30 THE HISTORY OF THE SOUTH POLE 



having first built a station on that island and landed a 

 scientific staff, who were to work there, while the main 

 expedition proceeded into the ice. Its ship, the 

 Gauss, had been built at Kiel with the Fram as a 

 model. 



The Gauss's navigator was Captain Hans Ruser, a 

 skilful seaman of the Hamburg- American line. 



Drygalski had chosen his scientific staff with know- 

 ledge and care, and it is certain that he could not have 

 obtained better assistants. 



The expedition left Kiel on August 11, 1901, bound 

 for Cape Town. An extraordinarily complete oceano- 

 graphical, meteorological, and magnetic survey was 

 made during this part of the voyage. 



After visiting the Crozet Islands, the Gauss anchored 

 in Royal Sound, Kerguelen Land, on December 31. The 

 expedition stayed here a month, and then steered for 

 the south to explore the regions between Kemp Land 

 and Knox Land. They had already encountered a 

 number of bergs in lat. 60 S. 



On February 14 they made a sounding of 1,730 

 fathoms near the supposed position of Wilkes's Termi- 

 nation Land. Progress was very slow hereabout on 

 account of the thick floes. 



Suddenly, on February 19, they had a sounding of 

 132 fathoms, and on the morning of February 21 land 

 was sighted, entirely covered with ice and snow. A 

 violent storm took the Gauss by surprise, collected a 



