National Antarctic Expedition: Report of the Commander

R. F. Scott, Michael Barne
1903 Geographical Journal  
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. As is known, the Discovery left Port Chalmers, New Zealand, on Christmas Eve, 1901, heavily laden. With a fair wind, we made good progress under sail alone
more » ... our arrival in the pack. On the evening of January 1 we passed several table-topped bergs, and on the following day, in lat. 66? 30', fell in with streams of loose field-ice. The antarctic circle was crossed early on the 4th, the pack remaining easy and the weather favourable, except for occasional thick fogs. On the 6th the pack became much heavier and our progress consequently slower; later all traces of a swell disappeared, and we forced our way through rotten floes of very large area. We passed through several leads of open water on the 7th, and on the morning of the 8th crossed the southern edge of the pack in lat. 70? 25', long. 173? 44', the edge being well defined, with a clear open sea beyond, and soundings in 1480 fathoms. Opportunities were taken before and after this to sound, dredge, and take water samples, but owing to closeness to the coast and the thick pack which was usually about us, much less of this work was possible than I could have wished. We arrived at Cape Adare on the evening of the 9th, having to force our way through a line of thick pack in entering Robertson bay; after taking magnetic observations, watering ship, and leaving a record, we weighed anchor again at 3 a.m. on the 10th, passing out close under the land, where we became involved in a very heavy pack running fast to the northward past several grounded bergs. After several hours of struggling, I was glad to get through this into clearer water.
doi:10.2307/1775047 fatcat:vbok2v3zojcrllhktixsgm65we