CHAPTER XLIV

CONCLUSION

The long and glorious story of Arctic discovery is drawing to a close.

Two unknown areas of unequal importance remain. One is the extensive

region now known as Baffin Island, which needs thorough exploration,

and will doubtless receive it from the Dominion Government in due time.

The other is the part known as the Beaufort Sea, a much more extensive

unknown area from Prince Patrick and Baring or Banks Islands westwards

to the Liakhov Island between the 70th and 80th parallels of North

Latitude, and indeed much further to the north. Future explorers have

still before them the problem of the distribution of land and water

over this unknown region. Ever since I collected vestiges of Eskimo

encampments along the shores of the Parry Islands and became convinced

that the wanderers came from the west, I have been inclined to expect

the discovery of land in this area. The description of the ice off the

west coast of Banks Island confirmed me in the belief of a land-locked

sea. Deductions from the additional knowledge furnished by the Nares

Expedition rather shook my belief on some grounds, but the apparent

impossibility, if there is no land, of all the ice over so vast an

ocean escaping between Spitsbergen and Greenland was an argument on

the other side. Professor Spencer and Dr Harris support the view that

there is undiscovered land northward over the Beaufort Sea on grounds

connected with tidal phenomena. Dr Harris’s view is that this land is

of great extent, stretching away far to the north. The existence of

an archipelago, of continental land, or of a continuous ocean is the

problem to be solved--the remaining Arctic achievement of the future.

Impressed with this conviction I read a paper at a meeting of the

Royal Geographical Society on November 13th, 1905, on “The Next Great

Arctic Discovery,” and subsequently Einar Mikkelsen very gallantly

undertook the enterprise, but with inadequate means. He was only able

to show his pluck, energy, and resourcefulness. He made a fine journey

over the ice to the northward of the Alaska coast, and ascertained the

position of the edge of the continental shelf. He encountered a wide

lane of water stopping his return, but at once set to work to contrive

a means of crossing, and succeeded. The difficulties Mikkelsen overcame

by his resourcefulness and the way in which he met disasters proved

that, with funds at his command, he was fitted for the leadership of

a large expedition. At the same time that the gallant young Dane was

struggling with adversity, including the loss of his little vessel,

Mr. Harrison was doing excellent geographical work in the delta of

the Mackenzie River and making himself thoroughly acquainted with the

Eskimo inhabitants. The discovery of this region was later undertaken

by the Government of Canada, but the expedition ended in failure.

We may now look back on all the expeditions, extending over more than

a thousand years, that we have passed in review, and sum up the result

as regards Arctic lands. The islands on the continental shelves and

the bordering continental lands must be regarded as comprising the

whole of the terrestrial Arctic Regions, and geographers should look

upon problems connected with those regions from that point of view. On

the Siberian side the shelf is described to us from careful personal

observation by Nansen. We see the group of New Siberian Islands rising

from it, with their mammoth ivory and cliffs of fossil wood. We then

contemplate the land masses of Novaya Zemlya, Franz Josef Land, and

Spitsbergen rising from the Barentsz and Kara Seas, with the marvellous

tale they tell of the former condition of the region in recent

geological times. Next, on the further side of the great southerly

ice-stream, is the continental mass of Greenland, with its glaciation

only surpassed in grandeur and extent by the Antarctic ice-cap. Then

come the somewhat analogous land masses of Baffin and Ellesmere

Islands, with the separating straits and channels, and finally the

intricate Parry Archipelago to the north of the American continent.

These lands bordering on or rising from the continental shelf form the

Arctic Regions as we know them. But between the Parry Archipelago and

the Siberian shelf there is the vast area in and to the north of the

Beaufort Sea, to which I have just referred and of which we know almost

nothing. Our knowledge of the Arctic regions will remain incomplete

until this area has been discovered and explored.

When we now look back on the history of Arctic enterprise from the

earliest times it is impossible not to be struck with the high

qualities it brought so frequently to light, and the fine record of

courage and endurance it presents for our admiration. The objects have

differed, but there has throughout been the same splendid contempt for

danger and hardship, and the same resourcefulness and habit of quick

decision brought out by the nature of the work on which the explorers

were engaged.

The Norsemen, and afterwards the Danes, have been the colonisers,

undertaking the hardest and most difficult work of all, and they

furnish a record of commercial success and civilising influence on the

natives which places them in the first rank among Arctic labourers in

a hard but fruitful field. Next come the English adventurers seeking

for a shorter route to India by the north-west, the north-east or the

north; and thereafter the period of fishers and trappers, when it was

shown of what immense value were the products of the Arctic regions.

First the Dutch established whale-fisheries in Spitsbergen and Davis

Strait, and then the English who, in the person of Scoresby, combined

commercial profit with scientific research. The labours of these daring

whale-fishers enriched and gave prosperity to numerous communities,

while beginning later, but working contemporaneously, we see the

Hudson’s Bay Company opening up the wilderness, accumulating wealth,

and largely influencing Europeans and natives for good.

The Russians, too, achieved a great work in delineating the whole

northern coast of Siberia. Then came the great era of Ross, Parry, and

Franklin; a time of heroic effort, of vast discoveries, and above all

of the ceaseless training of men in ice-work, the training of men, that

is, alike for science and for war. In this Arctic work we see the

nursery of a Nelson, a Riou, a Nias, a Sherard Osborn, and such men as

Sabine, Beechey, and Foster.

The expeditions in search of Sir John Franklin and his gallant

companions raised Arctic work to the highest plane it has yet attained.

The motive was the highest that has ever actuated polar or any other

discovery, the cause of humanity. Very extensive discoveries were

made and the art of sledge travelling with men was brought nearly to

perfection.

After the completion of the Franklin search and the return of the

Nares expedition, Americans, Norwegians, Swedes, and Austro-Hungarians

stepped in. The best of the American Arctic leaders were Greeley and

De Long, although their expeditions ended in misfortune, for they were

instructed officers, with a strong feeling of responsibility and of the

obligations of duty. The work they did was well done and reliable. The

expeditions of Nordenskiöld and Nansen stand by themselves owing to the

personality of those leaders. The Swede was a man of high scientific

and literary attainments, the Norwegian alike a man of action and a

profound student, an unusual combination. He is endowed with rare

gifts. His ideas almost amounted to prescience, and he was equally

sagacious in working them out to practical conclusions. He drew back

the veil which had concealed the Arctic secret. Although the English

occupy the first place in Arctic discovery, yet it was begun and was

completed by Scandinavians--by Erik the Red and Fridtjof Nansen.

In the history of mankind since the Christian era, the annals of Arctic

discovery occupy a very glorious place. They run like a bright silver

thread through the darker tales of war and crime, for the most part

showing the nobler side of the qualities of our race.

PART II

THE ANTARCTIC REGIONS

CHAPTER XLV

THE GREAT SOUTHERN CONTINENT

The Far South waited much longer for the attention of mankind than the

Arctic regions. Antarctica has had no dwellers on the threshold, no

demigod clearing its circle on Sleipner or any other fabled horse, no

Norsemen daring its icy solitudes, scarcely even a tradition; although

the anonymous Franciscan, in the fourteenth century, when he was in

Prester John’s country, heard that the four rivers of Paradise flowed

from an inaccessible mountain of great height at the south pole[180].

The Antarctic regions were first approached by Europeans by following

the coast line of the continent which stretches furthest south.

Magellan, with that indomitable perseverance which characterised him,

continued, in spite of all difficulties, to force his way south until

he discovered the strait which led him into the Pacific Ocean. After

that it was the contrary winds, driving ships to the south, which led

to further discoveries in an Antarctic direction. The next Spanish

fleet which passed through the Strait after Magellan was under the

command of Garcia Jofre de Loaysa, with Sebastian del Cano as second in

command. Seven vessels sailed from Coruña in 1525, one of the smallest

being the _St Lesmes_, with Francisco de Hozes as captain. This little

craft of 80 tons was blown out of the strait, and driven down as far

south as 55°, sighting land, the eastern end of Staten Island. Adverse

gales also drove Sir Francis Drake to new discoveries. In October,

1578, he thus unintentionally fell in with “the uttermost part of

lands towards the South Pole.” The latitude was 56° S. and “there was

no maine nor iland to be seen to the southwards; the Atlantic Ocean

and the South Sea meeting in a most large and free scope.” Drake

named this southern cape of the island after the great Queen, Cape

Elizabeth, the Cape Horn of the Dutch. Twenty years afterwards another

discovery-causing gale produced results. An expedition of four vessels

and a small pinnace left Holland in June, 1598, under the command of

Jacob Mahu, whose death placed it under Simon de Cordes. The object

was to visit the coasts of Chile and Peru for plunder, and then cross

the Pacific. After leaving the Strait of Magellan all the ships were

scattered. The flag-ship _Hope_ reached Japan in April, 1600, where

the pilot, an Englishman named William Adams, was detained until his

death, though he was able to send home very interesting letters. The

little pinnace of 18 tons named _Blijde Boodschap_ (_Good News_) was

driven down to 64° S., where her Captain, Dirk Gerritsz, saw “high

land with mountains covered with snow, like the land of Norway[181].”

M. Gerlache has named the islands which he discovered, and which, with

Graham Land form the Gerlache channel--“Dirk Gerritsz Archipelago,”

for his latitude shows that this was possibly the land he sighted.

Returning northwards in search of his consorts, Dirk Gerritsz put

into Valparaiso, where his ship was taken by the Spaniards and he was

wounded. He was sent a prisoner to Lima, but news of his proceedings

reached Holland, though not of his fate.

On June 14th, 1615, an expedition left Holland apparently with the

object of finding a way to the Pacific to the south of Magellan’s

Strait. Willem Cornelisz Schouten of Hoorn commanded the _Eendracht_

of 220 tons, with Jacob le Maire, a son of the owner, as principal

merchant. In January, 1616, Schouten discovered the strait between

Tierra del Fuego and an island which he named Staaten Island. The

strait was named after Le Maire. He thought the island was part of

the Antarctic Continent. On the 29th the most southern land was

sighted--the Cape Elizabeth of Drake--and named Cape Horn. When

the Spanish Government heard of these proceedings they fitted out

an expedition to verify the Dutch discoveries. It consisted of two

caravels commanded by two brothers named Nodal. They carried out their

instructions with ability and success from September, 1618 to July,

1620, passing through the Strait of Le Maire, rounding Cape Horn, and

being the first to circumnavigate Tierra del Fuego. They gave the name

of San Ildefonso to Cape Horn. Moreover they got still nearer to the

Antarctic regions, discovering rocks in 56° 31′ 8″, fifty-seven miles

S.W. of Cape Horn, which they named Diego Ramirez after their pilot.

[Illustration: Ortelius’ Map of the World]

While the explorers, by the action of adverse gales, were thus

painfully making discoveries in the far south, the map-makers were

presenting geographical students with a vast southern continent. In the

map of the world by Ortelius (Antwerp, 1570) the outline of this “Terra

Australis” is carried round the world as far north, in some places, as

the tropic of Capricorn. Australia is included in it, but New Guinea is

an island. There is the mysterious gold-yielding province called Beach,

on a peninsula near Java Minor. In the G. de Jode’s map of 1578, New

Guinea is made part of Terra Australis. Mercator, in his Duisburg map

of 1587, has the Beach province and Java Minor, following Ortelius. The

map of 1589 makes New Guinea an island again. The southern continent

is shown in the same way on the Molyneux globe. The Mercator Atlas,

published by Hondius at Amsterdam in 1623, represents the Terra

Australis in the same way as Ortelius, as does the Hexham Atlas, even

after the return of Schouten and Le Maire. All these maps treat Tierra

del Fuego as a promontory of the great Terra Australis. This vast

continent of the map-makers originated in some idea that the amount of

land in the two hemispheres should balance each other. Its effect was,

on the whole, useful, for it led to a desire among men of action to

look for and discover the unknown land, and it is always a good thing

when anyone undertakes to look for anything.

It was while serving with Mendaña, in his second voyage, that Pedro

Fernandez de Quiros conceived his grand project, after studying

and pondering over the maps of the world with their great southern

continent. He thought that here might be a discovery as famous as

that achieved by Columbus or Da Gama. After long waiting he at length

obtained an order from Philip III to the Viceroy of Peru, to fit

out an expedition with himself in command, for the discovery of the

Antarctic continent. Quiros proceeded to Lima in 1603, but it was two

years before the two small vessels were equipped and ready for sea.

The plan of Quiros was to steer E.S.E. from Callao until he reached

the latitude of 30° S., when he fully expected to have arrived at the

southern continent shown on the maps. He continued on this course from

December 21st to January 22nd, when he was in 26° S. There was a great

swell from the south, and the men became alarmed. Quiros then came to

the unlucky resolution of altering course to E.N.E. His excuse was that

the crew were mutinous and that he was ill in bed. If he had gone on he

would have discovered New Zealand. Thus ended, rather ignominiously,

the first intended Antarctic voyage. Quiros discovered the New

Hebrides, and his second in command finally separated Australia from

New Guinea by discovering Torres Strait, but the Antarctic project came

to an end.

About this time there was a Memorial written by a Chilean lawyer named

Juan Luis Arias, on the discovery of an antarctic continent and the

conversion of its inhabitants. This Memorial contains the statement

that Juan Fernandez, the navigator who discovered the quickest route

from Callao to Valparaiso, led an expedition from Chile which

discovered the coast of the southern continent, landed on it, and had

communication with the natives. But the story is not authentic[182].

More than a century passed without any further thought of the reputed

continent round the antarctic pole. In 1675 an English merchant named

Anthony La Roche, returning from the South Pacific, discovered the land

to which Captain Cook afterwards gave the name of South Georgia. In

1738, the French East India Company sent two vessels under the command

of Captain Lozier Bouvet to discover a peninsula in the South Atlantic

said to form part of the southern continent. Bouvet sighted land in 54°

S. and 11° E., but did not ascertain whether it was a peninsula or an

island. He called it Cap Circoncision[183].

Hitherto the discoveries in the far south had for the most part been

accidental, and there had only been one real antarctic expedition, that

of Quiros, which too soon altered course from south, hesitating near

the threshold, and met with failure in consequence.

CHAPTER XLVI

CAPTAIN COOK--BELLINGSHAUSEN

It was a bright page in English history when our Government awoke to

its duties in taking a lead in discovery. In the instructions, dated

June 17th, 1764, to Commodore Byron, who was despatched to the Pacific

in that year, that duty is recognised in a very noble passage:--

Whereas nothing can redound more to the honour of this nation as

a maritime power, to the dignity of the crown of Great Britain,

and to the advancement of the trade and navigation thereof than

to make discoveries of countries hitherto unknown; and whereas

there is reason to believe that lands and islands of great extent,

hitherto unvisited by any European Power may be found, His Majesty,

conceiving no conjuncture so proper for an enterprise of this

nature as a time of profound peace, which his kingdoms at present

happily enjoy, has thought fit that it should now be undertaken.

In this spirit our Government resolved to despatch an expedition

with the object of deciding the question of the existence of a great

southern continent such as had long been delineated on maps of the

world. Two vessels built at Whitby, the _Resolution_ (462 tons) and

_Adventure_ (336 tons) were selected, and carefully fitted out at

Woolwich and Deptford with great store of antiscorbutics. Captain Cook

received his appointment on November 28th, 1771, with Captain Furneaux

as his second, on board the _Adventure_. Cook had with him two of the

Lieutenants who were in his first voyage, Clerke and Pickersgill.

Another Lieutenant, James Burney, was the future Admiral and author of

_Voyages to the South Sea_[184]. One of the midshipmen, Vancouver, was

the future explorer and surveyor of the north-west coast of America.

Johann Reinhold Forster and his son were appointed as naturalists, and

the Board of Longitude sent Mr Wales to make astronomical observations.

The Board also supplied four chronometers, three by Arnold, and one

by Kendall on Harrison’s principle[185]. This was the first British

Antarctic Expedition.

On November 22nd, 1772, the expedition left the Cape with the object

of examining the edge of the ice between that meridian and that of New

Zealand. The course was south, the two vessels keeping company, and

after some very severe weather the first iceberg was sighted on the

10th December in Lat. 50° 20′ 3″ and 2° east of the Cape. On the 14th,

after passing many icebergs, the edge of the pack ice was reached.

The 17th January, 1773, was a memorable day, for in the forenoon the

Antarctic Circle was crossed for the first time in the history of

civilised man, in 39° 35′ E. The latitude at noon was 66° 36′ 30″ S.,

and in the evening 30 icebergs were in sight, and much sailing ice.

Captain Cook perseveringly continued to examine the edge of the ice for

many days, until on March 26th, 1773, after being 122 days at sea and

sailing over 3660 leagues, but never once sighting land, Dusky Bay in

New Zealand was reached.

Tahiti and other islands were then visited, and on November 26th,

1773, the _Resolution_ left New Zealand to resume her Antarctic work.

On December 14th she was among icebergs and loose ice in 64° 55′ S.

and 163° 20′ W. Captain Cook continued his course to the south and on

the 20th December crossed the Antarctic Circle for the second time,

surrounded by icebergs and loose pack, with very thick weather. On the

26th the sea was dotted with more than 300 bergs. A closely-packed mass

of ice, extending east and west as far as could be seen, was reached on

the 30th January, 1774. Captain Cook counted 97 ice hills within the

pack, many of them very large, and looking like a ridge of mountains

rising one above another until they were lost in the clouds. Cook adds

that a mile within the pack there was solid ice in one continuous

compact body, rather low and flat, but seeming to increase in height as

it was traced to the south, in which direction it extended beyond their

sight. The latitude was 71° 10′ S., longitude 106° 54′ W.

Cook did not believe that it would have been impossible to force a way

through this pack, but he thought that it would not be justifiable to

take a ship like the _Resolution_ into such danger. He therefore shaped

a northern course from this point, arriving at Easter Island on the

11th March, 1774.

After making numerous important discoveries during the rest of the year

1774, the great navigator left New Zealand on November 10th and the

_Resolution_ sailed across the South Pacific, making for Cape Horn. On

the 19th of December they anchored in a bay on the south-west coast

of Tierra del Fuego, called Christmas Sound. On the 28th they resumed

their voyage, rounded Cape Horn, passed through the Strait of Le Maire,

and sailed along the north coast of Staten Island, of which Cook wrote

an interesting account. On the 15th January, 1775, land was sighted in

latitude 54°, consisting of some small islands to which the name of

South Georgia was given. On the 31st another discovery was made, which

received the name of Sandwich Land. The Cape was reached on March 21st.

The expedition arrived at Portsmouth in July, 1775.

Captain Cook had made the circuit of the southern ocean in a high

latitude, and had entirely swept away the vast and imaginary Terra

Australis of the map-makers. He was, however, of opinion that there

was continental land of great extent nearer the pole, and that he had

seen part of it when he was at his extreme south. He was thus the

first to see land within the Antarctic Circle. It was also his belief

that the antarctic continent extended furthest to the north opposite

the southern Atlantic and Indian Oceans owing, for one reason, to the

greater degree of cold. In this he was quite correct.

* * * * *

Many years passed before any further attempts at geographical

discovery were made in this region. At length, however, the Russian

Government, in July, 1819, sent an expedition to the southern seas,

consisting of two vessels, the _Vostak_ under Captain Bellingshausen,

commander of the expedition, and the _Mirnyi_ under Captain Lazareff.

Bellingshausen, like Cook, made the circuit of the southern ocean in

high latitudes. He reached the edge of the pack in 69° 30′, and in

March, 1820, arrived at Van Diemen’s Land. In October of the same year

he again sailed and kept to a high latitude, between 60° and 67°,

in the South Pacific. In January 1821 he reached 70°, his furthest

south, in Long. 92° 10′ W. a short distance to the eastward of Cook’s

furthest, but not so far south. On the 11th of this month he discovered

an island in 69° S. and 91° W., nine miles long and apparently of very

considerable altitude, but he was a long way off. He named it Peter

Island. The discovery is important as indicating the extension of the

continental shelf to that point. Alexander Land was sighted further

east, in the same high latitude, but at a distance of 40 miles. In

July, 1821, Bellingshausen’s expedition returned to Cronstadt.

CHAPTER XLVII

THE SOUTH SHETLANDS. FOSTER--WEDDELL

Discovery south from Patagonia made very slow progress. After three

hundred years knowledge had only reached Cape Horn, the rocks of Diego

Ramirez, and the distant view of land in 64° seen by Dirk Gerritsz. His

discovery, granting the latitude, must have been the string of islands

near the north-west coast of Graham Land. At last a vessel on her

way from Monte Video to Valparaiso was, like the _Good News_ of Dirk

Gerritsz, driven far to the south. This was a brig called the _Williams

of Blythe_, commanded by Captain William Smith. She was in 61° S. when

land was sighted in February, 1819, and in a subsequent voyage, in

October, Captain Smith entered a bay, named by him George’s Bay, in one

of the largest of a group of islands. The group lay between 61° and 63°

S. and 54° and 63° W. A chart was drawn by William H. Goddard, no doubt

one of Captain Smith’s officers, and the group was named the South

Shetlands. There were twelve islands reported and innumerable rocks.

A channel over 300 miles in width separates the South Shetlands from

Tierra del Fuego.

When Captain Smith arrived at Valparaiso in November 1819, he

found there the senior officer, Captain Shirreff, R.N., of H.M.S.

_Andromache_. Captain Shirreff took a great interest in the discovery

of the South Shetlands, and it was agreed that the discoverer should

take Mr Bransfield, the Master of the _Andromache_, with three other

officers[186] and some bluejackets to carry out an extensive survey.

The agreement was dated December 16th, 1819; and Mr Bransfield received

full instructions for his guidance in making a survey of the newly

discovered land. The _Williams of Blythe_, with the naval surveyors,

arrived at George’s Bay on the 16th of January, 1820. The season was

late, but Mr Bransfield surveyed the islands discovered by Smith and

got as far south as 63°. He returned to Valparaiso May 27th[187].

[Illustration: Graham Land and South Shetlands]

The South Shetlands were the breeding grounds of immense numbers of fur

seals, and the news of this wealth spread with incredible rapidity,

so that in the very next year there were from 30 to 50 American

sealing vessels among the islands, altering Captain Smith’s names, and

committing ruthless destruction. The pitiless slaughter could have but

one result and in two or three years the fell work was done--the seals

were practically exterminated. Fanning[188], the historian of these

voyages, tells us that the objects were sealing and discovery, but

there can be little doubt which was the preponderating motive. It is

much to be regretted that there was no authority to keep within some

bounds the cupidity of the sealers. In two years 320,000 fur seals had

been destroyed, besides at least 100,000 young, owing to the loss of

their mothers.

In 1821, the American Captains Pendleton, Williams, Dunbar, and Palmer

were at work. The volcano on Deception Island was found to be active,

and some islands to the S.W. were discovered, not including Trinity

Island of the Admiralty Charts, which has been called Palmer Island,

in 63° 25′ S. and 57° 55′ W. Trinity Land is on Bransfield’s chart.

Captain Palmer continued to make sealing voyages until 1829. The South

Orkney Islands were discovered by the English sealing captain Powell in

1820.

In 1829 Captain Foster came to the South Shetlands in the course of his

scientific voyage, with the object of taking pendulum observations,

which occupied him for two months[189]. He also explored the volcano on

Deception Island. This very distinguished scientific Arctic officer,

born in 1796, began his career in the _Conway_ under Captain Basil

Hall. He was with Clavering on the east coast of Greenland, with Parry

in his third voyage, and also surveying in Spitsbergen in 1827, and

his observations were so meritorious that he was elected F.R.S.,

and received the Copley Medal. He commissioned the _Chanticleer_ in

1827 for pendulum observations and other scientific work, and made

an excellent survey of Staten Island, and some of the South Shetland

Islands. He was accidentally drowned in the river Chagres in 1831,

and a monument was erected to his memory in the church of his native

village, Woodplumpton. Some officers were serving on board the

_Chanticleer_ with Captain Foster who were afterwards well known in the

service, Austin the Commodore of the chief Franklin search expedition,

Collinson, leader of another search expedition and Deputy Master of the

Trinity House, and Kendall the eminent surveyor[190]. Dr Webster, the

surgeon, wrote the narrative of the voyage of the _Chanticleer_.

Thus was discovery in the direction of the Antarctic regions, on the

South American meridians, slowly prosecuted, and the South Shetland

Islands were an important step in advance. But they are north of the

Antarctic Circle, and thus do not strictly speaking come within the

range of this book, belonging rather to the geography of South America.

The first Antarctic voyage after the return of Bellingshausen

penetrated much further to the south, under a very able leader. James

Weddell was born in London (or Ostend?) August 24th, 1787, and his

father, who was a working upholsterer, died soon after James was born.

The boy was bound apprentice in a Newcastle collier, and afterwards

made several voyages in a West Indiaman until 1808, when having got

into trouble owing to a disagreement with his captain, which resulted

in his knocking the latter down, he was sent on board H.M.S. _Rainbow_.

Here he was rated a midshipman. He read much, carefully studied

navigation, and in 1810 was appointed Master of the _Firefly_, and

later of the _Thalia_. In 1812 he was appointed to the brig _Avon_

under Commander George (afterwards Sir George) Sartorius. After 1814 he

was for three years on half pay. Sir George Sartorius spoke of Weddell

as one of the most efficient and trustworthy officers he had met with

in the course of his professional life.

In 1822 Mr Strachan of Leith engaged Captain Weddell to conduct a

sealing adventure in the Antarctic seas in the brig _Jane_ of Leith,

160 tons, with a crew of 22 officers and men. The cutter _Beaufoy_ of

London, 65 tons, 13 officers and men, was to be her consort, commanded

by Matthew Brisbane.

Sailing from the Downs on the 17th September, 1822, Weddell proceeded

direct for the Antarctic ice, and on January 12th, 1823, he was in

sight of the east end of the South Orkneys. He landed there on the 15th

and secured 116 sea leopard skins. Still sailing south, Weddell found

himself on the 7th February among many icebergs, one of them two miles

long and 250 feet high. He crossed the Antarctic Circle, and on the

14th, in Long. 68° 28′ W., there were 66 icebergs in sight. The current

was flowing N. 58° E., 27 miles in four days. But on February 16th, in

70° 26′ S. the sea was smooth and the bergs had nearly disappeared.

In 72° 33′ S. there was not a particle of ice to be seen. Weddell’s

furthest south was attained on the 20th February 1823, in 74° 15′ S.

and 34° 16′ W. There were three icebergs in sight, many whales, and

innumerable birds, and it was very clear weather. The sea received the

name of “King George IV his Sea.” In returning, Weddell met with less

ice in 65° S. in the end of February than he did in the end of January.

On the 12th March he sighted South Georgia (54° 2′) and anchored in

Adventure Bay.

It should be remembered that Weddell was only incidentally a

discoverer, and that his business was sealing. His age was 35 when he

reached his furthest south. He continued to command merchant vessels,

and in May, 1831, in the _Eliza_, he gave assistance to Biscoe in

Tasmania. He died unmarried on September 9th, 1834, in Norfolk Street,

Strand, in very straitened circumstances. In 1839 Weddell’s portrait

was presented to the Royal Geographical Society by Mr John Brown, the

author of a work on the search for Sir John Franklin. Captain Weddell

was a fine specimen of a courageous and thoroughly efficient British

seaman.

CHAPTER XLVIII

ENDERBY AND HIS CAPTAINS: BISCOE--KEMPE--BALLENY

Charles Enderby is a name which should ever receive honour from

geographers. Though engaged in the Antarctic sealing trade, his

captains always had orders to pay as close attention to geographical

research and discovery as their work permitted them, and he was well

served in this respect by the able navigators in his employment. Mr

Enderby was for ten years on the Council of the Royal Geographical

Society, and was an old and respected friend of the present writer.

The most important Enderby voyages of discovery were under the command

of Captain John Biscoe, who, like Weddell, was a naval officer. He

left the Falkland Islands in 1830 in a brig named the _Tula_, with the

cutter _Lively_, Captain Avery, in company, steering south, and before

the end of December he was amongst pack ice and bergs. On December

29th he was off the Sandwich Land of Cook, which he was instructed to

visit; but no vestige of seal or sea elephant could be found. Biscoe,

therefore, continued his voyage. On the 21st of January, 1831, he

crossed the Antarctic Circle. By the 25th February the _Tula_ was in

66° 8′ S. and 43° 54′ W. In the morning there was appearance of land,

in the intervals of snow squalls, with many bergs and ice fields round

the ship. The icebergs became innumerable, and there was a strong N.E.

swell. Captain Biscoe considered that he could proceed no further with

safety. The land appeared to be like the North Foreland, the cliffs

being about the same height, probably ice cliffs resting on land. From

the fore top Captain Biscoe, with a good glass, could trace the coast

for 30 or 40 miles. He made an effort to reach the land in a boat, but

the ice was too closely packed. On February 28th, the latitude being

66° 7′ S., longitude 49° 6′ E., high land was again sighted, with

black peaks rising above the snow. For two days an attempt was made

to reach it. Biscoe named a clearly seen point Cape Ann, in 65° 25′ S.

and 49° 18′ E. Next day a furious gale was encountered, lasting without

intermission until the 8th of March. These gales were frequent, and

scurvy broke out among the crew. In April only one man, one boy, the

two mates, and Biscoe himself were able to stand, so it was thought

advisable to shape a course for New Zealand. The newly discovered land

received the name of Enderby Land.

The _Tula_ reached the Derwent river in Tasmania, and luckily found the

_Eliza_, Captain Weddell, at anchor. The veteran Antarctic navigator

at once sent a boat’s crew to moor the _Tula_ and the sufferers from

scurvy were all sent to the hospital.

On October 10th, 1831, the _Tula_ and her consort sailed from Tasmania,

and continued their voyage of discovery. Biscoe’s plan, in crossing the

South Pacific, was to pass over Captain Cook’s track, and seek for land

W.S.W. of the South Shetlands. On the 15th February, 1832, in Lat. 67°

15′ S., Long. 69° 29′ W., land was sighted at a distance of about three

miles. Biscoe named the island after Queen Adelaide. He wrote:--

It has a most imposing and beautiful appearance, having one very

high peak running up into the clouds., occasionally appearing both

above and below them. One third of the mountains, which are about 4

miles in extent from north to south, have only a thin scattering of

snow over their summits. Towards the base the other two thirds are

buried in a field of snow and ice of the most dazzling whiteness.

This bed of snow and ice is about four miles in extent, and slopes

gradually down to cliffs 10 or 12 feet high; it is split in every

direction, for at least 2 or 300 yards from its edge inwards, and

appears to form icebergs, only waiting for some severe gales or

other cause to break them adrift and put them in motion.

During the following days distant high mountains were in sight, and

the _Tula_ passed several islands. On the 19th February a small island

in 65° 20′ S. and 66° 38′ W. was more closely examined, and named Pitt

Island. On the 21st Biscoe went away in a boat, and explored a deep

inlet of the mainland. He named the highest mountain after the king,

Mount William, in 64° 45′ S., and the second highest Mount Moberly,

after one of his old captains. On the 3rd March the _Tula_ and her

cutter were safely anchored in New Plymouth, South Shetland.

The new discovery received the name of Graham Land after the First

Lord of the Admiralty. It was an island or long promontory with a

lofty mountain range occupying its interior, extending from an unknown

distance in the Antarctic regions across the circle, and far into the

south temperate zone.

Very severe weather was encountered at the South Shetlands, and the

_Tula_ was in great danger, but she arrived safely at Berkeley Sound in

the Falkland Islands on April 29th, 1832, with a cargo of sea-elephant

skins.

Another of Enderby’s captains named Kempe, on board the _Magpie_ in

1832, sighted land to the eastward of Enderby Land, which has been

named Kempe Land, but no journal or report has been preserved.

Enderby was not discouraged by some losses, and in 1838 he determined,

in conjunction with some other merchants, to send another expedition

to the south. The captain had special instructions to push as far

south as possible in hopes of discovering land in a high southern

latitude. There were two vessels, the schooner _Eliza Scott_ of 154

tons, commanded by John Balleny, and the cutter _Sabrina_, H. Freeman,

Master. We have the narratives of Captain Balleny, and of John McNab,

second mate of the _Eliza Scott_. On the 3rd December the two little

vessels anchored in Chalky Bay, at the S.W. extremity of the middle

island of New Zealand; and on the 7th January, 1839, they proceeded

on their Antarctic voyage. Running southwards through pack ice and

amongst bergs, they had reached 68° S. by the 2nd February. On the 9th

land was sighted in 66° 37′ S. and the captain soon made out three

islands. Next day Balleny stood towards the land, and made out high

perpendicular cliffs, but was prevented from a nearer approach by the

ice. The observed latitude was 66° 22′ S. In the evening of the 12th

Captains Balleny and Freeman approached the shore in the cutter’s boat.

The cliffs were perpendicular, the gullies filled with ice, and smoke

was seen to be rising from the mountain peaks. Freeman jumped out

and picked up a few stones, but there was no beach and he was up to

his waist in water. The group consisted of five islands, three large

and two small, the highest, called Young Island, rising to a peak to

which the name of Freeman was given, this being the island on which

he landed. The five islands were given the names of the five merchants

who co-operated with Enderby in the venture--Young, Borradaile, Buckle,

Sturge, and Row. The whole group was named the Balleny Islands.

Captain Balleny then steered westward near the Antarctic Circle,

encountering severe weather and much ice. In the night of March 4th the

two little vessels were in a hazardous position, surrounded by icebergs

in thick weather, with severe snow squalls which compelled them to

heave to. On March 2nd in 64° 58′ S. and 121° 8′ E. they sighted land

to the southward, the vessels being surrounded by drift ice. The land

was seen both by Balleny and by McNab the second mate, who thought

it was not more than one mile to windward. It received the name of

Sabrina Land. The appearance of land was again seen on March 3rd. The

fixed character of the ice to the south showed the proximity of land of

considerable extent.

This voyage of the _Eliza Scott_ and _Sabrina_ is very remarkable.

That such tiny little vessels should have passed along that dangerous

coast, amidst fogs and snow squalls, in imminent danger of collision

with bergs and heavy drift ice on all sides, speaks volumes for the

seamanlike skill, watchfulness, and nerve of the navigators. They must

be credited with the discovery of a third part of the coast of the

southern continent.

Great credit is also due to Mr Enderby, the patriotic promoter of

the expeditions which carried out this hazardous work. The discovery

of Graham Land, of three points of the north coast of the Antarctic

continent--Enderby Land, Kempe Land, and Sabrina Land, and of the

Balleny Islands, is due to the enterprise and perseverance of one who

may justly take rank with the merchant adventurers of the days of the

great Queen.

CHAPTER XLIX

DUMONT D’URVILLE AND WILKES

In the year 1840 there were two exploring expeditions in the Pacific,

a French and an American, and the commissions of both were drawing to

a close. Both, however, intended to make runs towards the Antarctic

Circle before returning home. Captain Dumont D’Urville had two ships,

the _Astrolabe_ and the _Zélée_, Com. Jacquinot, under his command.

When he sailed southward from Hobart Town on January 1st, 1840, his

intention was only to make a new exploration along the edge of the pack

ice. Icebergs were first encountered on the 16th January, and on the

19th as many as 59 were counted round the ships. Their perpendicular

walls towered over the masts, and the spectacle was at once grand and

terrifying. D’Urville imagined himself in the narrow streets of a city

of giants. Having threaded his way among the icebergs, he found the

newly-discovered land only a few miles distant, covered with snow, and

rising to a height of 6000 feet. D’Urville sailed along the coast to

the westward, noticing some projecting headlands and shallow bays, but

always faced by an ice wall which rendered all landing impossible. Some

bare islets were seen, and each ship sent a boat towards them with two

officers, MM. Duroch and Dubourget. After two hours’ hard pulling the

boats reached one of the islets and the observers landed, collected

rock specimens, and hoisted the French flag. The islet was one of a

group of eight or ten, separated from the nearest coast by rather less

than a mile.

Dumont D’Urville gave the name of Adélie to the newly-discovered land,

and Cape Découverte to a promontory sighted in the morning.

For some days the French corvettes encountered a furious gale while

surrounded by icebergs, and were in considerable danger, but the wind

moderated and on January 30th they came in sight of an ice cliff,

varying in height from 100 to 150 feet, and forming a long line

westwards. D’Urville gave it the name of the Côte Clarie.

The French expedition bade a final farewell to the polar regions on

February 1st, 1840, and returned to Hobart Town. Important discoveries

had been made, officers and men all vieing with each other in zeal and

loyalty. It was a well conducted and successful voyage.

Dumont D’Urville had also previously surveyed part of the South

Shetlands in 1838. He passed Clarence and Elephant Islands and, sailing

down Bransfield Strait, discovered the north end of Graham Land without

knowing it, which he named after Louis Philippe. An island to the east

was named after the Prince de Joinville. He also saw a channel with the

coast of Graham Land on one side, and Trinity with other islands on the

other. To this he gave the name Orleans Channel.

* * * * *

The American expedition was commanded by Captain Wilkes, its object

being chiefly to explore the Pacific, in a voyage of circumnavigation.

Captain Wilkes concluded it with a visit to the edge of the ice south

of Australia, following in the wake of Captain Balleny and also of

Captain Dumont D’Urville.

The American squadron consisted of the _Vincennes_, Captain Wilkes,

the _Porpoise_, _Peacock_, and _Flying Fish_ tender. The tender parted

company in 48° S. and went back. The _Peacock_ also returned owing to

severe injuries received from the ice. The _Vincennes_ and _Porpoise_

continued the voyage and on the 16th January they were at the edge of

the ice, nearly on the Antarctic Circle and in 154° 30′ E. Here land

was reported by the _Porpoise_ “mountains seen”; “two peaks distinctly

seen, very clear, few clouds.” Wilkes saw some land himself, and called

it Ringgold’s Knoll. Land was also visible from the _Vincennes_, “every

appearance of land, believed to be such by all on board.” All this was

nevertheless a mistake, due to the deceptive appearance of ice and

clouds.

In 1850 Captain Tapsell, in a sealer called the _Brisk_, sighted the

Balleny Islands and then sailed west to Long. 143° E., finding no land.

It is now known that the coast trends S.E. from Adélie Land, and could

not possibly have been sighted from Wilkes’s position. Wilkes reported

having sighted land or appearance of land 3000 feet high several times,

seen over the fast ice, and he was within a few miles of a coast beyond

Sabrina Land, which he called Knox Land. He then stood to the north and

reported land ahead trending north in 64°, which he called Termination

Land, but we now know that this does not exist.

Captain Wilkes’s theory has been proved to be quite correct--that there

is a continuous land forming a coast-line of 2000 miles and more,

and he certainly made out the distant land on several occasions, as

Balleny and Dumont D’Urville had done before him, but his subsequent

controversies are to be deplored.

CHAPTER L

FIRST ANTARCTIC VOYAGE OF SIR JAMES ROSS

The great Antarctic expedition commanded by Sir James Ross had magnetic

research and not geography for its immediate object. It originated

with Colonel Sabine, who read a paper on terrestrial magnetism at the

meeting of the British Association at Newcastle in August, 1838, which

led to a deputation being nominated to approach the Government. The

deficiency in our knowledge of terrestrial magnetism in the southern

hemisphere, it was considered, should be supplied by observations of

magnetic direction and intensity in high southern latitudes between

the meridians of New Holland[191] and Cape Horn, and Her Majesty’s

Government was urged to appoint a naval expedition expressly directed

to that object.

Lord Melbourne acceded to the request, and Sir James Ross received

his commission to command the expedition on the 8th April, 1839.

The _Erebus_, a bomb vessel of 370 tons, strongly built and with a

capacious hold, was selected for Sir James Ross, and the _Terror_, of

340 tons, a similar vessel which had been thoroughly repaired after her

disastrous voyage with Sir George Back, was chosen for Ross’s second in

command, Commander Crozier. The complement of each ship amounted to 64

persons.

The officers were not only thoroughly efficient; there were among them

men who were distinguished in their profession and whose record is

worthy of remembrance. Sir James Ross was by far the most experienced

Arctic officer then living. He had passed through no less than nine

Arctic winters and seventeen navigable seasons, was the most eminent

magnetic observer next to Sabine, an admirable collector, and an

unequalled navigator. Crozier was his old friend and messmate in the

Arctic regions, and was also a practised magnetic observer.

The first Lieutenants were worthy to serve under such men. Lieutenant

Bird of the _Erebus_, son of the Rev. Godfrey Bird, Rector of Little

Witham, was a distinguished Arctic officer, highly thought of by

Parry as well as by Ross. Knowing his work thoroughly he was steady,

reliable, and calm in moments of danger. As a midshipman he had seen

service at the blockade of Brest and the battle of Algiers. Archibald

M’Murdo of the _Terror_, grandson of Major M’Murdo, the friend of the

poet Burns, was an officer of more than ordinary ability, whose brother

Sir Herbert was equally distinguished as a soldier, and as the right

hand of Sir Charles Napier in Sind. Archibald served in the _Blonde_

with Sir Edmund Lyons in the operations against the Turks in the Morea,

and later in the _Alligator_ under Captain Lambert in the East Indies

and New Zealand. He was promoted in 1836 for his intrepidity and skill

in recovering a crew of wrecked whalers from the clutches of the

Maoris. He served in the disastrous voyage of the _Terror_ with Sir

George Back, who had a very high opinion of his capacity, and he was

first Lieutenant of that ship until ill health obliged him to return

home. He afterwards commanded the _Contest_ on the coast of Africa,

became a Rear-Admiral, and died in December, 1875.

Of the other Lieutenants John Sibbald was a steady, capable officer,

and Wood a good surveyor. Phillips of the _Terror_, a very active

enthusiastic officer, was a good seaman, and a man of ability and sound

sense. He afterwards showed those qualities in the Arctic regions under

Sir John Ross, when I knew him well.

Of the Mates, Oakley was a good observer and a useful young officer,

and Alexander Smith was well known to Sir James Ross, having served

under him in Davis Strait, on board the _Cove_. Moore was a young

officer endowed with no ordinary ability, energy, and tact. He

commanded the _Pagoda_ afterwards, when she was sent south to complete

some of Ross’s magnetic work. In command of the _Plover_ he made a boat

voyage to Cape Barrow; he became a Rear Admiral, Fellow of the Royal

Society, and Governor of the Falkland Islands 1855–62. He died in 1870.

Dr M^cCormick and Dr Robertson undertook the geology and zoology.

M^cCormick, enthusiastic, energetic, and tireless, had been

Assistant-Surgeon in the _Hecla_ with Sir Edward Parry. Afterwards he

commanded a boat to examine the western side of Wellington Channel in

1852 during the Franklin search. In his old age Dr M^cCormick published

an interesting narrative of his three polar voyages, and was quite

indefatigable in helping and advising us when we were fitting out for

the search expedition in 1850. Dr Robertson of the _Terror_ was equally

hard working, but not so excitable and sensitive. He was afterwards

Surgeon of the _Enterprise_ with Sir James Ross in the first Franklin

search expedition.

Of the Assistant-Surgeons, Sir Joseph Hooker, though then a very young

man, was already a skilled botanist. He was a most valuable member

of the expedition, and his future eminence had some of its roots

within the Antarctic circle. His colleague Dr Lyall of the _Terror_, a

zealous botanist, was a scientific student of rare ability and had a

distinguished career. He was afterwards naturalist of the _Acheron_,

New Zealand surveying ship from 1847 to 1852, then surgeon of the

_Pembroke_ during the Russian war, and afterwards of the _Plumper_,

surveying ship in the North Pacific. He was surgeon of the _Assistance_

in the Arctic expedition of 1852–54, and made a valuable collection of

plants in Wellington Channel. Dr Lyall, after a very useful career,

died as a Deputy Inspector, on the 25th February, 1895.

Mr Tucker, Master of the _Erebus_, was a very capable and efficient

officer, afterwards Staff Commander and a useful member of the Thames

Conservancy Board. Mr Cotter was Master of the _Terror_. Henry Yule,

the second Master of the _Erebus_, was a good surveyor and continued

his service in that capacity on the Home Survey. John Davis, second

Master of the _Terror_, was an officer of much ability, a good

surveyor, and an excellent artist. He had previously served under

Captain FitzRoy on board the _Beagle_ in Magellan’s Strait. He executed

the charts and drawings for Sir James Ross, for which he received the

special thanks of the Hydrographer. Afterwards he was employed as a

surveyor in the _Fox_ with Sir Allen Young in 1862, and Naval Assistant

to the Hydrographer from 1863 to 1876. His most interesting letter to

his sister in 1843 was printed in 1891. Retired as Staff Captain in

1876, he was the author, jointly with his son, of the Azimuth Tables.

Captain Davis died on the 30th January, 1877.

Mr Hallett, Purser of the _Erebus_, had previously been with Sir

James Ross in the _Cove_ in 1836. He afterwards served on the coast

of Africa, where he died. George Moubray, the clerk in charge

of the _Terror_, was thought so highly of that he received the

very responsible appointment of Naval Agent and Storekeeper at

Constantinople during the Crimean war, and was afterwards Storekeeper

at Malta for some time, retiring as a Paymaster-in-Chief with the

Greenwich pension. The gunner of the _Erebus_ must not be left out,

as he was a very exceptional character and had very wide Arctic

experience. Thomas Abernethy, born at Peterhead in 1802, was an

experienced seaman when he joined the _Fury_ in Parry’s third Arctic

expedition in 1824, and was very active and useful in all the work at

Fury Beach. He was with Parry again in 1827, and second mate of the

_Victory_ with the Rosses during the Boothian expedition 1829–33. When

the boatswain of the _Erebus_ fell overboard in a heavy sea on the

voyage out and was drowned, Abernethy and Oakley commanded the two

boats that were lowered for his rescue. Oakley’s boat was struck by a

sea which knocked four of the crew out of her. Abernethy, whose boat

was again alongside ready to be hoisted up, immediately pushed off

and succeeded in saving the crew of Oakley’s boat from their perilous

position. Abernethy was a splendid seaman. He served again with Sir

James Ross in the _Enterprise_, and finally with old Sir John Ross in

the _Felix_. He died at Peterhead on April 13th, 1860[192].

With this exceptionally distinguished staff and two well-equipped

and strongly built ships, Sir James Ross sailed from the Thames on

his great enterprise on the 30th September, 1839. After visiting and

exploring Kerguelen Island, the expedition arrived at Tasmania on

August 16th, 1840. Sir John Franklin was then Governor, and gave

every assistance in his power. The chief thing was the erection of an

observatory for synchronous observations. Sir John selected the site

and, with convict labour, the building, with its pillars carried down

to the bed rock, was erected in nine days. Sir John named it Rossbank.

Lieutenant Kay, R.N., was placed in charge, with two Mates named

Dayman and Scott as assistants. Kay, who was a Fellow of the Royal

Society, had served in the _Chanticleer_ with Captain Foster, and in

the _Rainbow_ with Sir John Franklin. The magnetic observations of

the expedition were under the immediate superintendence of Commander

Crozier, and were continued uninterruptedly every hour throughout the

day and night[193].

Sir James Ross heard of the voyages of Dumont D’Urville and Wilkes, and

received advice from the latter about the best places he had seen for

entering the ice. But Sir James had no intention of shaping a course

in their direction. Captain Balleny had been much further south than

either of them, having attained a latitude of 69° S., finding an open

sea. Sir James, therefore, resolved to proceed on Balleny’s meridian,

about 170° E.

On November 13th, 1840, the expedition sailed, Sir John Franklin

remaining on board the _Erebus_ until she reached the mouth of the

Derwent, when he returned in his tender. Sir James Ross touched at

Auckland Island and Campbell Island, and on January 1st the Antarctic

Circle was crossed, and the warm clothing supplied by the Admiralty was

served out. Passing a great many icebergs with a strong breeze from

the N.W., the main pack was reached on the 5th, and Sir James resolved

to put the bows of the two old sailing ships straight on to it and

force his way through. The pack is always closest and most difficult to

penetrate at the edge, and more open inside. After about an hour’s hard

bumping, and receiving several heavy blows, the outer edge was forced,

and the inside ice was found to be much lighter and more scattered than

it appeared to be when viewed from a distance. During the following

days the ships were bored through the pack, steering south for the

supposed position of the magnetic pole.

They had been six days in the pack when, on January 10th, in the middle

watch, Lieutenant Wood reported that land was distinctly visible right

ahead. It rose in lofty peaks, but was still very distant. They were in

71° 15′ S. Next day they were fairly close to the land, the northern

point of which was named Cape Adare. Soundings were obtained in 160

fathoms. The mountains, crowned with snowy peaks, attained a height of

from 7000 to 10,000 ft. They were named the Admiralty Range, and the

peaks were called after the then Lords of the Admiralty. The principal

peak, nearly 10,000 feet high, was, however, named after Sir Edward

Sabine, who was with Ross in two Arctic voyages.

Here the variation was 44° and the dip 86°, which according to Sir

James Ross’s calculation placed the magnetic pole in 76° S. and 1450

26′ E., or about 500 miles inland[194].

With some difficulty Ross, Crozier, and several officers landed on a

small island near the coast, covered with penguins, in 71° 56′ S. and

171° 7′ E., giving it the name of Possession Island. In very bad and

stormy weather a further range of lofty mountains came in sight whose

peaks were named after friends of the Royal Society and the British

Association, while an island received the name of Coulman, and its

northern point Cape Anne, the name of Sir James’s _fiancée_.

On the 27th January the ships were in sight of another island which was

named after Sir John Franklin. The two captains with several officers

went on shore in two boats. There was a heavy surf beating on the rocks

but Ross and a few others effected a landing. Hooker, however, fell

into the sea, and was nearly drowned before he could be hauled into the

boat, more dead than alive from the intense cold. His condition made

it necessary to return to the ship as soon as possible, Ross having

collected several specimens of rock. The island is in 76° 8′ S., and is

12 miles long by 6 broad.

On the same day the ships sighted a mountain 12,400 ft. high, emitting

flame and smoke in great profusion. Sir James Ross named it Mount

Erebus, and an extinct volcano to the eastward 10,900 ft. high, Mount

Terror. A small round island, which had been in sight all the morning,

was called Beaufort Island.

Ross and his officers were astonished at the sight of a mighty ice

cliff 100 feet high, with a uniform level summit, stretching away to

the eastward from the peninsula or island of the volcanoes. It was a

bitter disappointment, as they hoped to have gone much further south.

As the ships approached the volcanoes two capes were recognised and

named after Crozier and Bird, Sir James Ross taking the opportunity of

expressing his affectionate regard for his two old Arctic messmates,

who were giving him such invaluable help. The bay formed by the island

of volcanoes was called after M’Murdo, the first Lieutenant of the

_Terror_, “a compliment that his zeal and skill well merited.” The ice

cliffs were higher than the masthead, so that little could be seen, but

some peaks were made out, rising above the line of cliffs, and looking

more distant than they really were owing to the haze. These Ross named

the Parry mountains, after his revered old commander with whom he had

served in all but one of his Arctic voyages. The peaks were really

the tops of islands at the back of the volcanoes, but the mistake was

natural, indeed inevitable under the circumstances.

When within three or four miles of the great ice barrier, Sir James

Ross altered course to the eastward to ascertain its extent. Mount

Erebus was then emitting smoke and flames in great volume, affording

a grand spectacle. Good progress was made in sailing along the ice

barrier but no rent or fissure could be seen throughout its whole

extent. On the 29th, after sailing along the barrier for a hundred

miles, the ships being in 77° 47′ S., it was still seen stretching

away to the east. The soundings showed that the outer edge of the ice

was not resting on the ground. Bad weather came on with much snow, and

the barrier was only seen at intervals as they continued their course

to the east. Ross wrote of the barrier as a “mighty and wonderful

object, far beyond anything we could have thought of or conceived.” The

furthest south of the two ships was in 78° 5′ S.

[Illustration: Mt Erebus from the South]

On the 13th February Ross gave up any attempt to go further along the

barrier and resolved to steer for the magnetic pole and seek for a

harbour in which to winter. The course was set for Franklin Island.

On the 16th Mount Erebus was again sighted, and there was a splendid

view of the whole line of coast. A great number of whales of two kinds

were visible. Upon the cape ahead of the ships was conferred the name

of Professor Gauss of Göttingen “who has done more than any other

philosopher of the present day to advance the science of terrestrial

magnetism.” The range of mountains which Ross considered to be the seat

of the magnetic pole was called after Prince Albert.

The course was now northward along the coast. Two capes named after

Captain Washington, the Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society,

and Captain Johnson, R.N., were seen to enclose a bay which was called

after Lieutenant Wood of the _Erebus_[195]. On February 20th the breeze

freshened to a gale and next day they were off Cape Adare. Rounding

this, the northern coast was reached, the furthest point seen being

Cape North. The line of coast presented perpendicular ice cliffs, and

no landing was possible. The course was therefore set to the N.W., and

on the 2nd March land was seen ahead appearing like two islands, but

really peaks of one of the Balleny Islands. On the 6th April, 1841, the

_Erebus_ and _Terror_ arrived in the Derwent river, Tasmania.

CHAPTER LI

SECOND ANTARCTIC VOYAGE OF SIR JAMES ROSS

The _Erebus_ and _Terror_ were refitting at Hobart Town from April

to July, 1841, when they proceeded to Port Jackson. The chief object

of Captain Ross was to obtain a series of magnetic observations

for comparison with those made at Hobart Town. From Port Jackson

the expedition went to the Bay of Islands in New Zealand. During

these visits Dr Hooker had opportunities of making collections

and observations which are embodied in his great work, the _Flora

Antarctica_.

On November 23rd, 1841, the expedition sailed from New Zealand, and Sir

James Ross shaped a course for Chatham Island, chiefly for magnetic

purposes. After a short visit he steered south for the main pack and

pushed boldly into the ice on the 18th December. Christmas Day was

passed closely beset in the pack, near a chain of eleven icebergs, and

in a thick fog.

On New Year’s eve they were in the same place. This would be called an

impenetrable pack. But there is no such thing as an impenetrable pack

for men like Sir James Ross, and he had resolved to force the ships

through it. On the 9th January they were still at the same place as on

Christmas Day, with no apparent prospect of moving. But Sir James still

persevered. On the 20th it blew a gale of wind, and they were in the

midst of large masses of ice with a very heavy swell. No ordinary ship

would have stood the hammering from the masses of ice for half-an-hour.

The rudder of the _Terror_ was broken and rendered useless. When the

weather moderated it took a whole day to ship the spare rudder owing

to the gudgeons being bent. Both ships had been in imminent danger,

and for the first time Sir James Ross looked anxious and careworn.

They had been 40 days going a hundred miles. On the 20th February they

encountered a frightful gale, the spray dashing over the ships and

becoming ice as it touched the deck. Sir James would not turn back, and

on the 28th they reached a latitude of 78° 10′ S. The great ice barrier

was in sight; not so high as the part they had seen the previous year,

but more irregular.

The season was advanced and it became necessary to give up further

exploration and turn the ships’ heads in a northerly direction. On the

1st March a magnificent range of icebergs was in sight, extending in an

unbroken chain as far as the eye could discern from the masthead. On

the 4th a furious gale was encountered and on the 12th several bergs

were again seen during thick weather. There were constant squalls of

snow concealing the bergs from view. Suddenly a large berg was seen

ahead, and quite close. The _Erebus_ was hauled to the wind on the

port tack with the expectation of being able to weather it. At that

moment the _Terror_ came in sight running down upon her consort. It was

impossible for her to clear both the berg and the _Erebus_, so that

collision was inevitable. The _Erebus_ hove all aback to diminish the

violence of the shock, but the concussion was terrific nevertheless.

Bowsprit and fore-topmast were carried away and the ships, hanging

together, dashed against each other with fearful violence. The

_Terror’s_ anchor and cat-head were carried away, the yard-arms came

in contact at every roll, smashing the booms and boom irons. All this

time there was a heavy sea, and both ships were drifting on the berg.

The men behaved splendidly when ordered up to loose the main topsail.

Sir James resolved to brace the yards bye, and haul the main tack on

board, sharp aback, an expedient that had never before been resorted

to in such weather. It was three quarters of an hour before this could

be done. The ship gathered stern way, plunging her stern into the sea

and washing away the gig and quarter boats, while her lower yard arms

actually scraped the rugged face of the berg. In a few minutes the ship

reached the iceberg’s western end, the under-tow alone preventing her

from being dashed to pieces against it. No sooner had the ship cleared

it than another iceberg was seen astern, against which the ship was

running. The space between the bergs did not exceed three times the

breadth of the ship. The only chance was to pass between the bergs.

This was happily accomplished. She dashed through the narrow channel

between two perpendicular walls of ice, and the next moment she was

safe in smooth water under their lee. As Sir James said, “the necessity

of constant and energetic action to meet the momentarily varying

circumstances of our situation left us no time to reflect on our

imminent danger.”

Sir James Ross then shaped a direct course round Cape Horn to the

Falkland Islands before strong westerly gales, and on April 6th the two

ships sailed up Berkeley Sound and anchored in Port Louis. Commander

Crozier and Lieutenant Bird had been promoted, and Smith the Mate had

also received his Lieutenancy. Lieutenant M’Murdo was invalided, and

Lieutenant Sibbald took his place on board the _Terror_. On the 22nd

June the _Carysfort_, Captain Lord George Paulet, arrived, with a

large supply of provisions sent by Commodore Purvis, as well as a new

bowsprit.

The refitting of the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ proceeded steadily, and

by the end of July both ships were in good order and ready for sea.

During the stay of the Antarctic Expedition at the Falkland Islands the

Governor, Captain Moody, supported by the opinion of Sir James Ross,

removed the settlement from Port Louis to Port William, Lieutenant

Sibbald was left at Port William to carry on a system of magnetic

observations upon such a plan as to secure a satisfactory record, while

the ships proceeded to Cape Horn for synchronous observations.

On the 8th September, 1842, the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ sailed from

Port William, and encountered very severe weather during their voyage

towards Cape Horn. But the day was fine when they sighted the famous

promontory on the 18th, passing it at a distance of a mile and a half

and anchoring off St Martin’s Cove in 55° 51′ 20″ S., 67° 32′ 10″ W.

An observatory was set up on Hermit Island. While the magnetic work

was proceeding, Dr Hooker made a specially interesting botanical

collection. On November 13th the expedition returned to the Falkland

Islands, meeting the _Philomel_, Captain Sulivan, who was engaged in

surveying the group. The Falkland Islands were left again on the 17th

December for a third visit to the Antarctic. All hands on board had

been diligently at work; careful magnetic, meteorological, and tidal

observations being taken wherever they were.

The first iceberg was met with on December 24th in 61° S., soon

afterwards the main pack came into view, and on the 28th land was

sighted which appeared to be the northern cape of Dumont d’Urville’s

Joinville Island. An examination of part of the South Shetland Islands

was then begun.

CHAPTER LII

THIRD ANTARCTIC VOYAGE OF SIR JAMES ROSS

Sir James Ross began his survey of part of the South Shetland Islands

when he reached the north-west coast of Joinville Island of Dumont

d’Urville. On December 28th, 1842, he sighted the conical islet to

which he gave the name of Etna, then passed an enormous glacier

descending from an elevation of 1200 feet into the ocean, where it

presented a vertical cliff 100 feet high. Near it, and evidently broken

away from its face, was the greatest aggregation of icebergs that

Sir James ever remembered to have seen collected together. Shaping

a southerly course, numerous rocky islets appeared amongst heavy

fragments of ice which completely concealed them until the ships were

quite close. They were named Danger Isles, and the southernmost islet

received the name of Charles Darwin. A great number of the largest

sized black whales were seen here, and Sir James thought that a

valuable whale fishery might be established in these localities.

A point of land supposed to be the southern point of Joinville Island,

but since found to be on a separate island, was given the name of

Commodore Purvis, commanding the _Alfred_ on the Brazilian station; a

remarkable peak was called Mount Percy after the Admiral at the Cape,

and an island off Cape Purvis after Lord George Paulet. There appeared

to be a passage between Joinville Island and Louis Philippe Land (the

northern end of Graham Land) into Bransfield Strait. The most striking

feature in these discoveries was considered to be Mount Haddington

(7050 ft.), named after the First Lord of the Admiralty. It is on

the large island to the south, since known as James Ross Island. The

great gulf between Graham Land and Joinville Island was called Erebus

and Terror Bay. A very small brown islet to the south, a quarter of

a mile across, with a crater-like peak of 760 ft. was given the name

of Admiral Sir George Cockburn. On January 6th, 1843, Captains Ross

and Crozier landed on this volcanic islet, and Dr Hooker, who was with

them, found that the flora consisted of nineteen species, all mosses,

lichens, and algae. Two out of the five mosses were new. Cockburn

Island is in 64° 12′ S. and 59° 49′ W. The inlet between James Ross

Island and Seymour and Snow Hill Islands--afterwards found to be a

channel--was named after the Admiralty; and what was thought to be a

promontory and called after Admiral Sir George Seymour, has since been

found to be an island (Seymour Island), rendered famous in after years

for its yield of fossils.

From Seymour Island a course was shaped to the S.S.W. on January 7th,

passing along Snow Hill Island. Upon the southern point of James Ross

Island the name of Captain Foster of the _Chanticleer_, Ross’s lamented

old Arctic messmate, was conferred.

On the 8th there was a dense fog, and icebergs with much loose ice

surrounded the ships, which were secured to the land ice until the

12th, when Sir James resolved to endeavour to trace this land ice to

the S.E. But the ships were quite enclosed, and it was accordingly

determined to force them through the pack, a long and arduous as well

as a hazardous struggle, for they were sustaining severe pressure. On

the 4th February however, in latitude 64° S., the vessels were clear

of the ice with which they had been battling for nearly six weeks.

The hope was that on reaching the meridian of 40°, where Weddell had

penetrated so far to the southward, Ross and Crozier would also find

the sea so clear as to admit of their reaching a high southern latitude.

On the 14th February Weddell’s track was crossed in 65° 13′ S., but

there was a dense pack. Dumont d’Urville found the same conditions and

not so far south. In the following days there were snow-falls, and a

heavy sea, yet on March 1st the _Erebus_ and _Terror_ once more crossed

the Circle and entered the Antarctic regions, accompanied by several

whales, a sooty albatross, blue and white petrels, and Cape pigeons.

On the 4th they passed the highest latitude attained by Bellingshausen

and crossed the 70th parallel. Next day they were in 71° 10′ S. and

ran into the pack for thirty miles, but the young ice was so strong

and the season so late that it became necessary to work out again,

after reaching 71° 30′ S. A gale sprang up with a heavy snow-fall,

the sea was running very high, and the thick weather caused continual

apprehension of collision with one of the numerous bergs. It was a

fearful night, and next day there was not the least mitigation of the

force of the gale. Sir James expressed his admiration at the seamanlike

manner in which Captain Crozier and the officers of the _Terror_ kept

their station in the face of such difficulties, and at the vigilance,

activity, and cool courage of Commander Bird.

The third Antarctic voyage of Sir James Ross was now drawing to a

close, and he resolved to shape his course for the Cape of Good Hope.

On the 4th April, 1843, the two ships anchored in Simon’s Bay, close to

the _Winchester_, flag-ship of Admiral Percy. There was not a single

individual in either ship on the sick list. Refitting, refreshing the

crew, and comparing instruments occupied the time until the end of

the month, and on April 30th the voyage home was commenced. The ships

arrived at Woolwich and were paid off in September, 1843.

In the conduct of these Antarctic voyages by Sir James Ross the first

thing that strikes one is his extraordinary skill in ice navigation,

his fearlessness and resolution. Very few captains would have

persevered, in the face of such imminent dangers, in the long struggle

with the pack for forty days; but Sir James was determined to examine

the further end of the great ice barrier, and nothing could stop

him. In the collision close to the icebergs, under circumstances of

appalling danger, this great commander showed a seamanlike skill, a

presence of mind, and a quickness of decision such as has never been

surpassed. These rare gifts and his unfailing nerve saved the ship.

His next great quality was his perseverance in conducting the magnetic

observations, his unceasing care in taking every opportunity to secure

advantageous positions for observing, and in obtaining accuracy. He

took the same care as regards meteorological observations, deep sea

soundings, and tidal observations[196]. He was most attentive in

promoting the welfare and health of his officers and men, and in all

his work he certainly was assisted by an exceptionally diligent and

accomplished staff.

Referring to the uninterrupted observations that were taken during the

course of the expedition he himself said “they will elucidate several

points of importance and interest in science, while they present others

for elucidation and afford a basis of comparison, should a sound mode

of prosecuting inquiry be adopted.”

Ross’s geographical discoveries were of the utmost importance and

interest. They threw a completely new light on the economy of the

southern continent, and pointed the way to future discoveries in the

far south[197].

At the request of Sir James Ross Admiral Percy, Commander in Chief on

the Cape Station, chartered a merchant vessel called the _Pagoda_ with

the object of taking a series of magnetic observations in the direction

of Enderby Land. The command was given to Mr Moore, who had served in

the _Terror_. He was accompanied by Captain Henry Clerk of the Royal

Artillery, a scientific officer, son of Sir George Clerk, Bart., M.P.,

of Penicuick, and by Dr Dickson, Assistant-Surgeon of the _Winchester_,

flag-ship at the Cape. The duty was satisfactorily performed during

1844–45, and an account of the voyage was afterwards written by Dr

Dickson in the _United Service Magazine_ for June and July 1850.

CHAPTER LIII

ANTARCTIC OCEANOGRAPHY

After the days of Sir James Ross various causes led to the development

of what was almost a new science, that of Oceanography. It included not

only measurement of depths, but also of the temperatures at different

depths, the study of _plankton_ or surface ocean life, and of life in

the depths. I remember what a revolution it caused in one’s ideas.

When I went to sea we were taught that there was enormous pressure

at great depths, sufficient to prevent the existence of life, for in

descending the sea water got heavier and heavier under pressure. It was

held that at 2000 fathoms a man would bear on his body a weight equal

to 20 locomotive engines each with a goods train loaded with pig iron.

The answer to this is that water is almost incompressible, so that the

density of sea water at 2000 fathoms is scarcely appreciably increased.

Facts send theories to the four winds.

Sir James Ross was himself much impressed with the importance of

deep sea sounding with serial temperatures, and he was the first to

adopt the method of sounding by time with weight and marked line, the

principal conditions to ensure accuracy being rapidity of descent

and regularity. The advance of the science depended on the invention

of improved apparatus and instruments until they were brought to

perfection.

The project of laying cables across the Atlantic gave the first impetus

to these improvements. Brooke’s[198] sounding-apparatus was on the

principle of disengaging weights. In 1856 the American Captain Derryman

took twenty-four deep sea soundings with Brooke’s apparatus on a great

circle from St John’s to Valentia. In July, 1857, Lieutenant Dayman on

board H.M.S. _Cyclops_ was ordered to carry a line of soundings from

Valentia to Trinity Bay, using an apparatus which was a modification

of that invented by Brooke. Thirty-four soundings were taken. They

were singularly uniform, 1700 to 2400 fathoms, and showed a light

brown muddy sediment, and minute hard particles, animal organisms

(_Foraminifera_) with skeletons composed of carbonate of lime. In the

autumn of 1858 Lieutenant Dayman, in H.M.S. _Gorgon_, took another line

of soundings from the S.E. angle of Newfoundland to Fayal, and from

Fayal to the Channel. In the following year, in H.M.S. _Firebrand_, he

took another series across the Bay of Biscay and along the coast of

Portugal to Malta. Later, Captain Shortland, in H.M.S. _Hydra_, took

deep sea soundings from Malta to Bombay.

Great energy continued to be shown, and in 1860 the _Bulldog_ was

commissioned by Sir Leopold M’Clintock, to take a line of soundings

from the Faroes by Greenland to Labrador. The sounding machine was

an adaptation of Ross’s deep-sea clam with Brooke’s principle of

disengaging weights. The _Bulldog_ brought up specimens from 600 to

2000 fathoms.

Hitherto oceanographic operations had been chiefly directed to the

practical purpose of preparing for the laying of cables on the bed

of the ocean, but the obtaining of specimens at great depths caused

science to step in. Dr Carpenter and Dr Wyville Thomson were anxious to

go into the whole question of the physical and biological conditions

of the sea bottom, and in the autumn of 1868 the Admiralty lent the

_Lightning_ gunboat, in which the two savants worked for two stormy

months between Scotland and the Faroes. They found that there was

abundance of animal life at the bottom of the sea, and that the

fauna was in many respects peculiar. The results were considered so

interesting that the Admiralty placed the _Porcupine_ gunboat at the

disposal of Dr Carpenter, Dr Wyville Thomson, and Mr Gwyn Jeffreys for

two successive seasons. They then succeeded in dredging to a depth of

2435 fathoms and found that even at that depth the invertebrates were

fairly represented. An invention to protect the thermometer bulbs from

being irregularly compressed under great pressure made the deep sea

temperature determinations fairly trustworthy. Dr Wyville Thomson

found that “public interest was now fairly aroused in the new field of

research.”

A circumnavigating expedition was then suggested to traverse the

great ocean basins, and prepare sections showing their physical

and biological conditions. Mr Lowe, who was then Chancellor of the

Exchequer, approved the plan, and the _Challenger_, a corvette of

2306 tons and 1234 h.-p., was selected for the service. All but two

of her guns were taken out and she was fitted out entirely for deep

sea sounding and dredging operations. The _Challenger_ sailed in

January, 1873, under the command of Captain Nares, with Dr Wyville

Thomson as head of the scientific staff. There were four Lieutenants,

Maclear, Aldrich, Bromley, and Bethell, and five scientific assistants

to Dr Wyville Thomson, Buchanan (Physicist) Moseley, John Murray,

Willemoes-Sühn, and Wild. The ship was fitted with all the latest

inventions that twenty years of study and experience had produced.

After having thrown much light on the depths and the fauna of tropical

oceans, the _Challenger_ approached the Antarctic regions early in

1873. She met with dense fogs in 65° 42′ S. on February 19th, but

Captain Nares continued a southward course and the vessel crossed

the Antarctic Circle in 78° 22′ E. She then followed the edge of the

pack for 150 miles eastward to within 15 miles of Wilkes’s supposed

Termination Land. The soundings gave depths of from 1250 to 1975

fathoms. Westward of 80° E. very few icebergs were met with, but

eastward of 92° E. they were very numerous. It was thought that there

was no land for a considerable distance between 70° and 80° E. The

depths showed that the continental shelf had not been reached on those

meridians. This particular region to the east of Kempe Land has not

since been visited and it offers a very interesting, and possibly a

successful route for future explorers.

The science of oceanography has progressed considerably since the days

of the _Challenger_; great improvements have been made in the varied

apparatus connected with it, and the work has become at once more easy

and more accurate. Steam power is indispensable, rendering reliable

deep sea soundings possible and ice navigation much easier.

Some years after the return of the _Challenger_, the Germans despatched

the _Valdivia_ on a deep sea sounding expedition. She left the Cape

in November, 1898, and reached the drift ice in 56° 45′ S. Further

progress was stopped in 64° 15′ S. and 54° 20′ E. A depth of 3000

fathoms was obtained, and specimens of gneiss, granite, and schist, as

well as a mass of red sandstone, were brought up, probably dropped by

icebergs. The ocean floor between Kerguelen Island and Enderby Land

was strongly folded, a depth of 1300 fathoms alternating with great

abysses of 2000 and 3000 fathoms. Many lines of soundings are still

needed from the known areas near the southern extremities of America,

Africa, Australia, and New Zealand to the southern continental shelves,

as well as along the edges of the shelves themselves. Great progress,

however, has been made in this respect within the last fifteen years,

large collections have been obtained, and the Antarctic ocean depths

have been sounded in several directions with important physical and

biological results.

CHAPTER LIV

REVIVAL OF ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION

After the return of Sir James Ross a quarter of a century elapsed and

the Antarctic regions remained neglected. While Sherard Osborn and I

were working for the despatch of an Arctic expedition, we were equally

resolved to use every effort for the revival of Antarctic research and

to see Sir James Ross’s splendid discoveries continued by a worthy

successor. From 1872 Osborn was collecting data for an Antarctic

expedition, but my accomplished and energetic old messmate died in

1875. Still I had others to help, Sir Vesey Hamilton, Sir Joseph

Hooker, who was always encouraging, and above all Captain Davis, who

served with distinction under Sir James Ross as surveyor and artist. On

February 26th, 1869, Captain Davis read a paper on antarctic discovery,

proposing Sabrina Land, discovered by Balleny, as a station for the

transit of Venus. He also presented the Geographical Society with a

large map of the Antarctic regions, showing the tracks of explorers.

Then on March 19th, 1870, Sir Vesey Hamilton read a critical paper on

a book purporting to be the voyages of an American, Captain Morrell,

showing that the statements were impossible, and the whole story

apocryphal and of no use to us for reference or in any other way. These

papers aroused some interest, and in September, 1885, the British

Association appointed an Antarctic Committee which in 1887 reported in

favour of further exploration.

Sir Graham Berry, the representative of the Colony of Victoria in

London, took a great interest in our efforts, and induced the colonial

authorities to promise a vote of £5000 if Her Majesty’s Government

would give another £5000. I saw Sir Graham on November 30th, 1887,

and arranged to have private representations made to the Ministers

concerned. But on January 3rd, 1888, Her Majesty’s Government refused

to join the Colony of Victoria in granting £5000, enclosing a

characteristic report from the Board of Trade to the effect that there

were no trade returns from the Antarctic regions. Then Oscar Dickson,

the munificent Swedish promoter of polar voyages, offered to give the

£5000 to the Victoria Government which our Government had refused, but

then the Colony drew back. During this time we were warmly supported by

Baron Müller of the Botanical Gardens at Melbourne, by Captain Pascoe,

R.N., and by other geographers in that colony. From Baron Müller

especially I received most enthusiastic letters, Sir Erasmus Ommanney

actively supported and raised the Antarctic question at the Berne

Congress, while Captain Davis continued to work steadily in the good

cause until his death.

In 1892 I heard from Captain David Gray that it was intended to send

three Scotch whalers to the south, in consequence of the numbers of

whales mentioned in the narrative of Sir James Ross. Accordingly the

_Active_, _Balaena_, and _Diana_ were despatched, but the result was

disappointing. They never even crossed the Antarctic Circle. The

_Active_, in South Shetland waters, found that what was supposed to be

Joinville Island really consisted of two islands, one much larger than

the other; the smaller one, which the _Active_ sailed round, was named

Dundee Island. That was all: the voyage was not pecuniarily successful

and was not repeated.

The Norwegian, Captain Larsen of the _Jason_, was much more

enterprising. He landed on Sir George Seymour’s Island in 1892, and

found several pieces of fossil wood and some fossil bivalves, a most

important discovery. His voyage was considered so promising in Norway

that in the following year he was sent again in the _Jason_ with two

other vessels in company, the _Hertha_ and _Castor_. On the 18th

November, 1893, Larsen again landed on Sir George Seymour’s Island to

make collections, and then proceeded down the east coast of Graham

Land, the best side for an advance south. In 65° 44′ S. he named a

lofty peak Mount Jason. He observed several deep fjords, and the ice

terraces resting on the slope of the mountains with their bases on

the sea bottom. They are similar to the ice-foot up Smith Sound, but

on a gigantic scale. On the 6th December Larsen had reached 68° 10′

S. and could have gone further, had he not remembered that his chief

business was sealing. On the 9th December he discovered an island

quite snow-covered, which he named Veiro. In 65° 20′ S. Robertson

Island was discovered, and two other islands--one of them the cone

of a volcano--were named Christensen (after the well-known builder

at Sandefjord who fitted out the _Jason_) and Lindenberg Sukkertop.

Captain Larsen went over the ice on ski to Christensen Island, and

from it he saw five volcanic islets which were named Oceana, Castor,

_Hertha_, Jason, and Larsen. Captain Eversen of the Hertha made his

way to the west side of Graham Land and sighted Adelaide Island, in

November, 1893. He went as far south as 69° 10′ S.

When Captain Larsen returned to Sandefjord he came to see me at

Laurvik on July 23rd, 1894, and presented me with some of the fossil

wood found on Sir George Seymour’s Island. Sir Archibald Geikie,

to whom I afterwards gave them, was inclined to think that it was

drift-wood, because it showed perforations. Larsen’s two voyages, in

their way so important, were certainly a great help to our efforts by

interesting geographers, and it was with no small degree of pleasure

that I presented Captain Larsen with one of the Geographical Society’s

awards--that bequeathed by Sir George Back.

When I was elected President of the Royal Geographical Society in 1893,

I resolved that no efforts should be spared to secure the despatch of a

properly equipped Antarctic expedition: the main object being to make

further discoveries in connection with the great Antarctic continent

which had received the name of Antarctica. No sooner was this known

than enterprises sprang up in all directions--Norwegian, Belgian,

Scottish, German, Swedish, and French. Without any concerted action,

except as regards the Germans, none of these touched Antarctica, but

roved as free lances, so that it will be quite convenient to deal with

them separately before treating of the preparations for the Antarctic

expedition of the Royal and Royal Geographical Societies.

CHAPTER LV

PRIVATE EXPEDITIONS--BORCHGREVINK--GERLACHE--NORDENSKIÖLD--BRUCE--

DRYGALSKI--CHARCOT--FILCHNER

BORCHGREVINK

It was in 1894 that Mr Svend Foyn, the great Norwegian shipowner, sent

a vessel southwards to determine whether the despatch of whaling ships

to Antarctic seas would be remunerative. She was commanded by Captain

Christensen, and he reached Cape Adare and Robertson Bay of Sir James

Ross. The voyage was not repeated, but there was a volunteer on board

named Carstens Borchgrevink who, in 1898, induced Sir George Newnes

to supply the funds for an expedition under his command. Borchgrevink

bought a Norwegian sealer named the _Pollux_, of 521 tons, built in

Arendal, Captain Jensen being master. Re-named the _Southern Cross_

she left Hobart 19th December, 1898, and arrived at Cape Adare 17th

February, 1899, and the landing party was put on shore in Robertson

Bay, with a house taken out in pieces. Here the party wintered, it

being arranged that the ship should return for them next summer.

Nothing of any importance was possible in the way of sledge travelling

from Robertson Bay. But there was a very able staff--Mr Colbeck,

R.N.R., the magnetic observer and surveyor, Mr Bernacchi the physicist,

Hanson (who died during the winter and was buried at Cape Adare) and

Hugh Evans the biologists. All the staff did their work admirably, and

the results were published by the authorities of the British Museum in

1902. When the ship returned she followed the track of Sir James Ross’s

ships. Borchgrevink landed on the barrier and then returned to New

Zealand.

DE GERLACHE

The Belgian Expedition was well supported by patriotic subscribers.

Captain de Gerlache was chosen to command it, and in February, 1896,

there were sufficient funds to enable him to buy a suitable ship in

Norway--the _Patria_ of 241 tons, built at Svelvig near Drammen in

1884. She was very thoroughly refitted and strengthened at Sandefjord,

and on June 19th I spent the day there and was very favourably

impressed by the efficiency and ability of the Belgian Commander

and above all by his modesty. Lieutenant Lecointe was his second in

command, Arçtowski went as geologist, Racovitza as naturalist, Danco as

magnetic observer, and Dr Cook, who had been with Peary in Whale Sound,

as surgeon. Roald Amundsen was 2nd Lieutenant. The _Patria_ was renamed

the _Belgica_.

The expedition of de Gerlache approached the South Shetlands at the

western end of the group by Smith and Low Islands to the Gulf of

Hughes, which is an expansion of the Orleans Channel discovered by

Dumont d’Urville. The _Belgica_ then proceeded down a channel with the

north-west coast of Graham Land on one side, and four large islands on

the other which de Gerlache named Liège, Brabant, Gand, and Anvers. The

channel, which was named after de Gerlache, led into the Pacific Ocean.

The scenery on both sides was magnificent.

Captain de Gerlache gave as many opportunities of landing as possible,

and M. Arçtowski, the geologist, was specially eager to examine the

rocks and the glaciation. At his first landing he found eruptive rocks

of great density, of a deep green colour. He next landed on Trinity or

Palmer Island. The rocks were erratic, from a moraine, and consisted

of granite, and also of numerous ancient eruptive rocks. The latitude

was 63° 57′ S. The landings of Arçtowski and his messmates were, in

fact, very numerous as the _Belgica_ steamed down Gerlache Channel,

with interesting glacial and geological results; the officers meanwhile

making surveys of the coast. Arçtowski thought that the channel and the

islands were once covered with a vast glacier. He found some evidence

that the glaciers were now receding.

On leaving the channel the _Belgica_ ran south along the western coast

of Graham Land, passing many flat-topped icebergs. The Circle was

crossed and the Antarctic regions entered on the 14th February, 1898.

De Gerlache tried to approach the Alexander Island of Bellingshausen,

but was stopped by the pack. It was, however, sighted. The coast beyond

seemed to turn to the east. The Alexander Island glaciers were found

not to reach the sea, coalescing in a gigantic ice-foot or terrace.

De Gerlache then left the coast of Graham Land and the _Belgica_ was

steered westward into the Pacific on February 24th, being in 69° 30′ S.

Working through the closely-packed ice the ship had reached a latitude

of 71° 31′ S. on the 20th March, in longitude 85° 16′ W. The young ice

was forming fast, and it became evident that they would have to winter

in the pack. During that dreary winter the ship drifted from 85° to

90° W., the Peter Island of Bellingshausen being in 92°. As summer

approached it was necessary to cut a canal to the open water, but at

length the _Belgica_ was clear of the ice on March 14th, 1899.

Over the area that the vessel drifted during the winter the depth

averaged about 270 fathoms. This was a continental shelf, showing that

the land was at no great distance to the south. At the edge of the

shelf to the north there was an abrupt descent to 800 fathoms.

This discovery of the edge of the continental shelf in the Pacific

Ocean is important, combined with the discoveries of Bellingshausen.

But all the work done by this expedition was well done and has

increased our knowledge of the geology and glaciation of Graham Land.

Captain de Gerlache conducted the expedition with ability and success.

He has since done very useful Arctic work in the same ship, with the

Duc d’Orléans. M. Arçtowski’s excellent paper on the exploration of

Antarctic lands during the voyage of the _Belgica_ was included in the

Royal Geographical Society’s _Antarctic Manual_[199].

NORDENSKIÖLD

The Swedish expedition, which was equipped at Gothenburg in 1901, was

intended to investigate the geology of the south-west part of the South

Shetlands, where fossils were first made known by Captain Larsen, and

to complete and rectify the topography. The command was given to Dr

Otto Nordenskiöld, an eminent Swedish geologist with Arctic experience,

and a nephew of Baron Nordenskiöld. With him was associated another

distinguished geologist, Gunnar Andersson, who was to join after the

first year. The ship, named the _Antarctic_, was commanded by Anton

Larsen, who as already stated had done splendid work on the east coast

of Graham Land. With him was Lieutenant Duse of the Norwegian army as

cartographer, and Lieutenant Sobral of the Argentine Navy joined at

Buenos Aires as magnetic and meteorological observer.

Leaving Gothenburg in October, 1901, the _Antarctic_, after putting

into Falmouth, reached the Falkland Islands on the 1st January,

1902. Proceeding to the South Shetland Islands it was decided that

Nordenskiöld should winter as near the fossil-bearing island of Sir

George Seymour as possible. A sheltered position was selected on

the neighbouring Snow Hill Island, where the house was set up and

provisions, instruments, and other necessaries landed. The party

consisted of Nordenskiöld, Ekelof the surgeon, the Argentine Lieutenant

Sobral, a very useful person named Bodman, and two seamen. May and June

were months of storm, but the rest of the winter was safely passed, and

in October Nordenskiöld, who had obtained some dogs at the Falkland

Islands, started on an expedition to the south. He was just a month

away, but did not get as far south as the Antarctic Circle. Later in

November he made two journeys to Seymour Island to collect fossils,

with very important results.

The _Antarctic_ returned to the Falkland Islands, whither Dr Gunnar

Andersson had arrived. Taking him on board, Captain Larsen spent

some time in exploring South Georgia, and then proceeded to Tierra

del Fuego, entering the Beagle Channel. The needs of the _Antarctic_

were supplied at the Argentine settlement of Ushuaia while Andersson

explored the interior. The course was then south, passing Deception

and Trinity Islands, and surveying the Orleans Channel. The ultimate

destination was Nordenskiöld’s winter quarters, to take all on board

and return. But Dr Andersson wanted to undertake some exploring, and

was landed at Hope Bay, at the extreme north-west end of Graham Land,

in order to reach Nordenskiöld by land. His companions were Lieutenant

Duse and a seaman. Insuperable obstacles intervened to prevent the

completion of their journey, and they returned to Hope Bay, where

they built a stone hut. The abundance of penguins and seals prevented

any danger from starvation or scurvy, and Dr Andersson found that the

locality was rich in fossils.

The _Antarctic_ had left in order to embark the party with

Nordenskiöld, but she was beset off Joinville Island, drifted away, and

underwent great pressure in the pack. This continued, her ribs were

broken and she began to sink, but there was fortunately time to get

all the boats out and fill them with provisions and stores before the

ship foundered off Paulet Island. The shipwrecked crew pulled to the

shore and Captain Larsen established winter quarters and built a stone

house. In the spring Dr Andersson and his party succeeded in reaching

Nordenskiöld’s winter quarters, and a little later Captain Larsen

manned a boat and went to Hope Bay only to find Andersson and his

comrades gone. He then went on to Nordenskiöld’s winter quarters, where

he found both parties all well.

When the Nordenskiöld expedition did not return after the first

winter, grave anxiety was felt. The Argentine Government ordered

their naval attaché in London, a young officer named Julio Irizar,

to obtain all the necessary equipment, and then to proceed to Buenos

Aires and take command of a relief ship. He came to me for advice,

and the able Antarctic Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society,

Mr Cyril Longhurst, gave him all possible assistance with regard to

equipment. After visiting Norway for furs and other gear, he sailed

for Buenos Aires and took command of the _Uruguay_ relief ship. On the

8th November, 1903, he arrived off Snow Hill Island, and took all the

Swedes on board with their valuable collections. Thence proceeding to

Paulet Island he ultimately found the shipwrecked crew, and all were

taken safely home. Captain Irizar conducted his relief expedition with

remarkable skill and ability from start to finish.

The geographical results of the Nordenskiöld expedition were the

surveys which completed our knowledge of the intricate topography

of the south-western part of the South Shetlands, correcting former

work of Ross and d’Urville, and discovering much that was new. The

geological results were of great importance, for they point to the

connection of Graham Land with South America at a recent geological

period. Graham Land and most of the islands belong to the region of

folding and of Andine eruptives. The rocks are plutonic and, according

to Nordenskiöld, belong or are closely related to a peculiar type of

eruptives characteristic of the American cordilleras throughout their

length. Ross Island and Vega Island are volcanic, composed of basalt

and lava flows. Paulet Island also contains cones of eruption.

In the fossils of Hope Bay, Dr Andersson discovered a very rich

Jurassic flora, consisting of conifers, mare’s tails, and ferns in

profusion. In abundance of species Hope Bay far surpasses all Jurassic

floras hitherto known in South America. They are fresh-water deposits.

The Seymour and Snow Hill formations are Cretaceous. There are many

ammonites, cephalopods, bivalves, and trunks of fossil wood in the

sandstone; there are also birds, and a mammal belonging to the Tertiary

period. On Cockburn Island there was a curious conglomerate of pecten

shells, formed on basaltic tuff in Pliocene times.

In Jurassic times the land must have been covered with rich vegetation

in a mild and uniform climate. At Hope Bay the fresh-water lake flora

has close affinity with the contemporaneous floras of India and

Europe. After the Cretaceous surface was lifted above the sea level,

mountain ranges were formed. The South Shetland Islands were once a

clearly-marked mountain range parallel to that of Graham Land, and the

Gerlache channel was a longitudinal valley.

During the Miocene period there were violent eruptions causing a great

accumulation of volcanic tuff. The fauna of this period was closely

allied to the Miocene fauna of Patagonia. On Seymour Island five new

genera of fossil penguins and the large cetacean, _Zeuglodon_, were

found in the Tertiary beds; also the impressions of large and very

distinct leaves of an Araucaria, a beech tree, and ferns.

Patagonia was connected by land with Graham Land, and spread out to a

great width. At that time the warm coast current from Brazil would have

flowed down to the coasts of Antarctica, causing that region to be much

warmer than it is now. These geological facts give rise to alluring and

not altogether impossible conjectures.

The results of the Nordenskiöld expedition were of great value, serving

to connect, as they do, the Andes with the Antarctic mountain range

of Graham Land, and perhaps with a continuous range further south.

The expedition was without comparison the most important of all the

private enterprises which have undertaken discoveries in the far south

in recent years, except of course the great expeditions of Captain

Scott[200].

BRUCE

The expedition under Mr Bruce was for a very short time south of the

Antarctic circle, most of its two years and a half duration being

devoted to scientific investigations in two islands of the South

Orkneys.

Mr Bruce was a natural history student. In that capacity, in 1893,

he made a voyage to the south in one of the whalers, the _Balaena_,

Captain Robertson. From 1894–96 he was at the meteorological station on

the summit of Ben Nevis, and in 1896–97 he served under Jackson during

his last winter in Franz Josef Land. Having received a promise of

support from Mr James and Major Andrew Coats, wealthy manufacturers at

Paisley, he went to Norway and bought an old vessel of 400 tons called

the _Hecla_, which required much repair. Captain Robertson was master

of the ship, which was renamed the Scotia, and there was a scientific

staff. The main object appears to have been deep sea sounding. The

Scotia sailed on the 2nd November 1902, and in the first year she

crossed the Antarctic Circle, went south as far as 70° 25′, and then

returned to winter at the South Orkneys.

The two islands of the South Orkneys, called Laurie and Coronation,

were discovered by a sealing captain named Powell in the _Dove_ in

1821. They had been visited by Weddell, who named them, by Dumont

d’Urville in 1838, and by Larsen in 1893. Bruce and his staff took

meteorological, magnetic, and tidal observations, and made biological

and geological researches and collections. Silurian fossils were found,

and some evidence was obtained to show that the Patagonian coast once

extended to these islands and beyond them.

In the second season the _Scotia_ crossed the Antarctic Circle in 32°

W. on February 27th, 1904, finding a depth of 2630 fathoms. The ship

was now in King George’s Sea of Weddell. Icebergs of immense size were

met with, far too large to have come off the mountain slopes. They

pointed to a vast glacial formation analogous to Ross’s ice barrier.

On the 3rd March, when in 72° 18′ S. and 17° 59′ W. with a depth of

1131 fathoms, a line of ice cliffs 100 to 180 feet high was sighted,

but could not be approached nearer than two miles. These cliffs were

probably resting on land which is a continuation of the coast of

Antarctica from Enderby Land. The line of cliffs was traced for 150

miles, and a sounding on the continental shelf gave 159 fathoms. Mr

Bruce named the ice cliffs Coats Land. On the 9th March, the _Scotia_

was in 74° 1′ S. and 22° W. and on the 14th she was headed north. The

soundings obtained were from 2000 to 2600 fathoms. On the 27th the

Antarctic Circle was again crossed, the _Scotia_ having been 28 days

south of it. After a second winter at the South Orkneys the expedition

returned.

DRYGALSKI

German scientific students had long taken a great interest in Antarctic

research, and Dr Neumeyer, a native of Frankenthal near Worms, did more

than anyone else out of England to arouse an interest in the subject.

He had been in charge of the observatory at Melbourne from 1858 to

1862, and afterwards became chief of the Seewarte at Hamburg. When the

German Antarctic expedition was decided upon and funds were raised, it

was wisely resolved to build a vessel specially for the service, to be

named the _Gauss_ after the great magnetician of Göttingen. She was

built at Kiel of the best dry oak and pitch pine. Her gross tonnage

was 650, her length 165 ft., breadth 37 ft., depth 22 ft., speed when

laden 5 knots. She could carry 600 tons of coal, and was well adapted

for Antarctic work.

Professor Neumeyer was of opinion that, to secure adequate results,

the command should be given to a naval officer. But eventually Dr Erik

von Drygalski was selected, a physicist who had studied glacial action

in Greenland and was the author of a work on the subject[201]. An

accomplished scientific staff accompanied him, and Captain Hans Ruser

was Captain of the ship and navigator.

The _Gauss_ left Kerguelen Island on the 31st January, 1902, entering

the ice in February, and working for the Termination Land of Wilkes,

which was not found. Land was sighted, but the _Gauss_ wintered in the

pack outside the Antarctic Circle in 66° 13′ S. All the scientific

staff were diligently at work, and valuable series of meteorological

and magnetic observations were taken by Dr Friedrich Bidlingmaier

of Potsdam. The other members of the scientific staff were Dr Ernst

Van Hoffen, Dr Hans Gazert, and Dr Emil Philippi. In the summer a

travelling party reached the land, distant about 50 miles. A conical

mountain consisting of volcanic rock was discovered and named

Gaussberg, and collections were made. A line of ice cliffs was seen,

extending from 89° to 94° E., which was named König Wilhelm II Land.

The place where the _Gauss_ wintered was over a comparatively shallow

bank, within the continental shelf. The ship was freed on February 8th,

1903, and reached Cape Town on June 9th.

It is to be regretted that Dr Drygalski did not go south on a meridian

nearer to Kempe Land, when it is probable that he would have been

more successful from a geographical point of view. Antarctic work was

given up by the Germans, and the _Gauss_ was sold to the Canadian

Government[202].

CHARCOT

Dr Charcot, son of the celebrated physician, an energetic and gifted

Frenchman, endowed with a peculiar charm of manner, undertook to

continue the work on the coast of Graham Land. He sailed for the south

in a little vessel called the _Français_ in 1903 and passed a winter at

Wandel Island, afterwards cruising for some distance along the coast

of Graham Land. Returning to France he resolved to construct and equip

a small steamer specially for Antarctic work. She was built at St Malo

in 1908 and named the _Pourquoi Pas_ (450 h.-p., length 131 ft., beam

30 ft.), and Charcot sailed in her from Havre August 15th, 1908. From

Punta Arenas he sailed south, and examined the coasts of Adelaide

Island of Biscoe, landing on one of a group of small islets on the

15th January, 1909. The winter was passed at Petermann Island. In the

summer of 1909–1910 he followed the edge of the pack as far as 125° W.,

sighting Bellingshausen’s Peter Island on January 16th, 1910. He had

previously sighted the Alexander I Land of Bellingshausen on board the

_Français_ at a distance of 60 miles, on January 11th-13th, 1905. After

again sighting it, he shaped a course into the South Pacific, when

south of 70°, calling a distant appearance of land Charcot Land after

his father. He returned to Rouen June 5th, 1910.

These two voyages comprise a useful piece of polar work. Dr Charcot has

won the admiration of all who know him, and all true Britons feel a

regard for the gallant Frenchman when they remember his _camaraderie_

and affection for Captain Scott.

FILCHNER

In 1911 Filchner, an officer in the Prussian army, came forward to

raise funds for an Antarctic expedition, announcing that there was much

talk of theories, but that he was going to cut the Gordian knot by

going to see. Having raised the necessary funds, Filchner’s plan was to

explore the Weddell Quadrant to its apex. He bought a Norwegian whaler

built at Arendal and named the _Njord_, and took with him a scientific

staff, Dr Koenig of Vienna being the naturalist, and Dr Heinrich

Seelheim the geographer. The master of the ship was Captain Jorgensen.

The expedition left Hamburg in May, 1911, with all the equipment for

long inland journeys, including three motors.

Filchner went the right way to work. There was no impenetrable

pack for him. He put the ship’s stem straight at it, somewhere near

Weddell’s furthest, and forced her through. After battling with the

pack over 120 miles the ship came out into open water, and land was

sighted in 76° 35′ extending to 79°. There was an ice barrier to

the westward. Unfortunately the ship was carried away to the north

before she could be properly secured, and she drifted about in the

ice-cumbered sea during the winter. The new land was named after the

late venerable Regent of Bavaria. Captain Jorgensen died before the

ship returned to Buenos Aires.

CHAPTER LVI

PREPARATIONS FOR THE SOCIETIES’ ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION

In May 1893 I was elected President of the Royal Geographical Society,

and resolved that an Antarctic expedition should be despatched,

preferably by Government, as the encouragement of maritime enterprise,

especially in a school so favourable to the acquisition of valuable

experience as the polar regions, has always been my special aim. I

found that Dr Murray of the _Challenger_ agreed with me that the

expedition should be under naval control, and he consented to open the

campaign by reading a paper at a meeting of the Royal Geographical

Society on November 27th, 1893.

It was a great meeting, reminiscent of the splendid opening of the

Arctic campaign by Sherard Osborn, and Sir John Murray’s address was

eloquent and convincing. Apart from the main object, the duties of an

expedition, as outlined by Dr Murray, would be:--

1. To determine the nature and extent of the Antarctic Continent.

2. To penetrate into the interior.

3. To ascertain the depth and nature of the ice-cap.

4. To observe the character of the underlying rocks and their

fossils.

5. To obtain as complete a series as possible of magnetic and

meteorological observations.

6. To observe the depths and temperatures of the ocean.

7. To take pendulum observations.

8. To sound, trawl, and dredge.

He added that observations such as the above were especially desirable

“for the more definite determination of the distribution of the land

and water of our planet, for the solution of many problems concerning

the ice age, for the better determination of the internal constitution

and superficial form of the earth, and for a more complete knowledge of

the laws which govern the motions of the atmosphere and hydrosphere.”

The approval of the great meeting was unanimous Sir Joseph Hooker, the

Duke of Argyll, and other eminent men of science and naval officers

expressing themselves strongly in favour of the project. A dash to the

Pole was not advocated, but rather a steady, continuous, and systematic

exploration of the antarctic region.

Our efforts to induce the Government to undertake an expedition failed,

and need not be dwelt upon here. The Admiralty, however, offered to

lend instruments, and later, thanks to the exertions of Admiral Sir

Anthony Hoskins, there was liberality in giving leave, on full pay, to

officers and men.

Articles in magazines had to be published, lectures to be delivered,

circulars to be sent out, and the desperately uphill work of raising

funds for a private expedition undertaken. In December, 1895, I

proposed that the expedition should be undertaken by the Royal

Geographical Society. There was some opposition and delay, but at

length, on April 12th, 1897, the R.G.S. Council agreed to subscribe

and raise funds. As the Royal Society is the scientific adviser of

the Government, that eminent body was asked to unite with the Royal

Geographical Society, and its President and Council consented on

February 24th, 1898. The Council of the Geographical Society consented

to a grant of £5000 for the expedition, on June 20th of that year.

By that time I had collected only £14,000 when on March 24th, 1899, Mr

Longstaff asked me if £25,000 would enable the expedition to start.

I assured him that it would, on a small scale, and he at once sent a

cheque. This was an example of princely munificence which entitles

its generous donor to take rank with the merchant adventurers of the

days of Elizabeth. For similar patriotic munificence Sir Felix Booth

received a baronetcy; Oscar Dickson received a barony. Longstaff

received the admiration and gratitude of his countrymen, and a very

honourable niche in polar history. On June 22nd, 1899, the First Lord

of the Treasury promised a grant, and the Treasury afterwards announced

that this would amount to £40,000 on condition that an equal sum was

raised privately. We then had only £37,000, but the R.G.S. Council at

once granted an additional £3000 to make up the required sum.

I considered it necessary, as did Sir William White, that a wooden ship

should be specially built for the service. In consultation with Captain

Creak, R.N., C.B., Superintendent of compasses at the Admiralty, I

found that he also thought it necessary from the point of view of

magnetic observations. Sir William White advised me to secure the

services of Mr W. C. Smith, C.B., of the Controller’s Department at the

Admiralty, to prepare the designs and specifications. Mr Smith very

kindly undertook the duty, with the permission of Admiral Sir Arthur

Wilson, the Controller. A Ship Committee was appointed on April 10th,

1899, meeting first on the 26th[203].

It was decided that the ship should be of wood, and that the lines

of the old _Discovery_ of the 1876 expedition should be followed as

closely as possible. It was then considered whether the new ship should

have a midship section, like the _Fram_, of a peg-top character to

facilitate her rising to ice pressure, but as there is not the same

likelihood of severe nips in the south, it was thought better to have

an ordinary section, with a view to the probability of heavy weather

conditions. A complement of 43 souls was to be arranged for, with

accommodation equal in all respects to a man-of-war of the same size,

and there was to be stowage for two years’ provisions and 335 tons of

coal. The ship was to be of 400 I.H.P. and fitted with a two-bladed

lifting screw. Mr Smith adopted a special plan for shipping and

unshipping the rudder.

That the ship should be absolutely free from magnetic qualities was

impossible, owing to the engine and boilers. But in order that there

should be as little as possible, steel and iron were excluded from a

space having a radius of 30 feet from where the magnetic observatory

was placed.

Instead of the usual square stern, a round form of stern was adopted,

which gave better protection to the rudder and screw and was much more

satisfactory in heavy seas. It gave the helmsman nearly dry quarters.

The length of the ship on the water line was finally fixed at 179

ft., the breadth 34 ft., the depth amidships 18 ft. She was to be

barque-rigged and of 735 gross and 483 registered tonnage. The framing

throughout was of oak, the keel of elm. The boats were a sailing cutter

(which was not taken south), four 26-foot whalers, and two Norwegian

prams.

The Dundee Shipbuilders Company undertook her construction for £34,050

and £10,322 for the engines, and on March 16th, 1900, the keel was

laid. On March 21st, 1901, Lady Markham launched the ship at Dundee,

and gave her the name of the _Discovery_. She left Dundee on the 3rd

June, was in the East India Docks for 55 days loading, and on August

1st she arrived at Stokes Bay[204].

I had selected the fittest commander in my own mind in 1887, when I

was on board the _Active_ in the West Indies, the guest of my cousin

Commodore Markham, then in command of the training squadron, the other

ships being the _Rover_, _Volage_, and _Calypso_. When we were at St

Kitts, March 1st, 1887, the lieutenants got up a service cutter race.

The boats were to be at anchor with awnings spread. They were to get

under way and make sail, beat up to windward for a mile, round a buoy,

down mast and sail, pull down to the starting point, anchor and spread

awning again. The race tried several qualities. For a long time it was

a close thing between two midshipmen, Robert Falcon Scott and Hyde

Parker. However, Scott won the race and on the 5th he dined with us. He

was then 18, and I was much struck by his intelligence, information,

and the charm of his manner. My experience taught me that it would be

years before an expedition would be ready, and I believed that Scott

was the destined man to command it. At Vigo we were thrown together

again, when my young friend was torpedo lieutenant of the _Empress of

India_, and I was more than ever impressed by his evident vocation

for such a command. When the time came for the selection I consulted

Captain (now Admiral Sir George) Egerton, an Arctic officer with a wide

knowledge of men and much experience in the service. He sent me several

names, but Scott’s was first, and he had excellent testimonials. As a

torpedo lieutenant he had gone through a special course of training

in surveying, and he wrote the whole section on mining survey in the

_Torpedo Manual_, and suggested all the instruments to be used. He had

a thorough knowledge of the principles of surveying and of surveying

instruments, as well as of electricity and magnetism. Seven of the

ships in which he had served were masted, and frequently under sail.

Scott was now just the right age for a leader of a polar expedition,

and admirably adapted for such a responsible post from every point

of view. He was recommended very strongly by Captain Egerton, by

his Admiral, and also by the First Lord and the First Sea Lord of

the Admiralty. Yet there was long and tedious opposition from Joint

Committees, Special Committees, Sub-Committees and all the complicated

apparatus which our junction with the Royal Society involved, harder to

force a way through than the most impenetrable of ice-packs. But we got

through and I had the pleasure of signing Scott’s appointment on the

9th June, 1900. On the 30th he was promoted to the rank of Commander,

the numerous committees were gradually got rid of, and Scott took

command.

Albert Armitage, a _Worcester_ boy and a very efficient P. and O.

officer, who had served throughout Jackson’s expedition and was with

Jackson on his long sledge journey round Alexandra Land, was selected

by me as Navigator and in charge of magnetic observations at sea, and

was approved by Captain Scott.

Some years before, on June 14th, 1892, I was in a river steamer going

down to Greenhithe to see the boat-race between the _Conway_ and

_Worcester_ cadets. I saw on board a young _Conway_ cadet who bore a

remarkable resemblance to Wyatt Rawson, the gallant Arctic officer in

the expedition of 1875–76. The boy, Charles Royds, was his nephew, and

I found that he was most anxious to get into the navy. He succeeded in

July, 1892. His career was meritorious and he won golden opinions from

his captains. He was the first to volunteer, and no better man could

be found as First Lieutenant. He also took charge of the meteorology.

He was a good musician, both vocal and instrumental, a thorough seaman,

and a good all round man. Scott wrote of him that he was a first-rate

worker, an excellent officer, popular with the men, and the right man

in the right place as First Lieutenant.

Michael Barne was Scott’s special choice. The younger son of Colonel

and Lady Constance Barne of Sotterley in Suffolk, and great-grandson of

Admiral Sir George Seymour, he was born in 1877. He was always ready to

help any one, full of good humour, the most unselfish of mortals, and

entirely to be trusted in any position of responsibility. He had charge

of all the deep sea apparatus and performed the duty right well.

The Engineer Lieutenant, Reginald Skelton, was an officer of great

ability. In addition to his very arduous work in the engine room, he

had charge of the dark room, stored all the negatives of interest,

assisted with the pendulum observations, and, with Dr Wilson, did all

the bird-skinning.

No more Lieutenants could be obtained from the Admiralty, so Captain

Scott had to turn elsewhere and accepted Ernest Shackleton as the

junior executive. He had been in the merchant service since 1890, and

was very energetic and zealous. I got him made a Sub-Lieutenant in the

Naval Reserve.

Dr Koettlitz, the surgeon, had served in Jackson’s expedition., Dr

Edward Wilson, of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, also surgeon,

was the vertebrate zoologist. He had quite the keenest intellect of any

one on board, and possessed great artistic talent, with a marvellous

capacity for work. The special scientific staff consisted of Mr

Hodgson, the invertebrate zoologist, Curator of the Plymouth Museum;

Mr Ferrar, a very able young geologist, a graduate of Sidney Sussex

College, Cambridge; and Mr Bernacchi the physicist, who had previously

been in the _Southern Cross_ Antarctic expedition.

The Admiralty was liberal as regards volunteers, allowing 22 petty

officers, able seamen, and stokers to join, and two marines, all

excellent men. Indeed the whole ship’s company exclusive of the

officers was naval except Clark, the cook’s mate and laboratory

attendant, and Weller, who was in charge of the dogs.

A colossal amount of work and responsibility fell upon the shoulders of

Captain Scott. Fortunately we had, in the person of Mr Cyril Longhurst,

an admirable hard working and conscientious secretary, though he was

then very young. Close attention was given to the supply of provisions,

as one of the most important considerations. The food for the sledge

travellers was mainly pemmican. It used to be made at Clarence Yard

of the very best quality, but the art was lost. Scott had to fall

back upon the very inferior article made at Chicago, and a better

kind manufactured by Beauvais at Copenhagen. He himself visited the

Beauvais factory, and ultimately took 500 lb. of American and 1500 lb.

of Beauvais’ pemmican. Extreme care was taken in the examination of

the preserved meats, soups, vegetables, and fruits. Dr Collingridge,

medical officer for the city of London, appointed Mr Spadaccini for

this duty, and 10,250 lb. in 1542 packages of other provisions were

accepted, and 231 lb. rejected. But Captain Scott was deeply impressed

with the urgency of supplying fresh meat to his people whenever it was

possible.

Our dockyards had also lost the tradition of the clothing, sledge

equipments, and sledges, which had been brought almost to perfection

as supplied to the Franklin search expeditions. Scott had to turn to

Norway for these things, and he was a good deal guided by Armitage,

whose experience was the most recent, though he saw to the matter

himself in Norway. The peltry, reindeer sleeping-bags, 4 bales of

Lapland grass, and 70 pairs of ski (7 ft. h in.) were supplied from

this source, as well as nine 9 ft. sledges of Nansen’s pattern with

broad ski runners, five of 7½ ft., and five iron shod and fastened to

be used for work in winter quarters[205].

Scott thought that it might be useful to have a captive balloon,

whence to reconnoitre and obtain more extensive views, and the idea

was strongly supported by Sir Joseph Hooker. Accordingly the necessary

gear was provided, and an officer and two men went to Aldershot for

instruction. The balloon was of the army pattern, and the gas was

taken in sixty heavy tubes which were stowed on deck. There were also

dynamos, for electric lighting. When the steam-driven dynamos were not

at work, an iron-sailed windmill could be fitted, driving the dynamo at

its base and thus supplying the accumulators with electric current.

Most of the instruments were lent by the Admiralty--astronomical,

magnetic, meteorological, pendulum, and seismograph, as well as

sounding gear with all the newest inventions, and dredging nets.

Baron Richthofen suggested to me that there should be synchronous

observations at as many other observatories as possible. Captain Creak

fully concurred and, in concert with him, I wrote to the observatories

at Kew, Falmouth, Potsdam, Bombay, Mauritius, Melbourne, and Christ

Church (N.Z.), also making arrangements with the Argentine Government

for Staten Island, and for observations at Kerguelen Island, and with

the _Gauss_. The object was to obtain a series of synoptic charts

which would allow of the variations in the magnetic conditions of

the whole earth being traced in detail during a definite period,

and so provide the necessary basis from which alone the fundamental

principles of terrestrial magnetism can be more closely approached. The

observing stations to take part in this international co-operation were

distributed over the globe with a uniformity never before attained.

The observations were of two classes: (1) of the three elements at

intervals of an hour on certain terminal days, so as to obtain a

comprehensive view of the diurnal variations of terrestrial magnetism,

(2) of the three elements during one specified hour on each term day,

to trace the course of individual disturbances. The _Discovery_, the

_Gauss_, and all the observatories were supplied with identical forms

for term days and term hours; declination, horizontal force, vertical

force. The magnetic observations were the most carefully planned and

completely thought out of all the branches of scientific work carried

on by the expedition.

There was a complete supply of meteorological instruments under the

able management of Lieutenant Royds, a most careful and accurate

observer and recorder, and the observations were two-hourly, taken by

the officers of the watch. Special instruments were taken out for use

on shore including spirit thermometers graduated as low as -90° Fahr.,

and a Dines pressure anemometer. A photographic spectrometer was to be

used for observing the auroras.

The most important question to be decided was the direction the

expedition should take. To consider it with care and understanding

we divided the regions within the Antarctic Circle into four

quadrants--the Victoria Quadrant from 90° E. to 180°, the Ross Quadrant

from 180° E. to 90° W., the Weddell Quadrant from 90° W. to 0°, and

the Enderby Quadrant from 0° to 90° E. We knew from Captain Cook’s

conclusion, and he was always right, that there was an extensive

continent round the south pole, and that the coast line came furthest

north to the south of Australia and the Cape, and receded furthest

south in the King George IV Sea of Weddell and the Pacific. The

correctness of Captain Cook’s view as regards the northern extension

was proved by the discoveries of Balleny, Biscoe, and Kempe and

confirmed, as regards Balleny’s discoveries, by Dumont d’Urville and

Wilkes. Apparently, in most parts of this coast, access would be

impossible owing to the lofty ice cliffs. Moreover, merely sighting ice

cliffs at a distance is of no use. The great discoveries of Sir James

Ross offered far better opportunities of landing. I felt that the chief

point should be the finding of the _land_ of Antarctica, not the ice

cap which conceals everything. The land would be found on coasts facing

east, the east coast of Victoria Land, and east coast of Graham Land;

the ice cliffs occur mainly on northern and western-facing coasts.

The main object of the expedition, then, would be to explore this

Antarctic continent by land, to ascertain its physical features, and

above all to discover the character of its rocks, and to find fossils

throwing light on its geological history. We therefore decided that the

_Discovery_ should follow in the wake of Sir James Ross, and winter on

the Victorian coast. I was anxious that everything else should be left

to the discretion of Captain Scott.

The instructions were drafted in January 1901. The first paragraph

stated the objects to be discovery and exploration. Importance was also

attached to a magnetic survey and to meteorological, oceanographic,

geological, biological, and physical investigations and researches.

After paragraphs dealing with the relations with a chief of the

scientific staff--who, perhaps fortunately, did not go out, for

there could have been no fitter chief of the scientific staff than

Scott himself--particular attention was called to the discovery of

new coast lines, of the depth and nature of the ice cap, of the

nature of the mountain ranges, and of the underlying fossiliferous

rocks. Co-operation with the German expedition was enjoined whenever

possible. Attention was drawn to the region to the east of the Great

Barrier, which was entirely unknown, and an effort was to be made to

discover land in the Ross Quadrant. Equal importance was attached to

an examination of the Barrier, of the volcanic region, and to journeys

to the west and south. Discretion to winter with the ship was left

to Captain Scott. All mention of the south pole as an objective was

carefully avoided.

I planned an Antarctic Manual on the lines of the Arctic Manuals

prepared for the expedition of 1875–76, securing the services of Mr

G. Murray as editor. It proved very useful, the first part containing

instructions and information by leading men of science, and the second

part being the narratives of Biscoe, Balleny, Dumont d’Urville, and

Wilkes, with papers on polar travelling by Sir Leopold M’Clintock and

on the exploration of Antarctic lands by Arçtowski.

In July 1901 the great work of fitting out the expedition was fast

approaching completion. The Geographical Club gave the officers a

farewell dinner at Greenwich on the 3rd. There were many toasts, and

Captain Scott did a very graceful thing in proposing the health of

our Secretary, Mr Longhurst, “with whom,” he said, “he had worked so

pleasantly for nearly a year, and whose services had been so valuable

to the expedition.” On the 16th the Bishop of London visited the

_Discovery_, held service and delivered a very impressive address to

officers and men[206]. He presented the books for divine service, and

a prayer which he had written for daily use.

On August 5th, 1901, when the _Discovery_ was at Cowes, the King and

Queen went on board, and his Majesty made a charming speech to the men.

Then the good ship started on her mission. No finer set of men ever

left these shores, nor were men ever led by a finer captain.

CHAPTER LVII

THE SOCIETIES’ ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION

_First Year._

Lyttelton, New Zealand, was selected for the head-quarters of the

expedition in the southern hemisphere. It was a long voyage thither and

there was natural anxiety respecting the behaviour of the new ship. As

time went on, however, Captain Scott became more and more satisfied

with her seaworthy qualities. She proved wonderfully stiff and, as her

sail area was small, it was rarely necessary to shorten sail, even in

the most violent gales. She was wonderfully free of water on the upper

deck, and the peculiar rounded shape of her stern gave additional

buoyancy to the after part and caused her to rise more quickly to the

seas. One day, driving before a very heavy gale, the ship made 223

knots in the 24 hours.

In 51° S. and 131° E. a very interesting magnetic area was reached,

where there appeared to be a curious inconsistency in the distribution

of magnetic force to the north of the magnetic pole. Captain Scott,

therefore, resolved to proceed south for some distance to explore this

area more effectively. On November 15th the 60th parallel was crossed,

and next day the first ice was seen. Soon loose pack ice was all round

the ship. They were within 200 miles of Adélie Land in 62° 50′ S.

when the ship’s head was reluctantly turned again to the north. The

soundings at the furthest south were 1750, then 2300 and 2500 fathoms.

Scott noticed and was much interested in the abundance and variety of

bird life, most of the birds being familiar to those who have rounded

the Horn. On the 22nd Macquarie Island was reached, and the first

penguin rookery was visited. On the 30th November they arrived at

Lyttelton and the ship was docked.

After a thorough refit, the receipt of more and supplementary

provisions, and the enjoyment of much genuine hospitality, the

_Discovery_ was again ready for sea on the 21st December. Besides the

dogs, there were 45 sheep on deck. A short service of farewell was held

by the Bishop of Christchurch on the mess deck, and the voyage was

continued.

The first iceberg was sighted in 65° 30′ S. on the 2nd January, 1902,

and by evening as many as seventeen could be counted. On the 3rd the

Antarctic Circle was crossed. Soundings were taken in 2040 fathoms.

Soon afterwards the pack was entered, and they forced their way through

grinding floes, taking advantage of every favourable lead when the ice

loosened. Seals and penguins were plentiful on the pack, and very tame,

for the only dangers they knew were in the sea. On the 8th a strong

water sky was reported, and soon they were in a clear open sea, after

only five days in the pack. There was a well-defined edge to the pack,

which indicated the presence of southerly winds at this season. There

must have been heavier obstruction than was met with by Sir James Ross,

for he got through, in bluff-bowed sailing ships, in four days. Far

to the south the high mountain peaks of Victoria Land were visible.

Scott anchored in Robertson Bay, which is formed by the long peninsula

of Cape Adare, but next day the anchor was weighed and the southward

course continued.

It is very difficult to write an abstract of this voyage, for the

perils of ice navigation, the lovely scenery in fine weather, and the

gallant struggles against the ice helped by gales of wind and tides,

are so delightfully described by Captain Scott that condensation seems

impossible. A visit to the land, south of Cape Washington, satisfied

Scott that there were possible winter quarters in a bay which he named

Granite Harbour from the huge granite boulders on the beach. By 8 a.m.

on January 21st the _Discovery_ was in the middle of M’Murdo Sound,

with fine views of the lofty mountains and of Mounts Erebus and Terror.

A landing was effected on the north side of Cape Crozier, and Scott,

with Dr Wilson and Royds, climbed to a height of 1350 ft., whence they

obtained a glorious view of Ross’s great ice barrier. For the first

time this extraordinary formation was seen from above.

[Illustration: Adélie Penguins]

[Illustration: Emperor Penguin with chick]

Captain Scott then proceeded to make a closer examination and

survey, with soundings, of the barrier ice-cliffs. Sir James Ross, with

sailing ships and with bad weather, was unable to do this thoroughly.

The work was done with great care, the height of the cliffs, which

attained 280 ft. in the highest part, was measured at intervals,

photographs were taken, and frequent soundings, the depth varying from

350 to 400 fathoms. It was found that their course throughout had been

south of the position of the barrier in Ross’s time, and that they had

sailed continuously over sea which in his day had been covered with

a solid ice sheet. On January 29th they were eastward of the extreme

position reached by Sir James in 1842. Passing a deep bay in the

barrier Scott pushed still further to the eastward; and on the 30th

new land was sighted. Soundings varied from 88 to 265 fathoms. Most of

the surrounding icebergs were aground, young ice was formed, and Scott

resolved to shape a westward course on February 1st. The coast-line was

now clearly seen for many miles, with sharp peaks rising to 2000 and

3000 feet, the bare rock appearing in a few places. The new discovery

was a country of considerable altitude and extent, and of great

importance as fixing the limit of the great ice barrier.

Captain Scott then steered for the inlet he had seen when standing to

the east, and found that the ice cliffs were only 20 feet high, and in

one place not higher than the ship’s bulwarks. Here he anchored and

made fast. There were great numbers of seals on the sea-ice. Armitage

and Bernacchi, with a light sledge equipment, marched up the ice valley

to the south.

On February 4th preparations were commenced for a balloon ascent, in

one of the army captive balloons for lifting a single observer. Scott

himself ascended to 800 feet, from which height the nature of the

barrier surface could be well seen as a series of long undulations

running east and west, each wave occupying a space of two or three

miles. Shackleton made the next ascent with a camera, and took some

photographs, and in the evening Armitage returned, after having crossed

and examined several of the undulations. At this place a quantity of

seal meat was obtained.

The _Discovery_ was then taken under sail along the barrier cliffs

and was in M’Murdo Sound again on February 8th, where an excellent

position for winter quarters was selected, with a view to a good

starting-point for travelling parties. On one side was Mount Erebus

and the lower hills ending in an abrupt point--Cape Armitage--on the

other the lofty mountains of the Victoria range. The ship was to be the

home, and the large hut was erected on shore, with two small huts for

magnetic instruments, consisting of a wooden framework covered with

sheets of asbestos. The kennels for the dogs were arranged on the hill

side, below the huts. The selected place was at the southern extreme of

a long tongue of land jutting out from the slopes of Mount Erebus. The

hills on it formed a semicircle, the hut being on its western extreme

which was called Hut Point. Behind, the hills rose to 500 ft., and to

the north was a fine mass called Castle Rock.

There were ski races and football, and also limited sledge journeys,

which discovered that the land of the volcanoes was, as Ross suspected,

an island; that there were three small volcanic islets further south

(named Black, Brown, and White), that the ice barrier came up to the

foot of the mountains, and that the great Victoria range extended far

to the south.

A journey was planned to Cape Crozier to be led by the Captain himself,

but an accident to his knee while on ski prevented him from going, and

Royds took command, with Skelton, Koettlitz, Barne, and eight men,

divided into two teams, and each assisted by four dogs. Experience in

sledge travelling was of course wholly wanting and had to be acquired.

They started on March 4th.

Eight (Wild, Weller, Heald, Plumley, Quartley, Evans, Hare, and Vince)

were sent back on the 9th under Lieut. Barne. On the 11th they left

their tent and walked onward, thinking they were close to the ship. A

blizzard came on and they found themselves on a steep slope, could see

nothing, but tried to keep close together. Suddenly Hare disappeared,

then Evans went. Barne and Quartley left the rest to search for Evans.

Then they suddenly found themselves on the edge of a precipice. Vince

shot past Wild, and went over the edge. With the greatest difficulty

Wild, Weller, Heald, and Plumley climbed back, reached some rocks, and

ultimately groped their way to the ship.

Armitage was at once despatched with a relief party and a sledge laden

with warm clothing and medical comforts, and fortunately not in vain.

They came upon Lieut. Barne with two men, and learnt that when Barne

left the rest in search of Evans, he found himself flying down an icy

slope at a furious pace until he was stopped by soft snow. Within a few

feet of him was Evans, then Quartley came hurtling down. The soft snow

saved all three, for they were on the brink of the precipice over which

poor Vince had been hurled.

All hope of finding young Hare, a lad of 18 who had been shipped at

Lyttelton, had been given up. But on March 13th, a solitary figure

was seen staggering towards the ship. It was Hare, exhausted and

famished, but free from frost bites. He had been buried in the snow for

thirty-six hours without food. His preservation was little short of

miraculous. Of Vince’s fate, however, there could be no doubt, though

his body was never found. He was a fine young seaman, very popular,

always obliging and cheerful. A cross, firmly fixed, was erected to his

memory. Royds and his companions returned some days afterwards.

The explorers now entered upon a very severe Antarctic winter in 77°

52′ S. All the scientific observers were soon steadily at work, and

occupations were found for officers and men alike. Every Tuesday, after

dinner, there was a debate in the ward-room on a given subject. The

_South Polar Times_ came out periodically, edited by Shackleton, and

most beautifully illustrated by Dr Wilson. Some of the men, as well as

officers, contributed. The men acted the drama of the “Ticket-of-Leave

Man” in the large hut, with Barne as stage manager.

Captain Scott, throughout the winter, was diligently studying the

problems connected with sledge travelling. In many respects Arctic

sledging conditions differ from those of the Antarctic regions. The

cold in the spring and summer is very much more severe in the south,

where the thermometer often falls below -60° Fahr. On the other hand

the southern traveller escapes the misery of water on the floes, which

renders travelling in an Arctic summer so very arduous. Another

striking difference is that while the Arctic traveller usually travels

over sea ice, often hindered by ranges of hummocks, the Antarctic

explorer does most of his work over land ice. The land ice is the most

formidable, not only from the deep furrows ploughed by the wind, but

also from the dangerous chasms and crevasses. Scott was impressed with

the necessity of attention to the minutest details in studying the art

of Antarctic sledge travelling.

The sledges were built at Christiania. Their great fault was in being

too narrow, causing them to capsize more readily, it being necessary

to pile the load much higher. They had five pairs of uprights and

cross bars. The width of the sledges was only 17 inches, the runners

3¾ inches wide; two sledges were 12 ft. long, six 11 ft., and three 7

ft.[207] The best width of runner-surface depends on the nature of the

snow, and can only be decided after sufficient experience. The Danes

have an excellent plan of attaching a ski-runner of walrus-hide in

dealing with soft snow.