The danger and excitement of Antarctic exploration are unmatched in the annals of adventure travel. Antarctica: Exploring the Extreme surveys four centuries and 40 expeditions to Antarctica, recounting, often in the explorers' own words, the wonders and the catastrophes they encountered. Fabulous sights, hair-raising escapes, and macabre deaths from storms and scurvy attended Ferdinand Magellan's 1520 passage through the southern straits and Captain John Biscoe's 1830 Antarctic circumnavigation. Nineteenth-century sealing and whaling expeditions from around the world are chronicled, and Ernest Shackleton's, Roald Amundsen's, and Robert Scott's anguishing trials of body and spirit in their separate struggles to reach the South Pole early in the 20th century are detailed. A final section describes Antarctica today, detailing the wildlife and geology of a region that is drawing an increasing number of visitors who, like the adventurers before them, are fascinated by the isolation, beauty, and challenge of the continent.