GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS. 



257 



will be 30 men; if the sailors and other men 

 aboard the vessels be included, the total will 

 probably exceed 75. 



The main object of the enterprise is, of course, 

 to reach the pole, but it is promised that exten- 

 sive and careful scientific observations will be 

 made; and for this purpose instruments of the 

 newest and best designs are provided, and a spe- 

 cialty will be made of photographic work. The 

 equipment includes also three portable houses. 



A novel way of reaching the pole is to be under- 

 taken by Prof. Anschuetz-Kaempfke, of Vienna, 

 whose plan is to make use of a submarine boat 

 with a crew of five men. The vessel, which is to 

 be driven by a petroleum motor, will be so con- 

 structed that it can descend to a depth of 160 

 feet, where it will be below the greatest depth 

 of ice, and away from the influence of cold and ice 

 pressure. It can stay under water fifteen hours, 

 .and the time can be prolonged, if necessary, by the 

 use of compressed oxygen, which will be carried; 

 but as continuous fields of pack-ice do not exceed 

 .a maximum diameter of about 3 English miles, 

 it is expected that open places where it can come 

 to the surface will be frequent. 



Antarctic Regions. Three expeditions Eng- 

 lish, German, and Swedish set out for the south 

 pole in 1901. 



The Swedish enterprise is under the leadership 

 of Dr. Otto Nordenskjold (nephew of the famous 

 explorer Adolf Eric Nordenskjb'ld, who died Aug. 

 12), who was a member of the Danish expedition 

 to East Greenland last summer under Lieut. Am- 

 drup. Dr. Nordenskjold has also shared in sev- 

 eral Swedish polar expeditions. He sailed from 

 Gothenberg on the Antarctic Oct. 16. 



" After leaving South America, Nordenskjold 

 will sail to Graham Land, south of Tierra del 

 Fuego, where a great opportunity for exploration 

 presents itself." 



The German expedition, under command of Dr. 

 Eric Drygalski, sails on a ship named Gauss, in 

 honor of the mathematician who first recognized 

 the importance of the south pole for magnetic 

 observations. " She will go first to Cape Town, 

 :and thence to Kerguelen island, a desolate spot 

 recently taken over by the French, where some 

 members of the party will remain to take mag- 

 netic observations simultaneously with the ship, 

 which will proceed toward Enderby Land, where 

 a landing will be made and expeditions into the 

 interior organized. Explorations will continue in 

 an easterly direction." 



The British, called the National Antarctic Ex- 

 pedition, sailed from Cowes Aug. 6, 1901, in the 

 Discovery, which is specially fitted for polar work. 

 It is thus described in the London Times : " It 

 is a remarkable fact that the new Discovery is the 

 first ship ever built in this country for the ex- 

 press purpose of exploration. Probably no ship, 

 at any rate of her size, was ever more strongly 

 built. The ribs are made of what is known as 

 English oak, though grown in Scotland, and thor- 

 oughly well seasoned. They are placed as close 

 as they could well be without actual contact. 

 These ribs will be covered by two skins, as they 

 are called, one of oak and one of greenheart, all 

 thoroughly calked. Inside these will be lined 

 to the thickness of If inch by asbestos plates, and 

 these again will be covered by match-boards. The 

 beams will be such as to bear not only the loads 

 that may be placed upon them from above, but 

 also to resist the enormous side pressures to 

 which the ship may be subjected among the 

 little-known antarctic ice. The deck-beams in the 

 living-rooms are to be covered with soft plates of 

 felt half an inch thick. 

 VOL. XLI. 17 A 



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" There will be a great sheer in 

 purpose of enabling the ship ; , 

 through the ice-fields which sin \. > 

 counter, and her bow will be c;i 

 covered with steel plates. Spoehil ::,, 

 will be made for unshipping the rwM 

 ically, and in other respects the lul.e.-; 

 will be adopted throughout for savin 

 labor. Her engines will be of 450 horse. \>< 

 and will be capable of steaming about S knot-,. 

 An unusually large space will be allotted to the 

 engine-room, by means of which, among other 

 advantages, a considerable saving of coal will he- 

 secured. The vessel will be rigged as a bark. 

 The Discovery, at the water-line, will be 172 feet 

 in length, with an extreme breadth of 33 feet; 

 her mean draft will be 16 feet, and her displace- 

 ment 1,750 tons. She has space enough to carry 

 stores of all kinds for three years. There will be 

 cabins for special purposes, laboratories for the 

 biologists on deck, and others for photographic 

 and other purposes below. Equal care has been 

 taken with the quarters for the crew, and with the 

 sick-berth. A special magnetic observatory will 

 be constructed and fitted on the upper deck to 

 receive a pedestal magnetic instrument. Special 

 care will be taken that no ironwork shall be used 

 for any purpose within a distance of 30 feet of 

 this observatory. Where metal must be used, it 

 will consist of rolled naval brass. The cost will 

 be about 45,000." 



The instructions to the commander have the fol- 

 lowing points of geographical interest : " To ex- 

 plore the ice-barrier of Sir James Ross to its east- 

 ern extremity, to discover the land that was be- 

 lieved by Ross to flank the barrier eastward, or to 

 ascertain that it does not exist and, generally, to 

 solve the very important physical and geograph- 

 ical questions connected with this remarkable ice 

 formation." It is added: "If you should decide 

 that the ship shall winter in the ice, the following 

 instructions are to be observed: Your efforts, as 

 regards geographical exploration, should be di- 

 rected, with the help of depots, to three objects 

 namely, an advance into the western mountains, 

 an advance to the south, and the exploration of 

 the volcanic region." 



As the sphere of action thus lies about Victoria 

 Land, it is a different field from -those of the 

 German and Swedish expeditions; and the Scot- 

 tish, if it should be carried out, is expected to 

 confine its operations to the fourth quarter of the 

 antarctic regions. 



The survivors of the Borchgrevink South Polar 

 Expedition, fitted out in 1898 by Sir George 

 Newnes, returned in 1900, having reached the far- 

 thest point south on record 78 50'. They re- 

 ported having located the magnetic pole. Fol- 

 lowing is an abstract of the account given to the 

 Royal Geographical Society by M. Louis Bernac- 

 chi, a member of the scientific staff : " He said 

 that extensive masses of land did exist within 

 the antarctic circle, but whether they took the 

 form of a vast continent, or of an archipelago 

 smothered under an overload of frozen snow, or 

 of islands whose shores were washed by the ocean, 

 still remained an enigma. It was, he thought, 

 premature to call it the ' Antarctic Continent,' 

 for explorations on the side of America, and even 

 on that of Australia, tended to prove the exist- 

 ence of a broken-up continuation of these two 

 continents, with the most . extensive masses of 

 land lying under their respective meridians. Com- 

 ing to an account of the explorations of the 

 Southern Cross, he said the ship entered the ant 

 arctic ice-pack in longitude 158 53' east on the 

 last day of 1898, and was involved in the pack 



