Antarctic Continent

a term given to a mass of land thought to surround the south pole. From whatever direction ships approach the south pole, they encounter floes of pack ice and are stopped finally by ice-capped land. Glaciers from the interior glide into the sea a few inches daily, and break off into icebergs that float about, rendering it impossible at times to get near the coast. In 1842 a navigator by the name of Ross sailed for about 300 miles along the face of an ice wall so high and steep that a landing was impossible. Some of the icebergs that get afloat from such a wall form ice islands many miles in diameter. From certain directions ships are able frequently to sail within 12 degrees of the pole; a few explorers have gone even beyond 78 degrees south latitude.

In October, 1908, Lieutenant Ernest H. Shackleton of the British navy undertook a sledge journey into this region. Instead of a dog team, ponies were taken, but it was necessary to sacrifice them all for food. January 9, 1909, he reached latitude 88deg. 23', longitude 162deg. east, the most southerly point ever reached by man. He hoisted the Union Jack and left it flying. Lieutenant Shackleton reports a high plateau from 10,000 to 11,000 feet above the sea. It is scoured by enormous glaciers. One glacier 40 miles broad he traced for 120 miles. He saw no less than 8 distinct mountain ranges, and counted over 100 mountains. Lieutenant Shackleton was within 111 miles of the south pole. He was on the continent 126 days and traveled 1,708 miles. He brought back a large collection of geological specimens and many photographs. Although the season was one that would be called midsummer, if, indeed, there be any on this Antarctic continent, the cold was intense. Violent blizzards raged in the interior most of the time.

The continent is evidently from 1,000 to 2,000 miles in diameter. Various parts of the coast are called Victoria Land, Wilkes Land, Enderby Land, etc. The bottom of the sea is strewn with gravel, blocks of granite, sandstone, limestone, jasper, and other rocks, carried outward by the glaciers and dropped by melting icebergs, indicating genuine continental land. The interior of the ice field has been little explored. The ice cap grows thicker inland and is believed to be from twelve to twenty miles deep at the pole. It is a region of heavy snows that pile up and up, but never melt, except as they creep slowly away on their journey of hundreds of years to the sea. The intense cold of the region is interrupted by a number of active volcanoes. Mt. Erebus is 15,000 feet high. The eruptions throw a weird and spectral glare into the darkness of the winter-long antarctic night.

The Antarctic shores are not without fishes. Wherever an islet or point of land is free from ice, insects, mosses, lichens, and grasses are found. Penguins nest on these flats in enormous numbers. The broad wings and the cries of the albatross, the tern, and the gull relieve the dreariness a little. Whales, grampuses, and dolphins are found in Antarctic waters. No less than thirteen species of sea lions and fur seals climb ashore to rear their young; but, properly speaking, the region has no land animals such as the arctic fox and the ptarmigan, found in corresponding latitudes of the north. Save by an occasional scientific expedition and the ships of sealers and whalers, the solitude of the great ice cap of the south is unbroken by man. It is left to the ceaseless heave and grind and crash of the ice pack that surrounds it like a barrier.

See Arctic Regions