476 THE SWEDISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



visible. Here all efforts to penetrate the pack would eviclenth' be use- 

 less, at least for the next few weeks, and Captain Larsen determined to 

 tr}^ outside of Joinville Island. On the northern coast of this island 

 we again met the edge of the dense pack, which Ave followed in a 

 northerly direction, eagerly looking for an opening to the east and 

 south. South from the Elephant Islands the Antarctic got caught l)y 

 the ice and drifted with it in a northeasterly direction. On December 

 15 (latitude 01-^ 35' south, longitude 53° west) we had drifted outside 

 the Bransfield basin, as w^as proved ])y a sounding at 892 fathoms, a 

 bottom temperature of 31.28" F., the normal deep temperature of 

 the open Antarctic Ocean. Two days later, the ice having slackened 

 so as to permit the ship moving, Captain Larsen made his way back 

 westward to open water. We now returned to the sound inside 

 Joinville Island, only to find the ice conditions here unaltered. The 

 chances of reaching the winter station with the ship at this time 

 seemed very bad, and we sought to realize a plan that had been under 

 preparation during the last two weeks. On December 29 Mr. Duse, 

 Sailor Grunden, and I were landed on the west side of the sound to 

 try sledging round the gulf to get into conununication with Snow Ilill. 

 The movements of the Antarct'tc from this day to the tinal disaster will 

 be reported l)y another hand." The only thing that remains to tell 

 here is the fate of the scientific materials on board at this time. 



The most valuable part of our collections of earlier times by the 

 expedition had been sent home from Port Stanley and Ushuaia. 

 Before we left Port Stanley the last time (September, 1902), I had left 

 another large part of our collections in charge of the Colonial (lovern- 

 mentand of the Falkland Island Company. All zoological, botanical, 

 and geological material that could, if wanted, be worked out by foreign 

 hands was deposited here. My private geological notebooks, as well 

 as all the materials in charge of Mr. Duse (meteorological and hydro- 

 graphical journals, cartographical material), were kept on board to be 

 worked out in the course of tke voyage. We are highly indebted to 

 Captain Larsen and the two scientists remaining w^ith him on board 

 for saving all the notebooks, journals, etc. Only the cartographical 

 material from South Georgia could not be found b}^ them, and it was 

 consequently lost with the ship. The collections made on the second 

 visit to Tierra del Fuego were kept on Ijoard, and the most of these, 

 as well as most of the collections obtained during that last sammer\s 

 work in the south, had to be left on board when the sinking ship was 

 abandoned. But it is nu;ch to the credit of Messrs. K. A. Andersson 

 and Skottsberg that they, in the days when the fate of the ship was 

 already evident, selected the most valuable, portable parts of their 

 collections, which they took to Paulet Island, and thus saved them. 



f'See above. 



