0 three separate parties made almost
simultaneous efforts to reach the Pole, one from Japan and one from
England, as well as the Norwegian one.

We give here Captain Amundsen's own account of his expedition as first
explained by him before the Berlin Geographical Society and published
by the New York Geographical Society in their bulletin.

The glowing success of Amundsen's expedition throws into sharpest
relief the tragedy of the parallel English expedition. Captain Scott,
the leader of this party, also reached the Pole after a far more
desperate struggle. But he reached it on January 18, 1912, only to find
that his Norwegian rival had preceded him, and he and his entire party
died of starvation and exhaustion on their return journey toward their
camp.

The first aim of my expedition was the attainment of the South Pole. I
have the honor to report the accomplishment of the plan.

I can only mention briefly here the expeditions which have worked in
the region which we had selected for our starting-point. As we wished
to reach the South Pole our first problem was to go south as far as
possible with our ship and there establish our station. Even so, the
sled journeys would be long enough. I knew that the English expedition
would again choose their old winter quarters in McMurdo Sound, South
Victoria Land, as their starting-point. From newspaper report it was
known that the Japanese had selected King Edward VII. Land. In order to
avoid these two expeditions we had to establish our station on the
Great Ice Barrier as far as possible from the starting-points of the
two other expeditions.

The Great Ice Barrier, also called the Ross Barrier, lies between South
Victoria Land and King Edward VII. Land and has an extent of about 515
miles. The first to reach this mighty ice formation was Sir James Clark
Ross in 1841. He did not dare approach the great ice wall, 100 feet
high, with his two sailing ships, the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_, whose
progress southward was impeded by this mighty obstacle. He examined the
ice wall from a distance, however, as far as possible. His observations
showed that the Barrier is not a continuous, abrupt ice wall, but is
interrupted by bays and small channels. On Ross's map a bay of
considerable magnitude may be seen.

The next expedition was that of the _Southern Cross_ in 1900. It is
interesting to note that this party found the bay mentioned above at
the same place where Ross had seen it in