Antarctic Thaw Reveals Explorer's 100-Year-Old Journal

George Murray Levick described photos in old notebook
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 24, 2014 12:56 PM CDT

Surgeon, zoologist, and photographer George Murray Levick took part in a 1910-1913 Antarctic expedition as part of Captain Robert Falcon Scott's crew, and while Scott perished on a journey back from the South Pole, Levick made it off the continent alive. He didn't accompany Scott to the pole, but survived the winter of 1912 by eating blubber in an ice cave before walking 200 miles to safety, the Guardian reports. His observations on necrophilia, murder, and rape by Adélie penguins while stationed at Cape Adare surfaced in 2012. Now researchers are learning more about the British explorer thanks to an "exciting" new find: his photographic notebook. It was discovered outside the expedition base at Cape Evans, revealed during 2013's summer melt, LiveScience reports.

Though water had forced the pages together, researchers separated them to find details of Levick's photographs, including subjects, dates, and exposure details. On one page, under a heading that reads, "This book belongs to," Levick's name is still visible in pencil. The journal has since been repaired, digitized, and sent back to Cape Evans, where it will stay with 11,000 other artifacts. "The notebook is a missing part of the official expedition record," a researcher with the Antarctic Heritage Trust says. "After spending seven years conserving Scott's last expedition building and collection, we are delighted to still be finding new artifacts." As more snow melts around the site due to climate change, more items have been turning up, including these crates of whiskey. (More Antarctica stories.)

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