The Norwegian businessman, shipping magnate and whaling entrepreneur Henrik Johan Bull (1844 1930) led the first expedition to make a confirmed landing on the Antarctic mainland, at Cape Adare, in January 1895. Bull's highly readable account of the expedition, published in 1896, reveals both the scientific and the commercial motivations for early Antarctic exploration. His voyage, financed by Svend Foyn, the inventor of the harpoon gun, was mainly for commercial purposes, to investigate reports of right whales in the Ross Sea. Bull, however, insisted on aiming for Antarctica, despite...