THE PROBLEM OF THE ANTARCTIC ZONE 431 



We cannot go into the details of this voyage, and shall only say 

 that the ship left the ten members of the expedition at Cape Adare, 

 in Victoria Land, and returned to New Zealand, to come back for 

 them the following year. Here they spent the winter of 1899, being 

 fortunate in discovering that fish were abundant in the deeper waters 

 of the bay and that these were nearly all edible. Numbers of them 

 were caught through holes cut in the ice and proved a welcome addi- 

 tion to their diet. They also discovered at the approach of summer 

 that insect life exists on the Antarctic land, several specimens being 

 found. 



The "Southern Cross" returned on January 29, 1900, and four 

 days later steamed away with all on board. Following the coast 

 southward to the vicinity of Mount Terror, a sledge party was 

 landed which made a rapid push to the south, and on February i6th 

 reached the latitude of 78 degrees 50 minutes south, the highest 

 Antarctic latitude attained up to that time. 



While the party remained ashore at Mount Terror one of 

 the most exciting incidents of the whole journey occurred. The 

 party landed at a small beach which lay under cliffs towering five 

 hundred feet above. In order to get photographs of it, the boat 

 was despatched back to the ship for a camera, while Borchgrevinck 

 and Jensen remained ashore. The boat had not gone very far when 

 a great roar sounded in the air. Those on shore feared for the 

 moment that a slide had begun in the cliffs over their heads ; but it 

 was not the rocks that were moving. A mighty glacier, which 

 entered the sea near where they were standing, was shedding an 

 iceberg from the parent mass, and the noise was caused by the 

 rending of the ice as the millions of tons mass tore itself free. The 

 beach was barely four feet above the water, and, as the berg crashed 

 into the sea, it sent up a great wave that swept along the coast. The 

 men on the beach barely saw it coming before it had reached them. 

 Pressing themselves against the face of the cliff at the highest point 

 they could reach, they held on for dear life while the icy water 



