Geographic Notes 



203 



with boilers under half pressure, can 

 force her way through polar ice of 1 2 to 

 14 feet thickness at a rate of nearly 3 

 knots an hour. This type of vessel may 

 prove an important factor in ultimately 

 reaching the pole. 



Captain Bernier^ of Quebec, has adopt- 

 ed essentiall}' the plan Nansen has urged 

 of approaching the Pole from Bering Sea, 

 between 165 and rye degrees east longi- 

 tude, and then drifting toward the Pole. 

 Captain Bernier does not expect to set 

 out this year, but is making arrange- 

 ments for an expedition to start in 

 1902. 



The widely circulated statement that 

 the Diifce of Ahtuzzi would send a 

 special vessel northward in July to 

 search for the three members of his part}^ 

 who were lost in Franz Josef Land in 

 March, 1900, is unfounded. The whal- 

 ing steamer Capella^ which every sum- 

 mer goes northward, toward the end of 

 Juh'- will stop incidentally at Franz Josef 

 Land to see if it can find traces of the 

 missing men, but the Italian prince has 

 no connection with the plan. 



Walter Wellman has purchased a 

 whaling steamer in which he hopes soon 

 to lead a third arctic expedition. The 

 party may start this year or wait till the 

 summer of 1902. 



The project of Hetr Anschotz-Kampfe 

 of attaining the North Pole by means of 

 a submarine boat has been alluded to on 

 page 201. 



WORK IN THE ANTARCTICS 



PLANS are under way for five expe- 

 ditions to southern regions, two of 

 which— the English and the German — 

 set out in Jul}^, in costly ships specially 

 constructed for the purpose. 



The Discovery, the first ship ever con- 

 structed in England for purely explo- 

 ratory work, was recently launched on 

 the Firth of Tay. The Discovery, which 

 is the vessel of the Engflish Antarctic 

 Expedition, is the sixth of her name in 



the annals of British exploration. The 

 first Discovery carried Hudson to Hud- 

 son Bay in 16 10, on the ill-fated voy- 

 age when his crew mutinied and aban- 

 doned him in a tiny boat to perish on 

 the great bay which he had discovered. 

 The second of the name one hundred 

 years later made a vo3^age to Hudson 

 Bay. The third was the second ship in 

 Cook's third voyage, in which he dis- 

 covered the Hawaiian Islands, only to 

 be murdered there a few months later. 

 In the fourth Vancouver explored the 

 Gulf of Georgia and the shores of the 

 island which bears his name — i79i-'95, 

 and the fifth was the second ship of the 

 Arctic expedition of Sir George Nares. • 



The present Discovery is as staunchly 

 built as experience and science can make 

 her. She is a combined sailing and 

 steam vessel, with engines of 450-horse 

 power, and will be able to steam about 

 eight knots an hour. At the water line 

 she is 170 feet in length, with an ex- 

 treme breadth of 33 feet ; her mean 

 draft is 16 feet and her displacement 

 1,750 tons. 



Captain Scott will have under him 

 four other officers, two of them belong- 

 ing to the navy and two to the Roj^al 

 Naval Reserve. The second in com- 

 mand will be Lieutenant Armitage, 

 whose three years' experience in Franz 

 Josef Land with Jackson should be of 

 immense service, especiall^^ if he is 

 placed in command of a land party. 

 There will be three civilian scientific 

 specialists and two medical officers, both 

 of them qualified to undertake certain 

 departments of scientific work. The 

 petty officers and crew wdll number 

 about 25, so that the complete comple- 

 ment of the Discovery is not likely to 

 exceed 40. There will be some 20 

 sledges and 20 dogs, some of the sledges 

 being light enough to be easily drawn 

 by men. 



The Gauss, for the German Antarctic 

 Expedition (named after the Gottingen 

 professor who did so much to stimulate 



