ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE AND RESEARCH 



and was, of course, in touch with the south, while 

 Cape Evans was isolated in summer from the Ice Shelf 

 by open water. In the first summer Amundsen laid 

 a depot to 82° S. and after an uneventful winter they 

 started for the Pole on September 8th (see Figure 6). 

 The cold was, however, too severe and they returned 

 to make a final start on October 19th. Five men 

 formed the party, Amundsen, Bjaaland, Wisting, Has- 

 sel, and Hansen. They had fifty-two dogs, who pulled 

 so willingly that the men either rode the sledges or 

 were dragged right across the Ross Ice Shelf for some 

 four hundred miles. They reached the foot of the out- 

 let glacier on November loth. On November 12th 

 Carmen Land ^ was seen, an elevated region which 

 bounds the Ross Ice Shelf to the southeast. 



Amundsen had considerable difficulty in reaching 

 the Ice Plateau. They ascended two thousand feet to 

 find that cross valleys blocked their way, and after 

 reaching ten thousand feet through a maze of glaciers 

 there was still no clear route to the Plateau. For 

 twelve days they journeyed through the mountains amid 

 enormous crevasses and were often shrouded in fog. 

 They killed all but eighteen dogs, and on December ist 

 struggled through to the Plateau. Here they often 

 made marches of twenty miles a day. In 88° S. they 

 were over ten thousand feet above the sea, but the 

 Plateau descended somewhat to the Pole, as Scott also 

 found on his traverse to the west. The Pole was 

 reached on December 14th, and after taking careful 



3 Dr. Gould reported in December, 1929, that no land occurs 

 where Amundsen places Carmen Land. 



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