Abstract
CAPTAIN ROALD AMUNDSEN communicated the results of his journey to the south pole at a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society on November 15, in the Queen's Hall. His expedition “landed” on the ice-barrier in the Bay of Whales, which, he observes, was charted by Ross in 1841; it is therefore to be considered, not as a casual formation of the ice, but as a permanent feature, owing its existence to shallow banks or to land beneath the ice but above sea level. This view was confirmed by the discovery, on landing, of a surface broken by steep hills and ridges, instead of one approximately level and unbroken. The work of the expedition in laying depôts for the march to the south pole was completed in April, 1911, and it may be said at once that it was thoroughly successful, for when we follow Captain Amundsen on the journey itself it would appear (however thickly he glosses its dangers) to have been carried through with less difficulty than any of a similar character preceding it, so far as concerned food supplv, the health of the party, and the condition of the sledge-dogs; there is here no tale of suffering from hunger or exhaustion, and on the return march from 86° S., the party had not even to go on fixed rations. One remarks, among other wise provisions, the practice of setting up lines of signs across the line of march for some distance on either side of some of the depôts, so that if, on the return, a deviation had been made, the depôts could still have been found. During the depôt-laying journeys a minimum temperature of –50° F. was observed.
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Captain Amundsen's Journey to the South Pole. . Nature 90, 341–342 (1912). https://doi.org/10.1038/090341b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/090341b0