Beschreibung:

GEORGE MURRAY LEVICK (1876-1956)
GEORGE MURRAY LEVICK (1876-1956) Autograph letter [no addressee or signature, apparently to a member of his family], n.p. [ Terra Nova , off Cape Adare], 12 Febuary 1911, containing an autograph transcript of his journal from 29 November 1910 to 29 January 1911, on paper with embossed British Antarctic Expedition vignette stamp, 26½ pages, 4to (staple hole to upper left corners, occasionally touching a word). Levick takes his last opportunity to send a message home with the Terra Nova . The journal extracts, which are transcribed, with some abridgement and occasional rephrasing, from his main expedition journal (see previous lot), cover the voyage of the Terra Nova from New Zealand, the landing of the main expedition at Cape Evans, a sledging trip to Glacier Tongue with Campbell and Priestley (his companions in the Northern Party), the departure of the first depot parties, and the re-embarkation of the Northern Party. The letter, a hurried note written on Terra Nova just before the Northern Party disembarked at Cape Adare for the winter, summarises the intervening events, including the fruitless attempts to find a landing point on the Barrier or at King Edward VII Land, the meeting with Amundsen at the Bay of Whales ('They are a fine lot of fellows'), and the proposed landing on 'Cape Adair [ sic ]': '[we] shall build our hut there & sledge inland to the unexplored land beyond'. The letter ends with suggestions as to how to see Ponting's photographs and films, and for the circulation of the journal entries, and the necessary confidentiality: 'Not that there is anything important in it, but quite enough for reporters to make a lot of and there would be a row'. Murray Levick and the Northern Party were successfully deposited on Cape Adare in the middle of a large rookery of Adélie penguins, whom Levick proceeded to make his study; their plans for sledging exploration were however frustrated by the inaccessibility of the terrain.