Through the first Antarctic night, 1898-1899

by Frederick Albert Cook

Appendix No. I

GENERAL RESULTS OF THE BELGIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION

BY

ÉMILE RACOVITZA

Translated by Professor Émile Coulon de Jumonville

A great many parts of our globe are yet unexplored or imperfectly known. Among these regions the antarctic is certainly the largest and the least known, but not the least important.

The solution of the numerous questions connected with atmospheric circulation and oceanic waters, the biology of aquatic animals and the geographical distribution of living species, depends upon the progress of our information in that part of the globe. The aim of antarctic expeditions must, for the present, be scientific. It is of far less importance to reach high latitudes in those quarters than to bring as much scientific information as possible. It was this idea which moved Adrien de Gerlache, the promoter, organiser, and chief of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition. He consecrated to the scientific implements an important portion of the feeble resources he had on hand, and surrounded himself with specialists to whom he intrusted the care of making scientific observations during the voyage.

To Georges Lecointe was intrusted hydrography and cartography; to Émile Danco, the magnetic observations and the pendulum—after the latter’s death, which occurred in June, 1898, his service was continued by Georges Lecointe. The meteorological observations were made by Henryk Arctowski and by Antoine Dobrowolski. Arctowski also had charge of the oceanographical and geological studies. Frederick A. Cook, the surgeon of the expedition, took charge of the photographic service and anthropological observations. I was charged with the zoological and botanical observations.

The materials brought by the expedition are numerous in all their branches, but their study will not be completed before two or three years. It will not be until then that we can ascertain the importance of the results obtained. Thanks to the Belgian Government, a great publication is expected, and a commission has been chosen to organise and direct it.

We can, nevertheless, and immediately, enumerate some of the results. This is what I propose to do in a few words with this reservation: that these indications are, for the most part, provisional and far from representing a complete table of the scientific advantages which will be derived from the expedition.

GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY

THE geographical discoveries were made in the south and west of Bransfield Strait in Dirk-Gerritz Archipelago. In this region earlier explorers noticed a large land (Palmerland), separated by a gulf (Hughes Gulf) from another land situated in the east (Trinityland). Larsen, the captain of the Jason (1892), having seen south of Louis Philippeland a vast communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, Trinityland became an island for geographers. Dallmann, the captain of the Grönland (1872), had discovered on the Pacific side an entrance to a strait (Bismarck Strait). Geographers then made an effort, upon the maps, to communicate Hughes Gulf with Bismarck Strait.

The observations of the Belgian Antarctic Expedition demonstrate that this is all incorrect. Palmerland is a vast archipelago of small islands; Hughes Gulf is the entrance to a large strait which brings Bransfield Strait into communication with the Pacific Ocean. This strait extends from latitude 63° 51′ to 65° south, and its direction is north-east to south-west. The Pacific mouth of Belgica Strait does not coincide with the entrance to Bismarck Strait, which, from the position assigned by Dallmann, is situated much farther south; but it is possible that Dallmann made a mistake in his observation, and that this is the very same strait. Trinityland is but the cape-land of a large tract (Dancoland) which forms the eastern shore of Belgica Strait, and which is only the continuation of Grahamland.

The shores of Belgica Channel are formed by high, mountainous table-lands with steep slopes and narrow valleys. One of the peaks appears to rise above an altitude of two thousand metres. The channels which separate these lands have steep perpendicular shores and possess great depths in their centre. The appearance of these lands and channels indicates that we have to do with a sunken region, in which the valleys were invaded by the sea. These lands are entirely formed by ancient crystalline rocks, granites, greenstones, and syenites. We have seen gneiss only at the mouth of the Pacific Strait. This fact indicates that we were in the central part of the antarctic chain, whose general direction is that of Belgica Strait. At the time of our sojourn in these regions, from the 23d of January to the 12th of February, the strait was free from ice. There were only a few icebergs. If some small islands were only partially covered with ice, all those of a larger extent and Dancoland were completely covered with an immense crust of ice which showed itself under three different forms. The interior was all occupied by a frozen sheet, which may be compared with the Greenland inland ice. Everywhere upon the mountain-sides were suspended glaciers, and in all the valleys were tremendous crystalline currents which ran into the sea. The limit of eternal snow coincides here almost to a certainty with the level of the sea. The study of the moraines allowed us to state that the glaciers had receded, and at the same time gave us a decisive information as to a much more considerable extension at an anterior epoch. The erratic materials furnish us with rocks much more varied than those found on the spot. We have even met with transformed sedimentary rocks.

Another important geographical discovery is that of a continental table-land or plateau situated between longitude 75° and 103° west of Greenwich, and from latitude 70° to 71° 36′ south. Its mean depth is 500 metres; with an abrupt fall to 1500 metres towards the north. The depth of the continental plateau, generally placed at from 200 to 300 metres, shows that this region has also undergone the depressive movement which was remarked in the lands of Belgica Strait. The continental plateau rises gently towards the south, and lowers in its eastern portion towards the north in order to connect itself most assuredly with the continental plateau of Graham and Alexander lands. It must connect in a like manner towards the west, fifty degrees farther, with the continental plateau discovered by Ross east of Victorialand. We would then have a continuous or uninterrupted continental mass from longitude 50° west to 63° east. However, the discovery made by the Belgica gives a serious support to the hypothesis of an antarctic continent—an hypothesis made the more likely from many other considerations, of which I shall cite only one, which is in its place here; that is to say, the terreous nature of the sediments of the continental plateau and neighbouring regions. Indeed, these sediments contain, besides the grayish slime, a very strong proportion of sand, gravel, and a very great number of pebbles of rounded form, which were certainly rolled by the sea, and were a part of a littoral cordon. I need not say that the transport of these substances must have been made by the ice. If this plateau indicates the existence of a continental mass south of the seventy-second parallel, inversely, the driftway of the Belgica demonstrates the non-existence of the ice-wall reported by Bellingshausen, and the same thing may be said of the land signalled by Walker, since we passed with the ice-drift over its supposed position. The easy drifting of the pack towards the west renders impossible the presence of the land reported by Cook towards longitude 105° west.

ASTRONOMY AND MAGNETISM

The magnetic observations were the object of mensuration upon the deflection, inclination, and terrestrial magnetic intensity. They were effected principally with the aid of the Neumayer apparatus; Gambey’s compass and Brunner’s theodolite were utilised on land, either at the stopping-places on Belgica Channel or in the known regions, where they were used for comparing and determining constant quantities. On the ice-pack the perpetual motions of the ice did not allow us to install our apparatus for variations. Absolute and ready measurements were the only ones made. The magnetic stations number sixty.

The astronomical observations had for their principal object chronometric regulations. We utilised the method of lunar distances—that of star occultations by the moon, as well as the eclipses of Jupiter’s satellites.

Pendulum measurements were made in the Strait of Magellan, at Punta Arenas.

The sketch of Belgica Strait was drawn by taking, as principal points, twelve stations whose co-ordinates were astronomically determined. The other stations were obtained either by the method of sufficient segments or by that of magnetic bearings. We employed also Admiral Mouchez’s method.

While drifting, the positions of the ship were observed and calculated either by Marcy Saint-Hilaire’s method or Borda’s, when the latitude had been determined beforehand by a culmination or a circummeridian.

METEOROLOGY

The only notions we had about the climate of the antarctic were based upon the very inadequate observations made during the three summer months. The Belgian Antarctic Expedition is the first which enables us to furnish a series of observations taken hourly during a full year. These observations were made during the year of the imprisonment of the Belgica in the ice-pack between latitudes 70° and 71° 36′ south, and from longitude 85° to 103° west. In order to appreciate thoroughly the conclusions which can be derived from these observations, we must not forget that the Belgica, during her wintering in the ice-pack, was in the neighbourhood of free waters; in consequence, the climate studied is a coast climate, influenced partly by the neighbourhood of the sea, partly by that of the continental antarctic land mass covered with eternal snow. The definite corrections of figures obtained have not as yet been made; still, we are able to present the general results with an adequate approximation.

The minimum temperature was observed in September; it was -43°. The maximum is remarkably low: +2° (in February). The month of July is the coldest of the year, with an average of -22.5°. The warmest month is February: average, -1°. The mean temperature of the year is -9.6°, an extraordinarily low figure for that latitude.

North of the Spitsbergen, at latitude 80° north, we have -8.9°. The mean temperature in summer is -1.5°, a figure just as remarkable for its latitude, considering that the expedition of the Fram obtained for a summer average -1.2° by latitude 84° north. This low temperature can only be explained by the absence of land towards the north, and the presence of an antarctic continent entirely covered with ice. This hypothesis is based upon a fact which was observed by the expedition. Every time the wind blew from the north the temperature rose, even in midwinter, to 0°, but did not ascend higher. As soon as the wind shifted and blew from the south the thermometer descended abruptly, even in the middle of summer, to a very low temperature.

In the interior of the antarctic continent there must be a pole whose temperature is much lower than the frigidity of the arctic poles of cold; the frozen surface of the antarctic continent is in effect much larger than that of Greenland, northern Siberia, or North America. The zone explored by the Belgica lies in a cyclonic region; yet the mean barometric pressure of the year, 744 mm. .7, obtained by a direct observation, is superior by 6 mm. to the theoretical figure obtained by Ferrel for that latitude, and demonstrates that the pressure does not decrease progressively towards the pole, where, on the contrary, there must reign an anticyclone. The absolute minimum was 711 mm. .74, one of the lowest pressures observed on the level of the sea. The maximum pressure was 772 mm. .14. The maximum average monthly variations of the barometer height is 34 mm. .30—a very high figure, which indicates that the tempestuous region extends beyond the polar circle. The barometer height is in the average maximum at the solstices, and minimum at the equinoxes, which shows that in the antarctic there is a direct and very simple relation between the barometric pressure and the sun’s altitude. Winds are frequent and generally violent. Only fifty-five days of calm or very feeble wind were reckoned for a whole year. In the summer, breezes blow mostly from eastern regions; in winter from the western. It is probable that our region is already freed from the direct influence of the circular antarctic zone of western winds. The air is almost constantly saturated with watery vapour, and humidity settles down in the form of fog and snow with remarkable facility. Hoarfrost accumulates in enormous quantities upon every object—upon the ice-pack, the new ice, and even upon the falling snowflakes. During the year we counted two hundred and fifty-seven days of snowfall, and fourteen days of drizzling rain. The sky is almost constantly obscured by a cloak of grayish and low mists, which, when they sometimes happen to disappear, allow a pure sky to be seen, upon which only a few high clouds and very elongated cirri may be noticed. It would not do to generalise these observations and come to the conclusion that the whole antarctic is subject to the climatic régime which we have just described. It is very probable, on the contrary, that in the interior of the antarctic continent the sky must be very often pure, humidity lighter, and snowfalls less frequent. The Belgica was, in fact, imprisoned in a littoral zone, that is, in a zone where came, to be condensed itself, all the humidity brought forth by the winds of the vast regions of a free sea situated farther north. The south wind, or land wind, always had the effect of driving the clouds away and bringing on a dry cold. Optical phenomena were very often noticed. Splendid sunrises and sunsets, parhelia, paraselenæ, and mirage phenomena were remarkable and varied. During the whole winter austral auroras were frequent, but not remarkably vivid. One single drape-like aurora was seen; the others looked like luminous clouds traversed by moving rays.

Insolation during the summer months is considerable. On the 30th of December the thermometer with a black ball marked +41°, while the temperature of the air was at -1°. The effect of that insolation is, however, but little felt upon the ice-pack; the upper layer of snow hardly melts in summer.

ICE

The observations made with regard to this subject confirm what was already known from the examination of the arctic ice. The ice directly produced by the freezing of sea-water is never of great thickness, but this thickness increases on one side by the accumulation of snows on its surface, and on the other by the heaping of blocks during the pressure. These mechanical phenomena are able to form slabs eight metres in height. The pressures are produced, in the regions explored by the Belgica, by the wind, which is thus foretold: In summer, during calm weather, there is always a change in the ice-pack, which is accompanied by a formation of cracks and leads. The pressure is produced afterwards, but before the wind is felt; it generally ceases some time after the wind prevails and when the ice-pack is drifting. This seems to me to prove that the pressure is the result of difference in the velocity of the drifting parts of the ice-pack, and this difference is due to the fact that a wind which begins to blow drives the portion of the ice-pack on which it blows upon the rest, which has not hitherto felt its influence.

It must be said that the pressure may also be produced when the ice-pack is driven by the wind against land. The icebergs met by the expedition are incontestably formed by an ice which has a different origin from that which forms the ice-pack, properly speaking. An iceberg is indisputably a fragment of a terrestrial glacier. All the particulars which we have been able to state, concerning the structure of the floating iceberg, were equally observed in the structure of the façades of the glaciers of Belgica Strait.

OCEANOGRAPHY

A sounding-line was much used between Staten Island and the South Shetlands. It allowed us to find out that Drake Strait is the prolongation of the oceanic basin of the Pacific. At a short distance from Staten Island the continental plateau falls abruptly from 296 metres to 1574 metres; farther south we find 4040 metres; then the bottom rises gently towards the South Shetlands, which rest themselves upon a continental plateau. These soundings bring forth an important argument for those who, like myself, believe in the independence of the American and antarctic continents. The chain of the Andes, first directed from north to south, bends or inclines towards the east to Tierra del Fuego, and takes a west-easterly direction in Staten Island. Perhaps also this curve is in the direction of the north-east through the Falkland Islands. In the same manner the chains of Grahamland are divided from south-west to north-east, and through the South Shetlands from west to east, a direction which, in the South Orkney Isles, leans slightly towards the south-east. It seems to me that there is here a system of divergent chains. Other people, however, connect these two chains by means of a vast hypothetical curve. It is evident that this question can only be solved by the oceanographical study of the region comprised between New Georgia of the south and Drake Strait.

In Drake Strait the temperature of the superficial sheet of water is above 0°, but below its surface the temperature descends to -1°, to ascend again from 200 metres thereabout, and maintains itself in the depths above 0°, at the bottom (3660 metres), where it is +0.6°; the whole column of water cools progressively towards the south. The sheet of cold water signalled below its surface has the shape of a wedge, whose point is directed north and whose base is south. This sheet of cold water increases in thickness towards the south, and nears the surface at the same time. It is due to the presence and melting of icebergs.

In the region situated between longitudes 75° and 103° west, and from latitude 69° to latitude 71° 30′ south, the temperature of the water is somewhat diverse.

Above the continental plateau the superficial sheet of water has a temperature of -2°, but the temperature ascends gradually as far as the bottom, where it maintains itself between 0° and +1°. The cold water occupies a greater thickness than the warm water, and this thickness increases towards the south. North of the continental plateau the temperatures of the water are nearly the same as in Drake Strait. No constant currents were observed, although the ice-pack in which the Belgica was inclosed was in constant motion; and though the drifting movement exceeded sometimes ten miles a day, it is not possible to establish to a certainty the existence of a current. The drifting was certainly determined by the exclusive influence of the wind, and I do not doubt but that a careful comparison of the successive positions of the ice-pack and mariners’ cards will demonstrate it in a definite manner.

The sediments found upon the continental plateau and north of it are of a terreous origin, as stated before; but what is most remarkable is the great number of globigerinæ which are met there, and an absence of diatomaceæ. Yet the rapid examination of the plant showed a very abundant or rich flora of diatomaceæ, and almost no globigerinæ.

ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY

As I have already remarked, the Belgica Channel lands are entirely covered with a continuous and thick cloak of ice; a few small islands, shores, and perpendicular cliffs alone show the naked rock. Upon this limited portion of antarctic land can vegetation alone develop itself; and, indeed, it does on these spots. The only floriferous plant we found is of the order Gramineæ, which probably belongs to the Aira species; but the mosses (known among others, Barbula and Bryum) and the lichens (known among others, Lecanora, Verrucaria, and Usnea) are more abundant. On the spots where the water oozes from the melting snows there grow some soft water-wracks—oscillariaceæ and diatomaceæ.

The terrestrial animals, properly so called, are represented by a small species of Diptera with rudimentary wings, podurellæ in large quantities, living with three or four species of small Acarida or mites among mosses and lichens. Upon soft water-wracks there rises a microscopic fauna composed of Nematoidea, Rotifera, Tardigrada, Infusoria, and Rhizopoda. These animals and plants represent at the present day the terrestrial antarctic fauna and flora, and no other living animal has yet been discovered upon the whole extent of the properly called antarctic region, for we cannot consider as terrestrial animals the birds and seals which inhabit this region. The question is to know what has become of the autochtone fauna and flora, which must have inhabited the great antarctic land and wastes during the geological periods, when the ice had not invaded the polar regions. To this question, it seems to me, there is but one answer to be made. The whole terrestrial antarctic fauna was destroyed during the glacial epochs, which, before the present epoch, covered over with ice more completely than to-day the whole antarctic region. We possess decisive information concerning the existence of a vast crystalline cap which stretched over the whole of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. Moreover, we observed in Belgica Channel some glacial phenomena which incontestably indicate a much greater extension of ice than the present existing one. I believe that even the plants and terrestrial animals that were found upon the lands of Belgica Strait are not the remains of the antarctic flora and fauna of the preglacial epoch, but American immigrants brought by the large-winged birds which are common to both regions.

Birds are very numerous in the Belgica Channel, and the greater part of them rest in the holes and cracks of the cliffs. With but one exception, the Chionis alba, all are web-footed and are a part of the orders Gavia, Tubinares, Steganopoda, and Impenes. The most common are the Dominican sea-gull (Larus dominicanus), the brown sea-gull (Megalestris antarctica), the sea-swallow (Sterna hirundinacea), the large petrel (Ossifraga gigantea), the bird of tempests (Oceanites oceanicus), the Cape pigeon (Daption capensis), the carunculated cormorant (Phalacrocorax carunculatus), the Papuan penguin (Pygoscelis papua), and the antarctic penguin (Pygoscelis antarctica), these latter two living in vast rookeries; in short, the curious beak-sheathed bird (Chionis alba) which, like most other birds already mentioned, nests in the holes and crevices of rocks.

Two varieties of seals were seen in Belgica Channel—the Weddell seal (Leptonychotes weddelli), frequently met in small bands, and the crab-eater seal (Lobodon carcinophaga), which is more scarce. Among the Cetacea, the Megaptera boöps (?) is met in large troops, often in the company of a large balænoptera (Balænoptera Sibbaldii) (?), but no genuine black or Greenland bone whale was ever seen. The littoral fauna and flora are badly represented on account of the constant motion of the ice along the rocky shores of the sea. Sea-wracks cannot fix themselves upon them, nor can animals. Yet in some well-sheltered crevices I found some rare sea-grasses (Desmarestia, etc.), and patellæ with small inferior animals.

The first biological example we could ascertain, during our imprisonment of thirteen months in the ice-pack, was a general presence of diatomaceæ on the superficial sheets of the sea, as well as upon icebergs and in the interior of the holes and cracks of the sea-ice. The most frequently represented species are Chætoceros, Coscinodiscus, and Chorethron. The bed or plant is not very rich and but little varied. It is composed of small-sized animals, of which the most frequently represented are enumerated in the order of their frequency: the Copepodaes Radiolaria (Protocystis, Cannosphæra), Pteropoda (Limacina), Polychæta (Pelagobia), Copelata (Oikopleura), Ostracoda, Siphonophora (Eudoxia), etc.

The size of the bed or plant undergoes a season’s change. During the winter, sea-ice, being very thick, intercepts daylight; in consequence the diatomaceæ cannot increase and the bed decreases considerably in size. In the summer, on the contrary, sea-ice thins, cracks, and tracks are numerous; light can thus penetrate, which accounts for an abundant growth of diatomaceæ, and the bed increases considerably in volume.

One of the most important plancton forms or plants, with regard to the part it plays in the economy of antarctic life, is a species of the Euphausia kind. In fact, there exist immense shoals of this animal under the ice-pack, and these shoals serve as an almost exclusive food for seals, penguins, and presumably cetaceans.

Dredgings performed upon the continental plateau spoken of elsewhere brought forth a fauna which, from its general character, shows a remarkable affinity with the abyssal fauna. We fished, in effect, pedunculated Crinoidea, Elasipoda, benthal Asterias, Aselidæ, Pantopoda, Gorgonidæ, Polychæta, Cumacea, Mysidæ, Ascidiæ, which have a striking air of relationship with the similar forms fished in the great oceanic depths. This fact ought not to astonish us, for we well know that the great factor in the distribution of marine animals is temperature. Now, the temperature of the water upon this plateau of five hundred metres in depth is much the same as that of the oceanic depths. The groups best represented are the Echinodermata, Crustacea (Edriophthalma), Polychæta, Gorgonidæ, and Bryozoa. The birds which were constantly present upon the ice-pack are not numerous: the very large petrel (Ossifraga gigantea), the snow petrel (Pagodroma nivea), the antarctic petrel (Thalassocca antarctica), the brown sea-gull (Megalestris antarctica), Forster’s penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri), and the Adelia land penguin (Pygosulis adeliæ).

The whole four seal species inhabiting the antarctic were seen during our stay in the ice-pack; that is, the crab-eater seal (Lobodon carcinophaga), Weddell sea-leopard (Leptonychotes weddelli), the true sea-leopard (Ogmorhynus leptonyx), and Ross’s seal (Ommatophoca Rossi). Balænoptera of a small size and Ziphiidæ came very often to breathe in the cracks and leads of the ice-pack. The temperature of the bodies of the seals is about +37°, that of the penguins about +40°. These figures are below the normal. These animals, in order to fight against the exterior cold, do not create more heat than this, only they lose less, and they arrive at this result by means of the thick covering of fat which surrounds them. Direct observations allow us to state this fact. The cold does not appear to have a pernicious influence upon the human organism. In temperatures of from -30° to -40° and calm weather, the feeling one experiences is rather pleasant and invigorating. It is naturally otherwise when the wind blows. I believe that for a traveller the great inconvenience of cold upon the ice-pack is that it creates a condensation of aqueous vapour which is eliminated by the skin’s surface. At the end of a short time the clothes are all wet, and it is hard under such conditions to get warm. But the greatest inconvenience in polar regions lies in the absence of the sun during the winter months. The pernicious influence of the absence of direct sunbeams, upon the human organism, was witnessed to a certainty during the winter of 1898.

The whole crew of the Belgica, without exception, presented symptoms which in medical books are grouped under the name of chronic anæmia. With them all we could notice a discoloration of the mucous membranes, dyspnœa, acceleration of the pulse, dizziness, insomnia, a complete incapacity for prolonged intellectual work, and even a swelling of the legs. The report of the surgeon of the expedition promises to be interesting under this head.

I have spoken only to call attention to the studies which were made by the members of the expedition in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego. They will bring out some zoological, botanical, geological, and anthropological contributions for the knowledge of these important regions of the globe.