Details
BRITISH NATIONAL ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION, 1901-4
Rock sample, irregularly-shaped (21mm. high), two faces cut, one mounted gilt with metal plaque, inscribed 'FROM ANTARCTICA. MOST SOUTHERLY PIECE OF ROCK FOUND 1902.' Provenance: SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON.
Scott, Shackleton and Wilson journeyed by sled to 82° 17'South on the southern journey of 1902-3, the closest any man had ever come to the South Pole. Travelling south on the snowfields of the Ross Ice Shelf, they skirted the Antarctic Mountains but failed to make any landfall, even on their return journey on 31 December 1902 when they made a special excursion on skis from their camp to examine 'the curious rocky groins that occur at intervals along this coast' only to be barred by an overhanging face of ice: 'It was a great disappointment, as we had confidently expected to get some rock specimens from this far South land' (R.F. Scott, The Voyage of the Discovery, London, 1905, pp. 470-72). The present specimen presumably originates from one of the other sledging journeys made by the expedition in 1902-3. The geological report from the expedition comprised volume I of the Scientific Results published in 1907.
[With:]
Mount Erebus, Ross Island, a volcanic rock sample, irregularly-shaped (70mm. longest dimension). (label attached 'From Mount Erebus'). Provenance: SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON .
Presumably collected on Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition of 1907-9 when Jameson Adams and Edgeworth David led the first ascent of Mount Erebus in March 1908.
[and]
Elephant Island, rock sample irregularly shaped (76mm. longest dimension). (Label attached 'from Elephant Island') Provenance: SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON.
Presumably collected during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-17. (3)
Rock sample, irregularly-shaped (21mm. high), two faces cut, one mounted gilt with metal plaque, inscribed 'FROM ANTARCTICA. MOST SOUTHERLY PIECE OF ROCK FOUND 1902.' Provenance: SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON.
Scott, Shackleton and Wilson journeyed by sled to 82° 17'South on the southern journey of 1902-3, the closest any man had ever come to the South Pole. Travelling south on the snowfields of the Ross Ice Shelf, they skirted the Antarctic Mountains but failed to make any landfall, even on their return journey on 31 December 1902 when they made a special excursion on skis from their camp to examine 'the curious rocky groins that occur at intervals along this coast' only to be barred by an overhanging face of ice: 'It was a great disappointment, as we had confidently expected to get some rock specimens from this far South land' (R.F. Scott, The Voyage of the Discovery, London, 1905, pp. 470-72). The present specimen presumably originates from one of the other sledging journeys made by the expedition in 1902-3. The geological report from the expedition comprised volume I of the Scientific Results published in 1907.
[With:]
Mount Erebus, Ross Island, a volcanic rock sample, irregularly-shaped (70mm. longest dimension). (label attached 'From Mount Erebus'). Provenance: SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON .
Presumably collected on Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition of 1907-9 when Jameson Adams and Edgeworth David led the first ascent of Mount Erebus in March 1908.
[and]
Elephant Island, rock sample irregularly shaped (76mm. longest dimension). (Label attached 'from Elephant Island') Provenance: SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON.
Presumably collected during the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914-17. (3)