The voyage of the Why not?' in the Antarctic; the journal of the second French South polar expedition, 1908-1910 . f the useless expenditure of the Biscoe Islands and the land the scene is literallychoked with ice. We must make up our minds, therefore, toreturn to Petermann Island ; and, this being the only decisionto which Ave can come, the sooner we are there to commenceour observations and economize our coal, the better. Further,there is already a certain amount of night, and experience hastaught me only too well the great difficulties which may befallone on this coast through
The voyage of the Why not?' in the Antarctic; the journal of the second French South polar expedition, 1908-1910 . f the useless expenditure of the Biscoe Islands and the land the scene is literallychoked with ice. We must make up our minds, therefore, toreturn to Petermann Island ; and, this being the only decisionto which Ave can come, the sooner we are there to commenceour observations and economize our coal, the better. Further,there is already a certain amount of night, and experience hastaught me only too well the great difficulties which may befallone on this coast through the sudden movements of the ice,the gales, and the reefs. I cannot lose time and risk spendinglong days on the high sea without an opportunity of attainingour object, to finish lip perhaps by missing it altogether. Theline of reefs separating us from Petermann Island cannot becrossed from the sea side except in broad daylight, and inweather that is at least moderately good. On the Fran^aiswe were kept over a week at sea partly by a gale, partly byfog, and it was only by a rather risky decision that wo were136. 1 THE S U M M B E OF 1908-1909 able to regain Wandel, taking advantage of a few hours ofmoonlight. At 4 we come out of Matha Bay, rival swells from thesouth-west, north-west, and north-east setting up a mostunpleasant cross-chop, and causing the ship to pitch and tosswildly. The wind blows fairly strong from the north-east,accompanied by a hurricane of snow crystals, painful to theeyes and obstructive to the view, which is so much wanted inthe midst of a sea strewn with fragments of icebergs. Hap-pily this state of affairs does not last long, and I confess thatI am agreeably surprised ; for never on my previous campaigndid we experience north-east winds which did not end in galesand blow generally for several days, at least for a dozen hours. From noon onward the weather turns quite fine, the skyonly remaining a little overcast in the north. All day long wecoast the
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