The Lonely South: Kerguelen and the Antarctic

In very good condition - has markings from use - dust jacket in good condition - due to differing weights in books, postage maybe adjusted at checkout.

André Migot is a French doctor with a remarkable aptitude for solitary meditation and active adventure which led him on the journey into Tibet so memorably described in Tibetan Marches. On his return from the Far East in 1953 he had a new opportunity to indulge these tastes in different surroundings. He volunteered to spend a year in Kerguelen in the remote and stormy south of the Indian Ocean with the French scientific mission on those islands. During this year of exile he was able to enjoy studying not only the peculiar and remarkably friendly sea-elephants, penguins and other creatures that came to breed in this forbidding landscape, but also the effects on long and enforced isolation on his companions less fitted than himself to use and value solitude. When his tour of duty was almost over, and weaker spirits were thinking only of home, he seized the chance of accompanying an Australian scientific expedition to Mawson on the Antarctic Continent. They journeyed in an icebreaker, smashing their way south through pack-ice to the land, and when the mission was deposited at the lonely little base, Dr. Migot remained with the ship, which then pursued her voyage of exploration through bitter storms, skirting the strangest and most perilous country on earth.

Dr. Migot writes with force and simplicity that spring from the strength of his own character. His account of these two expeditions is at once an exciting adventure story, a portrait gallery of exotic birds and beasts, and a profound comment on human behaviour and human nature.