The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-09-05
THE SOUTH POLAR REGION
Details of Belgian Expedition Under
GerIachc.

For centuries the South Polar regions
have defied ali efforts Of man to penetrate
their mysteries. partly owing to their nat
ural features, partly because no properly
organized scientific expedition, with the
| exception of that of Sir James Ross has
ever been despatched to those parts in
suitable vessel for ice navigation, and
partly because they lie so remote from the
inhabited world that public interest in
! them has not been aroused to the extent
of enthusiasm which has enabled many an
! explorer to penetrate the depths of the
frozen North and add each a rung to the
| ladder of Arctic investigation. In l12 Nj.
! de Kerguelen was sent from France to dis
cover land which had been reported as seen
| away to the southeast of the Cape of Good
| Hope. This he found, and presumed 1t 20
| be a continent, but subsequently it proved
| TO be but an island, which now bears his
name. During 1774 Capt. Cook crossed the
| seventy first parallel of south latitude, in
| longitude 1O6 degrees 81 minutes west, and
! traversed the southern seas TO such an ex-
| tent as to prove that if a continent existed
| it must lie considerably within the Antarc-
| tic circle. In 1923 Weddell penetrated near
| ly three degrees further to the southwark,
and gave his name to the sea lying be-
/ tween Grahams land and Enderby land,
| but did not perceive any signs of CONT
| nent In 1871 Sir James Ross, in his we'll
! found ships, discovered Victoria Land and
its adjacent islands, tracing the coast line
| for five hundred miles to the southwark,
| until faced by a mighty wall of ice when
| barred all further progress, but which was
| followed for three hundred miles to the
| eastward and westward. In 1889 Wilkes
| saw an appearance of land in latitude 20
| degrees, longitude 100 west, and in 1871, al
most simultaneously with d'Urville, dis
| covered what is now known as Wilkes
! land. The celebrated voyage of the Chal-
| lenger added materially to the knowledge
| of ocean Depths currents, temperature
| and marine biology of the southern seas,
| but since that no reliable expedition has
| been despatched to the Amarillo, and
! Ross expedition remains to the present
| day the one on which the theories OF Ant
| artic research are mainly based.
| During the past two years, while publlc
attention has been devoted to North Po-
| lar exploration, and a renewal of Antarc-
tic exploration has been but spoken of,
| Belgian South Polar eXpedition-'LEX -
| petition Antarctic Belge'-has been quiet
| ly fitted out at Sandefjord, Norway, I'M
| der the able superintendent of Capt. Ad-
rien de Gerlache, a clever looking man,
some so years of age, after studying as
! an engineer and passing through the UNI
Versty al Brussels, took to the sea- and
| since 1885 has sailed to various parts of
| the world, besides spending two seasons
| in Arctic water. He has been captain since
| 1894, and in this capacity will navigate
| the expeditions ship Belgica, as we'll as
! take charge of the expedition itself. The
| second in command is NJ. lie Cointe. Lieut..
| Dance of the Belgian Artillery, as one
| of the scientific officers, will superintend
| the magnetic and physical observations.
| M Rakovtza will accompany the expedl-
! ton as biologist and NJ. ArckoWsky as
/ CT nd
| surgeon will also join the vessel. The
| ships complement consists of twenty-five
| or twehty-three men all told, of whom six
| will be Norwegian seamen-one as second
| mate
! The ship Belgian was built for the whal-
| ing trade in 1884, which is In itself suffi-
| cient guarantee of her stoutness and fit
ness for ice navigation; but she has been
| nevertheless further strengthened and en-
/ tirely refitted for her present intended pur-
pose She is a vessel of 263 tons, and has
! engines of thirty horsepower nominal,
which drive her at a speed of seven knots.
/ She is besides bark-riggeG with large
spread of canvas, and gives one the idea
| of being afast sailing, seaworthy vessel.
| The officers quarters, messroom, kitchen
! and pantry are in a spacious deckhouse
! aft, admirably ventilated, while the labor
| atory it situated in a roomy deckhouse
| forward. The space allotted to the crew
| and airy, of ample space, and contains
comfortable hunks for some twenty men.
| The bedding is covered with washable COW
ers, and the curtains of each bunk are
of similar material. and general cleanli-
ness will be rigidly enforced.
The equipment of the vessel is as per-
! feet as experience and modern science
can make it. She is fitted with whale
! guns on each bow, carries four large
whale boats. is provided with trawl nets
| or dredges of the latest and most APPROX
ed pattern, one with six miles, the other
with nearly four miles of steel wirerope
attached both being worked by special
| steam winches, while strain is avoided by
| means of accumulators similar to those
used on board whaling steamers for easing
the tension on the hawser when attached
to a captured whale. The sounding ap-
paratus is a marvel of ingenuity of
| French make, being an Improvement on
the Prince of Monacos model, by means
of which the depths can be read from an
| Indicator on deck. All the scientific in
struments are of the best make, most of
| them being similar to those employed by
the members of the Danish Ingolf expedi-
| ton to East Greenland. Owing to the
ice and other conditions of South Polar
! seas being so different from those en-
| countered by the Fran the results of
! Nansens expedition have not afforded
| any hints or guidance for De Gerlache's
| present venture, out on the otner nanu
| those derived from the above named Dan
ish expedition have been of very great
service, and Capts. Wandel Qeader of
that expedition). Hovegaard and Lund
have rendered valuable assistance toward
making the equipment of the Belgica as
| perfect as possible. The expedition con-
veys with it the framing and woodwork
! for a dwelling house and observatory
| which, in the event of a landing being
effected near Cape Adare, will be erected,
provisioned for two years, and left in
charge of Capt. de Gerlache, Lieut.. Dan
! co and suitable number of men. The
ship herself, is provisioned for two
years. but, after leaving the shore par
| ty will make Melbourne her headquar-
ters, unless compelled by circumstances
to winter in the ice. The stores, like
everything else on board, are of the best,
and everything conencted with the vessel
! looks shipshape and testifes to the care
and forethought devoted to the enter
| prise by its leader.
The object of the expedition is to survey
as thoroughly as possible the shores of
Antarctca, from Graham's Land to En-
| derby Land, Wilkes Land and Victoria
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