Profiting by the accumulated experience of centuries, the arctic explorers of our day have succeeded in obtaining splendid results. Upon the lessons drawn from the experiences of the ill-fated _Jeannette_ expedition, Nansen, to a great extent, built his plan of drifting across the polar sea. The construction of the _Fram_ also was based upon observations made through ages. Peary is now, with unshaken energy, step by step working his way towards the north pole. Here, what aid and support does he not derive from his predecessors, the English expedition under Nares, of 1875–76, and especially from the expedition of his countryman Greely, of 1881–84, which came to such a tragic end, but which now affords the daring arctic explorer the most valuable assistance by the depot established at Fort Conger and Lady Franklin Bay! And Nature herself lends a helping hand in always leaving the line of retreat open to the arctic explorer. The antarctic explorer, however, is forced to work under far less favourable conditions. Earlier expeditions have, indeed, tried to penetrate far south, but without leaving any material sources of help for their successors. The honour of the earliest acquaintance with the antarctic region belongs to James Cook, who, in 1774, reached as far as to 70° 10′ south latitude, where a stop was put to his progress by compact ice. In 1823 Weddell reached 74° 15′ south latitude, and in 1842 James Clark Ross made the record of farthest south when he arrived at 78° 9′ 5″ south latitude, which, as far as we know, still remains the southernmost point that has been reached. The unexplored region around the north pole only constitutes about five million square kilometres; that around the south pole amounts to between twenty-one and twenty-two million square kilometres, or a tract of land corresponding to more than double the size of Europe. While we have already learned about the arctic winter from the Dutchman William Barents, who passed the winter of 1596 in Nova Zembla, and from many subsequent explorers, the antarctic winter up to our time has remained but a fable. It was the Belgian Antarctic Expedition, led by the Belgian, Lieutenant Adrien de Gerlache, that brought the first information about the south polar night, after spending the winter in the antarctic pack-ice west of Grahamland in 1898–99.