Page 4 - The Call of Antarctica: Exploring and Protecting Earth's Coldest Continent

C H A P T E R 1

UNKNOWN

SOUTHERN

LAND

TODAY AT NOON, EN ROUTE TO LITTLE AMERICA, WE ATE
OUR FIRST MEAL SOUTH OF CAPE HORN. IF CAPE HORN
IS AS ROUGH AS THIS SEA IS TONIGHT, I AM NOT AS
ANXIOUS TO GO AROUND IT AS I WAS. I CAN HARDLY
WRITE, AS WE ARE IN A SEA, THAT IS A SEA. IF YOU DON’T
KNOW WHAT I MEAN, TRY BREAKING A WILD HORSE IN.
OF COURSE, THE HORSE WOULD GET TIRED AND GIVE IN,
BUT THIS IS GETTING TO BE A 24-HOUR ROUTINE. WE HAD
A HEAVY SLEET THIS MORNING. IT’S VERY COLD AND THE
BOYS ARE PUTTING HEAVY UNDERWEAR ON.
—George W. Gibbs Jr. aboard the USS Bear, December 27, 1939

ntarctica, the fifth-largest continent on Earth, is the coldest,
windiest, highest, driest, and most remote part of the world. It’s
A the southernmost land on Earth, with the South Pole at its center.
Temperatures there are bitterly cold, with readings plunging as low as

1010 THE CALL OF ANTARCTICA