of about 5 and 12 m. respectively from the hut towards the high inland plateau and were stored with provisions for summer sledg- ing; the use of surface depots like those on the Ross Barrier was impossible owing to the wind. Five sledge parties started simul- taneously in Nov. 1912, their paths diverging so as to cover the greatest possible area. The eastern sledging parties under Mr. F. L. Stilwell and C. T. Madigan with Dr. A. L. Maclean and others, mapped the coast and huge glacier tongues as far east as long. 150 20' E., reaching the farthest point on Dec. 18. The land, with a surface rising to 3,000 ft. above the sea, extended far to the east and was named George V. Land. It stretched towards Gates Land sighted by the " Terra Nova " of Scott's expedition. Good rock exposures were found containing coal and fossils. The magnetic pole party from the main base, under Lt. R. Bage with E. N. Webb and J. F. Hurley, travelled out 300 m. with man-hauled sledges and reached 6,500 ft. above sea-level at a point only a few miles from that reached by Sir Douglas Mawson and Sir Edgeworth David from McMurdo Sound on Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition. The western party from the main base under Mr. F. H. Bickerton, with A. J. Hodgeman and Dr. L. A. Whetter, reached a point on the Antarctic circle in long. 138 E. on Christmas Day, travelling over the Plateau at a height of about 4,000 ft. An air tractor sledge started with this party but broke down after 10 miles.
Dr. Mawson, with Dr. X. Mertz and Lt. B. E. S. Ninnis, using dog sledges, set out for a long journey to the S. E. well inland of Madigan 's party, and had very difficult ground to cover, includ- ing many rises to over 3,000 ft. with intermediate descents to near sea-level, where there were heavily crevassed glaciers. They had got out about 310 m. to nearly long. 152 E. when on Dec. 14 1912 Ninnis, with his sledge and dogs, broke through the snow covering of a crevasse of enormous depth and was instantly killed. Many essential parts of the equipment were lost with the sledge, and only six dogs in poor condition were left. From this point the homeward track was laid farther S. than the outward so as to avoid the great ups and downs, and the travellers pushed on in frequent bad weather on short rations supplemented by the flesh of the dogs. Both suffered severely from the insufficient and loathsome food, and Mertz collapsed on Jan. 6 1913 and died the following day, leaving Mawson alone 100 m. from the hut. After three days spent in cutting down the sledge and rearranging its load Mawson started on his lonely tramp, and after appalling difficulties, when nearly exhausted, he stumbled on a food depot laid out by a search party 20 m. from the hut on Jan. 29 1913. It was Feb. 8 when he reached the hut and saw the " Aurora," but she was outward bound. A fresh relief party had come S. in the ship, and a second winter had to be spent in the hut, the isolation somewhat mitigated by wireless intercourse with Australia via Macquarie Island.
Capt. Davis, after landing the relief party and taking off all the others, waited for the return of Mawson as long as he dared, having in view the necessity of relieving Wild's party in Queen Mary Land, and the fact that every anchor on the ship had been lost in the fight with blizzards in Commonwealth Bay. He reached Wild's base just in time, got the party safely on board and returned to Hobart. From their base in long. 98 E. Wild's party had travelled W. to the Gaussberg in long. 89 E., and E. as far as long. 101 E., mapping the glaciers which descended from a plateau rising above 3,000 ft., as well as several islands off the coast. The " Aurora " returned to Commonwealth Bay on Dec. 13 1913, and after taking the base party on board made another voyage to Queen Mary Land and carried out valuable oceanographical work on the way back to Hobart.
W. Filchner (ign-2). Lt. Wilhelm Filchner organized a German expedition to the Weddell Sea in 1911, and sailed from South Georgia in the " Deutschland " (Capt. Vahsel) on Dec. ii in that year and entered the pack seven days later in lat. 61 S. The ship went S. approximately on the meridian of 30 W. and sighted land on Jan. 29 1912 in lat. 76 S.; about 2 S. and 8 W. of Bruce's Coats Land. The " Deutschland " pro- ceeded along the new coast, named Luitpold Land, to lat. 77 48' S., long. 35 W. on Feb. 2 1912, where an indentation in the
Barrier ice formed Vahsel Bay, whence the land rose to the S. and three nunataks were observed piercing the snow. Efforts to get farther S. on a westerly course failed, and on Feb. 6 it was decided to erect the winter hut on an iceberg which appeared to be firmly frozen to the Barrier and to offer an easy passage for dog-sledges to the land. All stores were transferred to the iceberg, when on Feb. 18 it suddenly began to move and ponies, dogs, stores and as much of the wood as could be saved were hurriedly reembarked. Two small depots of provisions were afterwards laid out on the Barrier ice as a base for land parties while the ship sought for winter quarters; but Capt. Vahsel feared the destruction of the vessel, and induced the leader to change his plans and return to South Georgia for the winter in order to try again next year. The return journey was commenced on March 4 1912, but four days later the ship was beset by young ice in lat. 74 S., long. 31 W., and remained fast, drifting with the winds and currents of the Weddell Sea all winter, on the whole westward and northward until the middle of August, when she was in lat. 66 S. and long. 44 W. Thereafter the drift was eastward and northward until she broke out of the pack in lat. 63 40' S. and long. 36 W. on Nov. 27 1912 and proceeded for home. The drift lasted for 264 days and no land was sighted, although a sledge journey was made westward to long. 45 W. in search of Morrell Land. Capt. Vahsel died during the drift, and the expedition broke up at South Georgia.
Shackleton's Weddell Sea Party (1914-6). Sir Ernest Shackle- ton had completed his preparations for an attempt to cross the Antarctic regions from Weddell Sea to Ross Sea before the outbreak of the World War, and carried out his expedition at the direct order of the Admiralty, which declined his offer of the ships and men for war service. He left England on Aug. 8 1914 in the " Endurance " and sailed from South Georgia on Dec. 5, with the intention of landing in Vahsel Bay and proceeding thence to the South Pole after wintering on the land. The pack was entered in lat. 57 S. and the ship worked her way S. between long. 15 and 20 W. until on Jan. n 1915 she sighted Coats Land, and followed new land named the Caird Coast to Luitpold Land. Here the " Endurance " was beset in the ice on Jan. 18 in lat. 76 34' S., long. 31 30' W. and the voyage was at an end. The " Endurance " drifted in the pack as the " Deutschland " had done three years before, and on a nearly parallel track, moving N. about 10 farther W. and at almost exactly the same rate in the same latitudes. The ice was however much heavier, and in the terrific pressures which occurred the " Endurance " was crushed on Oct. 27, when the expedition of 28 men with 49 dogs abandoned her and camped on the floe. This was in lat. 69 5' S.,. long. 51 30' W., and three weeks later the shattered wreck sank through the ice. The attempt to sledge over the ice westward towards the E. coast of Graham Land was unavailing, as the ship's boats could not be left behind and were too heavy to drag. The party therefore camped on the drifting floe, keeping up scientific observations and maintaining their health and spirits though in continual danger from the floes ridging up or cracking asunder. The drift went on until April 9 1916 when the floe, reduced to a triangle 100 yds. in the side, drifted into the open sea in lat. 62 S., long. 54 W., and the party had to take to their boats, after drifting 292 days in the ship and 165 on the bare ice, 457 days in all. North of lat. 66 S. the drift of the " Deutsch- land " had turned sharp to the E., but that of Sir Ernest Shackle- ton's floe continued in the main due N. ; the difference may have been due to the opposite seasons or to other causes. The three boats safely reached Elephant I. in the South Shetlands, and a shelter was rigged up of two boats, where 22 of the party were left under the capable leadership of Mr. Frank Wild, while Shackleton and five companions set out in the third boat, the " James Caird," for the almost desperate attempt to reach South Georgia. The effort succeeded in great measure through the fine seamanship of Capt. Worsley, and the island was reached in 16 days on May 10 after a voyage of over 800 m., but on the side farthest from the whaling stations. After a four-days rest Shackleton, with two companions, had recovered sufficiently to cross the unknown snow-covered mountains, which had never
