Queen Elizabeth II 25th Anniversary Coronation First Day Cover, The British Antarctic Territory postmarked on June 2, 1978.
The British Antarctic Territory
The British Antarctic Territory includes the South Orkney and South Shetland Islands, and the mountainous Antarctic Peninsula. The continental area, for the most part 8000 ft deep in ice, is swept by frequent gales and often has temperatures below -80F.
Antarctica was not always so cold; once forming a part of the vast southern continent of Gondwanaland, it had a temperate climate with forests, swamps and abundant amphibian and reptilian life. But about 70 million years ago, according to fossil evidence, Antarctica broke from Australia, Africa and South America, and extensive glaciation began about 25 million years later. Now the only terrestrial life apart from the seals and penguins includes a few algae, mosses and primitive insects.
The first visit by man to this frozen region was, according to Maori legend, by a Polynesian war canoe in 650 A D., led by Ui-te-Rangiora. Europeans did not suspect the continent's existence for about another millenium, and it was not actually sighted until 1820, when an American sloop came upon the northwest of the Peninsula. In became the first to step ashore, and although Britain claimed the Territory in 1832, the next to land was a Norwegian whaling captain in 1895.
Exploration surged ahead after 1900, with Amundsen and Scott both reaching the pole in 1911; and by the 1920s had spread to the air. Permanent bases have now been established for seismic exploration and other scientific studies which should give a better understanding of the functioning of the environment worldwide.
The Emperor Penguin, shown supporting the BAT shield, is a giant among penguins, growing to a height of 40 inches, and often weighing 90 lbs. It feeds on small fish attracted by the abundance of plankton and krill (small crustaceans), which in turn feed on the sediment swept south by oceanbed currents.
The Black Bull of Clarence shown with the Emperor Penguin in this omnibus issue was inherited by the Duke of Clarence's heir, Edward IV, whose daughter Elizabeth married Henry Tudor. Henry defeated Richard III in battle, becoming Henry VII, first of the Tudor monarchs, and through him the Black Bull came to be one of the Queen's Beasts.
