Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-05-11
ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.
Surgeon Cook Tells of the Belgian Expc'
dition-No New La d Discovered.g

New York May 1O.-Dr Frederick A
Cook. surgeon Of the Relgian Antarctic
Expedition, has written a letter to i
friend in Brooklyn telling of hardships On
countered. II is in part as folows;-
Punta Arenas. Chile, April /, 1s99-My
Dear Bridgman: We are at last again in
the world of the living, but on very un-
comfortable end of it. our long staJ in
the frozen South was, III many respects,
particularly unique, and on the whole the
expedition has been as successful AS could
reasonably he expected. We have made
no very wonderful or startling discoveries
but the sum of scientific data gathered is
considerable.
we have lost two men. First, brilliant
young Norwegian seaman, by the name ot
Nencke, who fell overheard IN d tempest
south of Cape Horn. in January of 1895
The second was Lieut.. Dance, who died
during the first days OF the Antarctic
night. of heart malady which he con-
tracted several years ago.
We passed tho South Shetlands late in
January. 1905; crossed Barnhelds Strait
and made Palmer Land between tho 6ls,
and G2d meridans. Here we entered 4
promising fjord-lille break, and soon dis
covered we were in a huge strait, Nhicr
led into the South Pacific, with Il genera
direction southwesterly.
Scattered about in these waters are
many Ice ldueIl lSldHuS, anu DtlNtfI are
many reaches of water. which cut the en-.
tire northern border of Palmer Land !ntC
n chain of islands. Amid these islands We
spent a fortnight made twenty deJark'
ncnts and spent one week in camp on ths
land. All the land Is covered to the va
ter's edge with glacial ice, even in mid
summer There were many seals anC
countless myriads of penguins but nc
traces of new forms of life. We founC
however, great quantities of moss anc
lichcns about the nunataks and favorable
cliffs with a northeasterly exposure.
After having made a running survey oi
! this region and a Easty scientific study %
its various aspects, we steamed out int,
the tee laden South Pacific, following th'
track of Biscoe ana sailing directly across
the position of the Biscoe Islands withou
seeing them. We had here much fog anC
/ soon lost sight of the mainland, part o
Palmer Land, which Is here called Grd
ham Land.
Passing to the west of Alexander Isl
and, We entered the pack oasly in March
1893. Aztec varying experiences, ineiGect
ual efforts to push further south and theI
out again, we were finally boset. In thi
pack We remained an entire year, but VI
drifted with the wind 10 and fro over AZ
unknown sea some 1000 miles in this time
We saw no newt land and no positive
trace of land in the maths of our drift
Seals and penguins were with us dur.n!
the entise year and their flesh was ou
staple food, Several new varieties OF deel
sea life have hoen found ia our dredsings
hut no new pack animal. We left thu
pack March "A, 1853, from latitude II ii
longitude l01 and arrived here two week
later. The Belgica has had many marrow
escapes. but she is still in excellent con
idtion.
Among the more important results of TIN
Iexpcdltior ace the following uniqu
geological and botanical collection by Mr.
Racovitza, a valuable series of mlSneti
observations by Capt. Lecomte, complet
meteorological record for one enttie yea
by Mr. Arctowsky. an anthropoloGica
stu6y of the Fuegians and large numbe
ot photographs by myself