EXPEDITION TO THE SOUTH POLE.' 



Bv RoALiJ Amundsen. 



The plan of the third Fmm oxpodition was twofold: First, the 

 attainment of the South Pole, and, second, the exploration of the 

 north polar regions. This evenmg I have the honor to report to you 

 on the accomplishment of the first part of this plan. 



I can only briefly mention here the expeditions which have worked 

 hi the region which we had selected for our startuig point. As we 

 wished to reach the South Pole, our first problem was to go south as 

 far as possible with our ship and there establish our station. Even 

 so, the sled journeys would be long enough. I knew that the English 

 expedition would agam clioose their old whiter quarters in McMurdo 

 Sound, South Victoria Land, as their startmg pomt. From news- 

 paper report it was known that the Japanese had selected King 

 Edward VII Land. In order to avoid these two expeditions we had 

 to establish our station on the Great Ice Barrier as far as possible 

 from the starthig pouits of the two other expeditions. 



'J'he Great Ice Barrier, also called the Ross Barrier, lies between 

 ^outh Victoria Land and King Edward VII Land and has an extent 

 of about 515 miles.- The first to reach this mighty ice formation 

 was vSir James Clark Ross in 184L He did not dare approach the 

 great ice waU, 100 feet high, with his two sailing ships, the Erebus 

 and the Terror, whose progress southward was impeded by this 

 mighty obstacle. He examined the ice wall from a distance, how- 

 ever, as far as possible. His observations showed that the Barrier is 

 not a continuous, abrupt ice wall, but is interrupted by bays and 

 small chatmels. On Ross's map a bay of considerable magnitude 

 may be seen. 



The next expedition was that of the Southern Cross in 1900. It 

 is interesting to note that this party found the bay mentioned above 

 at the same place where Ross had seen it in 1S41, nearly GO years 

 before; that this expedition also was able to land a few miles to the 



> Lecture delivered in German by Roald Amundsen before the Berlin Geographical Society on Oct. 9, 

 1912. Translated and reprinted from the Zeitschr. dor Gcsell. fiir Erdkunde zii Berlin, 1912, No. 7, pp, 

 481-498. Here reprinted by permission from Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, vol. 44, No. 

 11, November, 1912. Now York, pp. 822-838. 



* All values have been changed from the metric system to English equivalents. 



701 



