376 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
paid a visit to the Jason when all five ships were lying 
close together, on January 24th, 1893, and found Captain 
C. A. Larsen, who had been sent out by the Oceana Com- 
pany of Hamburg, full of interest in the geographical 
problems of the locality. 
From the same ship some years before Larsen had 
landed Fridtjof Nansen on the east coast of Greenland 
to make the first of his successful journeys on the bold 
principle of leaving no way open for retreat The stimu- 
lus of meeting a scientific enthusiast like Nansen may well 
have left its influence, and Larsen had landed on the 
South Orkneys on his way to Weddell Sea, and again on 
Seymour Island at the south end of Erebus and Terror 
Gulf, where he had picked up a number of fossils. This 
was a discovery of great interest to geologists, for they 
were the first indisputable evidence of the existence of 
sedimentary rocks on Antarctic land. Captain Larsen 
believed he had seen land to the westward when in lati- 
tude 64° 40' S. and longitude 56° 30' W. and this, which 
was also noted from the Balsena as at least an “ appear- 
ance of land ” was undoubtedly the east coast of the 
land known on the west as Graham Land. 
The Dundee ships were filled up with sealskins and oil 
before the end of February, the Balaena having secured 
about 6000 seals, the Active and Diana about 4000 each, 
and the Polar Star about 2000. The fleet left the Falk- 
lands early in March, and by the middle of June, 1893, 
they were safely docked in Dundee. Without having 
been an absolute failure the experiment was not so suc- 
cessful as to lead to its repetition, nor was the experience 
of the scientific observers altogether a happy one. They 
certainly made the best of their opportunities, but the 
opportunities were fewer and farther between than had 
