Slide 345

Commander Gerlache, Belgica Expedition (1897-99) Hunting Seals.

Drawer 7



Negative Number: 13328

Latitude: 72.0

Longitude: 85.0

Geographical Classification:
Polar Regions (Except Alaska and Norway): Antarctic

Card Front:

Here is a wonderful view of the South Polar Regions. This is a great stretch of pack ice lying off the coast of the Anarctic Continent. This is the land of eternal snow and ice. Sunrise and sunset on many days are combined. During the winter there is neither sunrise nor sunset. But the dull cold and darkness of the long winter is never-ending. It is the winter season that the men on these Polar Expeditions find hardest to live through. There were only 19 persons, 7 officicers and 12 marines on the Belgica Expedition. Some of these went crazy because of the terribleness of the cold and the sameness of the days. The Commander of the Belgica is here shown. DeGerlache was a Belgian by birth. Her had spent some time with the seal fishers in the Arctic Ocean. By private subscriptions he succeesed in having the Belgica fitted up for a two-

Card Back:

years trip to Antarctic Seas. His ship, though small, was built very stout. Its stern wall was 5 feet thick. Its breast wall was 12 feet thick. Over this was a covering of Swiss iron. With all its strenght, the ice battered it so strongly it came near being lost. Perhaps the greatest single result of the Belgica Expedition was the discovery of the western part of the Antarctic Continent. From that time on, geographers felt sure that there was a great body of land lying about the Polar Cap. Two men who were on this voyage deserve special attention. One is Roald Amundsen, the man who afterwards discovered the South Pole. The other is Dr. Cook, whose name is connected with the North Pole. It was Dr. Cook who took this photograph of deGerlache.