Discovering the unknown continent - Antarctica: Global Science from a Frozen Continent - page 10

Figure 1.8 New species of Southern Ocean fish collected
on the Swedish Antarctic Expedition, painted by Carl
Skottsberg and described by Einar Lönnberg. They are,
from the top, Notothenia larseni and Artedidraco
skottsbergi .

1894 aboard the Antarctic , sent to investigate
whaling opportunities. That expedition was
the rsttolandonthecontinentitself(as

distinct from the Peninsula) and the rst to

find vegetation within the Antarctic Circle.
Borchgrevink s party also landed at Cape

Adare and spent the winter there in a
stone-built hut. The expedition was the

'

rst
to make a sledge journey on the Ross Ice Shelf, whilst their meteorological
records for the whole year were important in giving the

first to overwinter on land, the

first detailed picture

of the continental climate.
The international scramble for exploring the continent suddenly increased.
First the British organised their National Antarctic Expedition (1901 04) led

by Captain Robert Scott on board the Discovery , whilst the Germans funded the

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03) on the Gauss with Erich von Drygalski
as its leader. Both of these expeditions carried considerable numbers of scientists
and their reports can be seen as providing the beginnings of modern Antarctic
science.
Meanwhile over in Sweden, Otto Nordenskjöld wanted to build on his
experiences in Greenland and the Yukon and put together a privately funded
expedition which sailed from Gothenburg in October 1901. The loss of his ship
Antarctic in the ice and the rescue of all of his men against the odds made this
one of the more exciting expeditions. Their collections of fossils identi

first German Antarctic Expedition (1901 -

ed
Mt Flora and the islands around Hope Bay as one of the most important
palaeontological sites in the Antarctic.
With one British expedition already in the Antarctic it might seem strange
that a second private expedition should come from the United Kingdom.
Organised as a declaration of Scottish nationalism, Dr William Bruce took the
Scottish National Antarctic Expedition south on the Scotia in 1902 and wintered
at Laurie Island in the South Orkney Islands. At the conclusion of the expedition,
Bruce offered the meteorological station he had established to the Argentine
Government

who accepted with alacrity and have staffed it even since. This has
since provided the longest running meteorological record for anywhere in the
Antarctic.

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