GEOGRAPHICAL PROGRESS. (ANTARCTIC REGIONS.) 



311 



" In his quest for information and search for 

 rare mammals Mr. Stone was very successful. 

 Leaving here in July, 1897, he went up the 

 Stickeen river into the Laird river country. While 

 he was there his native guides deserted him, and 

 he was left alone in the midst of the Hell Gate 

 Indians, who endeavored to steal his outfit. He 

 stopped on the way down Mackenzie river to 

 traverse a large area of the Rockies in the vicin- 

 ity of the arctic circle. From Fort McPherson, 

 the Hudson Bay Company's most northern trad- 

 ing post, he again crossed the Rockies, went down 

 the delta of the Mackenzie river, and traveled 

 west along the arctic coast to Hereshall island. 

 Later he explored the Mackenzie delta thorough- 

 ly, thence reaching Yukon by way of the Porcu- 

 pine river." 



Explorations have been made in Iceland by 

 F. W. W. Howell, who made the first crossing of 

 the Lang Jokull this autumn with his party, two 

 of whom were from Merton College, Oxford, and 

 two Icelanders of Reykjavik. Dr. Thoroddsen has 

 completed his explorations in Iceland, which have 

 extended over many years. 



Antarctic Regions. The Belgian expedition 

 to the antarctic returned in March, 1899, having 

 left Antwerp Aug. 16, 1897. The following is 

 from an account given to a representative of 

 Reviter's agency by Dr. Arctowski, geologist of 

 the party : 



" The Belgian expedition entered the antarctic 

 circle from the opposite direction to that in which 

 the British expedition under Mr. Borchgrevinck 

 is now working, Lieut. Gerlache with the Belgica 

 going via Cape Horn and the South Shetland 

 Islands, while the British expedition started from 

 Hobart for Victoria Land. Dr. Arctowski said 

 their first object was to make a voyage in the 

 antarctic, but beyond this there was on starting 

 no definite programme. It was intended to ex- 

 amine the various scientific conditions. On leav- 

 ing Staten their object was to go direct to the 

 south and to explore in the region of Grahams- 

 land and Palmer Land, on which no landing had 

 been made since their discovery in the early part 

 of the century. On Feb. 13, four weeks after 

 leaving Staten island, they left the newly discov- 

 ered land which they had named Danco Land, and 

 in three days sighted Alexander I Land. On the 

 28th the Belgica ran into the antarctic ice pack. 

 The temperature fell, and the Belgica stuck fast. 

 For a whole year she remained immovable, and 

 for the first time human beings prepared to spend 

 a winter in the antarctic. They had expected to 

 winter in the south polar region, but they had 

 hoped to do so on land. They were, however, 

 unable to find land on which to establish a depot, 

 and had to remain on the ship. They spent the 

 winter in scientific work. All of them suffered a 

 good deal during the antarctic night, owing to 

 defective circulation and heart trouble. All pulled 

 through except Lieut. Danco, who succumbed to 

 heart failure in June of last year, and his re- 

 mains were buried beneath the ice. The only 

 other member of the expedition to lose his life 

 was Carl Wiencke, a Norwegian sailor, who was 

 lost overboard between Staten island and the ant- 

 arctic. At the beginning of the present year they 

 began to cut a channel through the ice for the 

 Belgica, and after much hard work they cut a 

 passage 900 metres in length. Unlike the arctic, 

 the antarctic has no land animals. The only 

 signs of life they found on land -were very small 

 insects, which were discovered among the pen- 

 guin rookeries. In the water there was plenty of 

 life. There were far more seals than in the north 

 polar regions, a great quantity of small whales, 



and an abundance of penguins. The antarctic 

 land they found to be entirely mountainous, ab- 

 solutely glaciated, covered with snow and ice. 

 In some places where the cliffs were too precipi- 

 tous for ice and snow to lodge were found lichen 

 and moss." 



The British expedition under Borchgrevinck, 

 mentioned above, was organized by Sir George 

 Newnes, and sailed in The Southern Cross for 

 Cape Adare in December, 1898. Terrific storms 

 were encountered. Three of the party ascended 

 the glacier to a height of 700 metres. At the foot 

 of the mountain they discovered a great vein of 

 quartz, presumably containing gold. In Febru- 

 ary the ship returned to Australia. 



A German expedition for deep-sea exploration 

 on board the Valdivia, under the leadership of 

 Prof. Chun, returned from antarctic waters April 

 30, having left Cape Town Nov. 13, 1898. The 

 following paragraph from the official report gives 

 an idea of the general results of the soundings: 



" The great depths encountered since leaving 

 Bouvet island [the Valdivia passed along the 

 edge of the ice to a point near Enderby Land] 

 must be looked upon as one of the most surpris- 

 ing results of the expedition. Of the 17 sound- 

 ings taken on the southward voyage, no less than 

 11 showed depths between 2,700 and '3,300 fath- 

 oms, and only 1 in the immediate neighborhood 

 of Bouvet island was under 1,700 fathoms. This 

 series of soundings, the first of such complete- 

 ness in antarctic waters, very greatly modifies 

 our conceptions of the form of the ocean bed in 

 the far south. Only 15 soundings had previously 

 been made south of 50 south; the Valdivia added 

 29, and showed that, instead of being a relatively 

 shallow basin, the southern ocean is of very 

 great depth. In one respect, indeed, the great 

 depths did not lend themselves to the carrying 

 out of the plans of the expedition. Twelve hours 

 are necessary to make a successful haul of the 

 dredge at depths approaching 3,000 fathoms a 

 very long time in the uncertain weather of these 

 latitudes, where a sudden change might mean loss 

 of gear and danger to life." The ocean floor be- 

 tween Enderby Land and Kerguelen is deeply fur- 

 rowed, depths of 1,300 fathoms alternating with 

 those of 2,000 to 3,000 fathoms. 



Bouvet island, one of three sighted by Bouvet, 

 Lindsay, and Norris, is described: "The sharp 

 outline of a steep island clothed in antarctic ice 

 and desolation showed clear about 7 nautical 

 miles distant. The first impression of this land, 

 which had remained unseen for seventy-five years, 

 and eluded three expeditions, was that of a steep 

 and lofty slope on the west and north, on which 

 a magnificent glacier descended to sea level, and 

 a vast snow field above sinking gently to the 

 south and ending with an ice wall at the sea; the 

 summit of the island was covered with clouds. 

 The island fell steeply to the sea, and at a dis- 

 tance of 3 to 4 nautical miles depths of 200 to 

 300 fathoms were found, in which 5 hauls of the 

 dredge were made with the result of an extraor- 

 dinarily rich collection of animal life. Every 

 group of marine organisms, except fishes and 

 stalked crinoids, was represented. The center of 

 Bouvet island is in latitude 54 26.4' south and 

 longitude 3 24.2' east. Its length from west to 

 east is 5.1 nautical miles, and from north to 

 south 4.3. A photograph shows a wide, sharply 

 indented crater wall sloping gently to the sea on 

 the south and east. The other sides are much 

 steeper, the northeast cape being a prominent 

 cliff. The highest point of the rim of the crater 

 (3,067 feet) was named Kaiser Wilhelm peak; 

 the northernmost of the 5 projecting angles of the 



