The Worst Journey in the World | Page 5

rash enterprise,
and what, I believe, no man in my situation would have thought of. It
was, indeed, my opinion, as well as the opinion of most on board, that
this ice extended quite to the Pole, or perhaps joined to some land, to
which it had been fixed from the earliest time; and that it is here, that is
to the south of this parallel, where all the ice we find scattered up and
down to the north is first formed, and afterwards broken off by gales of
wind, or other causes, and brought to the north by the currents, which

are always found to set in that direction in the high latitudes. As we
drew near this ice some penguins were heard, but none seen; and but
few other birds, or any other thing that could induce us to think any
land was near. And yet I think there must be some to the south beyond
this ice; but if there is it can afford no better retreat for birds, or any
other animals, than the ice itself, with which it must be wholly covered.
I, who had ambition not only to go farther than any one had been before,
but as far as it was possible for man to go, was not sorry at meeting
with this interruption; as it, in some measure, relieved us; at least,
shortened the dangers and hardships inseparable from the navigation of
the Southern Polar regions."[4]
And so he turned northwards, when, being "taken ill of the bilious
colic," a favourite dog belonging to one of the officers (Mr. Forster,
after whom Aptenodytes forsteri, the Emperor penguin, is named) "fell
a sacrifice to my tender stomach.... Thus I received nourishment and
strength, from food which would have made most people in Europe
sick: so true it is that necessity is governed by no law."[5]
"Once and for all the idea of a populous fertile southern continent was
proved to be a myth, and it was clearly shown that whatever land might
exist to the South must be a region of desolation hidden beneath a
mantle of ice and snow. The vast extent of the tempestuous southern
seas was revealed, and the limits of the habitable globe were made
known. Incidentally it may be remarked that Cook was the first to
describe the peculiarities of the Antarctic icebergs and floe-ice."[6]
A Russian expedition under Bellingshausen discovered the first certain
land in the Antarctic in 1819, and called it Alexander Land, which lies
nearly due south of Cape Horn.
Whatever may have been the rule in other parts of the world, the flag
followed trade in the southern seas during the first part of the
nineteenth century. The discovery of large numbers of seals and whales
attracted many hundreds of ships, and it is to the enlightened
instructions of such firms as Messrs. Enderby, and to the pluck and
enterprise of such commanders as Weddell, Biscoe and Balleny, that
we owe much of our small knowledge of the outline of the Antarctic
continent.
"In the smallest and craziest ships they plunged boldly into stormy
ice-strewn seas; again and again they narrowly missed disaster; their

vessels were racked and strained and leaked badly, their crews were
worn out with unceasing toil and decimated with scurvy. Yet in spite of
inconceivable discomforts they struggled on, and it does not appear that
any one of them ever turned his course until he was driven to do so by
hard necessity. One cannot read the simple, unaffected narratives of
these voyages without being assured of their veracity, and without
being struck by the wonderful pertinacity and courage which they
display."[7]
The position in 1840 was that the Antarctic land had been sighted at a
few points all round its coasts. On the whole the boundaries which had
been seen lay on or close to the Antarctic Circle, and it appeared
probable that the continent, if continent it was, consisted of a great
circular mass of land with the South Pole at its centre, and its coasts
more or less equidistant from this point.
Two exceptions only to this had been found. Cook and Bellingshausen
had indicated a dip towards the Pole south of the Pacific; Weddell a
still more pronounced dip to the south of the Atlantic, having sailed to a
latitude of 74° 15´ S. in longitude 34° 16´ W.
Had there been a Tetrahedronal Theory in those days, some one might
have suggested the probability of a third indentation beneath the Indian
Ocean, probably to be laughed at for his pains. When James Clark Ross
started from England in 1839 there was no particular reason for him to
suppose that the Antarctic coast-line in the region of the magnetic Pole,
which he was to try to reach, did