The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1899-06-24
A VISIT TO THE
ANTARCTIC REGION
What the Belgica Expe-
dition Accomplished.
FOUND A NEW ARCHIPELAGO
STORY OF VOYAGE AND SUFFER-
ING TOLD BY DR.. COOKE.
It Will Add Greatly to Scientific and
Geographical knowledge and
Also Provide New Charts
for Mariners.
FOUND A NEW ARCHIPELAGO
Special Dispatch to The Call.

NEW YORK, June 23-Frederick A.
Cook, surgeon of the Belgica Antarctic
expedition, reached home to-day on the
steamship Button from Rio de Janeiro
after an absence of nearly two years.
When seen at the home of his brother,
William L. Cook, go Bedford avenue,
tonight, he outlined the results of the
expedition as follows:
On the whole, the expedition was
exceedingly successful. We were not
in search of the South Pole and so are
not disappointed that we did not bring
it back with US. The most important
results of the expedition We're the OBJ
tanning of complete series of magnetic
observations extending throughout the
whole year within the Antarctic cir
Gle and the making of the first profile
of the oceans bed to the south of Cape
Horn. We have, besides, obtained an
exceedingly valuable collection of the
fauna and flora of the Antarctic circle.
From geographical standpoint, two
important facts were aScertained, one
being that Hughes Gulf, supposed to
be an indentation of the coast of era
hams Land, is not gulf at all, but
strait more than two hundred miles in
length and about thirty miles broad.
1t has on one side Graham S Land and
on the other the islands of an archipel-
ago. The second important discovery
was that of a bank, over which we
drifted to and fro, where soundings
showed the depth to be in places only
about $50 meters,
Il have about 1000 photographs taken
among the islands of newly diScov-
cred archipelago and among Indian
tribes on an island at the south of Cape
Horn which 1 visited after the return
of the Belgica.
Leaving Brooklyn on September /,
1897, joined the Belgica at Rio de ia
metro. We left Rio in October, passed
Montevideo and Punta Arenas, and
thence westward through the Straits
of Magellan and Beagle Canal to
Ushina, where we took on our last coal
We left civilization early in January,
1898
The soundings made south of Shet-
land Islands showed an unexpected
depth. They were from 5000 to 1000 feet
and the greatest depth attained was
1921 feet. For the greater part of the
way the ocean bed seemed to be a vast
plateau.
Before reaching the Shetland ISL
ands one of the sailors, a man named
<
We entered Hughes Gulf and made
about twenty landings. The only living
things we found on those islands were
four kinds of insects. We found two
spiders covered with fur. There were
also few specimens of moss and Itch
ems. Passing out into the Pacific, we
turned to the south. We sighted Alex
ander Island, also Adelaide Island. The
latter we found to be much larger than
has been supposed. We then continued
on to the south and entered pack of
ice, finally reaching 20 degrees south
latitude. We penetrated ninety miles
into the foe and were frozen in in
March, 1898. We remained in the foe
for about thirteen months. During the
greater part of the time the foe was
swept by terrific storms.
antarctic night came on in May and
we were in darkness for seventy days.
During that time every member of the
party suffered from anaemia, due to the
excessive humidity of the night, to
lack of fresh food and to continuous
storms Lieutenant Dance, the mag
netician. died Our meteorological CD
servations during this time were ex
ceedingly valuable. The chart of mag
netic variations We made indicates that
the magnetic pole is probably 200 miles
east of the location made out by Sir
James Ross in his expedition of 1889 10
/ 1915. Inc aspect Ol lIle ICE IISlQ III the
Antarctic differs considerably from that
in the Arctic regions. The pack is some
what heavier and pans are consider
ably smaller. Our vessel was subjected
to severe crushing when We entered the
pack and later as we began to fight
our way out. We drifted about 1000
miles. With the approach of summer
the ice field began to open somewhat
and in March we succeeded in making
our way out. At the last we were
obliged TO cut a canal a mile in length
through ice five feet thick. Every man,
from commander to cook, worked at the
saws. Once free, we broke up the
blocks with dynamite"
DR.. Cooks plans do not include fur
Their Arctic or Antarctic exploration
He said that it would take him several
years to prepare fer publication the
materials obtained in his various ex-
petitions, Arctic and Antarctic.