ANTARCTIC REGIONS
two parties , each working in support of the
other , though only that headed by himself was
to make the complete transcontinental traverse .
Leaving Liverpool , Sir Ernest proceeded in the
Endurance via Buenos Aires and the Falkland
Islands to South Georgia , whence the last word
was that the ice conditions were so unfavor-
able that the attempt upon the main land must
be deferred until the following season. More
than a year passed when Sir Ernest again re-
ported that though he had sighted new land he
had been unable to reach it and compelled to
abandon his main objective , the traverse of the
great Antarctic land mass . The Endurance had
been crushed and sunk and after a peril-
ous journey over the pack , followed by
one in boats across the open sea of
nearly 1,000 miles , he had left his party
of 22 marooned on Elephant Island, with
a short supply of provisions . Sir Ernest
himself with two comrades had crossed the dis-
tance between Elephant Island and South
Georgia , landing upon it at the peril of his life ,
and after the loss of his boat had made his way
over its interior to the Norwegian whaling sta-
tion , whence his report was sent. Uruguay
promptly placed a small vessel at Sir Ernest's
disposal for the relief of his Elephant Island
party , but the attempt was unsuccessful and at
last a second and successful effort was made
with a larger vessel under the Argentine flag .
On the opposite side of the Antarctic continent
results were equally unsatisfactory . The Au-
rora, having landed three parties to lay depots
of food for Shackleton's advance , had been
torn from her anchorage and for nearly a year
adrift in the pack with her wireless equipment
most of the time out of commission . Late in
April 1916 , however , a message from the ship
was picked up in New Zealand , whence relief
was promptly dispatched , and on 27 April Port
Chalmers was finally made . See POLAR
RESEARCH .
Antarctic Ocean.- The depths of the Ant-
arctic Ocean have been explored in various
parts by Ross , Wilkes , Nares ( Challenger ex-
pedition ) and Gerlache . Ross sounded in 4,000
fathoms in the vicinity of South Georgia with-
out reaching bottom . The Challenger found
depths of from 1,300 to 1,950 fathoms near the
Antarctic Circle , south of Australia , while
farther north the soundings ranged from 950 to
2,600 fathoms . Between the Cape of Good
Hope and Kerguelen Islands depths of 2,500
to 3,100 fathoms have been reported . There
seems to be a gradual shoaling of the waters
toward the Pole, for Wilkes sounded in 500 to
800 fathoms off Adélie Land , and in 100 to 500
fathoms off Victoria Land , while Gerlache
recorded less than 200 fathoms west of Palmer
Land. The bottom in the extreme south is
covered with a layer of diatom ooze. Farther
northward the bottom is covered with deposits
of globigerina ooze made up of the casts of
Foraminifera, and in still deeper water the
characteristic red clay , found at great depths in
all the oceans , occurs . The temperature of the
surface waters of the ocean range from a few
degrees below to a few degrees above the
freezing point .
-
Antarctic Continent . The question whether
there is a large land area of continental char-
acter within the Antarctic Circle has not yet
been definitely settled , although most geog-
13
raphers and explorers express an affirmative
opinion . Land areas of indefinite extent have
been sighted and form an interrupted ring
about the Pole . The mountain ranges and
peaks discovered by Ross in Victoria Land are
apparently of continental character . Granite
and gneiss were found by D'Urville near Adélie
Land, and Borchgrevinck states that the rock at
Cape Adare is micaschist ; these are distinctly
continental types . Indirect evidence is fur-
nished by the materials transported from the
far south by the icebergs , sandstone , basalt ,
boulders of massive rocks , and fragments of
gneiss , granite , diorite and sedimentary rocks .
The great icebergs which drift far into the
region of the Southern Ocean are difficult to
account for on any other theory than that they
have been broken off from a vast sheet of land
ice like that covering Greenland .
Antarctic Ice.- The conditions of ice
formation in the Antarctic differ materially
from those of the Arctic region . In the north-
ern hemisphere the polar ocean is enclosed by
land , so that sea ice is much more important
than land ice , the latter occurring only on the
edge of the area , while in the Antarctic the
reverse is true . Enormous masses of floating
ice , flat - topped with perpendicular walls and
oftentimes measuring many miles in width and
length , are found throughout the Antarctic
Ocean . The newly - formed bergs have evi-
dently been broken off from the edge of a thick
ice - cap covering the Antarctic lands and grad-
ually pushed over the surface toward the sea .
The thickness of the ice near the Pole is esti-
mated by Croll upon theoretical grounds at
from 12 to 14 miles , but off the coast of Vic-
toria Land the ice- wall is only 10 to 20 feet
high .
Climate . The climatic conditions of the
Antarctic are imperfectly understood , but tem-
perature is extremely severe . Compared with
the Arctic the region is placed at a disadvan-
tage in having its summer during perihelion
and winter in aphelion . Observations made by
Ross in the vicinity of Victoria Land from 60 °
to 78 ° S. showed a mean summer temperature
of 28.85 ° F. for the sea and 28.31 ° for air ; in
lat . 66 ° 29′ S. the maximum temperature in the
month of December was 45.52 ° F. Wilkes
found the mean temperature for January and
February near Wilkes Land to be 30.2 ° F. ,
with extremes of 34.52 ° and 23 ° , while
Gerlache reported a winter minimum in 71 °
30′ S. of -45 °. The German station in South
Georgia gave a mean temperature of 37.52 °.
The glaciation of the land areas , the great
ice -floes and the saturated condition of the
atmosphere , producing heavy fogs , are influen-
tial in producing the extreme cold . Barometric
observations by Ross indicate a gradual in-
crease in pressure south of 75 ° S. , and it is
believed that an area of extreme high pressure
exists around the Pole, producing a permanent
anticyclone with winds blowing in a south-
easterly direction toward the higher latitudes .
No estimate of the precipitation has been made,
but the atmosphere is probably comparatively
dry over the land areas in the extreme south
and the precipitation is in the form of fine ice
crystals . Farther north there is a heavy
precipitation of snow and sleet ; rain seldom
falls within the ice-bound region .
Fauna and Flora.- The largest of the Ant-