WHALING AND EXPLORATION.

West Coast Times, Issue 115, 30 January 1866, Page 3

WHALING AND EXPLORATION.

(I'joiii the AvslrulauuH.)

The progress of discovery in the Antarctic Sea has been singularly slow. There was no problem to solve, similar to that of the north-west passage, which was not solved until alter some centuries of exploration ; and the distance from Europe no doubt deterred the older navigators from adding to tlie perils of unknown waters those inseparable from an attempt to penetrate a sea of ice. Nor have the more recent m explorers by sea done much more than their predecessors in this direction. Yet there is enough in the results of their joint labors to excite .strong curiosity, uud a wish to know more. Jt is now a quarter of a century since the last British exploring expedition, under Sir J. Eoss, visited these high southern waters, and since Commodore Wilkes, who has lately made himself notorious by his filibustering proceedings while in command of an United States national vessel, appropriated the labors of others, and reported himself to his Government as the author of discoveries which were* in reality made by his English compeer. These discoveries there is no doubt, wore of the most interestingcharacter. A late chart, indeed, is to a student of geography almost as interesting as the Arabian Nights Entertainments. All round the southern pole, we have land marked and named. Now it is " Graham's -Land," now ' Elephant Island, " or " Sabrina Land," or " Powell's Group," or " Kndorby's Land," or " Palmer's Lan;l," or "'Clarke's Land," or it is " Budd's High Land, or " Totten's High Land," or " North's High Land," or vaguely, it is "high land covered with snow." In some piaces, like " Eepulsc Bay," the approach to the coast is through numberless islands, which arc nameless, but which, by their very number, showed that in the back ground there was land of a. m.oro pro{(mtiou,!} pliaraotpy, In otUorft tho n«vi* pWi ftftflifli pflriwjJMQ vpnlnre too

far from their boats, and finding the mountains too steep to be' lightly essayed, and too distant to be accurately measured, contented themselves with giving to them the distinctive and though certainly not appropriate, name of "Termination Land." It is impossible, in fact, to look nt the chart of the high southern seas, and the sketches of scenery in these latitudes, supplied by the officers of Ross's and Wilkes's exploring expeditions, without longing to penetrate the secret which the high bold broken shores conceal. Here are beetling ice-bound cliffs hundreds of feet in height, forming a massive though broken wall against the great antarctic sea for hundreds of miles together. There are openings which indicate valleys, possibly with rivers in the brief summer — mayhnp with the salmon running up them ns it does in the Columbia or Eraser's River. Here wo know at all events, are seas, islands, and shores as richly tenanted by seals and the w»lruss or sea lion as the Spitsbergen Islands, or those indentations from Duvis's Straits where so many fortunes have been made in the oil trade in fortunate seasons, and where so many "sheer hulks" have left their rotting remains when the ice has suddenly closed in and nipped them long before the approach of winter was expected. Here, in fact, lies v great mystery and n great opportunity. Who is to reveal the secret, and enjoy tho advantage of the chance ? The spirit of inquiry which sent cut Frobishor and his successors never dies — in British breasts at least. But the practical mind of tho Englishman instinctively looks for a " quid pro quo." It' he gives his money to tho exploration of tho seas ho hopes to have some return for it. To ask John Hull to renew the exploration of the Southern Ocean in regions of ico would we fear be in vain. There is a possibility of profit in it, no doubt, but tho South Pole i.s remote from London, and there have been South Sea bubbles Ihiit have not boon profitable. Tho land of tho negroes has been engrossing the attention of explorers ol" late, and till tho identity of the lakes discovered by Captains Spoke and Grant with those known to tho Egyptians in the times when the, Pyramids were not, is ascertained or authoritatively denied, we cannot hope for attention to a question which has no historical or antiquarian air about it, and which is almost purely one of a geographical character, although with its unravelling there is also some question of trade mixed up. If we are, within a reasonable number of years, to discover the secret of the southern polar continent, we must look to ourselves. - And if we look to ourselves, it must be to our whalers. Unluckily theso are confined, so far as Victoria is concerned, to a i'cw coast men, whose enterprise is limited to a whaling" boat or two, uud a station or two along shore, from vshich the sea may be watched in the season, for tho hopeful cry of " there she spouts," to put mettle in the muscles of the men of tho oars. We are gkd to sec, however, that tho Tasmanians, who have always looked more to the sea for their profits than we in this golden colony have done, are giving 1 renewed attention to the business of whale fishing. From that occupation seal fishing may be said to be inseparable ; and though the pursuit of the sperm whale may not bring the Tasmanian whalers into very close proximity to tho southern polar continent, there can be no 'doubt that a rich harvest is to be reaped amongst the seals on the coasts and islands to which we have just been referring. Great efforts are being made iv Ilobart Town at present to lit out a larger fleet than has sailed from the Derwent for whaling and scaling purposes for many years past, and we join with those who are promoting the scheme in commending is it to the attention of the public. There here a most legitimate field for industrial enteipiise — one, indeed which now seems to be incroahing annually in value. But we hope the congenial work of exploration will not be lost sight of in fitting out the fleet which tho people of Ilobart Town are disposed to send to kimi. The two enterprises — discovery and sealing (if not whaling)— can bo* most legitimately combined. The distance of the antarctic continent from Hobarl Town is not great. Scraps of intelligence, voyage after voyage, would fill up the measure of information. Valuable discoveries of minerals might richly reward tho enterprise of the pioneers. Labrador yields the clay which has given us one of the newest of minerals. Tho Southern continent might bo found not less rich in materials valuable in commerce. Here, at all events, is a fiehl^ where exploration i.s desirallc ; aiid if John Bull won't explore it, we must, in one form oranothcr, and before much more time elapses, examine it for ourselves.