Abstract
THE story of the Antarctic is longer in time than in materials, for the necessary existence of lands around the South Pole was affirmed by some of the earliest geographers. There was abundant speculation about the character of these South Polar lands and the impossibility of reaching them before Bouvet found his islet and Cook was convinced of the existence of a great southern continent. The Antarctic regions have furnished less dramatic incident and fewer commercial returns than the Arctic, but they have probably given, in proportion to the efforts devoted to them, more wide-reaching scientific results. Dr. Mills book gives a full and graphic sketch of the whole subject. It summarises the classical and mediæval speculations, tells the narratives, and explains the results of all the expeditions that have worked in the Antarctic. It handles the many branches of the subject—oceanography, terrestrial magnetism, topography, and bibliography—with expert knowledge, an intimate acquaintance with the scattered literature, and high literary skill. The story is enlivened by pithy anecdotes, and gives lucid explanations of the scientific problems, so that the book is as interesting as it is instructive. It tells us, for example, of the cost of various expeditions. Thus Cooks great results were achieved for 20,000l., and the Belgica Expedition gained its rich harvest for only 22,000l. It helps us to place the explorers, by other incidents in their lives, such as Dumont d'Urville's discovery of the Venus of Milo, Maury's service in the Confederate Navy, Wilkes's achievements on behalf of the Northern States in the same war, and his famous arrest of the Trent. The literary history is enlivened by many items of bibliographic interest, such as the mythical author “H. M. S. Slaney,” the recovery of the remarkable appeal to the Geographical Society in 1837 on behalf of Antarctic research by “A. L.,” from a French translation, and the loss of Enderberg's MS. in one of the London Societys libraries.
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G., J. Antarctic Exploration . Nature 75, 103–105 (1906). https://doi.org/10.1038/075103b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/075103b0