4(38 THE SWEDISH ANTAECTIC EXPEDITION. 



Ross's famous barrior in the vicinity of Victoria Land. The surface 

 was generally smooth, ])ut, as was found In^ the British explorers in 

 the opposite hemisphere, the approach to the land was barred by 

 formidable crevasses, rendering it impossible to obtain seal meat for 

 the dogs, so that it became necessary to begin the return journe.y on 

 October 21, or earlier than had been anticipated, the station being 

 again reached on November 4. 



During the summer the gales ceased almost entirely, and little 

 change in the ice occurred, this being the reason for the failure of 

 the Antarctic to reach the station to take home the explorers. The 

 second winter which they were thus forced to spend at the station 

 proved far better than the former as regards the gales experienced, 

 but the renewal of sledge expeditions, apart from some minor trips, 

 was again reserved for the spring. On September 29, Doctor Norden- 

 skiold started, with the sailor Jonasen as his only companion, intend- 

 ing to examine the channels northward in the direction of Erebus (rulf. 

 This was reached on October 12, when the explorers unexpectedly met 

 with Doctor Andersson and Lieutenant Duse, who had spent the winter 

 in that locality without any suitable ecpnpment, having left the Ant- 

 arctic at the end of 1902, in order to try to reach the winter station 

 overland. They had since heard nothing of the ship. Returning in 

 company to the winter station, they arrived in time to greet the 

 jippearance of the Argentine gunboat Uruguay (Captain Irizar), which 

 arrived on November 8, still without news of the Antarctic. The 

 very same night their fears for the safety of the crew were set at rest 

 by the arrival of Captain Larson and four men, who had made their 

 way from the spot where the crew had wintered after the loss of the 

 ship, the fate of which was thus for the first time made known to the 

 other parties. The catastrophe had occurred when the Antarctic was 

 about 20 miles south from Dundee Island, the ship having been 

 crushed by the ice pressure caused b}^ a violent gale on January 10, 

 and finally abandoned on February 12, the crew making their wa}' 

 amid great difficulties to Paulet Island. The various parties being 

 happily reunited on the arrival of the Uruguay at the last-named 

 island on November 11, the homeward voyage was commenced. 



IL Scientific Work at the Winter Station. 

 By Dr. Otto Nordenskiold. 



We arrived at the place selected for our winter station, at the foot 

 of Snow Hill, in Admiralty Inlet, on February 12, 1902, and on Feb- 

 ruary 21 our ship, the Antarctic, finally left us, not for some months, 

 as we expected, but never to return. The members of the winter 

 party, besides myself, were Doctor Bodman, meteorologist and magne- 

 tician; Doctor Ekelof, physician and bacteriologist; Lieutenant Sobral, 



