2 
T+ ca” 
a ey 
a 
JULY 2, 1914| . 
NATURE 
467 
was met in lat. 64° S., and in lat. 65” 40’ S., the pack 
became impenetrable. 
Progress to the south was made when the conditions 
permitted. During the afternoon of January 6 an ice 
cliff loomed up ahead, extending to the horizon in 
both directions. This proved to be an immense barrier 
tongue—afterwards named the Mertz glacier—pushing 
60 miles out to sea from a great ice-capped land. This 
land, along which we steamed during the next two 
days, had never before been seen. Its continuity with 
Adelie Land was subsequently proved, and it was then 
decided to include our new discoveries under the same 
title. , 
The land rose up everywhere from the sea to form 
a plateau. Only rarely did portions of the rocky plat- 
form break through the ice-sheet. Numerous rocky 
islets fringing the coastline were a notable feature, and 
these formed admirable breeding grounds for marine 
birds. 
At a point some miles from the nearest portion of 
D’Urville’s Adelie Land a suitable spot was discovered 
for a wintering station. This was a rocky outcrop, a 
little more than a mile in extent, henceforth known as 
Cape Denison. In this locality rocks projected from 
under the ice-sheet within a sweeping indentation of 
the coastline, which we named Commonwealth Bay. 
Although summer was at its height, the weather 
proved little better than a succession of gales directed 
off the land, veering between south and south-east. 
This state of things greatly hindered landing opera- 
tions. We were fortunate in finding an excellent boat 
harbour at Cape Denison, between which and the ship 
the invaluable motor launch continually plied when- 
ever the weather was propitious. By January 19 the 
whole of the stores and gear of the main base were 
transferred to the shore. 
The Aurora steamed west for a day along the coast 
seen by D’Urville and Wilkes in 1840, until the limit 
of open water was reached. This stretch of navigable 
water we named the D’Urville Sea. Later we dis- 
covered that its freedom from ice is due to the per- 
sistent gales setting off the land in that locality. 
The coast of Adelie Land could be traced in a 
westerly direction, but, on account of heavy pack, the 
vessel could not follow along the coast, the only 
course being to skirt the heavy ice to the north and 
west. At this point Capt. Davis expected to sight the 
high land reported by the United States Squadron 
(1840) as lying to the west and south-west, but no 
land was seen. 
In long. 132° 30’ E., they were able to stand south 
again and shortly afterwards passed over the charted 
position of D’Urville’s Céte Clarie. 
Capt. Davis’s report: ‘*The water here was clear of 
pack ice, but studded with bergs of immense size. 
The great barrier which had been followed for 60 miles 
by the French ships in 1840 had vanished—nothing 
remained to mark its former position except a_ col- 
lection of huge bergs. 
‘““At Io a.m., having passed to the south of: the 
charted position of Cote Clarie, we altered course to 
S. 10° E. true. Good observations placed us at noon 
in 65° 2’ S. and 132° 26’ E. with a sounding of 160 
fathoms on sand and small stones. We sailed over 
the charted position of land east of Wilkes’ Cape Carr, 
the weather was clear and there was no trace of land 
to be seen in this locality.”’ 
A few hours afterwards, still steaming south, new 
land was sighted to-the south—icy slopes rising from 
the sea similar to those of Adelie Land, but of greater 
elevation. } 
To this discovery we gave the name of Wilkes Land, 
to commemorate the name of a navigator whose daring 
NO. 2331, VOL. 93| 
Quoting from 
was never in question, though his judgment as to the 
actuality of terra firma was untrustworthy. 
It was not until noon on January 31 that the atmo- 
sphere was sufficiently clear to see any distance. The 
ship was then pushing south amongst heavy pack ice 
in the vicinity of Sabrina Land. A portion of Balleny’s 
Sabrina Land was sailed over, and there was no in- 
dication of land in the vicinity. Finally a point was 
reached 7 miles from a portion of Wilkes’s Totten’s 
Land, reported to be high land. A sounding gave 
340 fathoms. The weather was clear and high land 
would have been visible at a great distance. It was 
therefore apparent that Totten’s Land either does not 
exist at all or is situated some distance from its charted 
location. The pack was too heavy for the ship to 
penetrate further to the south, so a course was set to 
the west. Heavy pack barred the way to the south. 
Some days after, the vicinity of Knox Land, of 
Wilkes’ charts, was reached. With the exception of 
Adelie Land, which the French sighted some days 
previous to the Americans, the account by Wilkes con- 
cerning Knox Land is more convincing than any of his 
other statements relating to new land. 
If not already disembarked, we had counted on 
settling our Western Base in this place. It was, there- 
fore, very disappointing when heavy pack ice barred 
the way, at a point still north of Wilkes’s furthest 
south in that locality. Repulsed from his attack upon 
the pack ice in that vicinity, Captain Davis decided to 
go still further west. The course made carried the 
ship to the north-west. Early on the morning of 
February 8, in foggy weather, a wall of ice about 8o ft. 
high appeared across the bows extending in a north- 
westerly direction. Following this along, the weather 
cleared, and it: was recognised to be the face of an 
extensive flat-topped mass of floating ice. Rounding 
a cape to the west, and passing through loose ice, open 
water was reached to the south. Fifty miles in that 
direction the sea was found to shallow rapidly and a 
maze of large grounded bergs was entered. The 
bottom was found to be very regular, ranging between 
110 and 120 fathoms. 
The last of the obstructing ice was negotiated on 
February 13, and the ship steamed into a broad sheet 
of water still stretching to the south.. This open sea 
inside the pack-ice belt we ascertained, later, to be 
a permanent feature of that vicinity, and to it I gave 
the name of the Davis Sea, after the intrepid captain 
of the Aurora. 
One hundred miles further to the south, in lat. 
66° S. and long. 94° 23! E., the icy slopes of new land 
were seen extending east and west as far as the eye 
could reach. The sphere of operations of the German 
Expedition of 1902 was.now near at hand, for their 
vessel, the Gauss, had wintered frozen in the. pack 
about 125 miles to the west.. The land to the south, 
which the Germans visited by sledge journey over 
the pack ice, was eventually proved by one of our own 
sledging parties to be continuous with the new land 
now sighted by the Aurora. The ‘high land” in the 
direction of Wilkes’s Termination Land, seen by the 
Germans during a balloon ascent, we found to be a 
high ice-sheathed island about nine miles in diameter. 
To this we gave the name of Drygalski Island. . The 
position marked for Termination Land on Wilkes’s 
charts we found to be occupied by pack-ice and @ 
barrier-ice formation (marginal shelf ice). 
The formation in question, trending about 180 miles 
to the north from the newly discovered land just 
referred to, was found to be very similar in character 
to the well-known Ross Barrier over which lay part 
of Scott’s and Amundsen’s journeys to the south pole. 
This we named the Shackleton Ice Shelf. Its height 
is remarkably uniform, ranging between 60 and tu9 
