Recent Antarctic Exploration 3 



which the Ross Sea gives access, lying south of New Zealand ; 

 while the " Gauss " should endeavour to proceed southwards in 

 the neighbourhood of the QOth meridian of east longitude, 

 where the " Challenger " had crossed the antarctic circle in 

 1874, and where Wilkes, in 1840, had seen the " appearance 

 of land," to which he gave the name of "Termination 

 Land." 



But these four expeditions, of which two started and two 

 returned in the autumn of 1901, do not exhaust the list. For 

 some years previously Mr W. S. Bruce, who had considerable 

 arctic and antarctic experience, had been endeavouring to fit 

 out a Scottish expedition ; but lack of funds stood in the 

 way. In the end this difficulty was removed, mainly by the 

 liberality of Messrs James and Andrew Coats of Paisley. A 

 Norwegian whaler, the " Hekla," was bought, and, under the 

 generous direction of the late Mr G. L. Watson, she was made 

 practically a new ship, which was named the " Scotia." The 

 "Scotia" left Scotland on Nov. 2, 1902, and arrived at Port 

 Stanley, Falkland Islands, after a smart passage of fifty- 

 nine days. She left Port Stanley on Jan. 26, 1903, and spent 

 two months making hydrographical and oceanographical ex- 

 plorations in that part of the antarctic ocean which lies 

 south-west of the Falkland Islands, and bears the name of 

 the Weddell Sea. The rapid approach of winter forced 

 Mr Bruce to seek winter-quarters ; and he found them in a 

 bay in one of the South Orkney Islands. Here the ship was 

 frozen in for eight months ; and it is a remarkable fact that 

 this happened in so low a latitude as 60. During the winter 

 a complete series of meteorological observations was taken ; 

 hydrographical and geological surveys of the island were 

 made ; and large collections of the land and marine fauna 

 brought together. Mr Bruce made good use of the experi- 

 ence he had gathered in the expeditions of the Prince of 

 Monaco, and prepared skeletons of nearly all the animals 

 collected, by the Prince's method of sinking them in pots to 

 the bottom of the sea, and leaving them there until the 

 minute crustaceans had cleaned the bones of everything 

 edible. Owing to this division of labour, the collection of 



