Antarctic Sea

Antarctic Sea, or Southern Ocean, corresponds to the Arctic Ocean which surrounds the North Pole, but its limits are less accurately defined as it verges imperceptibly into the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. It is boisterous, foggy, difficult of approach, and beset with ice which extends 10° nearer to the equator than that of the northern seas. Magellan was the first to traverse it in 1520. The Dutchman De Gheritk saw land in 1600, probably New South Shetland. Wallis and Carteret in 1766, and Cook in 1773-4 made further explorations. Kerguelen in 1772 discovered the island that bears his name. In 1831 Captain John Biscoe, commanding an expedition fitted out by Messrs. Enderby, discovered land in lat. 65° 57' S., long. 47° 20' E., extending E. and W. for 200 miles, and he named it Enderby Land. In the following year he found Graham's Land, lat. 67° 1' S., long. 71° 48' W. Further expeditions led to the discovery of Balleny Islands and Sabrina Land in nearly the same latitude. In 1840 Admiral d'Urville on behalf of the French, and Commodore Wilkes on behalf of the Americans, made valuable explorations, and in 1841 Sir J. C. Ross in the Erebus and Terror reached Victoria Land, found two active volcanoes which he named after his vessels, and got as far south as lat. 78° 11'. It remains to be ascertained whether land or water encircles the South Pole, and as no important commercial route can possibly be opened out in this direction, it is doubtful whether any serious attempt will ever be made to set this question at rest, A South Polar expedition, however, was recently projected.