All the coal that could be spared was put on board the Discovery from the relief ships, and Scott carried his researches further.  If at that time he had had more coal, it is probable that this active explorer would have accomplished even greater things than he did.  Wilkes’s “Ringgold’s Knoll” and “Eld’s Peak” were wiped off the map, and nothing was seen of “Cape Hudson,” though the Discovery passed well within sight of its supposed position.

On March 14 Scott anchored in Ross Harbour, Auckland Islands.  With rich results, the expedition returned home in September, 1904.

Meanwhile the German expedition under Professor Erich von Drygalski had been doing excellent work in another quarter.

The plan of the expedition was to explore the Antarctic regions to the south of Kerguelen Land, after having first built a station on that island and landed a scientific staff, who were to work there, while the main expedition proceeded into the ice.  Its ship, the Gauss, had been built at Kiel with the Fram as a model.

The Gauss’s navigator was Captain Hans Ruser, a skilful seaman of the Hamburg-American line.

Drygalski had chosen his scientific staff with knowledge and care, and it is certain that he could not have obtained better assistants.

The expedition left Kiel on August 11, 1901, bound for Cape Town.  An extraordinarily complete oceanographical, meteorological, and magnetic survey was made during this part of the voyage.

After visiting the Crozet Islands, the Gauss anchored in Royal Sound, Kerguelen Land, on December 31.  The expedition stayed here a month, and then steered for the south to explore the regions between Kemp Land and Knox Land.  They had already encountered a number of bergs in lat. 60deg.  S.

On February 14 they made a sounding of 1,730 fathoms near the supposed position of Wilkes’s Termination Land.  Progress was very slow hereabout on account of the thick floes.

Suddenly, on February 19, they had a sounding of 132 fathoms, and on the morning of February 21 land was sighted, entirely covered with ice and snow.  A violent storm took the Gauss by surprise, collected a mass of icebergs around her, and filled up the intervening space with floes, so that there could be no question of making any way.  They had to swallow the bitter pill, and prepare to spend the winter where they were.

Observatories were built of ice, and sledge journeys were undertaken as soon as the surface permitted.  They reached land in three and a half days, and there discovered a bare mountain, about 1,000 feet high, fifty miles from the ship.  The land was named Kaiser Wilhelm II.  Land, and the mountain the Gaussberg.

They occupied the winter in observations of every possible kind.  The weather was extremely stormy and severe, but their winter harbour, under the lee of great stranded bergs, proved to be a good one.  They were never once exposed to unpleasant surprises.