been dispelled.

It is now a commonplace, largely in the world of geographical concerns,
that the earth has still another continent, unique in character, whose
ultimate bounds are merely pieced together from a fragmentary outline.
The Continent itself appears to have been sighted for the first time in
the year 1820, but no human being actually set foot on it until 1895.
The Belgian expedition under de Gerlache was the first to experience the
Antarctic winter, spending the year 1898 drifting helplessly, frozen
in the pack-ice, to the southward of America. In the following year a
British expedition under Borchgrevinck, wintering at Cape Adare, passed
a year upon the Antarctic mainland.

The main efforts of recent years have been centred upon the two more
accessible areas, namely, that in the American Quadrant** which is
prolonged as a tongue of land outside the Antarctic Circle, being
consequently less beset by ice; secondly, the vicinity of the Ross Sea
in the Australian Quadrant. It is because these two favoured domains
have for special reasons attracted the stream of exploration that
the major portion of Antarctica is unknown. Nevertheless, one is in a
position to sketch broad features which will probably not be radically
altered by any future expeditions.

** For convenience, the Antarctic regions may be referred to in four
main divisions, corresponding with the quadrants of the hemisphere. Of
the several suggestions thrown out by previous writers, the one adopted
here is that based on the meridian of Greenwich, referring the quadrants
to an adjacent continent or ocean. Thus the American Quadrant lies
between 0 degrees and 90 degrees W., the African Quadrant between
0 degrees and 90 degrees E., and the Australian Quadrant between 90
degrees and 180 degrees E. The fourth division is called the Pacific
Quadrant, since ocean alone lies to the north of it.

Certain it is that a continent approaching the combined areas of
Australia and Europe lies more or less buried beneath the South Polar
snows; though any statement of the precise area is insufficient for a
proper appreciation of the magnitude, unless its elevated plateau-like
character be also taken into consideration. It appears to be highest
over a wide central crown rising to more than ten thousand feet. Of the
remainder, there is little doubt that the major portion stands as high
as six thousand feet. The average elevation must far exceed that of any
oth