things.

An unknown coast-line lay before the door of Australia. Following on
the general advance of exploration, and as a sequel to several important
discoveries, the time arrived when a complete elucidation of the
Antarctic problem was more than ever desirable. In the Australian
Quadrant, the broad geographical features of the Ross Sea area were well
known, but of the remainder and greater portion of the tract only vague
and imperfect reports could be supplied.

Before submitting our plans in outline, it will be as well to review the
stage at which discovery had arrived when our Expedition came upon the
scene.

The coast-line of the eastern extremity of the Australian Quadrant,
including the outline of the Ross Sea and the coast west-north-west
of Cape Adare as far as Cape North, was charted by Ross and has been
amplified by seven later expeditions. In the region west of Cape North,
recent explorers had done little up till 1911. Scott in the 'Discovery'
had disproved the existence of some of Wilkes's land; Shackleton in the
'Nimrod' had viewed some forty miles of high land beyond Cape North;
lastly, on the eve of our departure, Scott's 'Terra Nova' had met two
patches of new land--Oates Land--still farther west, making it evident
that the continent ranged at least two hundred and eighty miles in a
west-north-west direction from Cape Adare.

Just outside the western limit of the Australian Quadrant lies
Gaussberg, discovered by a German expedition under Drygalski in
1902. Between the most westerly point sighted by the 'Terra Nova' and
Gaussberg, there is a circuit of two thousand miles, bordering the
Antarctic Circle, which no vessel had navigated previous to 1840.

This was the arena of our activities and, therefore, a synopsis of the
voyages of early mariners will be enlightening.

Balleny, a whaling-master, with the schooner 'Eliza Scott' of one
hundred and fifty-four tons, and a cutter, the 'Sabrina' of fifty-four
tons, was the first to meet with success in these waters. Proceeding
southward from New Zealand in 1839, he located the Balleny Islands, a
group containing active volcanoes, lying about two hundred miles off
the nearest part of the mainland and to the north-west of Cape Adare.
Leaving these islands, Balleny sailed westward keeping a look-out for
new land. During a gale the vessels became separated and the 'Sabrina'
was lost with all hands. Balleny in the 'Eliza Scott' arrived safely
in England and