Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/30

26 falls within the average limit of floating ice we will here consider as being within the Antarctic Regions.

It is not proposed to discuss here the history of Antarctic exploration, which has recently been done so ably by Dr. H. R. Mill in The Siege of the South Pole, but I wish to give in more or less detail, as far as limited space will allow, an account of Antarctic seas and lands. This can perhaps best be done by dwelling more especially on those parts that I have seen myself, namely, Graham Land, South Shetlands, South Orkneys, Coats Land, and the Weddell and Biscoe Seas, and by giving a more general account of parts I have read of or heard of by conversation with other Antarctic explorers, including the veteran Sir Joseph Hooker who sailed with Sir James Clark Ross in 1839, and others who have visited the Antarctic Regions since.

The striking incident of meeting ice at sea for the first time in one's life, and especially falling in with those giant Antarctic icebergs—grim sentinels of the Antarctic—produces even in most matter-of-fact individuals a sense of wonder and awe. Their stupendous size, their exquisite architectural composition, more magnificent than the temples and pyramids of Egypt, more overpowering in solemnity than the Sphinx—make the most thoughtless