378 ANTARCTIC VOYAGE OF THE BELGICA. 



The Belgian Antarctic Expedition maintained, therefore, the char- 

 acter of a private enterprise, in which the individual liberty accorded 

 might easily have led to anarchy on board. If I lay stress on this 

 point, it is because I feel that the example of the Belgica ought not 

 to be followed. In a similar expedition it is requisite not merely to 

 make a good choice of the individuals who are to take part in it, but 

 to do all in one's power from the outset to secure a proper organi- 

 zation, to define the duties of each one of the staff, so as to give 

 stability to the enterprise, and, further, to provide a definite plan — just 

 what we lacked. 



We left Antwerp on August 16, 1897. The speed of the Belgica, 

 under steam, being only from 1 to 5 knots, the crossing of the Atlantic 

 was slow and of little interest. The vessel was so overloaded that the 

 deck was scarcely 2 feet above the water line. Dr. Frederick A. Cook 

 joined the expedition at Rio de Janeiro. We had several desertions 

 among our Belgian seamen while in South American waters and finally 

 left Punta Arenas with a quite insufficient crew. The whole comple- 

 ment of the Belgica was thus reduced to 19 men, as follows: 



Adrien de Gerlache, commanding; George Lecointe, second in com- 

 mand, and Roald Amundsen, officer; Emile Danco, Emile Racovitza, 

 Henryk Arctowski. and Antoni Dobrowolski. scientists; Frederick A. 

 Cook, doctor; Henri Somers and Max van Rysselberg, engineers; 

 Tollewsen, Melaerts, Johansen, Knutsen, Koren, Wiencke, Michotte, 

 Dufour, Van Mirlo, seamen. 



The Belgica left Staten Island on January 11, 1898, and it was 

 from this date that our voyage of exploration began. We had all the 

 equipment necessary for oceanographical investigations, and I was 

 happy to be able at last to commence my researches, which began with 

 an interesting discovery. South of Staten Island, in the latitude of 

 Cape Horn, the sounding lead only touched bottom at 2,200 fathoms, 

 and from this point the depths gradually diminish toward the south. 

 It is, therefore, toward the east that I think we must look for the pro- 

 longation of the Andes, since south of Cape Horn we are still in the 

 Barker basin. The Pacific Ocean ought, therefore, to be extended 

 beyond the meridian of Cape Horn, for its natural limit will certainly 

 be found in the submarine ridge of the Andes. 



On January 23 we reached Hughes Gulf, the outlines of which are 

 but vaguely traced on the Admiralty chart from the indications sup- 

 plied early in the nineteenth century by English and American 

 whalers. We soon saw that the modern charts of Petermann and 

 Friederichsen, intended to illustrate the discoveries of the German 

 Captain Dallmann, were entirely at fault. As the information respect- 

 ing the lands situated to the south of Cape Horn was extremely scanty, 

 we all worked our hardest to collect such data as should be obtainable 

 on the nature and extent of these lands. Captain Lecointe, assisted 

 by Commander de Gerlache, was busy from morning till night on 



