EXPLORING THE GREAT CONTINENT 



hut. Here they dwelt, cursed by darkness and semi- 

 starvation until October ist. One of the men was so 

 ill that it was necessary to drag him on the sledge. 

 On October 29th they had their first full meal, from a 

 depot, left by myself on Cape Roberts ; and they reached 

 the hut safely on November 7th after a wonderful 

 journey, considering their debilitating winter conditions. 



Meanwhile the most complete record yet obtained of 

 Antarctic weather had been made at headquarters by 

 Dr. Simpson, and it is believed that these and other 

 voluminous scientific memoirs in geology, glaciology, 

 topography, surveying, and biology will make this ex- 

 pedition as notable in the annals of science as it is in 

 the record of polar exploration. 



Amundsen. — This explorer was a member of the 

 Belgian expedition in 1899 ^"^ had since done fine 

 work in the "Gjoa" in Arctic seas. His plan to reach 

 the North Pole was forestalled by Peary, and so he 

 decided to attempt the South Pole, before using the 

 *'Fram" to explore the North Polar ocean. He in- 

 formed the crew of the change of plan at Madeira and 

 then proceeded to the Ross Barrier Shelf, which was 

 reached on the eleventh of January, 191 1. On the 

 fourteenth he started to build his station on a portion 

 of the shelf which appeared to be immovable. Here 

 Amundsen took a grave risk, which success justified, 

 for much of the shelf to the west breaks away each 

 year. Another great advantage was that it was so far 

 from the Great Ice Plateau that few blizzards, due to 

 ''gravity flow" of the air, hindered their plans. Fur- 

 thermore, it was much nearer the Pole than Cape Evans 



59 



