INTRODUCTION 



The next step in exploration by way of Ross Sea 

 was the fitting-out by Sir George Newnes of an ex- 

 pedition under the leadership of Mr. C. E. Borchgrevink, 

 on board the Southern Cross, a stout Norwegian whaler 

 with Captain Jensen, who had been chief officer in the 

 Antarctic when she went to Ross Sea in 1895, as master. 

 Lieutenant Colbeck, R.N.R., went as magnetic observer, 

 Mr. L. C. Bernacchi, a resident in Tasmania, who had 

 arranged to join the Belgica if she had gone out by 

 Australia, as meteorologist, and Mr. Nicolai Hanson, 

 of the British Museum, as zoologist. The Southern Cross 

 left Hobart on December 19, 1898, and entered the pack 

 about the meridian of the Balleny Islands, 165° East; 

 but after being forced out again on the northern side after 

 six weeks' struggling to get south, she re-entered the pack 

 in 174° East and was through in the clear waters of Ross 

 Sea in six hours on February 11, 1899. A wooden house 

 and stores for the winter were landed at Cape Adare in 

 71° 15' South, and there the shore-party went into winter 

 quarters, the ship returning to the north. An important 

 series of meteorological observations was secured during 

 the year of residence, valuable zoological and geological 

 collections were made, and the habits of the penguins 

 were studied; but the few attempts at land exploration 

 were without result. On January 28, 1900, Captain 

 Jensen returned with the Southern Cross and on Febru- 

 ary 2 the Cape Adare colony embarked and set out 

 southward along the coast of Victoria Land. Landings 

 were effected at various points, including the base of 

 Mount Melbourne, where reindeer-moss was found grow- 

 ing, and at Cape Crozier. There was much less ice along 

 the coast than when Ross had visited it. The Southern 

 Cross , after sighting Mount Erebus and Mount Terror, 

 ran eastward along the Great Barrier far closer to the 

 ice-cliffs than Ross could go in his sailing-ships, and 



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