Exploring Antarctica

The Questar Video team has produced another winner with this gorgeously filmed introduction to Antarctica. Virtually unknown until the 19th-century, the "white mushroom cap" continent was officially sighted in 1821 (though seal hunters had know about the area for years). But it wasn't until nearly a century later, in 1911, that two expeditions would race across the frozen continent to stake a claim on the South Pole. Britain's Robert F. Scott would arrive at the pole some 32 days after his rival, Norwegian Roald Amundsen, and never return. Using historical photographs and film footage, Exploring Antarctica does an excellent job of recreating those heroic heydays in the early 20th-century. The story of Antarctica's discovery is bookended by the opening section which relates the physical facts about Antarctica's size, composition, and plant and animal life; and the closing, which chronicles the ongoing work of scientists in our time who have gathered from some 34 nations to conduct experiments in this "continent-sized laboratory." A superb documentary on the continent we know the least about. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (Available from: Aylmer Press, P.O. 2735, Madison, WI 53701.)