Since the first appearance of human curiosity, the species has been exploring its surroundings. It's a primitive urge that was born with the realization that horizons are not limits, not boundaries, but penetrable veils which need only to be approached to be forced to retreat and give up its secrets. As the 18th century AD drew to a close, man could barely point a gaze in the direction of the unknown, for he had already walked, populated, and lived there. Mankind's still
intact thirst for the unknown, constricted and caged by the shrinking world it lived in, needed an outlet. And so the self-proclaimed civilized world turned its eye toward a land previously only
seen from ships, a land so inhospitable and inapproachable that it had barely before been ventured upon: Antarctica. As half-frozen men climbed off frozen ships, paper and pencil recorded every exciting, frightening, painful, and occasionally glory-filled moment, revealing
both the landscapes of the continent and the characters of both the authors of the accounts and their companions.
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