4 04 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
or more carefully provided for, one detail being that the 
life of every member of the large scientific staff was 
insured for £1,500. Of the staff it is only necessary to 
mention here Professor Vanhoffen of Kiel, one of the zo- 
ologists, and Dr. Gerhard Schott of Hamburg, the ocean- 
ographer. The Valdivia sailed from Hamburg on August 
1st, 1898, and after visiting the Firth of Forth to receive 
special advice from Sir John Murray, made extensive 
observations in the Atlantic. She left Cape Town on 
November 13th, bound for Bouvet Island, which no eye 
had seen for seventy-five years, and which had been sought 
in vain by Cook, Ross and Moore. The Valdivia steamed 
slowly westward in the assigned latitude, and although on 
the morning of November 25th, a sounding showed the 
depth to be 1,890 fathoms, the multitude of sea-birds made 
the proximity of land so probable that a very sharp look- 
out was kept, and at 3 p. m. Captain Krech had the satis- 
faction of hearing the welcome cry of “ Land ahead ! ” 
and there seven miles off, rose the sharp outline of the 
elusive isle. It proved to be a small volcanic island 
measuring about six miles by five, almost completely 
sheathed in ice, though it was then close on mid-summer, 
and the latitude corresponded to that of Belfast. The 
exact position of the centre was found to be 54 0 26' S. 
and 3 0 24' E. Ross must have passed eighteen miles 
north of the island, Moore must have turned back while 
only about fifteen miles east of it. The photograph taken 
on board the Valdivia and here reproduced, shows this 
speck of land, a true child of the mists, the first report of 
which had been hailed as proof of the existence of the 
mythical Southern Continent. The Valdivia pursued her 
way southward and eastward from 8° E. to 58° E., as 
near the edge of the southern ice-pack as it was possible 
