RECENT EXPEDITIONS TO THE ANTARCTIC 



was landed by Norwegian whalers at Andvord Bay, 

 a little north of Charcot's bases, in latitude 64° 48' on 

 the west coast of Graham Land (see Figure 7). Their 

 object was to cross the mountains and continue the 

 exploration of the Weddell coasts south of Nor- 

 denskj old's survey. Unfortunately they were unable 

 to scale the glacierized slopes with their sledges and 

 dogs. Hence Cope and G. H. Wilkins ^ returned to get 

 further supplies, while Lester and Bagshawe spent the 

 winter in a hut made out of a boat. They stayed there 

 for a complete year, but were obviously unable to do 

 much more than collect geological specimens in the 

 vicinity and keep a simple weather log and tide record. 

 On their return they made an interesting survey of 

 Deception Island, the headquarters of the whalers in 

 West Antarctica.^ 



Shackleton, 192 1 



Sir Ernest Shackleton's last expedition started late 

 in 192 1 in the ''Quest," a small ship of only 125 tons. 

 He planned to explore the coasts which lie south of 

 Africa, of which only the small region discovered by 

 Biscoe in 1831 had been charted. Trouble with the 

 engines and gear was experienced all the way to South 

 Georgia. Here Sir Ernest died very suddenly on the 

 fourth of January, 1922, and his grave was dug 

 on the icy slopes above the whaling station of 

 Grytviken, where he finished his perilous traverse 

 in May, 191 6. Captain Frank Wild now became 



2 Later Sir Hubert Wilkins. 



3 See Geographical Journal, September, 1923. 



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