CHAPTER VI 



SCENERY AND TOPOGRAPHY 



Scenery 



BEFORE discussing in some detail the characteris- 

 tics of the topography in Antarctica — and it was 

 to study these that I took part in the 191 0-13 Expedi- 

 tion — it may be of interest to describe various aspects 

 of the landscape and seascape which impressed them- 

 selves vividly on my memory. I should like first to 

 mention the storms which are so characteristic a fea- 

 ture of the "Furious Fifties" ^ and the ''Shrieking Six- 

 ties." Three days after leaving New Zealand, the 

 ''Terra Nova" was nearly sunk by a violent gale. After 

 being some twenty- four hours exposed to its fury all 

 the pumps refused duty, and the hold and engine room 

 were rapidly filling. Only a Gustavus Dore could do 

 justice to the scene which ensued. We bailed out that 

 boat of five hundred tons with buckets by hand labor 

 in a fashion which has rarely been duplicated. Three 

 successive iron ladders led from the floor of the engine 

 room up to the poop deck, and this was occupied for 

 twenty hours by a bucket gang chiefly consisting of 

 scientists. Outside was the sound of the booming gale 



1 The "Roaring Forties," "Furious Fifties," and "Shrieking 

 Sixties," refer to the winds in the latitudes concerned. 



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