THE ANTARTIC REGIONS.

New Zealander, Volume 1, Issue 47, 25 April 1846, Page 4

THE ANTARTIC REGIONS.

FURTHER DISCOVERIES.

The Cape Town Gazette, of the 25th July, contains some highly interesting intelligence from the antartic regions. According to these accounts, the magnetic pole was nearly reached. It appears that an expedition was fitted out at the Cape, and sent southward, under the command of Lieutenant Moore, of the Royal Navy, who succeeded in penetrating farther towards the Pole than any navigator before him. The barque Pagoda, hired by Government for a scientific expedition to the antartic regions, lately returned to Simon’s Bay, and the following particulars connected therewith may be relied upon as authentic This vessel, under the command of Lieutenant Moore, penetrated, we understand, further to the southward (between the meridian of Greenwich and 120 degrees East) than any other vessel ever attained unto before her; and completed the whole series of magnetic observations left unfinished by Her Majesty’s ships Terror and Erebus. The Pagoda very nearly reached the magnetic pole,but the quantity of ice and iceoergs which she fell in with, precluded the possibility of her advancement. Many important discoveries were made, which will doubtless be laid before the public as soon as the official report shall have reached home. She was at times surrounded by icebergs considerably higher than the mast-heads ; notwithstanding which, the existence of the antartic continent, namely, Victoria Land, has been confirmed beyond a doubt. The Aurora Australis, or southern luminary, was observed to be exceedingly brilliant, so much so, indeed, that at night a small print was distinctly legible—a truly rare circumstance in a southern hemisphere! The stores of natural history have been much enriched by collections of birds and fishes previously unknown. On her homeward track the Pagoda touched at King George’s Sound, where the hospitable treatment of the settlers and natives is highly spoken of. Everything was going on well at that settlement. She next made the Mauritius, and returned to Simon’s Bay, a circuit of nearly fourteen thousand miles, in one hundred and forty days, having in that period fully accomplished the intended objects, when the vessel was delivered up in excellent condition to Captain H. Byron, jun., her original commander, without a single casualty, not a man having been sick all the voyage, which may be mainly ascribed to the great care and attention bestowed by Admiral Percy in fitting out this barque for her hazardous and solitary task; and there is no doubt the scientific world will be benefited by its results.