MOUNT EREBUS (5) BY EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON

 

EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON (1872-1912)

Mount Erebus (3, 794 m - 12, 448ft)

Antarctica

In Slopes of Mount Erebus,  Watercolour on paper laid down on card Painting, 13.3 x 21.6 cm, 1911,  Royal Geographical Society Museum, London

The mountain 

Mount Erebus (3, 794 m - 12, 448ft), not to be confused with Mount Elbrus is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley) and the southernmost active volcano on Earth. It is the sixth highest ultra mountain on an island, located on Ross Island, which is also home to three inactive volcanoes:  Mount Terror, Mount Bird, and Mount Terra Nova.

The volcano has been active since c. 1.3 million years ago and is the site of the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory run by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

Mount Erebus was discovered on January 27, 1841 (and observed to be in eruption) by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross who named it and its companion, Mount Terror, after his ships, Erebus and Terror (which were later used by Sir John Franklin on his disastrous Arctic expedition). 

More about Mount Erebus 

The artist

Edward Adrian Wilson,  nicknamed "Uncle Bill" was an English physician, polar explorer, natural historian, painter and ornithologist. Wilson took part in two British expeditions to Antarctica, the Discovery Expedition (1901-1904)  and the tragic Terra Nova Expedition (1907-1912), both under the leadership of Scott.

More about Edward Adrian Wilson 

_______________________________ 

2020 - Wandering Vertexes..
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

MOUNT EREBUS BY HERBERT PONTING

HERBERT PONTING (1870-1935) 

Mount Erebus  (3, 794 m - 12, 448ft)

Antarctica (Ross Island)

In Mt. Erebus January 1911,  Captain Scott Antarctic Expedition 1910-1912 

The photographer 
Herbert George Ponting, FRGS  was a professional photographer. He is best known as the expedition photographer and cinematographer for Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition to the Ross Sea and South Pole (1910–1913). In this role, he captured some of the most enduring images of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
As a member of the shore party in early 1911, Ponting helped set up the Terra Nova Expedition's Antarctic winter camp at Cape Evans, Ross Island. The camp included a tiny photographic darkroom. Although the expedition came more than 20 years after the invention of photographic film, Ponting preferred high-quality images taken on glass plates.
Ponting was one of the first men to use a portable movie camera in Antarctica. The primitive device, called a cinematograph, could take short video sequences. Ponting also brought some autochrome plates to Antarctica and took some of the first known color still photographs there.
The expedition's scientists studied the behavior of large Antarctic animals, especially killer whales, seals, and penguins. Ponting tried to get as close as possible to these animals, both on the Terra Nova in the sea ice and later on Ross Island, and narrowly escaped death on one occasion in early 1911 when a pod of eight killer whales broke up the ice floe in McMurdo Sound on which he was standing.
During the 1911 winter, Ponting took many flash photographs of Scott and the other members of the expedition in their Cape Evans hut. With the start of the 1911–12 sledging season, Ponting's field work began to come to an end. As a middle-aged man, he was not expected to help pull supplies southward over the Ross Ice Shelf for the push to the South Pole. Ponting photographed other members of the shore party setting off for what was expected to be a successful trek. After 14 months at Cape Evans, Ponting, along with eight other men, boarded the Terra Nova in February 1912 to return to civilization, arrange his inventory of more than 1,700 photographic plates, and shape a narrative of the expedition. Ponting's illustrated narrative would be waiting for Captain Scott to use for lectures and fundraising in 1913.
The catastrophic end of "Scott's Last Expedition" also affected Ponting's later life and career. When the Terra Nova had sailed south in 1910, it had left massive debts behind. It was expected that Scott would return from the South Pole as a celebrity and that he could use moving images from his expedition in a one-man show. Ponting's cinematograph sequences, pieced out with magic lantern slides, were to have been a key element in the expedition's financial payback.
However, when the bodies of Scott and his companions were discovered in their tent on the Ross Ice Shelf in November 1912, their diaries and journals were also found. These records described the explorers' final days while suffering from exposure and malnutrition, and their desperate effort to get to a depot of food and fuel that could have saved them. Scott knew he was doomed, and used his final hours to write pleas to his countrymen to look after the welfare of the expedition's widows and survivors.
The eloquent appeals, upon publication in the British press, wrung massive donations from the public. The gifts repaid the entire cost of the expedition, provided large annuities (carefully doled out by expedition status and rank) for the widows and survivors, and left a substantial surplus for eventual use as the startup endowment of the Scott Polar Research Institute (SPRI), an affiliate of Cambridge University.
Under these conditions, Ponting's Antarctic work took on a tragic overtone and became a memorial to Scott and his companions rather than a celebration. It was, however, used extensively in the press and exhibited at the Fine Art Society, Bond Street, shown in venues all over Britain and used in numerous lectures by Ponting and other expedition members (including at Buckingham Palace and the Royal Albert Hall). When World War I began Ponting tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade the War Office to make use of his skills as a photographer and war correspondent, but his age was cited as a reason for his being rejected for war service. Copies of his films of Scott were shown to soldiers at the front who were, according to an army chaplain, moved by the heroism of Scott and his men.
With the conclusion of the war, Ponting's archive drew a nibble of interest. He published The Great White South, the photographic narrative of the expedition, in 1921 which was a popular success, and produced two films based upon his surviving cinematograph sequences, The Great White Silence (1924 - silent) and Ninety Degrees South (1933 - sound). He also lectured extensively on the Antarctic. These works brought him little personal recompense but he continued to work on inventions related to the 'movies', including a special effects machine which was used in the English language version of "Emil and the Detectives" (1935). Ponting died in London in 1935; his photographs were sold to raise funds to pay for medical and other expenses.
The Scott Polar Research Institute purchased the Ponting Collection in 2004 for Ј533,000.
 In 2009, SPRI and publisher Salto Ulbeek platinum-printed and published a selection of the Collection. The Great White Silence was restored by the British Film Institute and re-released in 2011. During the period of the Scott expedition centenary (2010-3) his work was widely published and exhibited, reaching new audiences.
In addition, one of Ponting's photographic darkrooms was reconstructed in the collections of the Ferrymead Heritage Park in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The mountain 
Mount Erebus (3, 794 m - 12, 448ft), not to be confused with Mount Elbrus is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley) and the southernmost active volcano on Earth. It is the sixth highest ultra mountain on an island, located on Ross Island, which is also home to three inactive volcanoes:  Mount Terror, Mount Bird, and Mount Terra Nova.
The volcano has been active since c. 1.3 million years ago and is the site of the Mount Erebus Volcano Observatory run by the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.
Mount Erebus was discovered on January 27, 1841 (and observed to be in eruption) by polar explorer Sir James Clark Ross who named it and its companion, Mount Terror, after his ships, Erebus and Terror (which were later used by Sir John Franklin on his disastrous Arctic expedition). Erebus is a dark region in Hades in Greek mythology. Present with Ross on the Erebus was the young Joseph Hooker, future president of the Royal Society and close friend of Charles Darwin. Erebus was an Ancient Greek primordial deity of darkness, the son of Chaos.

MOUNT EREBUS (2) BY EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON

 

EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON (1872-1912)

Mount Erebus (3, 794 m - 12, 448ft)

Antarctica

 In  Mt Erebus - Aug. 17. 1911 - Noon.' on the mount,  Watercolour on paper, 13.1 x 21.1cm, 

Private collection (via Christie's)

About this watercolour
'The Summit of Mount Erebus' taken in August 1911, facing p.150.
Very similkar to  Mount Erebus 1911, watercolour,  Museum- Royal Geographical Society,
Notes :
"Thursday, August 17. - The weather has been extremely kind to us of late; we haven't a single grumble against it. Th temperature hovers pretty constantly at about -35°, there is very little wind and the sky is clear and bright. In such weather one sees well for more than three hours before and after noon, the landscape unfolds itself, and the sky colours are always delicate and beautiful. At noon today there was bright sunlight on the tops of the Western Peaks and on the summit and steam of Erebus -- of late the vapour cloud of Erebus has been exceptionally heavy and fantastic in form."

About Mount Erebus 

About the artist  


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2020 - Wandering Vertexes.
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

MOUNT TERROR PAINTED BY DAVID ROSENTHAL

DAVID ROSENTHAL (bn. 1953)

Mount Terror  (3, 262m - 10, 702 ft) 

Antarctica  (Ross Island)

In Mount Terror from Mount Erebus, oil on canvas.

The mountain 
Mount Terror  (3, 262m - 10, 702 ft) is a large shield volcano that forms the eastern part of Ross Island, Antarctica. It has numerous cinder cones and domes on the flanks of the shield and is mostly under snow and ice. It is the second largest of the four volcanoes which make up Ross Island and is somewhat overshadowed by its neighbor, Mount Erebus, 30 km (19 mi) to the west. Mt. Terror was named in 1841 by Sir James Clark Ross for his second ship, HMS Terror. The captain of Terror was Captain Francis Crozier who was a close friend of Ross.
Those areas  are from 0.82 to 1.75 million years old. Mount Terror showed no signs of volcanic activity more recent than that.
The first ascent of Mt. Terror was made by a New Zealand party in 1959.
Terror Saddle (77°31′S 168°5′E) is one of three prominent snow saddles on Ross Island, located c.1600 m between Mount Terra Nova and Mount Terror.
Terror Glacier (77°37′S 168°3′E) is a large glacier between Mount Terra Nova and Mount Terror on Ross Island, flowing south into Windless Bight. So named by A.J. Heine of the New Zealand Geological Survey Antarctic Expedition 1962–63, because of its association with Mount Terror.
Mount Terror is the stronghold of Russian monarchist revolutionaries in the 1894 science fiction novel Olga Romanoff by George Griffith.
Mount Terror and Mount Erebus are mentioned in the 1936 novella At the Mountains of Madness by H.P.Lovecraft. Mount Terror is used as a location in the 2004 novel State of Fear by Michael Crichton.

The Painter 
David Rosenthal is known as an Antarctic Painter, Painter of Ice, Arctic Artist, Alaskan Artist and an Extreme Artist. He has been lured to cold climates regularly to record snow, ice, and landscapes. Davids paintings of glaciers and icebergs are astoundingly realistic and at the same ethereal at the same time. However his work also includes much more than ice, icebergs and glaciers... Cordova, Alaska is the place David Rosenthal calls home. As an artist and art teacher David has taught and continues to teach many students in Alaska. While teaching art in Alaska, David has instructed students and artist in many programs including the Alaska Artists in the Schools Program, Prince William Sound Community College and University of Alaska Fairbanks Summer Sessions. Alaskan artist David Rosenthal makes it a priority to travel around Alaska as much as possible to continue to capture the incredible beauty in his artwork of Alaska.
Having spent over sixty months on the Ice, including four austral winters and six austral summers, David became an Antarctic artist and has created art images from a large variety of places in every season. David has completed paintings of the antarctic landscape from all across Antarctica. Time in Antarctica included travel as a participant in the National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program during a summer and a winter at McMurdo Station as well as most of a winter at Palmer Station. David has also worked for the NSF contractor for two winters and four summers in various job capacities as a way to spend time and become familiar with the landscape.
Rosenthal's work also includes many water colors, oil paintings, sketches and small studies. The paintings seem to magically reflect the intensity of nature's colors and the atmospheric phenomena that David Rosenthal  witnesses. David Rosenthal really is a master of Extreme Art!

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2017 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT EREBUS (5) BY EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON

 

EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON (1872-1912)

Mount Erebus (3, 794 m - 12, 448ft)

Antarctica (Ross Island)

 In  Mountain range, McMurdo Strait, watercolor, 7.4 x 11.3 cm, Private collection 

The mountain
Mount Erebus (3, 794 m - 12, 448ft), not to be confused with Mount Elbrus is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica (after Mount Sidley) and the southernmost active volcano on Earth. It is the sixth highest ultra mountain on an island, located on Ross Island, which is also home to three inactive volcanoes: Mount Terror, Mount Bird, and Mount Terra Nova.
More about the mountain

The artist
Edward Adrian Wilson, nicknamed "Uncle Bill" was an English physician, polar explorer, natural historian, painter and ornithologist. Wilson took part in two British expeditions to Antarctica, the Discovery Expedition (1901-1904) and the tragic Terra Nova Expedition (1907-1912), both under the leadership of Scott.
More about the artist 

_______________________________ 

2020 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau

MOUNT EVEREST FIRST SKETCHED BY SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER

SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER (1817-1911)

Mount Everest or Sagarmatha or Chomolunga (8,848 m - 29,029ft) 

  Nepal - China border  

 1. In Himalayan sketches, 1850 , Watercolor  by Walter Hood Fitch based on Joseph Dalton Hooker  first observation of Mount Everest.  Courtesy Royal Botanic Gardens Kew 

2.  In The Himalayas from Choonjerma pass, 1848, First known sketch of Mount Everest- 

 Courtesy Royal Botanic Gardens Kew 

The mountain 

Mount Everest (8,848 m - 29,029ft), also known in Nepal as Sagarmāthā and in Tibet as Chomolungma, is Earth's highest mountain. It is located in the Mahalangur mountain range in Nepal and Tibet. The international border between China (Tibet Autonomous Region) and Nepal runs across Everest's precise summit point. Its massif includes neighbouring peaks Lhotse (8,516 m -27,940 ft); Nuptse (7,855 m -25,771 ft) and Changtse (7,580 m -24,870 ft).
In 1856, the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India established the first published height of Everest, then known as Peak XV, at (8,840 m -29,002 ft). The current official height of (8,848 m -29,029 ft) as recognised by China and Nepal was established by a 1955 Indian survey and subsequently confirmed by a Chinese survey in 1975. In 1865, Everest was given its official English name by the Royal Geographical Society upon a recommendation by Andrew Waugh, the British Surveyor General of India. As there appeared to be several different local names, Waugh chose to name the mountain after his predecessor in the post, Sir George Everest, despite George Everest's objections.

The artist 

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM GCSI CB PRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, succeeding his father, William Jackson Hooker, and was awarded the highest honours of British science. He reminded famous for his Voyages to Antarctic (1839-1843), Himalayas and India (1847-1851), Palestine (1860), Morocco (1871), and Western United Statesof America (1877).  He is the first European to have sketched Mount Everest and Himalayas (see above) as well as Mount Erebus and Mont Terror in Antarctic.
Voyage to the Himalayas and India 1847–1851
On 11 November 1847 Hooker left England for his three-year-long Himalayan expedition; he would be the first European to collect plants in the Himalaya.  He arrived in Calcutta on 12 January 1848, leaving on 28th to begin his travels with a geological survey party under 'Mr Williams', who he left on 3 March to continue travelling by elephant to Mirzapur, up the Ganges by boat to Siliguri and overland by pony to Darjeeling, arriving on 16 April 1848.
Hooker and a sizeable party of local assistants departed for eastern Nepal on 27 October 1848. They travelled to Zongri, west over the spurs of Kangchenjunga, and north west along Nepal's passes into Tibet. In April 1849 he planned a longer expedition into Sikkim. Leaving on 3 May, he travelled north west up the Lachen Valley to the Kongra Lama Pass and then to the Lachoong Pass. Campbell and Hooker were imprisoned by the Dewan of Sikkim as they travelled towards the Cho La in Tibet. A British team was sent to negotiate with the king of Sikkim. However, they were released without any bloodshed and Hooker returned to Darjeeling, where he spent January and February 1850 writing his journals, replacing specimens lost during his detention and planning a journey for his last year in India.
In an article of the Alpine Journal, it was demonstrated by Stephen Goodwin how the sketch above is the very first known drawing in situ of Mount Everest.  "Is this 1848 sketch by Joseph Dalton Hooker the first recorded view of Mount Everest by a European? Drawn in situ on the ‘Choonjerma pass’ – now generally referred to as the Mirgin la – in eastern Nepal, it has, for many years, lain unidentified in the archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Its ‘discovery’ adds one more facet to the remarkable accomplishments of Hooker during his three years of exploration and research in the eastern Himalaya."

MOUNT SIDLEY BY NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY

NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY (since 1999)

Mount Sidley  (4,285m - 14,058ft)

Antarctica

1.  In Mount Sidley seen from space, photo by Landsat 8, NASA Earth Observatory 

2.  In Mont Sidley caldera - aerial view, vintage photo 

The mountain 
Mount Sidley  (4,181–4,285 m - 13,717–14,058 ft) is the highest dormant volcano in Antarctica, a member of the Volcanic Seven Summits, standing about 2,200 meters (7,200 feet) above ice level. It is a massive, mainly snow-covered shield volcano which is the highest and most imposing of the five volcanic mountains that comprise the Executive Committee Range of Marie Byrd Land. The feature is marked by a spectacular 5 km (3 miles) wide caldera on the southern side and stands NE of Mount Waesche in the southern part of the range. The mountain was discovered by Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd on an airplane flight, November 18, 1934, and named by him for Mabelle E. Sidley, the daughter of William Horlick who was a contributor to the 1933–35 Byrd Antarctic Expedition. Despite its lofty status, the volcano languishes in obscurity due to its extremely remote location. It is little known even in the mountaineering world compared to the far more famous Mount Erebus, the second highest Antarctic volcano which is located near the U.S. and New Zealand bases on Ross Island. The first recorded ascent of Mount Sidley was by New Zealander Bill Atkinson on January 11, 1990, whilst working in support of a USAP scientific field party.

Imager
NASA Earth Observatory image by Jesse Allen, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey. Caption by Kathryn Hansen.  This image of Mount Sidley was acquired on November 20, 2014, by the Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8.  The image is the public domain. The caldera wall, which is mostly shadowed in this image, is about 1,200 meters (3,900 feet) high. Sidley is one of five volcanoes in the Executive Committee Range, which stretches about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from north to south.
Source 
- NASA Earth Observatory

MOUNT TERROR AND CAPE CROZIER BY CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH

CHARLES HAMILTON SMITH (1776-1859)

Mount Terror (3, 262m - 10, 702 ft) 

Antarctica (Ross Island)

In Cap Crozier and Mount Terror - Watercolour from Views of Polar region, Connecticut Yale Center for British arts

The mountain 

Mount Terror (3, 262m - 10, 702 ft) is a large shield volcano that forms the eastern part of Ross Island, Antarctica. It has numerous cinder cones and domes on the flanks of the shield and is mostly under snow and ice. It is the second largest of the four volcanoes which make up Ross Island and is somewhat overshadowed by its neighbor, Mount Erebus, 30 km (19 mi) to the west. Mt. Terror was named in 1841 by Sir James Clark Ross for his second ship, HMS Terror. The captain of Terror was Captain Francis Crozier who was a close friend of Ross.

Those areas are from 0.82 to 1.75 million years old. Mount Terror showed no signs of volcanic activity more recent than that.

The first ascent of Mt. Terror was made by a New Zealand party in 1959.

Cape Crozier is the most easterly point on Ross Island in Antarctica. It was discovered in 1841 during the Erebus and Terror expedition of James Clark Ross, and was named after Francis Crozier, captain of HMS Terror. The Mount Terror volcano is located near the cape and the edge of the Ross barrier extends to the east.

This cape is a breeding area of the Adélie penguin and emperor penguin. It is a specially protected zone (zone n ° 6) by international agreement: any crossing of the zone, or overflight, is prohibited.

The message board erected on January 22, 1902 by Robert F. Scott during the Discovery Expedition and the remains of the hut built in July 1911 by the members of Edward Wilson's expedition are classified as a historic monument of the Antarctic.

The artist 
Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Hamilton Smith,  was an English artist, naturalist, antiquary, illustrator, soldier, and... spy as well !. His military career began in 1787, when he studied at the Austrian academy for artillery and engineers at Mechelen and Leuven in Belgium (his native country). Although his military service, which ended in 1820 and included the Napoleonic Wars, saw him travel extensively (including the West Indies, Canada, United States, Southern and Northern Europe and ...Antarctica).
As a prolific self-taught illustrator (over 38,000 drawings!) He left quite an important number of books of  beautifully watercolored landscapes taken all around the world. those nooks of watercolors are nowadays in the collections of  the Yale Center From British Art. Among them  :

- Views of France, Volume I (81 watercolors), Views of France, Volume II (93 watercolors), 

- Views of England and Wales, Volume I (82  watercolors),  Views of England and Wales, Volume II (74  watercolors),

- Views of Northern Europe, Volume I (68watercolors) , Views of Northern Europe, Volume II (78)  watercolors),  

- Views of Polar Regions (75  watercolors) (see above) 

- Views of Spain, Volume I (69 watercolors), Views of Spain, Volume II (72 watercolors), 

But one of his noteworthy achievements was an 1800 experiment to determine which color should be used for military uniforms.  He is also known in military history circles for Costume of the Army of the British Empire, produced towards the end of the Napoleonic Wars and an accurate depiction of contemporary British uniform.

As an antiquarian, he also produced, in collaboration with Samuel Rush Meyrick, Costume of the Original Inhabitants of the British Islands, 1815, and The Ancient Costume of England, with historical illustrations of medieval knights, ladies, shipsm and battles. 

He also wrote on the history of the Seven Years' War and TheNatural history of dogs.

Quite a productive fellow ! 

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2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT DISCOVERY BY EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON

EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON (1872-912)

Mount Discovery  (2, 681m - 8,796 ft)

Antarctica

 In Mount Discovery, 1904, watercolour on paper, Royal Geographical Society, London.

About this watercolour

 This is the first representation ever made of Mount Discovery by those which have discovered it and named it. In the distance, one can seen the pale shape of Mount Erebus. From 1901 to 1904, Wilson acted as Junior Surgeon, Zoologist and expedition artist, setting off with the expedition on 6 August 1901. They reached Antarctica in January 1902. On 2 November 1902, Wilson, Scott and Ernest Shackleton set off on a journey that, at the time, was the southern-most trek achieved by any explorer. The party had dogs but they were not experienced in using them and the food brought for the dogs had gone bad. With many of the dogs dead, they turned back on 31 December 1902 having reached latitude 82°17'S. They had travelled 300 miles farther south than anyone before them and were only 480 miles from the Pole. Shackleton was deteriorating rapidly, coughing blood and suffering fainting spells and unable to help pull the sledge. Scott and Wilson, themselves suffering, struggled to get the party home. It was a close call but 93 days after setting off, having covered 960 miles, they reached the Discovery and safety in February 1903. The following month, Shackleton, having suffered particularly badly from scurvy and exhaustion, was sent home early by Scott on the relief ship, Morning. On his return, Shackleton asked Wilson to join his Nimrod expedition to Antarctica in 1907, but partly out of loyalty to Scott, he declined.

The mountain 

Mount Discovery  (2, 681m - 8,796 ft) is a conspicuous, isolated stratovolcano, lying at the head of McMurdo Sound and east of Koettlitz Glacier, overlooking the NW portion of the Ross Ice Shelf. It forms the center of a three-armed mass of which Brown Peninsula is one extension to the north; Minna Bluff is a second to the east; the third is Mount Morning to the west.  It was discovered by the Discovery British National Antarctic Expedition (1901-1904) and named for their expedition ship Discovery.

The artist

Edward Adrian Wilson,  nicknamed "Uncle Bill" was an English physician, polar explorer, natural historian, painter and ornithologist. Wilson took part in two British expeditions to Antarctica, the Discovery Expedition (1901-1904)  and the tragic Terra Nova Expedition (1907-1912), both under the leadership of Scott.
Dr. Edward A. Wilson  is widely regarded as one of the finest artists ever to have worked in the Antarctic. Sailing with Captain Scott aboard 'Discovery' (1901-1904), he became the last in a long tradition of 'exploration artists' from an age when pencil and water-colour were the main methods of producing accurate scientific records of new lands and animal species. He combined scientific, topographical and landscape techniques to produce accurate and beautiful images of the last unknown continent. Such was the strength of his work that it also helped to found the tradition of modern wildlife painting. In particular Wilson captured the essence of the flight and motion of Southern Ocean sea-birds on paper.
Returning with Captain Scott aboard 'Terra Nova' (1910-1913) as Chief of Scientific Staff, he continued to record the continent and its wildlife with extraordinary deftness. Chosen to accompany Captain Scott to the South Pole, his last drawings are from one of the most famous epic journeys in exploration history. Along with his scientific work, Wilson's pencil recorded the finding of Roald Amundsen's tent at the South Pole by Captain Scott. Wilson died, along with the other members of the British Pole Party, during the return journey, in March 1912. The drawings and paintings were created at considerable personal cost in the freezing conditions in which Wilson worked. He often suffered severely from the cold whilst sketching and also from snow-blindness, or sunburn of the eye. They provide a remarkable testament to one of the great figures of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. The book has been produced as a companion volume to 'Edward Wilson's Nature Notebooks' by two of Wilson's great nephews, to mark the centenary of his death.

2018 - Wandering Vertexes...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

KANGCHENJUGA (2) BY JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER

JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER (1817-1911)

Kangchenjunga (8, 538m-28,169 ft) 

India, Népal

In Campsite in the Himalayas, watercolor on sketchbook 

The mountain
Kangchenjunga (8,586 m (28,169 ft) is the third highest mountain in the world. It lies partly in Nepal and partly in Sikkim, India. Kangchenjunga is the second highest mountain of the Himalayas after Mount Everest. Three of the five peaks – Main, Central and South – are on the border between North Sikkim and Nepal. Two peaks are in the Taplejung District, Nepal.
Kangchenjunga Main is the highest mountain in India, and the easternmost of the mountains higher than 8,000 m (26,000 ft). Until 1852, Kangchenjunga was assumed to be the highest mountain in the world, but calculations based on various readings and measurements made by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India in 1849 came to the conclusion that Mount Everest, known as Peak XV at the time, was the highest. It is listed int the Eight Thousanders and as Seven Third Summits
Kangchenjunga is the official spelling adopted by Douglas Freshfield, A. M. Kellas, and the Royal Geographical Society that gives the best indication of the Tibetan pronunciation. Freshfield referred to the spelling used by the Indian Government since the late 19th century. There are a number of alternative spellings including Kangchendzцnga, Khangchendzonga, and Kanchenjunga. Local Lhopo people believe that the treasures are hidden but reveal to the devout when the world is in peril; the treasures comprise salt, gold, turquoise and precious stones, sacred scriptures, invincible armor or ammunition, grain and medicine. Kangchenjunga's name in the Limbu language is Senjelungma or Seseylungma, and is believed to be an abode of the omnipotent goddess Yuma Sammang.
It rises in a section of the Himalayas called Kangchenjunga Himal that is limited in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak Chu and Jongsang La, and in the east by the Teesta River. It lies about 128 km (80 mi) east of Mount Everest.
Allowing for further verification of all calculations, it was officially announced in 1856 that
Kangchenjunga was first climbed on 25 May 1955 by Joe Brown and George Band, who were part of a British expedition. They stopped short of the summit as per the promise given to the Chogyal that the top of the mountain would remain inviolate. Every climber or climbing group that has reached the summit has followed this tradition. Other members of this expedition included John Angelo Jackson and Tom Mackinon. In May 1979, Doug Scott, Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker established a new route on the North Ridge their third ascent which was the first one ever made without oxygen.
In 1983, Pierre Beghin made the first solo ascent accomplished without the use of supplemental oxygen. In 1992, Wanda Rutkiewicz was the first woman in the world to ascend and descend K2 and a world-renowned Polish climber, died after she insisted on waiting for an incoming storm to pass, which she did not survive. In 1998, Ginette Harrison was the first woman who climbed Kangchenjunga North face ; Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, an Austrian mountaineer, was the second woman to reach the summit in 2006.
In May 2014, the Bulgarian diabetic climber Boyan Petrov reached the peak without the use of supplemental oxygen.

The artist
Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM GCSI CB PRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, succeeding his father, William Jackson Hooker, and was awarded the highest honours of British science. He reminded famous for his Voyages to Antarctic (1839-1843), Himalayas and India (1847-1851), Palestine (1860), Morocco (1871), and Western United Statesof America (1877). He is the first European to have sketched Mount Everest and Himalayas (see above) as well as Mount Erebus and Mont Terror in Antarctic.
On 11 November 1847 Hooker left England for his three-year-long Himalayan expedition; he would be the first European to collect plants in the Himalaya. He arrived in Calcutta on 12 January 1848, leaving on 28th to begin his travels with a geological survey party under 'Mr Williams', who he left on 3 March to continue travelling by elephant to Mirzapur, up the Ganges by boat to Siliguri and overland by pony to Darjeeling, arriving on 16 April 1848.
Hooker and a sizeable party of local assistants departed for eastern Nepal on 27 October 1848. They travelled to Zongri, west over the spurs of Kangchenjunga, and north west along Nepal's passes into Tibet. In April 1849 he planned a longer expedition into Sikkim. Leaving on 3 May, he travelled north west up the Lachen Valley to the Kongra Lama Pass and then to the Lachoong Pass. Campbell and Hooker were imprisoned by the Dewan of Sikkim as they travelled towards the Cho La in Tibet. A British team was sent to negotiate with the king of Sikkim. However, they were released without any bloodshed and Hooker returned to Darjeeling, where he spent January and February 1850 writing his journals, replacing specimens lost during his detention and planning a journey for his last year in India.
In an article of the Alpine Journal, it was demonstrated by Stephen Goodwin how the sketch above is the very first known drawing in situ of Mount Everest. "Is this 1848 sketch by Joseph Dalton Hooker the first recorded view of Mount Everest by a European? Drawn in situ on the ‘Choonjerma pass’ – now generally referred to as the Mirgin la – in eastern Nepal, it has, for many years, lain unidentified in the archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Its ‘discovery’ adds one more facet to the remarkable accomplishments of Hooker during his three years of exploration and research in the eastern Himalaya."

___________________________________________

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...

by Francis Rousseau 

KANGCHENJUNGA BY SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER

SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER (1817-1911)

Kangchenjunga (8, 538m - 28,169 ft) 

India, Népal 

In Kangchenjunga from Kanglachen pass, watercolor on sketchbook, 1848-1851

The mountain 

Kangchenjunga  (8,586 m (28,169 ft) is the  third highest mountain in the world. It  lies partly in Nepal and partly in Sikkim, India. Kangchenjunga is the second highest mountain of the Himalayas after Mount Everest. Three of the five peaks – Main, Central and South – are on the border between North Sikkim and Nepal. Two peaks are in the Taplejung District, Nepal.

Kangchenjunga Main is the highest mountain in India, and the easternmost of the mountains higher than 8,000 m (26,000 ft).  Until 1852, Kangchenjunga was assumed to be the highest mountain in the world, but calculations based on various readings and measurements made by the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India in 1849 came to the conclusion that Mount Everest, known as Peak XV at the time, was the highest.  It is listed int the  Eight Thousanders and as Seven Third Summits

Kangchenjunga is the official spelling adopted by Douglas Freshfield, A. M. Kellas, and the Royal Geographical Society that gives the best indication of the Tibetan pronunciation. Freshfield referred to the spelling used by the Indian Government since the late 19th century. There are a number of alternative spellings including Kangchendzцnga, Khangchendzonga, and Kanchenjunga.  Local Lhopo people believe that the treasures are hidden but reveal to the devout when the world is in peril; the treasures comprise salt, gold, turquoise and precious stones, sacred scriptures, invincible armor or ammunition, grain and medicine. Kangchenjunga's name in the Limbu language is Senjelungma or Seseylungma, and is believed to be an abode of the omnipotent goddess Yuma Sammang.

It rises in a section of the Himalayas called Kangchenjunga Himal that is limited in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak Chu and Jongsang La, and in the east by the Teesta River. It lies about 128 km (80 mi) east of Mount Everest.

Allowing for further verification of all calculations, it was officially announced in 1856 that

Kangchenjunga was first climbed on 25 May 1955 by Joe Brown and George Band, who were part of a British expedition. They stopped short of the summit as per the promise given to the Chogyal that the top of the mountain would remain inviolate. Every climber or climbing group that has reached the summit has followed this tradition. Other members of this expedition included John Angelo Jackson and Tom Mackinon.  In May 1979,  Doug Scott, Peter Boardman and Joe Tasker established a new route on the North Ridge their third ascent which was the first one ever made without oxygen.

In 1983, Pierre Beghin made the first solo ascent accomplished without the use of supplemental oxygen.  In 1992, Wanda Rutkiewicz was  the first woman in the world to ascend and descend K2 and a world-renowned Polish climber, died after she insisted on waiting for an incoming storm to pass, which she did not survive.  In 1998, Ginette Harrison was the first woman who climbed Kangchenjunga North face ;  Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, an Austrian mountaineer, was the second woman to reach the summit in 2006.

In May 2014, the Bulgarian diabetic climber Boyan Petrov reached the peak without the use of supplemental oxygen.

The artist 

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM GCSI CB PRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, succeeding his father, William Jackson Hooker, and was awarded the highest honours of British science. He reminded famous for his Voyages to Antarctic (1839-1843), Himalayas and India (1847-1851), Palestine (1860), Morocco (1871), and Western United Statesof America (1877).  He is the first European to have sketched Mount Everest and Himalayas (see above) as well as Mount Erebus and Mont Terror in Antarctic.
Voyage to the Himalayas and India 1847–1851
On 11 November 1847 Hooker left England for his three-year-long Himalayan expedition; he would be the first European to collect plants in the Himalaya.  He arrived in Calcutta on 12 January 1848, leaving on 28th to begin his travels with a geological survey party under 'Mr Williams', who he left on 3 March to continue travelling by elephant to Mirzapur, up the Ganges by boat to Siliguri and overland by pony to Darjeeling, arriving on 16 April 1848.
Hooker and a sizeable party of local assistants departed for eastern Nepal on 27 October 1848. They travelled to Zongri, west over the spurs of Kangchenjunga, and north west along Nepal's passes into Tibet. In April 1849 he planned a longer expedition into Sikkim. Leaving on 3 May, he travelled north west up the Lachen Valley to the Kongra Lama Pass and then to the Lachoong Pass. Campbell and Hooker were imprisoned by the Dewan of Sikkim as they travelled towards the Cho La in Tibet. A British team was sent to negotiate with the king of Sikkim. However, they were released without any bloodshed and Hooker returned to Darjeeling, where he spent January and February 1850 writing his journals, replacing specimens lost during his detention and planning a journey for his last year in India.
In an article of the Alpine Journal, it was demonstrated by Stephen Goodwin how the sketch above is the very first known drawing in situ of Mount Everest.  "Is this 1848 sketch by Joseph Dalton Hooker the first recorded view of Mount Everest by a European? Drawn in situ on the ‘Choonjerma pass’ – now generally referred to as the Mirgin la – in eastern Nepal, it has, for many years, lain unidentified in the archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Its ‘discovery’ adds one more facet to the remarkable accomplishments of Hooker during his three years of exploration and research in the eastern Himalaya."

STOK KANGRI / KANGLACHAN PEAK BY SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER

SIR JOSEPH DALTON HOOKER (1817-1911), 

Stok Kangri / Kanglachan Peak (6,154 m -20,190 ft)

India 

In Moraines - Kanglachan, watercoulour on paper, 1850 

The mountain 
Stok Kangri  also known as Kanglachan Peak (6,154 m -20,190 ft)) is the highest mountain in the Stok Range of the Himalayas in the Ladakh region of north-west India. The peak is located in Hemis National Park, 12 km southwest of the trailhead in the village of Stok and around 15 km southwest of the city of Leh, the capital of Ladakh.
Despite its high altitude, Stok Kangri is a popular trekking peak and is often climbed as an initial non-technical foray into high altitude mountaineering. However, the difficulty of Stok Kangri is often underestimated and the need to acclimatise before and during the ascent makes Stok Kangri an enduring challenge.
In late July and August, all but the top of the peak may be snow-free. The elevation data was verified by GPS readings from 11 satellites at the Summit during a late July 2007 joint Nepalese-US expedition which encountered snow cover for 85% of the final four-hour, four km, 900 metre climb. Another GPS reading provided a 6136-meter elevation. The shortest route to the peak is along the Stok valley, following the Stok Chu to Stok village. This valley's grazing landscape, especially near the village, was devastated by the 2010 Ladakh floods, the most severe in decades.

The artist 

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker OM GCSI CB PRS was one of the greatest British botanists and explorers of the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, succeeding his father, William Jackson Hooker, and was awarded the highest honours of British science. He reminded famous for his Voyages to Antarctic (1839-1843), Himalayas and India (1847-1851), Palestine (1860), Morocco (1871), and Western United Statesof America (1877).  He is the first European to have sketched Mount Everest and Himalayas (see above) as well as Mount Erebus and Mont Terror in Antarctic.

Voyage to the Himalayas and India 1847–1851

On 11 November 1847 Hooker left England for his three-year-long Himalayan expedition; he would be the first European to collect plants in the Himalaya.  He arrived in Calcutta on 12 January 1848, leaving on 28th to begin his travels with a geological survey party under 'Mr Williams', who he left on 3 March to continue travelling by elephant to Mirzapur, up the Ganges by boat to Siliguri and overland by pony to Darjeeling, arriving on 16 April 1848.

Hooker and a sizeable party of local assistants departed for eastern Nepal on 27 October 1848. They travelled to Zongri, west over the spurs of Kangchenjunga, and north west along Nepal's passes into Tibet. In April 1849 he planned a longer expedition into Sikkim. Leaving on 3 May, he travelled north west up the Lachen Valley to the Kongra Lama Pass and then to the Lachoong Pass. Campbell and Hooker were imprisoned by the Dewan of Sikkim as they travelled towards the Cho La in Tibet. A British team was sent to negotiate with the king of Sikkim. However, they were released without any bloodshed and Hooker returned to Darjeeling, where he spent January and February 1850 writing his journals, replacing specimens lost during his detention and planning a journey for his last year in India.

In an article of the Alpine Journal, it was demonstrated by Stephen Goodwin how the sketch above is the very first known drawing in situ of Mount Everest.  "Is this 1848 sketch by Joseph Dalton Hooker the first recorded view of Mount Everest by a European? Drawn in situ on the ‘Choonjerma pass’ – now generally referred to as the Mirgin la – in eastern Nepal, it has, for many years, lain unidentified in the archives at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Its ‘discovery’ adds one more facet to the remarkable accomplishments of Hooker during his three years of exploration and research in the eastern Himalaya."

_______________________________

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
by Francis Rousseau 

MOUNT DISCOVERY (2) BY EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON

EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON (1872-912)

Mount Discovery (2, 681m - 8,796 ft)

Antarctica

In The Last Sight of Mount Discovery, watercolour on paper (12.1 x 20.6cm.), 1904, Private owner 

About this painting
"And so that night [19 February 1904], running swiftly through the water with a howling gale behind, we saw the last of the McMurdo Sound. It was a fine scene, for although the wind blew with great force, the sky was comparatively clear. Away to the south-west behind the ragged storm clouds could be seen the deep red of the setting sun, against which there stood in sharp outline the dark forms of the western mountains and the familiar cone of Mount Discovery. On our right in a gloomy threatening sky rose the lofty snow-clad slopes of Erebus and the high domed summit of Cape Bird. For the last time we gazed at all these well-known landmarks with feelings that were not far removed from sadness...'
(R.F. Scott, The Voyage of the 'Discovery', London: 1907, II, pp.274-5).

The mountain
Mount Discovery (2, 681m - 8,796 ft) is a conspicuous, isolated stratovolcano, lying at the head of McMurdo Sound and east of Koettlitz Glacier, overlooking the NW portion of the Ross Ice Shelf. It forms the center of a three-armed mass of which Brown Peninsula is one extension to the north; Minna Bluff is a second to the east; the third is Mount Morning to the west. It was discovered by the Discovery British National Antarctic Expedition (1901-1904) and named for their expedition ship Discovery.

The artist
Edward Adrian Wilson, nicknamed "Uncle Bill" was an English physician, polar explorer, natural historian, painter and ornithologist. Wilson took part in two British expeditions to Antarctica, the Discovery Expedition (1901-1904) and the tragic Terra Nova Expedition (1907-1912), both under the leadership of Scott.
Dr. Edward A. Wilson is widely regarded as one of the finest artists ever to have worked in the Antarctic. Sailing with Captain Scott aboard 'Discovery' (1901-1904), he became the last in a long tradition of 'exploration artists' from an age when pencil and water-colour were the main methods of producing accurate scientific records of new lands and animal species. He combined scientific, topographical and landscape techniques to produce accurate and beautiful images of the last unknown continent. Such was the strength of his work that it also helped to found the tradition of modern wildlife painting. In particular Wilson captured the essence of the flight and motion of Southern Ocean sea-birds on paper.
Returning with Captain Scott aboard 'Terra Nova' (1910-1913) as Chief of Scientific Staff, he continued to record the continent and its wildlife with extraordinary deftness. Chosen to accompany Captain Scott to the South Pole, his last drawings are from one of the most famous epic journeys in exploration history. Along with his scientific work, Wilson's pencil recorded the finding of Roald Amundsen's tent at the South Pole by Captain Scott. Wilson died, along with the other members of the British Pole Party, during the return journey, in March 1912. The drawings and paintings were created at considerable personal cost in the freezing conditions in which Wilson worked. He often suffered severely from the cold whilst sketching and also from snow-blindness, or sunburn of the eye. They provide a remarkable testament to one of the great figures of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. The book has been produced as a companion volume to 'Edward Wilson's Nature Notebooks' by two of Wilson's great nephews, to mark the centenary of his death.

2019 - Wandering Vertexes...
Un blog de Francis Rousseau

MOUNT GOODSIR PAINTED BY LAWREN HARRIS

LAWREN S. HARRIS (1885-1970)

Mount Goodsir  (3,525 m -11,565 ft)

Canada (British Columbia) 

The mountain 
Mount Goodsir  (2,567m - 11,703ft)  or the Goodsir Towers is the highest mountain in the Ottertail Range, a subrange of the Canadian Rockies in British Columbia. It is located in Yoho National Park, near its border with Kootenay National Park. The mountain has two major summits, the South Tower (the higher summit) and the North Tower, 3,525 metres (11,565 ft).
The mountain was named by James Hector in 1859 after two brothers, John Goodsir, a professor of anatomy at the University of Edinburgh, and Harry Goodsir, a surgeon on the ship HMS Erebus.
The standard route on the South Tower is the southwest ridge, a straightforward but long climb (Grade III), which consists primarily of non-technical terrain, but includes short sections of narrow ridge graded YDS 5.4. Access to any route on either Tower requires a long hike.

The painter 
Lawren Stewart Harris  was a leading landscape canadian painter, imbuing his paintings with a spiritual dimension. An inspirer of other artists, he was a key figure in the Group of Seven and gave new vision to representations of the northern Canadian landscape. During the 1920s, Harris's works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic.  He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted.
In 1924, a sketching trip with A.Y. Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked the beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1929, exploring areas around Banff National Park, Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park. In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to the Arctic aboard the supply ship SS. Beothic for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches.  "We are on the fringe of the great North and its living whiteness, its loneliness and replenishment, its resignations and release, tis call and answer, its cleansing rhythms. It seems that the top of the continent is a source of spiritual flow that will ever shed clarity into the growing race of America."(Lawren S. Harris, 1926)
In 1969, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada.
Harris died in Vancouver in 1970, at the age of 84, as a well-known artist.

OBSERVATION HILL BY EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON

EDWARD ADRIAN WILSON (1872-1912), 

Observation Hill (230m -754 ft) 

Antarctica  (Hut Point Peninsula)

 In Hut Point Midnight March 7, 1911- Terra nova expedition  Scott's Last Expedition", 

watercolor, 1913

The hill 

Observation Hill  (230m -754-ft) is a steep  hill adjacent to McMurdo Station in Antarctica and commonly called "Ob Hill." It is frequently climbed to get good viewing points across the continent. Regular clear skies give excellent visibility. 

Observation Hill is a lava dome and one of many volcanoes comprising the Hut Point Peninsula,  a long, narrow peninsula from 3 to 5 km (2 to 3 mi) wide and 24 km (15 mi) long, projecting south-west from the slopes of Mount Erebus on Ross Island, Antarctica. McMurdo Station (US) and Scott Base (NZ) are Antarctic research stations located on the Hut Point Peninsula.

After their deaths in early 1912, the last members of Robert Falcon Scott's party were found by a search party led by the surgeon Edward L. Atkinson. The relief party took their photographic film, scientific specimens, and other materials. They had to leave Scott and his men in their tent, and later parties could not locate the campsite, since that area had been covered in snow. A century of storms and snow have covered the cairn and tent, which are now encased in the Ross Ice Shelf as it inches towards the Ross Sea. In 2001 glaciologist Charles R. Bentley estimated that the tent with the bodies was under about 75 feet (23 m) of ice and about 30 miles (48 km) from the point where they died; he speculated that in about 275 years the bodies would reach the Ross Sea, and perhaps float away inside an iceberg.
The search party returned to their base camp in McMurdo Sound to await the relief ship. After it arrived, they worked to build a memorial – a nine-foot wooden cross (see above), inscribed with the names of the fatal party and the final line of the Alfred Tennyson poem "Ulysses", which reads "To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." On 22 January 1913, after a difficult two-day sledge journey, the cross was erected on the summit of Observation Hill, overlooking the camp and facing out towards the "Barrier" – the Ross Ice Shelf, on which Scott's party had died. In 1972, the cross was declared as one of the initial Historic Sites and Monuments in Antarctica by the Antarctic Treaty signatories, as HSM-20.

The artist
Edward Adrian Wilson,  nicknamed "Uncle Bill" was an English physician, polar explorer, natural historian, painter and ornithologist. Wilson took part in two British expeditions to Antarctica, the Discovery Expedition (1901-1904)  and the tragic Terra Nova Expedition (1907-1912), both under the leadership of Scott.
Dr. Edward A. Wilson  is widely regarded as one of the finest artists ever to have worked in the Antarctic. Sailing with Captain Scott aboard 'Discovery' (1901-1904), he became the last in a long tradition of 'exploration artists' from an age when pencil and water-colour were the main methods of producing accurate scientific records of new lands and animal species. He combined scientific, topographical and landscape techniques to produce accurate and beautiful images of the last unknown continent. Such was the strength of his work that it also helped to found the tradition of modern wildlife painting. In particular Wilson captured the essence of the flight and motion of Southern Ocean sea-birds on paper.
Returning with Captain Scott aboard 'Terra Nova' (1910-1913) as Chief of Scientific Staff, he continued to record the continent and its wildlife with extraordinary deftness. Chosen to accompany Captain Scott to the South Pole, his last drawings are from one of the most famous epic journeys in exploration history. Along with his scientific work, Wilson's pencil recorded the finding of Roald Amundsen's tent at the South Pole by Captain Scott. Wilson died, along with the other members of the British Pole Party, during the return journey, in March 1912. The drawings and paintings were created at considerable personal cost in the freezing conditions in which Wilson worked. He often suffered severely from the cold whilst sketching and also from snow-blindness, or sunburn of the eye. They provide a remarkable testament to one of the great figures of the heroic age of Antarctic exploration. The book has been produced as a companion volume to 'Edward Wilson's Nature Notebooks' by two of Wilson's great nephews, to mark the centenary of his death.

_______________________________
2019 - Wandering Vertexes.

Un blog de Francis Rousseau

THE MATTERHORN BERG BY HERBERT PONTING

HERBERT PONTING (1870-1935) 

The Matterhorn berg (1,600 m - 5,200 ft) 

Antarctica (Victoria Land)

In  The Matterhorn  Berg ant Mount Erebus in the background, Antarctica, photo,  1911

The mountain 
The Matterhorn  (1,600 metres - 5,200 ft) is a peak, surmounting the north wall of Taylor Valley, Antarctica, between Lacroix Glacier and Matterhorn Glacier. It was so named by Griffith Taylor of the British Antarctic Expedition under Robert Falcon Scott, 1910–13, because of its resemblance to the Matterhorn, the famous Swiss mountain.[1]
Matterhorn Glacier (77°41′S 162°27′E) is a small alpine glacier on the edge of the north wall of Taylor Valley, just west of the Matterhorn, in Victoria Land. Named after the Matterhorn by U.S. geologist T.L. Pewe, who visited the area in December 1957.

The photographer 
Herbert George Ponting, FRGS  was a professional photographer. He is best known as the expedition photographer and cinematographer for Robert Falcon Scott's Terra Nova Expedition to the Ross Sea and South Pole (1910–1913). In this role, he captured some of the most enduring images of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.
During the 1911 winter, Ponting took many flash photographs of Scott and the other members of the expedition in their Cape Evans hut. With the start of the 1911–12 sledging season, Ponting's field work began to come to an end. As a middle-aged man, he was not expected to help pull supplies southward over the Ross Ice Shelf for the push to the South Pole. Ponting photographed other members of the shore party setting off for what was expected to be a successful trek. After 14 months at Cape Evans, Ponting, along with eight other men, boarded the Terra Nova in February 1912 to return to civilization, arrange his inventory of more than 1,700 photographic plates, and shape a narrative of the expedition. Ponting's illustrated narrative would be waiting for Captain Scott to use for lectures and fundraising in 1913.

PITON DE LA FOURNAISE BY J- B. BORY DE SAINT VINCENT

JEAN-BAPTISTE BORY DE SAINT VINCENT  (1778-1846)

Le Piton de la Fournaise  (2,632 m -8,635 ft)

 France  (Ile de la Réunion)

 Drawing view"as the crow flies" of the peak of the Furnace after the eruption of 1801

The mountain 

Piton de la Fournaise (Peak of the Furnace) is a shield volcano on the eastern side of Réunion island (a French department) in the Indian Ocean. It is currently one of the most active volcanoes in the world, along with Kilauea in the Hawaiian Islands (Pacific Ocean), Stromboli, Etna (Italy) and Mount Erebus in Antarctica. A previous eruption began in August 2006 and ended in January 2007. The volcano erupted again in February 2007, on 21 September 2008, on 9 December 2010, which lasted for two days and on 1 August 2015 A. An other one on 26 May 2016 ... the very last eruption just begun yesterday,  11 Septembre 2016. 

The volcano is located within Réunion National Park, a World Heritage site.

Piton de la Fournaise is often known locally as le Volcan (The Volcano); it is a major tourist attraction on Réunion island.  Due to his activity, the Piton de la Fournaise is constantly monitored by geophysical sensors (tiltmeters, extensometers, differential GPS receivers, etc.).  The data from those various sensors is sent to the Piton de la Fournaise Volcano Observatory, located in Bourg-Murat, northwest of the volcano.  The observatory, founded in 1978 following the Piton-Sainte-Rose flow, is operated by the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (Global Geophysics Institute of Paris), in association with CNRS ( National Institute of Scientific Resarch)  and the University of Réunion. The OVPF often publishes reports on Piton de la Fournaise's current activity via their website in French. RIGIC (the Réunion Island Geological Information Center) takes this information and translates it into English for distribution to the English-speaking scientific.

Climbing

A high quality forestry road, followed by a track (with lots of bumps), connects the highway of the plains in Bourg-Murat to the Pas de Bellecombe (Bellecombe Pass), where a parking lot and a snack bar are available to visitors.  The Pas de Bellecombe is situated over the caldera rim cliffs and offers a good point of view over the northeast part of the caldera.

A good stairway path descends from the pass to the caldera floor.  This path is closed for safety reasons during seismic events that may precede eruptions and during eruptions. White paint marks over rocks delimit a number of footpaths ascending the lava shield inside the caldera.  Visitors exploring the caldera should be in good physical condition, with hiking shoes and a supply of drinking water and food. They must be prepared to exercise caution, for the weather can change very quickly, moving from bright sunlight and heat (with risks of heatstroke) to dense fog with cold and rain. In dense fog, straying from paths is very risky. Visitors are advised to take the necessary precautions for sun, heat, cold and rain and not to stray from marked paths.  An excellent, albeit expensive, way to get a good sight of the volcano is to ride in the tourist helicopter flights offered by commercial companies on the island The lower parts of the Grand Brûlé can be visited from the N2 highway.  Lava flows that have crossed the road are indicated by signs.

Completely free access during eruptions was permitted until 1998; access has been limited since that date, being virtually banned at present.

The painter  

Jean-Baptiste Genevieve Marcellin Bory de Saint-Vincent is a French officer, naturalist and geographer, who was mainly interested in volcanology, botany and systematic.

During the las years of the 18th century (particularly agitated in France) , he learned the departure of a scientific expedition organized by the government and gets the job of chief zoologist aboard a participating corvettes then met Bernard Germain de Lacépède. Thus, after leaving the army, Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent left Paris on September 30, arrived in Le Havre on 2 October and leaves town aboard one of the ships that captain Nicolas Baudin took  around the world from 1800 to 1804.  He stopped in Mauritius in March 1801.  From there, he reached l'Ile de la Réunion (ex Bourbon Island) where he performed in October and November 1801 ( "An X" in the Revolutionary Calendar)  the rise and the first general scientific description of the Piton de la Fournaise, the active volcano of the island.  It gives the name of the scientist Dolomieu he just learned the death to  one of the craters he describes as a nipple. It gives its own name to the  crater of the summit.  Back in France in 1802, he published Voyage dans les îles d'Afrique (Travel in african Islands). He continued his scientific career in parallel to a military career: he was elected correspondent of the Museum in August 1803 and the "correspond of  first class" of the Institute de France in the spring of 1808. In 1804, he published  Essais sur les iles fortunées  (Essay on the wealthy islands) et Voyage dans les quatre principales îles des mers d'Afrique (Travel in the four main islands of the African seas). The articles, written by international scientific luminaries, were illustrated by  lithographs printed by Duval Mercourt then Marcellin Jobard.  In 1828, he was appointed to head the commission scientific exploration of Morea, held in 1829-1830. In 1830 he appeared in an election to become a member of the Institute after the death of Lamarck. He died in 1846 а Paris and was buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery (49th division).