The English firm of shipowners, Enderby Brothers, plays a not unimportant part in Antarctic exploration.  The Enderbys had carried on sealing in southern waters since 1785.  They were greatly interested, not only in the commercial, but also in the scientific results of these voyages, and chose their captains accordingly.  In 1830 the firm sent out John Biscoe on a sealing voyage in the Antarctic Ocean with the brig Tula and the cutter Lively.  The result of this voyage was the sighting of Enderby Land in lat. 66deg. 25’ S., long. 49deg. 18’ E. In the following year Adelaide, Biscoe, and Pitt Islands, on the west coast of Graham Land were charted, and Graham Land itself was seen for the first time.

Kemp, another of Enderby’s skippers, reported land in lat. 66deg.  S., and about long. 60deg.  E.

In 1839 yet another skipper of the same firm, John Balleny, in the schooner Eliza Scott, discovered the Balleny Islands.

We then come to the celebrated French sailor, Admiral Jules Sebastien Dumont d’Urville.  He left Toulon in September, 1837, with a scientifically equipped expedition, in the ships Astrolabe and Zelee.  The intention was to follow in Weddell’s track, and endeavour to carry the French flag still nearer to the Pole.  Early in 1838 Louis Philippe Land and Joinville Island were discovered and named.  Two years later we again find d’Urville’s vessels in Antarctic waters, with the object of investigating the magnetic conditions in the vicinity of the South Magnetic Pole.  Land was discovered in lat. 66deg. 30’ S. and long. 138deg. 21’ E. With the exception of a few bare islets, the whole of this land was completely covered with snow.  It was given the name of Adelie Land, and a part of the ice-barrier lying to the west of it was called C^ote Clarie, on the supposition that it must envelop a line of coast.

The American naval officer, Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, sailed in August, 1838, with a fleet of six vessels.  The expedition was sent out by Congress, and carried twelve scientific observers.  In February, 1839, the whole of this imposing Antarctic fleet was collected in Orange Harbour in the south of Tierra del Fuego, where the work was divided among the various vessels.  As to the results of this expedition it is difficult to express an opinion.  Certain it is that Wilkes Land has subsequently been sailed over in many places by several expeditions.  Of what may have been the cause of this inaccurate cartography it is impossible to form any opinion.  It appears, however, from the account of the whole voyage, that the undertaking was seriously conducted.

Then the bright star appears —­ the man whose name will ever be remembered as one of the most intrepid polar explorers and one of the most capable seamen the world has produced —­ Admiral Sir James Clark Ross.

The results of his expedition are well known.  Ross himself commanded the Erebus and Commander Francis Crozier the Terror.  The former vessel, of 370 tons, had been originally built for throwing bombs; her construction was therefore extraordinarily solid.  The Terror, 340 tons, had been previously employed in Arctic waters, and on this account had been already strengthened.  In provisioning the ships, every possible precaution was taken against scurvy, with the dangers of which Ross was familiar from his experience in Arctic waters.