18 THE HISTORY OF THE SOUTH POLE 



that, if Captain Evensen had been free, he would here 

 have had a chance of achieving even better work than 

 he did bold, capable, and enterprising as he is. 



The next whaling expedition to make its mark in the 

 South Polar regions is that of the Antarctic, under 

 Captain Leonard Kristensen. Kristensen was an extra- 

 ordinarily capable man, and achieved the remarkable 

 record of being the first to set foot on the sixth conti- 

 nent, the great southern land " Antarctica." This 

 was at Cape Adare, Victoria Land, in January, 1895. 



An epoch-making phase of Antarctic research is now 

 ushered in by the Belgian expedition in the Belgica, 

 under the leadership of Commander Adrien de Gerlache. 

 Hardly anyone has had a harder fight to set his 

 enterprise on foot than Gerlache. He was successful, 

 however, and on August 16, 1897, the Belgica left 

 Antwerp. 



The scientific staff had been chosen with great care, 

 and Gerlache had been able to secure the services of 

 exceedingly able men. His second in command, Lieu- 

 tenant G. Lecointe, a Belgian, possessed every qualifica- 

 tion for his difficult position. It must be remembered 

 that the Belgica s company was as cosmopolitan as it 

 could be Belgians, Frenchmen, Americans, Norwe- 

 gians, Swedes, Rumanians, Poles, etc. and it was the 

 business of the second in command to keep all these 

 men together and get the best possible work out of 



