The Home Of The Blizzard Part 73

1894. Evensen, master of another Hamburg whaler, brought back further information of the American Quadrant on the Pacific Ocean side.

1895. H. J. Bull organized a whaling venture and with Leonard Kristensen, master of the s.h.i.+p, revisited the Ross Sea area where a landing was made at Cape Adare (Australian Quadrant). This was the first occasion on which any human being had set foot on the Antarctic continent.

[TEXT ILl.u.s.tRATION]

Antarctic land Discoveries Preceding 1896 (A. J. Hodgeman)

1897. Adrien de Gerlache sailed from Belgium on a scientific exploring expedition to the American Quadrant. Important additions were made to the map, but the s.h.i.+p became frozen into the pack-ice and drifted about for a whole year south of the Antarctic Circle. The members of this expedition were the first to experience an Antarctic winter. Antarctic exploration now entered upon a new era.

1898. Carstens Egeberg Borchgrevink led an expedition, fitted out by Sir George Newnes; its objective being the Ross Sea area. Further details were added to the map, but the most notable fact was that the expedition wintered at Cape Adare, on the mainland itself. The Great Ross Barrier was determined to be thirty miles south of the position a.s.signed by Ross in 1839.

1898. Chun of Leipsig, in charge of the 'Valdivia' Expedition, carried out oceanographical researches far to the south, in the vicinity of Enderby Land (African Quadrant), though he did not come within sight of the continent.

1901. Robert Falcon Scott, in command of the 'Discovery' Expedition, organised by the Royal Geographical Society and Royal Society with the co-operation of the Admiralty, in accordance with a scheme of international endeavour, pa.s.sed two winters at the southern extremity of the Ross Sea and carried out many successful sledging journeys.

Their main geographical achievements were: the discovery of King Edward VII Land; several hundred miles of new land on a "farthest south" sledging journey to lat.i.tude 82 degrees 17' S.; the discovery of the Antarctic plateau; additional details and original contributions to the geography of the lands and islands of the Ross Sea.

1901. A German national expedition, led by Erich von Drygalski, set out for the region south of the Indian Ocean. After a small party had been stationed on Kerguelen Island, the main party proceeded south close to the tracks of the Challenger. They came within sight of Antarctic sh.o.r.es but were frozen into the pack-ice for a whole year. Kaiser Wilhelm II Land was discovered close to the junction between the Australian and African Quadrants.

1901. A Swedish national expedition, planned and led by Otto Nordenskjold, wintered for two years on Snow Hill Island in the American Quadrant, and did much valuable scientific work.

1902. William Speirs Bruce organized and led a Scottish expedition to the Weddell Sea, southward of the Atlantic Ocean. The party effected notable oceanographic researches and wintered at the South Orkney Islands, but were foiled in their attempt to penetrate the pack-ice.

During the second season, conditions were more favourable and the s.h.i.+p reached Coats Land in 74 degrees 1' S. Iat.i.tude.

1903. Jean Charcot organized and led a French expedition to the American Quadrant and there added many details to the existing chart.

1907. Ernest Henry Shackleton organized and led a British expedition with the main object of reaching the South Geographical Pole. His party wintered at Cape Royds, McMurdo Sound, and two main sledging parties set out in the early summer. E. H. Shackleton's party ascended the Antarctic plateau and penetrated to within ninety seven geographical miles of the South Pole, discovering new land beyond Scott's "farthest south." T. W. Edgeworth David's party reached the South Magnetic Polar Area, filling in many details of the western coast of McMurdo Sound.

1908. Jean Charcot organized and led a second French expedition to extend the work accomplished in 1903 in the American Quadrant. He was successful in discovering new land still further to the south.

Loubet, Fallieres and Charcot Lands, towards and beyond Alexander I Land, were added to the map of Antarctica.

1910. Roald Amundsen organized an expedition for scientific research in the vicinity of the North Pole but changed his plans, eventually heading for the South Pole. The expedition wintered on the Ross Barrier near King Edward VII Land, from which point he set out and attained the South Geographical Pole, mapping in new land on the way.

Another party visited King Edward VII Land.

1910. Robert Falcon Scott led a second Antarctic expedition, the main object of which was to reach the South Geographical Pole. The princ.i.p.al party wintered near his old winter quarters at Hut Point, McMurdo Sound. A second party was landed at Cape Adare. Scott reached the Pole soon after the Norwegian Amundsen, but he and his party perished on the return journey. Other parties added details to the map of Victoria Land. Oates Land was sighted from the s.h.i.+p to the westward of Cape Adare in the Australian Quadrant.

1910. A j.a.panese expedition sailed to the Ross Sea, but on account of the lateness of the season was forced to turn back without landing.

The winter was spent at Sydney, New South Wales. Next year a summer visit was made to the South, but no additional land discoveries were made.

1911. A German expedition, led by Wilhelm Filchner, proceeded to the Weddell Sea; the South Pole being its objective. The party succeeded in reaching further south in that region than any previous navigators and discovered new land, to be named Prince Luitpold Land.

They were driven northwards amongst the pack in a blizzard and spent the winter frozen in south of Coats Land.

[TEXT ILl.u.s.tRATION]

A Map of the Antarctic Regions as Known at the Present Day [1915]

APPENDIX IV

Glossary

Oceanography. The study of the ocean, including the shape and character of its bed, the temperature and salinity of the water at various depths, the force and set of its currents, and the nature of the creatures and plants which haunt its successive zones.

Neve. [n,e acute, v, e acute] The compacted snow of a snow-field; a stage in the transition between soft, loose snow and glacier-ice.

Sastrugi. The waves caused by continuous winds blowing across the surface of an expanse of snow. These waves vary in size according to the force and continuity of the wind and the compactness of the snow.

The word is of Russian derivation (from zastruga [sing.], zastrugi [pl.] ), denoting snow-waves or the irregularities on the surface of roughly-planed wood.

Ice-foot. A sheath of ice adhering along the sh.o.r.es of polar lands.

The formation may be composed of attached remnants of floe-ice, frozen sea-spray and drift-snow.

Nunatak. An island-like outcrop of rock projecting through a sheet of enveloping land-ice.

Shelf-ice. A thick, floating, fresh water ice-formation pus.h.i.+ng out from the land and continuous with an extensive glacier. Narrow prolongations or peninsulas of the shelf-ice may be referred to as ice-tongues or glacier-tongues.

Barrier is a term which has been rather loosely applied in the literature of Antarctic Exploration. Formerly it was used to describe a formation, which is mainly shelf-ice, known as the Great Ross Barrier. Confusion arose when "Barrier" came to be applied to the seaward ice-cliff (resting on rock) of an extensive sheet of land-ice and when it was also employed to designate a line of consolidated pack-ice. Spelt with a small "b" the term is a convenient one, so long as it carries its ordinary meaning; it seems unnecessary to give it a technical connotation.

Blizzard. A high wind at a low temperature, accompanied by drifting, not necessarily falling snow.

Floe or Floe-ice. The comparatively flat, frozen surface of the sea intersected by cracks and leads (channels of open water).

Pack or Pack-ice is a field of loose ice originating in the main from broken floe, to which may be added material from the disintegration of bergs, and bergs themselves.

Brash or Brash-ice. Small, floating fragments of ice--the debris of larger pieces--usually observed bordering a tract of pack-ice.

Bergschrund has been "freely rendered" in the description of the great cleft between the lower part of the Denman Glacier and the Shackleton Shelf-Ice (Queen Mary Land). In a typical glacier, "the upper portion is hidden by neve and often by freshly fallen snow and is smooth and unbroken. During the summer, when little snow falls, the body of the glacier moves away from the snow-field and a gaping creva.s.se of great depth is usually established, called a 'Bergschrund', which is sometimes taken as the upper limit of the glacier" ("Encyclopaedia Britannica").

Sub-Antarctica. A general term used to denote the area of ocean, containing islands and encircling the Antarctic continent, between the vicinity of the 50th parallel of south lat.i.tude and the confines of the ice-covered sea.

Seracs are wedged ma.s.ses of icy pinnacles which are produced in the surface of a glacier by dragging strains which operate on creva.s.sed areas. A field of such pinnacles, jammed together in broken confusion, is called serac-ice

The following colloquial words or phrases occurring in the narrative were largely determined by general usage: To depot = to cache or to place a stock of provisions in a depot; drift = drift-snow; fifty-mile wind = a wind of fifty miles an hour; burberry = "Burberry gabardine" or specially prepared wind-proof clothing; whirly (pi. whirlies) = whirlwind carrying drift-snow and pursuing a devious track; night-watchman = night-watch; glaxo = "Glaxo" (a powder of dried milk); primus = primus stove used during sledging; hoosh = pemmican and plasmon biscuit "porridge"; tanks = canvas bags for holding sledging provisions; boil-up = sledging meal; ramp = bank of snow slanting away obliquely on the leeward side of an obstacle; radiant = an appearance noted in clouds (especially cirro-stratus) which seem to radiate from a point on the horizon

The following appended list may be of biological interest:

Birds Aves

Emperor penguin Aptenodytes forsteri King penguin Aptenodytes patagonica Adelie penguin Pygoscelis adeliae Royal penguin Catarrhactes schlegeli Victoria penguin Catarrhactes pachyrynchus Gentoo or Rockhopper penguin Pygoscelis papua

Wandering albatross Diomedea exulans Mollymawk or Black-browed albatross Diomedea melanophrys Sooty albatross Phoebetria fuliginosa Giant petrel or nelly Ossifraga gigantea MacCormick's skua gull Megalestris maccormicki Southern skua gull Megalestris antarctica Antarctic petrel Thala.s.soeca antarctica Silver-grey petrel or southern fulmar Priocella glacialoides Cape pigeon Daption capensis Snow petrel PaG.o.droma nivea Lesson's petrel Oestrelata lessoni Wilson petrel Oceanites oceanicus Storm petrel Fregetta melanogaster Cape hen Majaqueus oequinoctialis Small prion or whale bird Prion banksii Crested tern Sterna sp.

Southern black-backed or Dominican gull Larus dominica.n.u.s Macquarie Island s.h.a.g Phalacrocorax traversi Mutton bird Puffinus griseus Maori hen or "weka" Ocydromus scotti

Seals Pinnipedia

Sea elephant Macrorhinus leoninus Sea-leopard Stenorhynchus leptonyax Weddell seal Leptonychotes weddelli Crab-eater seal Lobodon carcinophagus Ross seal Ommatophoca rossi