Pocsic I. (Beilin, 1891) : an English tvanslation by Johnson in Seven Arabic Poems (London, ISfl"). Such was Antar's renown as a warrior that he becomes the prototype of the hero in the romantic literature of the Arabs. He is the central figure in the most famous of Arab ro- mances, which bears the name Antar and is connnonly ascribed to Al-AsuiaM, who lived in the eighth century. The romance of Antar, however, as known to us, is a compilation which has passed through various hands, and has grad- ually grown to huge proportions. It gives an attractive and faithful picture of Bedouin life, and is rich in epic interest, although too monot- onous to satisfy the taste of the European read- er. A translation of a portion of it into English was made by Hamilton in 1S20 {Aniar: A Bed- ouin h'omanrc. 4 volumes. London). A Diuan or collection of 'iS pfens is also attributed to him. The memory of Antar is also preserved in various ])hK'es of the East which bear his name. Con- sult Goldziher, Globus Ixiv., 65, 67, and Thor- beckc, Aniarah (Leipzig, 1867). The text has been published at TJeirut and Cairo.
ANTARC'TIC CUR'RENT, Lands; Ocean. See A.NTAitcTK- Regiox.
ANTARCTIC RE'GION (Gk. arri, anti,
against, opposite + upitrog, arktos, bear, Ursa
JIajor. the north). The name applied to that
portion of our earth's surface which encircles the
South Pole. Technically and astronoinically it
is boimded by the Antarctic Circle, and although
the Antarctic land masses do not extend much
farther equatorard than this, yet the Antarctic
inlluences extend to very much lower latitudes,
the solid ice fields drifting on nearly all sides
below lat. 60° S., and between the southern ex-
tremities of Africa and South America even
below lat. 50° S. The limit of this drift ice
may be taken as the limit of the Antarctic
region, although the drifting icebergs descend
more than 10° of latitude lower. Thus, the Ant-
arctic region is bounded by the Atlantic, Pacific,
and Indian oceans. The so-called Antarctic con-
tinent lies, however, in the region of the Antarc-
tic circle. It is included in the triangle indi-
cated by Wilkes Land (Victoria Land), and
Enderby Land, in the Eastern Hemisphere, and
Graham Land in the Western Hemisphere.
That all this area is filled in with land is by no
means certain: only sections of coast line have
been seen: no explorer has penetrated into the
interior. That these three bits of coast may be
parts of large isolated islands or archipelagoes
is possible. Some of the evidence which has led
explorers to believe that a continent exists will
be found below. Of these lands the most exten-
sive are Wilkes Land and Graham Land. The
outer edge of the former lies just below the
Antarctic Circle, to the southwa_rd of .ustralia,
ajid extends along over 70° of longitude: but on
its eastern end, between long. 160° and
170°, the coast line, which to the west of it has
been nearly east and west, makes a bend at right
angles toward the south. This reentering stretch
of coast has been explored to almost lat. 80° S.,
and given the name of Victoria Land. It is on
this land that the south magnetic pole is located.
From about long. 170° E. to about long. 120°
W, there is a deep emba^Tiient in the continental
land, and it is within this ice-bound water region
that the highest southern latitude has been at-
tained. There is perhaps — but this is doubted
by certain authorities — an extensive land area at
about long. 110° W. Between long. 75° and
55° W. (in lat. 65° to 68° S.), the second great
known area of Antarctic land, Graham Land, is
found. Between these areas, and on the border
of the ice pack, islands of considerable size have
been discovered, and north of Graham Land sue-
cessivegroupsof islandsextend almost to the six-
tieth parallel. Between Graham Land and En-
derby Land, the ocean again penetrates deep into
the triangle. Vessels have in two instances pen-
etrated the region to the east of Graham Land,
in one case beyond the seventy-fourth parallel.
The remoteness of the Antarctic from the en-
lightened nations of the northern hemisphere has
prevented its exploration to the same extent as
the north polar regions. Cooke ( 1773-76) .Bellings-
hausen (1821), Wcddell (1823), Ross (1842),
Wilkes (1840), d'Urville (1840), the Challen'/er
expedition (1874). de Gerlache (1897-08), and
Borchgrevinck (1890-1900) have been the chief
explorers of this region, but it has also been visit-
ed by many whalers. Ross reached a latitude of,
approximately, 78° 10' S. in 1842, and Borchgre-
vinck by a "dash" over the "ice-barrier in 1900
reached 78° 50'. Since the beginning of the new
century, German, British, Swedish, Norwegian,
and Belgian exploring expeditions have been fur-
ther investigating both the Antarctic lands and
the waters in a more systematic manner than
had been previously undertaken.
Antarctic Lands. The islands and continent surrounding the South Pole of the earth. Reports of recent explorations in the Antarctic region have served as foundations for an hypothesis that there nuist be a considerable continent about the South Pole. The outer edges of this land have been found accessible at a few points, and* it seems to be bordered by nuTuerous low island masses. Of the topography, little is known. Ross in 1842 found that Victoria Land was crossed by mountain ranges, which included volcanic peaks from 7000 to 15.000 feet in height, and Mount Erebus was even then in active eruption. Other active volcanoes to the south of Cape Horn were found and visited by Larsen in 1895. Fragments of continental rocks, such as granite, gneiss, schist, and sandstones, dredged up by various expeditions, the discovery by Larsen of fossil coniferous wood on Seymour Island, and molluscan shells closely resembling lower Tertiary forms that occur in Patagonia, as also the characteristic form and structure of the Antarctic icebergs and the general slope of the oceanic floor — all indicate the existence of extensive land areas around the South Pole. These lands, however, are buried beneath ice sheets of great thickness. Long stretches of the coast are bordered by the fronts of glaciers, and great tongues of ice are projected, sometimes for many miles, into the sea. Ross sailed for about four hundred and fifty miles along a wall of ice more than two hundred feet high: either the sid^ or the face of a glacier. Where the lands are bordered by high mountains, the front of the ice cover is only 10 to 20 feet high, and in many places no land ice comes down to the shore: at Cape Adare, for example, a pebbly beach was found, and the Belgica expedition (1898) made twenty landings on bare rocks. The area of this Antarctic continent, supposing it to include Victoria Land, Wilkes Land, Kemp Land. Enderby Land, Graham Land, and Alexander I. Land, has been roughly estimated at nearly 4,000,000 square
