A polished storyteller (and popular lecturer on Antarctic voyages), Gurney weaves remarkable tales of early exploration in this riveting account. Gurney captures the fanfare, ego and discovery of 19th-century polar exploration in a second volume, The Race to the White Continent (ANT136, $15.95), covering the 1837-1842 Antarctic voyages of Dumont d'Urville, James Clark Ross and Charles Wilkes.  (ANT43, $15.95)