River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1904-10-06
ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.
Work of German Expedition During
a Twelve Months Stay in the
Ice of the Continent.

me largest number or men ever set
at the work of examining the results
brought home by an exploring expeul-
ton are now engaged on the RECORDS anu
specimens with which the Gauss re-
turned from the antarctic. Fifty SCI
entiTic specialists in various lines are
studying the large collections which the
German expedition made in the soutn
polar regions, reports the New YORK
Sun.
Years sometimes elapse before the
scientific results of an expedition are
thoroughly studied and mace pubic
The volumes describing the gains to
science made by hansen on his arctic
journey are still in course OF puollca-
ton. The books telling of the work
done by the Foureau expedition across
the Sahara, by the Belgica in the ant
arctic and by other important explor-
ing parties are not yet all printed.
But all phases of the work done by
the Gauss party during the II months
it was fast in the ice on the edge of the
antarctic continent are now being eX-
amined. The results will soon be
evolved from the mass|o tables, OBJ
servations and specimens, and the sci
entific world will then know just what
the Germans accomplished.
When the Challenger party was in the
same region years ago. its dredges were
constantly dragging up fragments OF
rock that the experts on board knew
must have come from a continent, be-
cause such rock is found only in land
masses of a contine- al character.
The specimens brought up from
depths of / 900 fathOms were much
smaller than those coming from depths
of 200 fathoms, and the scientific staff
said they must be approaching CONT
nent. The rocks f. he'd UP from the
greater depths, further from the land
were smaller than the other specimens,
simply because the smaller fragments
would naturally be carried further out
to sea.
The Challenger party Gid not see the
continent. but were convinced that it ex
listed. But the Gauss went further south
and reached the continent itself, and
was fast in the ice for year on the
continental shelf, or. in other words,
in the shallow waters where the land
mass slopes gently beneath the surface
and finally takes a sleeper plunge and
becomes the sea bottom at oceanic
depths.
We know, in broad outline, what the
Gauss discovered, but only the study of
the results will give the minuter de-
tails that science demands. Drygalski
and his scientific staff could not doubt
that they were on the fringe of the
south polar continent, for the climate
as well as the geological facts told them
that.
In the north they had left behind the
zone of west winds. or the Roaring
Forties," as the sailors call them, and
crossed trough of low barometric pres
sure, remaining for year on its south
ern slope. South of it the pressure
rises again over the continental mass,
as is to be expected over great land
area under winter conditions, with the
result that easterly winds prevail,
sweeping down over the gentle slope
of the inland ice and appearing on the
seaboard as easterly gales.
we snail learn from the many reports
that will be published all that was dis
covered of the structure of the land,
which was found to consist of old crys-
talline- rocks of the lavas of the coast,
for this margin of the continent was
found to be occupied by volcanic
formation; of the fall of the land down
to the deep sea which the party discov-
cred; of the many things that were
learned by the work of the dredge in
200 or 800 fathoms of water off the con-
tinent; of the physical nature of the
ice cap, which is undoubtedly the most
vast glacial area now in existence; of
the animal and plant life, from the large
marine animals and f1ocks of rare birds
down through the many species of the
smaller marine animals and the bac-
terra found in the organisms of the gla-
cial sea, in the rock eries of the stormy
petrels and in the few lichens and
MOSES on the sides of Gaussberg.
The collections were very large and
their examination will serve the pur-
poses of speculation and further investi-
cation.