FIVE EXPEDITIONS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1383, 8 March 1912, Page 5

FIVE EXPEDITIONS.

INTERNATIONAL POLAR RACE, PLANS AND OHJECTIVES.

There are at present five expeditions in the Antarctic, no less than four of which are working in the region directly sorth of Tasmania and New Zealand. The remaining expedition, that of Lieut. Filehner, the German explorer, is working south from Cape Horn". British Expedition.-Captain K. F. Scott, in Terra Nova (.719 tons), left New Zealand on November 2!), IVIO. Terra Nova returned to New Zealand, March 27, 1911, after establishing winter quarters at Cane Evans, near old Discovery Quarters, and landing L'ont. Campbell's party at Cape Adare. During the cruise, the Fram, with Captain Amundsen's expedition, was . found.in Whale Bay. On December 15 last the Terra Nova again left Lyttelton for the south . Amundsen's Expedition,—Captain Amundsen, in the Pram, spent part of 1910 in oceauogran'nicnl research in the North Atlantic. His plan was then to continue his investigations in the South Atlantic and Pacific, and then to set out on an Arctic voyage from San Francisco, taking seven years' piovisions. On August 22, Wtf, he wrote to Dr. Nansen from Madiera, stating that he had changed his plans and would visit the Antarctic on his way. On January 13, 1911, he reached the Bay of Whales, near the British headquarters in MacMurdo Sound, and on February 22 the British party were much surprised on discovering him there.

Japanese Expedition—This expedition in tho little schooner Kainan Maru, will be remembered bv Wellington residents. It left Tokio in 1910. It put into Wellington on February 8, 1011, and on the 11th sailed for the Far South. The expedition was next heard of at Sydney on May 1, when it returned,'renorting that after effecting a landing at Coulmnn Island it had found the season too advanced to do anything. In November last the vessel, after a thorough refitting, again set out for the Antarctic, and has not since been reported.

Dr, Mawson's Expedition,— Dr. Hawson's Australasian expedition in the Aurora is not in search of tho Pole, but is doing research iVork in the Southern Ocean and along tho Antarctic coast west of tho lioss Sea. Tho expedition left Hobart on December 3 . Inst. German Expedition.—Lieut, Filchner's German expedition left Hamburg in the Deutschlaml early in May last, and sailed from Buenos Ayres for Coats Laud and the Weddell Sea in September last. If the conditions were favourable its plans may bo extended to include a sledge journey across -Antarctica via the Pole.