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Mapping Terra Incognita Royal Geographical Society report, Antarctic Exploration: A Plea for a National Expedition (1898), map by John Murray  The grail of the Antarctic continent having lost its luster, HMS Challenger set forth in 1872 on a scientific mission with no geographic aspirations. Geological evidence that proved the existence of a great southern continent went unremarked, except by biologist John Murray, who hoped to revive the questing spirit that fired Captain Cook. In 1893, his impassioned plea to the Royal Geographical Society in London spurred the British National Antarctic Expedition, led by Captain Robert Falcon Scott. Murray's map, published in the RGS journal in 1894 and in his report of 1898, detailed contemporary knowledge on the brink of the heroic age of exploration.
Claudius Ptolemy (150 AD) | Oronce Finé (1531) Henricus Hondius (1639) | J. Dezauche (1773-75) | James Clark Ross (1845) Royal Geographical Society (1898) | United States Geological Survey (1999) NOVA's Expeditions (1999 & 2000) | Shackleton's Expedition (1914) Surviving Antarctica | Navigating the High Seas | Dispatches Mail | Resources | Classroom Resources | Site Map | Shackleton Home Editor's Picks | Previous Sites | Join Us/E-mail | TV/Web Schedule | About NOVA Watch NOVAs online | Teachers | Site Map | Shop | Search | To Print PBS Online | NOVA Online | WGBH © | Updated February 2002 |
