465 
EXpLoRaTION oF Antarctic LANDs.* 
By Henryk Arg¢Towskl. 
On Friday, January 14, 1898, the Belgica left St. John harbour in the 
morning, and obtained a sounding near the shore giving a depth of 
162 fathoms; a second sounding later in the day gave a depth of 
855 fathoms, Next day we lost sight of Staten island, and obtained a 
sounding of 2209 fathoms. This was our first discovery—an unknown 
depression lying close to the extremity of the Andes, the steep slope of 
the mountains being evidently continued under the sea. The pro- 
longation of the great mountain chain is to be looked for to the east of 
Staten island, which forms the last fragment of the Andes; but in that 
case, what can we make of the Diego Ramirez islands south-west of 
Cape Horn? The latitude at which we had found the deep sounding 
was within a few minutes of that of the Cape, the exact position being 
55° 51'S. and 63° 19'W. One is led to speculate as to whether the 
chain of the Andes does not open out like a fan, as so many other 
mountain chains do. 
On January 19, Commandant de Gerlache pointed out the ice-blink in 
the south. The sky was uniformly covered with a thin layer of stratus, 
and just at the horizon a white line appeared like a longitudinal slit, 
detaching itself by its brightness from the grey of the sky. It was 
discontinuous, a little undulated, not rising more than from 10' to 25’ 
above the horizon. At 8 p.m. Lecointe reported the first iceberg, 
which appeared like a dome rising sharply out of the sea at a distance 
of about 10 miles. The soundings had given depths of 2105, 2078, and 
that morning 2018 fathoms; the depth was thus diminishing towards 
the south. 
On the 20th we sounded in 62° 2’ 8. with a depth of 1586 fathoms, 
and at 4 p.m. land was sighted on the horizon, and the depth in 62°11'S. 
was found to be 1028 fathoms. Thus the bed of the ocean was rising 
* Personal narrative of the twenty landings on the lands discovered by the Belgian 
Antarctic Expedition. 
+ Arctowski, ‘The Bathymetrical Conditions of the Antarctic Regions’ (Geogr. 
Jour., July, 1899); and Arctowski, ‘ Observations sur l’intérét que présente l’explora- 
ion géologique des terres australes ’ (Bull. Soc. Géol. de France, 1895, p. 589). 
24H 
