reaching a
point &c degrees, / minute, south,
Wilkes turned north and set sail for
Australia. He had discovered the seq
ment of Antarctica, which now bears
his name. Wilkes Land, and later ex-
plorations have proved what he be-
lieved he had discovered-a vast An
tarctic continent.
In the meantime a British expe-
dition was in the Antarctic, led by
Capt. James Clark Ross of the British
Royal navy. He had planned to visit
the very region where Wilkes was ex-
ploring, and when he learned that the
American was ahead of him, he was
very much chagrined. So he changed
his plans and this resulted in his dis
SOfCly VI ionu anu ANOSS Scd.
While he was stopping at Hobart
Town in November, 1910. he received
a letter from Wilkes describing his re-
cent voyage and enclosing chart.
There were sent with the friendliest
intention of aiding a fellow explorer.
but it had 'the unexpected result of
starting a long controversy with Ross
and discrediting Wilkes discoveries in
the eyes of the British.
On the chart which Wilkes sent he
had set down the supposed position of
land found in 1899 by Balleny, and iden-
tilted it with land seen by men on one
of the American vessels. He neglect
ed to indicate that this land was not
one of his own discoveries. When
Ross later sailed directly over this
spot, he decided that If Wilkes was
wrong in this regard he was wrong
in others. and Ross in his report de-
voted fifteen pages to discrediting
Wilkes discoveries. 1t is true that
Wilkes did make some mistakes in
his locations, because he could not
land his instruments and check his To-
cations magnetically so that they
would be free from error due to the