318 PLANS FOR REACHING THE SOUTH POLE 



ward, but rather the stormy nature of the sea. Captain Drygalski 

 proposes, therefore, to construct his ship on lines that will insure 

 seaworthiness. This he believes can be secured by a vessel 

 stanchly built of wood, with strong internal supports, which will 

 at the same time afford protection against powerful magnetic 

 influences. 



The Kerguelen islands, lying in the Indian ocean at 70° east 

 by 50° south and open to navigation at all seasons of the year, 

 are to be the starting point. From these islands the route fol- 

 lows a line southwestward to some point on Wilkes Land, where 

 a winter station will be built upon the edge of the ice-sheet and 

 systematic observations taken. In the early spring an advance 

 will be attempted on sleds across the ice in the direction of the 

 magnetic pole, and in the fall a return will be made in a west- 

 erly direction along the little-known coast of Wilkes Land. 

 Perhaj)S the party will be able to reach the most southerly 

 known land, Victoria Land, discovered by Ross in 1842. As 

 the English explorers are to build a station on the edge of this 

 same Victoria Land and thence proceed southward as well as 

 along Wilkes Land, Victoria Land will be the objective meeting 

 ground of both expeditions. But naturally no geographic limits 

 can be set in a region about which scarcely a single conclusion 

 can be formed. 



Captain Drygalski has repeatedly emphasized a condition now 

 prevailing in southern waters which is especially noteworthy in 

 view of the statement of Dr Supan that we are now passing 

 through an unusually warm-temperature period. This condi- 

 tion, as stated by him, is as follows: " The unusual quantity of 

 drift-ice which first appeared in the South Atlantic ocean in 1891 

 and 1894, and then in the Indian ocean from 1894 to 1897, has 

 each year advanced further toward the east and has now reached 

 the Kerguelen islands, which are for the most part beyond the 

 northern limit of drift-ice. From its nature we are able to de- 

 termine that it is land-ice which has at last broken away after 

 years of confinement to the mainland, a phenomenon well known 

 as happening at long intervals in the northern parts of Green- 

 land. Similar unusual variations in the conditions of the ice in 

 the Antarctic region have been previously remarked. Though 

 Captain Weddell, in 1823, from the South Orkney islands was 

 able to advance unchecked as far as 74 degrees of latitude, and 

 thence reported a sea free of ice as far as the eye could reach, 

 all subsequent explorers have found an impenetrable barrier in 

 front of them long before reaching that point." Inasmuch as a 



