432 THE PROBLEM OF THE ANTARCTIC ZONE 



surged up and over them. After the first wave had passed, others 

 followed, though these only reached up to their arm-pits, and had 

 it not been for a projecting point of rock, which served to break the 

 force of the waves, there is little doubt but that both would have 

 been swept away. The full force of the waves was shown only a 

 few yards away from where the two had stood, stones being torn 

 loose and the mark of the water being left twenty feet up the face of 

 the cliff. 



Having reached "farthest south," the homeward journey was 

 begun on February I9th, and three days later the "Southern Cross" 

 steamed into Port Ross, in the Island of Auckland. The expedition 

 was then practically at an end, having succeeded so well in its 

 objects that it was able to claim that it had located the Southern 

 Magnetic Pole as being in latitude 73 degrees 20 minutes south and 

 longitude 146 degrees east; had discovered insect and plant life on 

 the Antarctic continent; had reached the farthest south, and had 

 added very considerably to the geographical and scientific knowl- 

 edge of the world. 



The interest in Antarctic research had now decidedly revived, 

 and in 1901 three nations, England, Germany and Sweden, des- 

 patched expeditions to the far south. Each was to have its distinct 

 field of operation, the British to explore the region south of Aus- 

 tralia, the Swedes that south of Cape Horn, and the Germans the 

 Bouvet Island district. This island, first seen by Captain Cook, had 

 been revisited by a German steamer, the "Valdivia," in 1898, and 

 evidence found of extensive land nearer the Pole. 



The German expedition sailed from Kiel on August II, 1901, 

 on board the "Gauss," and was under the command of Professor 

 Erich von Drygalski. Their objective was Kerguellen Island, and 

 the chief work carried out was of a purely scientific character. It 

 was originally intended that all the expeditions should return to 

 Europe after passing one winter in the Antarctic. The Germans 

 did so, but both the Swedes and the British were unable to carry 



