The Heart of the Antarctic: Being the Story of the British Antarctic Expedition 1907-1909 |
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Common terms and phrases
Adams Adelie afternoon altitude Antarctic Barrier birds biscuits blizzard blowing blubber breakfast Brocklehurst Butter Point camp Cape Barne Cape Royds cliff clouds cold cracks crater crevasses December depot dip circle Discovery expedition distance drift Drygalski Glacier Erebus expedition Fahr February feet finnesko floe going granite Grisi hard hauled heavy height hoosh hour Hut Point hypsometer ice-axe ice-foot Island January Koonya land latitude lunch Mackay Magnetic Pole Marshall Mawson McMurdo Sound meal meat miles morning Mount Mount Erebus Mount Larsen mountains nest névé night Nimrod noon open water pack penguin plateau ponies pulling Quan reached ridges rocks rope round sastrugi sea ice sea-level seal seemed ship side sledge sleeping-bag Socks soft snow south-east Southern Party started steep supporting-party surface temperature tent tide-crack to-day to-night took travelling turned weather Wild wind winter quarters yards
Popular passages
Page 328 - Now, ail together," she cried, with a preliminary strain on the sash, and then the cords of her well-trained muscles stood out on her rounded arms, and with a long pull, and a strong pull, and a pull all together, she landed the major upon the rock.
Page 194 - This glacier must be one of the largest, if not the largest, in the world.
Page 199 - Lucullus himself might have envied; then came cocoa, and lastly cigars and a spoonful ofcreme de menthe sent us by a friend in Scotland. We are full tonight, and this is the last time we will be for many a long day. After dinner we discussed the situation, and we have decided to still further reduce our food. We have now nearly 500 miles, geographical, to do if we are to get to the Pole and back to the spot where we are at the present moment. We have one month's food, but only three weeks' biscuit,...
Page 206 - We hoisted Her Majesty's flag and the other Union Jack afterwards, and took possession of the plateau in the name of His Majesty. While the Union Jack blew out stiffly in the icy gale that cut us to the bone, we looked south with our powerful glasses, but could see nothing but the dead white snow plain. There was no break in the plateau as it extended towards the Pole, and we feel sure that the goal we have failed to reach lies on this plain.
Page 206 - South, half running and half walking over a surface much hardened by the recent blizzard. It was strange for us to go along without the nightmare of a sledge dragging behind us. We hoisted Her Majesty's flag and the other Union Jack afterwards, and took possession of the plateau in the name of His Majesty.
Page 308 - Mackay and I fixed up the flag-pole. We then bared our heads and hoisted the Union Jack at 3.30 PM with the words uttered by myself, in conformity with Lieutenant Shackleton's instructions, " I hereby take possession of this area now containing the Magnetic Pole for the British Empire.
Page 230 - January 9 the desire for food was made the more intense by our knowledge of the fact that we were steadily marching away from the stores of plenty. We could not joke about food in the way that is possible for the man who is hungry in the ordinary sense. We thought about it most of the time, and on the way back we used to talk about it, but always in the most serious manner possible. We used to plan out the enormous meals that we proposed to have when we got back to the ship and, later, to civilization.
Page 1 - I do not intend to sacrifice the scientific utility of the expedition to a mere record-breaking journey, but say frankly, all the same, that one of my great efforts will be to reach the southern geographical pole.
Page 203 - I cannot think of failure yet. I must look at the matter sensibly and consider the lives of those who are with me. I feel that if we go on too far it will be impossible to get back over this surface, and then all the results will be lost to the world.
Page 46 - ... earth, when all the intending inhabitants were safe on board the ship, but it would have been infinitely worse if we had landed there whilst the place was still in existence, and that when the ship returned to take us off she should find the place gone. The thought of what might have been made me decide then and there that, under no circumstances, would I winter on the Barrier, and that wherever we did land we would secure a solid rock foundation for our winter home.