EXPLORING THE GREAT CONTINENT 



perhaps no other expedition has been so successful with 

 its geological and paleontological investigations in 

 Antarctica. These will be described in a later chapter. 

 Bruce. — It is natural that Scotland, from which so 

 many whalers set out year after year, should be in- 

 terested in polar exploration. In 1892 Dr. Bruce had 

 made a voyage with the whaling fleet to Graham Land, 

 and in 1902 he was successful in leading a scientific 

 expedition to explore Antarctic regions. The "Scotia" 

 left Scotland in November and reached the Falkland 

 Islands early in January, 1903 (see Figure 4). Bruce 

 made tw^o voyages into the Weddell Sea area in the 

 successive summers. On February 2nd they reached 

 the Pack Ice at 60° 28', whereas Ross found it at 

 65° and D'Urville at 63° 30'. They visited the South 

 Orkneys and then pushed to the southeast across the 

 mouth of the Weddell Sea, gradually getting farther 

 south as they moved to windward. They were unable 

 to proceed farther than 70° 25' on February 22nd, 

 when they were in the vicinity of Coats Land, though 

 this area w^as still to be discovered. For a week they 

 were nearly beset, and as the season w^as fairly late 

 they turned north, making valuable soundings. Bruce 

 decided to winter in the South Orkneys, which were 

 practically unknown scientifically and very poorly 

 charted before his expedition's advent. On the beach 

 at Scotia Bay in Laurie Island (see Figure 7), they 

 built a stone hut for the observers in spring. The 

 island is about twelve miles long and is cut up by long 

 bays running northwest and southeast. Silurian grap- 

 tolites were discovered at the eastern end, and the 



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