It left Philadelphia Jan. 24, 1885, and returned in
June.
THE ANTARCTIC POLAR REGIONS.--The climate of the southern polar regions
is much more severe than that at the north pole, the icefields extending
in degrees nearer the equator from the south than from the north. Within
the arctic circle there are tribes of men living on the borders of the
icy ocean on both the east and west hemispheres, but within the
antarctic all is one dreary, uninhabitable waste. In the extreme north
the reindeer and the musk-ox are found in numbers, but not a single land
quadruped exists beyond 50 degrees of southern latitude. Flowers are
seen in summer by the arctic navigator as far as 78 degrees north, but
no plant of any description, not even a moss or a lichen, has been
observed beyond Cockburn Island, in 64 degrees 12 minutes south
latitude. In Spitzbergen, 79 degrees north, vegetation ascends the
mountain slopes to a height of 3,000 feet, but on every land within or
near the antarctic circle the snow-line descends to the water's edge.
The highest latitude ever reached at the south is 78 degrees 10 minutes,
while in the north navigators have penetrated to 84 degrees. The reason
for this remarkable difference is the predominance of large tracts of
land in the northern regions, while in the south is a vast expanse of
ocean. In the north continental masses form an almost continuous belt
around the icy sea, while in the southern hemisphere the continents
taper down into a broad extent of frigid waters.
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