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The South Pole, Volume 2

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Meteorological Record from Framheim.

April, 1911 -- January, 1912.

Height above sea-level, 36 feet. Gravity correction, .072 inch at
29.89 inches. Latitude, 78° 38' S. Longitude, 163° 37' W.

Explanation of Signs in the Tables.

SNOW signifies snow.

MIST ,, mist.

AURORA ,, aurora.

RINGSUN ,, large ring round the sun.

RINGMOON ,, ,, ,, moon.

STORM ,, storm

sq. ,, squalls

a. ,, a.m.

p. ,, p.m.

I., II, III., signify respectively 8 a.m., 2 p.m., and 8 p.m.

° (e.g., SNOW°) signifies slight.

2 (e.g., SNOW2) ,, heavy.

Times of day are always in local time.

The date was not changed on crossing the 180th meridian






CHAPTER III

Geology

Provisional Remarks on the Examination of the Geological Specimens
Brought by Roald Amundsen's South Polar Expedition from the Antarctic
Continent (South Victoria Land and King Edward VII. Land). By
J. Schetelig, Secretary of the Mineralogical Institute of Christiania
University

The collection of specimens of rocks brought back by Mr. Roald
Amundsen from his South Polar expedition has been sent by him to the
Mineralogical Institute of the University, the Director of which,
Professor W. C. Brögger, has been good enough to entrust to me the
work of examining this rare and valuable material, which gives us
information of the structure of hitherto untrodden regions.

Roald Amundsen himself brought back altogether about twenty specimens
of various kinds of rock from Mount Betty, which lies in lat. 85° 8'
S. Lieutenant Prestrud's expedition to King Edward VII. Land collected
in all about thirty specimens from Scott's Nunatak, which was the only
mountain bare of snow that this expedition met with on its route. A
number of the stones from Scott's Nunatak were brought away because
they were thickly overgrown with lichens. These specimens of lichens
have been sent to the Botanical Museum of the University.

A first cursory examination of the material was enough to show
that the specimens from Mount Betty and Scott's Nunatak consist
exclusively of granitic rocks and crystalline schists. There were
no specimens of sedimentary rocks which, by possibly containing
fossils, might have contributed to the determination of the age of
these mountains. Another thing that was immediately apparent was the
striking agreement that exists between the rocks from these two places,
lying so far apart. The distance from Mount Betty to Scott's Nunatak
is between seven and eight degrees of latitude.

I have examined the specimens microscopically.

From Mount Betty there are several specimens of white granite, with
dark and light mica; it has a great resemblance to the white granites
from Sogn, the Dovre district, and Nordland, in Norway. There is one
very beautiful specimen of shining white, fine-grained granite aplite,
with small, pale red garnets. These granites show in their exterior
no sign of pressure structure. The remaining rocks from Mount Betty
are gneissic granite, partly very rich in dark mica, and gneiss
(granitic schist); besides mica schist, with veins of quartz.

From Scott's Nunatak there are also several specimens of white granite,
very like those from Mount Betty. The remaining rocks from here are
richer in lime and iron, and show a series of gradual transitions
from micacious granite, through grano-diorite to quartz diorite,
with considerable quantities of dark mica, and green hornblende. In
one of the specimens the quantity of free quartz is so small that the
rock is almost a quartz-free diorite. The quartz diorites are: some
medium-grained, some coarse-grained (quartz-diorite-pegmatite), with
streaks of black mica. The schistose rocks from Scott's Nunatak are
streaked, and, in part, very fine-grained quartz diorite schists. Mica
schists do not occur among the specimens from this mountain.

Our knowledge of the geology of South Victoria Land is mainly due to
Scott's expedition of 1901 -- 1904, with H. T. Ferrar as geologist,
and Shackleton's expedition of 1907 -- 08, with Professor David
and R. Priestley as geologists. According to the investigations of
these expeditions, South Victoria Land consists of a vast, ancient
complex of crystalline schists and granitic rocks, large extents
of which are covered by a sandstone formation ("Beacon Sandstone,"
Ferrar), on the whole horizontally bedded, which is at least 1,500 feet
thick, and in which Shackleton found seams of coal and fossil wood (a
coniferous tree). This, as it belongs to the Upper Devonian or Lower
Carboniferous, determines a lower limit for the age of the sandstone
formation. Shackleton also found in lat. 85° 15' S. beds of limestone,
which he regards as underlying and being older than the sandstone. In
the limestone, which is also on the whole horizontally bedded,
only radiolaria have been found. The limestone is probably of older
Palæozoic age (? Silurian). It is, therefore, tolerably certain that
the underlying older formation of gneisses, crystalline schists and
granites, etc., is of Archæan age, and belongs to the foundation rocks.

Volcanic rocks are only found along the coast of Ross Sea and on
a range of islands parallel to the coast. Shackleton did not find
volcanic rocks on his ascent from the Barrier on his route towards
the South Pole.

G. T. Prior, who has described the rocks collected by Scott's
expedition, gives the following as belonging to the complex
of foundation rocks: gneisses, granites, diorites, banatites,
and other eruptive rocks, as well as crystalline limestone, with
chondrodite. Professor David and R. Priestley, the geologists of
Shackleton's expedition, refer to Ferrar's and Prior's description
of the foundation rocks, and state that according to their own
investigations the foundation rocks consist of banded gneiss, gneissic
granite, grano-diorite, and diorite rich in sphene, besides coarse
crystalline limestone as enclosures in the gneiss.

This list of the most important rocks belonging to the foundation
series of the parts of South Victoria Land already explored agrees so
closely with the rocks from Mount Betty and Scott's Nunatak, that there
can be no doubt that the latter also belong to the foundation rocks.

From the exhaustive investigations carried out by Scott's and
Shackleton's expeditions it appears that South Victoria Land is a
plateau land, consisting of a foundation platform, of great thickness
and prominence, above which lie remains, of greater or less extent,
of Palæozoic formations, horizontally bedded. From the specimens of
rock brought home by Roald Amundsen's expedition it is established that
the plateau of foundation rocks is continued eastward to Amundsen's
route to the South Pole, and that King Edward VII. Land is probably
a northern continuation, on the eastern side of Ross Sea, of the
foundation rock plateau of South Victoria Land.

Christiania,

September 26, 1912.



CHAPTER IV

The Astronomical Observations at the Pole

Note by Professor H. Geelmuyden

Christiania,

September 16, 1912.

When requested this summer to receive the astronomical observations
from Roald Amundsen's South Pole Expedition, for the purpose of working
them out, I at once put myself in communication with Mr. A. Alexander
(a mathematical master) to get him to undertake this work, while
indicating the manner in which the materials could be best dealt
with. As Mr. Alexander had in a very efficient manner participated in
the working out of the observations from Nansen's Fram Expedition,
and since then had calculated the astronomical observations from
Amundsen's Gjöa Expedition, and from Captain Isachsen's expeditions
to Spitzbergen, I knew by experience that he was not only a reliable
and painstaking calculator, but that he also has so full an insight
into the theoretical basis, that he is capable of working without
being bound down by instructions.

(Signed) H. Geelmuyden,

Professor of Astronomy,

The Observatory of the University,

Christiania.




Mr. Alexander's Report.

Captain Roald Amundsen,

At your request I shall here give briefly the result of my examination
of the observations from your South Pole Expedition. My calculations
are based on the longitude for Framheim given to me by Lieutenant
Prestrud, 163° 37' W. of Greenwich. He describes this longitude
as provisional, but only to such an extent that the final result
cannot differ appreciably from it. My own results may also be somewhat
modified on a final treatment of the material. But these modifications,
again, will only be immaterial, and, in any case, will not affect
the result of the investigations given below as to the position of
the two Polar stations.

At the first Polar station, on December 15, 1911, eighteen altitudes of
the sun were taken in all with each of the expedition's sextants. The
latitude calculated from these altitudes is, on an average of both
sextants, very near 89° 54', with a mean error of +-2'. The
longitude calculated from the altitudes is about
7t (105°) E.; but, as might be expected in this high latitude,
the aberrations are very considerable. We may, however, assume with
great certainty that this station lies between lat. 89° 52' and 89°
56' S., and between long. 90° and 120° E.

The variation of the compass at the first Polar station was determined
by a series of bearings of the sun. This gives us the absolute
direction of the last day's line of route. The length of this line
was measured as five and a half geographical miles. With the help of
this we are able to construct for Polheim a field of the same form
and extent as that within which the first Polar station must lie.

At Polheim, during a period of twenty-four hours (December 16 --
17), observations were taken every hour with one of the sextants. The
observations show an upper culmination altitude of 28° 19.2', and a
resulting lower culmination altitude of 23° 174'. These combining the
above two altitudes, an equal error on the same side in each will
have no influence on the result. The combination gives a latitude
of 89° 58.6'. That this result must be nearly correct is confirmed
by the considerable displacement of the periods of culmination
which is indicated by the series of observations, and which in the
immediate neighbourhood of the Pole is caused by the change in the
sun's declination. On the day of the observations this displacement
amounted to thirty minutes in 89° 57', forty-six minutes in 89° 58',
and over an hour and a half in 89° 59'. The upper culmination occurred
so much too late, and the lower culmination so much too early. The
interval between these two periods was thus diminished by double the
amount of the displacements given. Now the series of observations
shows that the interval between the upper and the lower culmination
amounted at the most to eleven hours; the displacement of the periods
of culmination was thus at least half an hour. It results that Polheim
must lie south of 89° 57', while at the same time we may assume that
it cannot lie south of 89° 59'. The moments of culmination could,
of course, only be determined very approximately, and in the same way
the observations as a whole are unserviceable for the determination
of longitude. It may, however, be stated with some certainty that
the longitude must be between 30° and 75° E. The latitude, as already
mentioned, is between 89° 57' and 89° 59', and the probable position
of Polheim may be given roughly as lat. 89° 58.5' S., and long. 60° E.

On the accompanying sketch-chart the letters abcd indicate the field
within which the first Polar station must lie; ABCD is the field which
is thereby assigned to Polheim; EFGH the field within which Polheim
must lie according to the observations taken on the spot itself; P
the probable position of Polheim, and L the resulting position of the
first Polar station. The position thus assigned to the latter agrees as
well as could be expected with the average result of the observations
of December 15. According to this, Polheim would be assumed to lie
one and a half geographical miles, or barely three kilometres, from
the South Pole, and certainly not so much as six kilometres from it.

From your verbal statement I learn that Helmer Hanssen and Bjaaland
walked four geographical miles from Polheim in the direction taken to
be south on the basis of the observations. On the chart the letters
efgh give the field within which the termination of their line of route
must lie. It will be seen from this that they passed the South Pole
at a distance which, on the one hand, can hardly have been so great
as two and a half kilometres, and on the other, hardly so great as two
kilometres; that, if the assumed position of Polheim be correct, they
passed the actual Pole at a distance of between 400 and 600 metres;
and that it is very probable that they passed the actual Pole at a
distance of a few hundred metres, perhaps even less.

I am, etc.,

(Signed) Anton Alexander.

Christiania,

September 22, 1912.




CHAPTER V

Oceanography

Remarks of the Oceanographical Investigation carried out by the "Fram"
in the North Atlantic in 1910 and in the South Atlantic in 1911. By
Professor Björn Helland-Hansen and Professor Fridtjof Nansen

In the earliest ages of the human race the sea formed an absolute
barrier. Men looked out upon its immense surface, now calm and
bright, now lashed by storms, and always mysteriously attractive;
but they could not grapple with it. Then they learned to make boats;
at first small, simple craft, which could only be used when the sea
was calm. But by degrees the boats were made larger and more perfect,
so that they could venture farther out and weather a storm if it
came. In antiquity the peoples of Europe accomplished the navigation
of the Mediterranean, and the boldest maritime nation was able to
sail round Africa and find the way to India by sea. Then came voyages
to the northern waters of Europe, and far back in the Middle Ages
enterprising seamen crossed from Norway to Iceland and Greenland and
the north-eastern part of North America. They sailed straight across
the North Atlantic, and were thus the true discoverers of that ocean.

Even in antiquity the Greek geographers had assumed that the greater
part of the globe was covered by sea, but it was not till the beginning
of the modern age that any at all accurate idea arose of the extent of
the earth's great masses of water. The knowledge of the ocean advanced
with more rapid steps than ever before. At first this knowledge
only extended to the surface, the comparative area of oceans, their
principal currents, and the general distribution of temperature. In
the middle of the last century Maury collected all that was known,
and drew charts of the currents and winds for the assistance of
navigation. This was the beginning of the scientific study of the
oceanic waters; at that time the conditions below the surface were
still little known. A few investigations, some of them valuable, had
been made of the sea fauna, even at great depths, but very little
had been done towards investigating the physical conditions. It
was seen, however, that there was here a great field for research,
and that there were great and important problems to be solved; and
then, half a century ago, the great scientific expeditions began,
which have brought an entire new world to our knowledge.

It is only forty years since the Challenger sailed on the first
great exploration of the oceans. Although during these forty years
a quantity of oceanographical observations has been collected with a
constant improvement of methods, it is, nevertheless, clear that our
knowledge of the ocean is still only in the preliminary stage. The
ocean has an area twice as great as that of the dry land, and it
occupies a space thirteen times as great as that occupied by the
land above sea-level. Apart from the great number of soundings for
depth alone, the number of oceanographical stations -- with a series
of physical and biological observations at various depths -- is very
small in proportion to the vast masses of water; and there are still
extensive regions of the ocean of the conditions of which we have
only a suspicion, but no certain knowledge. This applies also to the
Atlantic Ocean, and especially to the South Atlantic.

Scientific exploration of the ocean has several objects. It seeks to
explain the conditions governing a great and important part of our
earth, and to discover the laws that control the immense masses of
water in the ocean. It aims at acquiring a knowledge of its varied
fauna and flora, and of the relations between this infinity of
organisms and the medium in which they live. These were the principal
problems for the solution of which the voyage of the Challenger and
other scientific expeditions were undertaken. Maury's leading object
was to explain the conditions that are of practical importance to
navigation; his investigations were, in the first instance, applied
to utilitarian needs.

But the physical investigation of the ocean has yet another very
important bearing. The difference between a sea climate and a
continental climate has long been understood; it has long been known
that the sea has an equalizing effect on the temperature of the air,
so that in countries lying near the sea there is not so great a
difference between the heat of summer and the cold of winter as on
continents far from the sea-coast. It has also long been understood
that the warm currents produce a comparatively mild climate in high
latitudes, and that the cold currents coming from the Polar regions
produce a low temperature. It has been known for centuries that the
northern arm of the Gulf Stream makes Northern Europe as habitable
as it is, and that the Polar currents on the shores of Greenland and
Labrador prevent any richer development of civilization in these
regions. But it is only recently that modern investigation of the
ocean has begun to show the intimate interaction between sea and
air; an interaction which makes it probable that we shall be able to
forecast the main variations in climate from year to year, as soon
as we have a sufficiently large material in the shape of soundings.

In order to provide new oceanographical material by modern methods,
the plan of the Fram expedition included the making of a number of
investigations in the Atlantic Ocean. In June, 1910, the Fram went
on a trial cruise in the North Atlantic to the west of the British
Isles. Altogether twenty-five stations were taken in this region
during June and July before the Fram's final departure from Norway.

The expedition then went direct to the Antarctic and landed the shore
party on the Barrier. Neither on this trip nor on the Fram's subsequent
voyage to Buenos Aires were any investigations worth mentioning made,
as time was too short; but in June, 1911, Captain Nilsen took the
Fram on a cruise in the South Atlantic and made in all sixty valuable
stations along two lines between South America and Africa.

An exhaustive working out of the very considerable material collected
on these voyages has not yet been possible. We shall here only attempt
to set forth the most conspicuous results shown by a preliminary
examination.

Besides the meteorological observations and the collection of
plankton -- in fine silk tow-nets -- the investigations consisted
of taking temperatures and samples of water at different depths The
temperatures below the surface were ascertained by the best modern
reversing thermometers (Richter's); these thermometers are capable
of giving the temperature to within a few hundredths of a degree at
any depth. Samples of water were taken for the most part with Ekman's
reversing water-sampler; it consists of a brass tube, with a valve at
each end. When it is lowered the valves are open, so that the water
passes freely through the tube. When the apparatus has reached the
depth from which a sample is to be taken, a small slipping sinker
is sent down along the line. When the sinker strikes the sampler,
it displaces a small pin, which holds the brass tube in the position
in which the valves remain open. The tube then swings over, and this
closes the valves, so that the tube is filled with a hermetically
enclosed sample of water. These water samples were put into small
bottles, which were afterwards sent to Bergen, where the salinity of
each sample was determined. On the first cruise, in June and July,
1910, the observations on board were carried out by Mr. Adolf Schröer,
besides the permanent members of the expedition. The observations
in the South Atlantic in the following year were for the most part
carried out by Lieutenant Gjertsen and Kutschin.

The Atlantic Ocean is traversed by a series of main currents, which
are of great importance on account of their powerful influence
on the physical conditions of the surrounding regions of sea and
atmosphere. By its oceanographical investigations in 1910 and 1911
the Fram expedition has made important contributions to our knowledge
of many of these currents. We shall first speak of the investigations
in the North Atlantic in 1910, and afterwards of those in the South
Atlantic in 1911.

Investigations in the North Atlantic in June and July, 1910.

The waters of the Northern Atlantic Ocean, to the north of lats. 80°
and 40° N., are to a great extent in drifting motion north-eastward
and eastward from the American to the European side. This drift is
what is popularly called the Gulf Stream. To the west of the Bay
of Biscay the eastward flow of water divides into two branches, one
going south-eastward and southward, which is continued in the Canary
Current, and the other going north-eastward and northward outside
the British Isles, which sends comparatively warm streams of water
both in the direction of Iceland and past the Shetlands and Faroes
into the Norwegian Sea and north-eastward along the west coast of
Norway. This last arm of the Gulf Stream in the Norwegian Sea has
been well explored during the last ten or fifteen years; its course
and extent have been charted, and it has been shown to be subject to
great variations from year to year, which again appear to be closely
connected with variations in the development and habitat of several
important species of fish, such as cod, coal-fish, haddock, etc., as
well as with variations in the winter climate of Norway, the crops,
and other important conditions. By closely following the changes in
the Gulf Stream from year to year, it looks as if we should be able
to predict a long time in advance any great changes in the cod and
haddock fisheries in the North Sea, as well as variations in the
winter climate of North-Western Europe.

But the cause or causes of these variations in the Gulf Stream are at
present unknown. In order to solve this difficult question we must be
acquainted with the conditions in those regions of the Atlantic itself
through which this mighty ocean current flows, before it sends its
waters into the Norwegian Sea. But here we are met by the difficulty
that the investigations that have been made hitherto are extremely
inadequate and deficient; indeed, we have no accurate

(Fig. 1. -- Hypothetical Representation of the Surface Currents in
the Northern Atlantic in April.

After Nansen, in the Internationale Revue der gesamten Hydrobiologie
and Hydrographie, 1912.)

knowledge even of the course and extent of the current in this ocean. A
thorough investigation of it with the improved methods of our time
is therefore an inevitable necessity.

As the Gulf Stream is of so great importance to Northern Europe in
general, but especially to us Norwegians, it was not a mere accident
that three separate expeditions left Norway in the same year, 1910 --
Murray and Hjort's expedition in the Michael Sars, Amundsen's trial
trip in the Fram, and Nansen's voyage in the gunboat Frithjof --
all with the object of investigating the conditions in the North
Atlantic. The fact that on these three voyages observations were
made approximately at the same time in different parts of the
ocean increases their value in a great degree, since they can thus
be directly compared; we are thus able to obtain, for instance,
a reliable survey of the distribution of temperature and salinity,
and to draw important conclusions as to the extent of the currents
and the motion of the masses of water.

Amundsen's trial trip in the Fram and Nansen's voyage in the Frithjof
were made with the special object of studying the Gulf Stream in
the ocean to the west of the British Isles, and by the help of these
investigations it is now possible to chart the current and the extent
of the various volumes of water at different depths in this region
at that time.

A series of stations taken within the same region during Murray
and Hjort's expedition completes the survey, and provides valuable
material for comparison.

After sailing from Norway over the North Sea, the Fram passed through
the English Channel in June, 1910, and the first station was taken on
June 20, to the south of Ireland, in lat. 50° 50' N. and long. 10°
15' W., after which thirteen stations were taken to the westward,
to lat. 58° 16' N. and long. 17° 50' W., where the ship was on June
27. Her course then went in a northerly direction to lat. 57° 59'
N. and long. 15° 8' W., from which point a section of eleven stations
(Nos. 15 -- 25) was made straight across the Gulf Stream to the bank
on the north of Scotland, in lat. 59° 88' N. and long. 4° 44' W. The
voyage and the stations are represented in Fig. 2. Temperatures and
samples of water were taken at all the twenty-four stations at the
following depths: surface, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200,
300, 400, and 500 metres (2.7, 5.4, 10.9, 16.3, 21.8, 27.2, 40.8,
54.5, 81.7, 109, 163.5, 218, and 272.5 fathoms) -- or less, where
the depth was not so great.

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