RECENT EXPEDITIONS TO THE ANTARCTIC 



and after being held up for a time in the pack ice he 

 made rapid progress to the south down the east side 

 of the Weddell Sea (see Figure 7). Apparently this 

 reg'ion is at times kept fairly free of ice, owing to 

 the dominant easterly wnnds. On the thirtieth of 

 January he saw the Continental Ice in latitude 76° 48'. 

 Ice cliffs about sixty feet high bounded an ice cap 

 margin some eight hundred or one thousand feet high. 

 He followed this coast to 78° when he w^as blocked by 

 an ice shelf like that in the Ross Sea (see Figure 7). 

 This is named after Filchner and the bight at the 

 junction after Captain Vahsel, who died six months 

 later on the ship. Filchner follow^ed this barrier over 

 one hundred miles to the west. He attempted to make 

 his winter quarters near the barrier, but on February 

 1 8th a high tide broke the ice loose, and he lost much 

 of his material. On the eighth of March his ship was 

 beset in 73° 43' S. by the pack ice, and drifted to the 

 northwest. In the last week of June Filchner with 

 two companions made a sledge journey of one hundred 

 miles to the northwest to see if Morell Land lay in that 

 direction (as stated by Morell in 1823). He found 

 no sign of land, however. In the autumn months they 

 drifted north, and in October the westerly winds north 

 of 65° S. drove them irregularly to the northeast. 

 They escaped from the pack on the twenty-seventh of 

 November in latitude 63° S. Filchner was given no 

 opportunity to return to the south, but his voyage is 

 especially noteworthy from the discovery of the shelf 

 which blocks the head of the Weddell Sea. 



67 



