UNEXPLORED ANTARCTICA

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 139, 2 September 1927, Page 9

UNEXPLORED ANTARCTICA

STILL A MYSTERY DOES CONTINENT EXIST? By Cable. —Press Association.—Copyright LONDON, Wednesday. That the belief in the existence of an Antarctic continent was still based on circumstantial evidence was emphasised by Dr. Rudmose-Brown, head of the Department of Geography, University of Sheffield, president of the geographical section, in an address at the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at Leeds. He said Enderby’s Land, the one certain land, had 3,000 miles of hypothetical coast-line. It had not seriously been searched for since its discovery in 1831. No ship had penetrated the western shores of the Weddell Sea. A great gap remained between Charcot and King Edward VII. Land, which had not been explored. The costly nature of the exploration of the area rendered it unlikely to be undertaken by impoverished Europe. The necessary funds would not be available for years. Hence he looked to the great new nations in the Southern Hemisphere to carry out the work. Turning to the Northern Hemisphere Dr. Rudmore-Brown prophesied that eventually a tide of white settlement would definitely set northward, even to the Arctic seas. It was not pi-esumptuous to say the next 100 years would witness it. —A. and N.Z.