Through the first Antarctic night, 1898-1899

At last I am on the way to the land which has been the dream of my life,--“the mysterious antarctic.” I have talked of this journey of exploration so long, have wished for it so...

The _Belgica_ left Rio October 30, 1897. She steamed out of the harbour amid an uproar of salutations and accompanied by many of the friends of the expedition to the entrance of...

Quite as interesting as the work of an exploring expedition is the story of the initial inception of the idea, and the various experiences, fortunes and misfortunes of its proje...

I have now been on the _Belgica_ more than a month, and my admiration for her becomes stronger as we advance toward the southern ice. Her history, her fittings, her equipment, a...

The _Belgica_ raised her anchor and steamed out of the harbour of Montevideo Sunday, November 14, 1897. We were showered with the good wishes of the people, and loaded with the...

We decided, before we left, that Punta Arenas, as a town, is very extraordinary in many ways when you come to know it. Aside from the fact that it is the world’s southernmost ci...

After spending a fortnight at Punta Arenas, restocking and refitting the ship, studying the surrounding regions, and accepting the warm hospitality of the citizens, we tipped ou...

The Fuegians have been described, from time to time, since the country was first sighted and named by Magellan in 1520; but to-day they still remain almost unknown. In connectio...

On January 3, 1898, we started eastward through Beagle Channel, intending to push southward at once, but an incident happened which changed our progress and also disturbed our e...

Before going south it was determined to examine a large bay to the eastward for a possible opening into the Weddell Sea (Brialmont Bay). The morning was foggy; but by noon the m...

At about eight o’clock in the evening of the twelfth we select what seems to be a comfortable resting-place for the night. Owing to the great depth of water we cannot anchor; he...

On the evening of the fifteenth we had sunk the land and the drift-ice under the north-eastern horizon. There remains, in that direction, an ice-blink, a bright, cream-colored z...

For the last few days we have had under discussion a striking peculiarity of the antarctic pack. It is a noticeable yellowness in the second sheets of newly broken pieces of ice...

February 25.--The expected storm has not struck us, but the ice has separated a little and offers us a chance to push westerly. We are passing through a loose pack with much new...

We are now doomed to remain, and become the football of an unpromising fate. Henceforth we are to be kicked, pushed, squeezed, and ushered helplessly at the mercy of the pack. O...

On the morning of the 16th several of us went to the crow’s-nest to get a bird’s-eye view of the pack. Only two could rest in the nest at one time, and at best it is a shivery r...

March 20.--Although the wind which has swept the pack for the past few days has entirely subsided, the temperature has not fallen as low as we had expected. The thermometer has...

March 28.--It is another day of clear, white silence. At sunrise and at sunset the twilight zone is becoming more and more marked. It is, to-night, an intense purple blue, and t...

The photographs of the “Beauties” to enter into the contest are filed in the “Minister’s” book. There are four hundred and sixty-four (464) pictures, charms, delights and fascin...

April 10.--Yesterday the wind was from the east and it came with a maddening hiss. To-day it is from the south, still, sharp, and icy. There is a great commotion in the ice. Old...

April 26.--The sky is again hazed, the barometer is falling, and the temperature has risen from -21° at 8 A.M. to -2° at 3 P.M. We made a sounding and found the depth 410 metres...

May 16.--The long night began at 12 o’clock last night. We did not know this until this afternoon. At 4 o’clock Lecointe got an observation by two stars which placed us in latit...

The grayness of the first days of the night has given way to a soul-despairing darkness, broken only at noon by a feeble yellow haze on the northern sky. I can think of nothing...

The weather is unendurable, the temperature is -30° C. and an easterly gale is burying us in a huge drift of snow. With a high wind, an air thick with flying snow, and a tempera...

June 22.--It is midnight and midwinter. Thirty-five long, dayless nights have passed. An equal number of dreary, cheerless days must elapse before we again see the glowing orb,...

July 22.--After so much physical, mental, and moral depression, and after having our anticipations raised to a fever heat by the tempting increase of dawn at noon, it is needles...

The morning of July thirty-first opened with a golden glow northward, and a fair but cold wind, driving the hard crystals of snow over the crust with a metallic ring. The weathe...

It is but slowly that this blackness of the polar night is dissolved by the whiteness of the coming day. Until the first weeks of September we felt little of the cheering influe...

December 2.--Our drift lately has been almost imperceptible. The winds, always feeble and never continuing long in one direction, have simply kept up a little agitation in the p...

January 5.--We are satisfied with the success of our mission to the present. We should like to terminate our campaign with a striking sweep of discoveries, such as marked our be...