Part 13 (1/2)
Skirting the ice-packs and working always to the southward, the vessels managed to reach 55 16' S. during the next three days, some few seals, penguins, and other birds being seen on the floating ice as the s.h.i.+ps pa.s.sed. The temperature was never above freezing, the sails were frozen and the rigging covered with icicles. The fact that the ice was found to be composed of fresh water, convinced Cook that there must be land still further to the south, lying behind the ice-floes. He, therefore, kept on to the east, always sailing as far to the south as the line of the ice permitted. In reality, he was sailing round the Antarctic, from west to east, skirting along the ice limit. In January 1773 the vessels were in 61 S. and 139 E. longitude. A month later he was nearly five hundred miles to the south of the course Tasman had sailed when he discovered Tasmania, but still no land was seen amongst the ice. This being the summer season in the southern hemisphere, it was necessary to seek winter quarters to the north if the s.h.i.+ps were to escape imprisonment in the ice for the season.
After a winter pa.s.sed in the Pacific Ocean, Captain Cook took his s.h.i.+ps again to the south, towards the end of the year, and by January 30, 1774, they were in 71 10' S. lat.i.tude and 106 54' W. longitude.
Further progress to the south was barred by a line of high ice cliffs.
Describing the circ.u.mstances Captain Cook wrote:--
”At four o'clock A.M. we perceived the clouds, over the horizon to the south, to be of an unusual snow-white brightness, which we knew announced our approach to field ice. Soon after, it was seen from the topmast head, and at eight o'clock we were close to its edge. It extended east and west, far beyond the reach of our sight. In the situation we were in, just the southern half of our horizon was illuminated by the rays of light, reflected from the ice, to a considerable height. Ninety-seven ice hills were distinctly seen within the ice-field, besides those on the outside. Many of them were large and looking like a ridge of mountains rising one above another till they were lost in the clouds. The outer, or northern, edge of this immense field was composed of loose or broken ice, close packed together, so that it was not possible for anything to enter it. This was about a mile broad, within which was solid ice in one continued compact body. It was rather low and flat (except the hills), but seemed to increase in height as you traced it to the south, in which direction it extended beyond our sight.... I, who had ambition, not only to go further than any one had gone before, but as far as it was possible for man to go, was not sorry at meeting with this interruption, as in some measure it relieved us, at least, shortened the dangers and hards.h.i.+ps inseparable from the navigation of the southern polar regions.”
Returning again to the Pacific in order that his men might recuperate after their hards.h.i.+ps in the ice region, Captain Cook made a third attack upon the Antarctic problem the following year--1775--when he sailed to the south along the 27th meridian of west longitude. In lat.i.tude 59 S. three rocky islets were discovered. They rose to a considerable height, one of them terminating in a lofty peak shaped like a sugar-loaf, to which the name of Freezeland Point was given, not, as it might very well have been, in description of the land itself, but after the man who first sighted it. Far to the east of this peak there appeared a long coast line with lofty, snow-capped mountains, the summits often rising higher than the clouds. To the extremity of this coast the name of Cape Bristol was given. Land sighted still more to the south was named Southern Thule.
As there appeared to be more probability of success being won on this voyage, the s.h.i.+ps proceeded to explore the seas in the neighbourhood of these new lands; but a repet.i.tion of the trials and difficulties met in the previous year brought the hopes to nought. Whichever way they sailed they encountered ice, either in ma.s.sive bergs, or lines of cliffs, miles in length. On February 6, 1775, the cold hostility of the region daunted even the brave heart of Captain Cook. He decided to turn back, writing in his log: ”The risk one runs in exploring a coast in these unknown and icy seas is so great, that I can be bold enough to say that no man will ever venture further than I have done, and that the lands which lie to the south will never be explored.”
Modern achievement in the Antarctic regions forms a curious commentary on this outspoken opinion of so intrepid an explorer as the man who laid the great island-continent of Australia open for the colonisation of the British. But for the time being the opinion ranked sufficiently with the authorities to put an end to all attempts to solve the mystery of the Antarctic. Years pa.s.sed without anything being done to penetrate into the unknown, until, in 1819, Captain William Smith, commanding the brig _William_, on a voyage from Monte Video to Valparaiso, was driven as far to the south as 62 30', in which lat.i.tude and longitude 60 W.
he discovered a group of islands and named them the South Shetlands. The discovery was reported to the commander of H.M.S. _Andromache_, who at once sailed to the locality and further explored the islands. These were found to be a scattered group lying between 61 and 63 S., consisting of twelve fairly large isles, and a number of small rocky islets.
Several of the isles were mountainous, and one peak was observed which was estimated to be 2500 feet high. Beyond this brief expedition nothing was done by the Navy, but during the next few years a considerable amount of knowledge was gained by whaling captains who penetrated further to the south.
Amongst others, Powell, in 1821, discovered land to the south of the South Shetlands, naming it Trinity Land; while Palmer, an American skipper, sailed along a coast to which he gave the name Palmer's Land.
A Russian navigator, Bellinghausen, exploring to the south and west of the South Shetlands, located Alexander's Land, still more to the south than Palmer's Land.
These repeated additions to the general knowledge gradually discredited Captain Cook's a.s.sertion. The newly opened areas were found to be replete with whales, seals, and other commercially valuable animals, and s.h.i.+ps of the mercantile marine continued to push nearer and nearer the Pole. In 1822 a firm of traders sent out two vessels to the Antarctic under the command of Captain Weddell, after whom the great Antarctic seal is named. The vessels were small s.h.i.+ps in comparison with the modern build. One, the larger, was the _Jane_, a brig of 160 tons, and the other a cutter, the _Beaufoy_, 65 tons. As Captain Weddell had already done much geographical service in the South, his employers instructed him to do all he could to discover fresh lands, and to penetrate as far into the ice to the South as was possible. He succeeded so well in carrying out the latter part of his instructions that, on February 28, 1823, he carried the flag to 74 1' S.
For some years nothing more of note was done, but in 1831, Captain Biscoe, on board the brig _Tula_, located land--named Enderby's Land, after his employers--in 65 57' S. lat.i.tude and 47 20' E. longitude.
Wind and storms intervening, he was unable to do more than identify one promontory, which he named Cape Ann. The year following Biscoe added to his record the discovery of Adelaide Island, Graham's Land, and a range of mountains he named after himself, Biscoe's Range. He landed on the newly discovered territory on February 21, 1832, and took possession of it in the name of Great Britain. Seven years later, on board the _Eliza Scott_, Biscoe found an island in 66 44' S. lat.i.tude and 165 45' E.
longitude, the sh.o.r.es of which were so precipitous that no landing could be effected. Describing it, he wrote: ”But for the bare rocks from where the icebergs had broken, we should scarcely have known it for land, but as we stood in for it we plainly perceived smoke arising from the mountain tops. It is evidently volcanic, as specimens of stones, or rather cinders, will prove.”
Two years earlier the French Government had taken up the work the British Government had neglected from the time of Captain Cook's condemnation, and had despatched two s.h.i.+ps, the _Astrolabe_ and the _Zelee_, to try and get into higher lat.i.tudes than those reached by Weddell. The Government of the United States also sent out vessels to continue the work already so successfully done by American whaling skippers. The voyages did not add materially to the discovery of land, although some valuable scientific facts were observed and recorded.
The British Government then bestirred itself, and two s.h.i.+ps, the _Erebus_ and _Terror_, were placed under the command of Sir James C.
Ross, with Captain Crozier as second in command, to proceed to the Antarctic regions and explore them.
CHAPTER XIV
VOYAGES OF THE _EREBUS_ AND _TERROR_
A Fortunate Choice--Characteristic Southern Bergs--First Sight of the Continent--More British Territory--A Mighty Volcanic Display--Nearing the Magnetic Pole--The Antarctic Barrier--A Myth Dispelled--A Second Attempt--Held by the Ice--Third and Last Voyage--A Double Discovery.
The American and French expeditions having already selected areas for their operations, Sir James Ross, not wis.h.i.+ng to clash with them in any way, directed his attention to that part of the Antarctic lying to the south of Australia and New Zealand as his sphere of operations. Fortune favoured him in this selection, for it is at this part of the Antarctic region--situated between the meridians of 160 E. and 160 W.
longitude--that open water extends farthest into the high lat.i.tudes. He chose the meridian of 170 E. as the line on which to sail to the south.
It was on this meridian that Balleny, in 1839, had found open water as high as 69 S. The _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were equally fortunate, and they were well to the south before they encountered sufficient ice to prove difficult to navigation. Mostly they encountered icebergs, and they were thus afforded excellent opportunities to note the peculiarities of the southern bergs, and to compare them with those of the Arctic. There was a manifest difference in both form and structure.
Those of the Antarctic showed little variety in shape, and in this they were in marked contrast to the Arctic bergs. The bergs of the South were very solid in appearance, with perpendicular grooves on the sides, and level table-top summits. In size they ranged from 120 to 180 feet in height, with a length varying from a few hundred yards to a couple of miles.
Land was first sighted on January 11, 1841, when the s.h.i.+ps were in lat.
70 23' S. and long. 174 50' E. The appearance of the land suggested the tops of mountain peaks fully a hundred miles away. As the s.h.i.+ps sailed on, other peaks showed above the horizon, both to the east and the west, and the majesty of their size left no room for doubt that they were part of an area of land attaining to continental proportions. In his account of the expedition, Sir James Ross wrote: ”It was a beautifully clear evening, and we had a most enchanting view of the two magnificent ranges of mountains, whose lofty peaks, perfectly covered with eternal snow, rose to elevations varying from 7000 to 10,000 feet above the level of the ocean. The glaciers that filled their intervening valleys, and which descended from near the mountain summits, projected, in many places, several miles into the sea, and terminated in lofty, perpendicular cliffs. In a few places the rock broke through the icy covering, by which alone we could be a.s.sured that land formed the nucleus of this, to appearance, enormous iceberg.”