SOUTH POLE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1387, 13 March 1912, Page 5

SOUTH POLE.

INTERVIEWS AT HOBART. SITE OF POLE CLOSELY FIXED. OBSERVATIONS DESCRIBED. By Telonraph—Press Association—Copyright Hobart, March 12. Tlie embargo placed on the Fram since her arrival has been removed, and Captain Amundsen has invited pressmen to visit her. Everything was found to ho spick-aiul-span. The four men who accompanied Amundsen to the Polo wcro the central object of attention. They are named Bjaalawl, Hansen, Haasel, and Wistiug. All are accomplished snowshoors, and better comrades, Amundsen declared, one could not wish. To them, to the dogs, and to tlio skis success was due. Hansel said the cold experienced on the journey was really not very formidable. Near the Pole itself the weather was fine most of the lime. Ho had known it colder in Christiania. The members of the party wore furs to start with, but found them too warm for marching ''n, and went in ordinary clothing. They would never havo got through, as far as food supplies went, without the. dogs. Dog flesh was not o£ the worst. While the dogs themselves seemed fond of each other, sonio wcro fonder of their companions dead than alive. Amundsen was a wonderful man; the fact of the party getting through without accident or mishap was due to him. Pole Well Marked. Captain Amundsen thinks the tent and Hags he left at tho Pole should remain in position for a long time. Unless tho weather is worse than he experienced, there is no danger of the tent being blown away, and it will probably be a couple of years before it is covered with snow. Inferring to Sir Ernest Shacldoton's statement that tho King Haakon Plateau is the same that he (Shackleton) christened King Edward Plateau, Amundsen says there must be some mistake. He does not think Shackleton said that; Shackleton may have meant that it was all part of the same elevated area. "Sir Ernest Shackleton, when ho reached the furthest South, was still going tip," said Amundsen; "while we reached our greatest height in about the same latitude as that at which ho had to turn back, and then began to descend again the slightly sloping plateau on which the Pole stands, and which we called King Haakon." The plateau named by Shackleton Amundsen pointed out. The place ascended was- in the mountains about 150 miles eastward of tho Bcardmoro glacier, up which Shackleton made his way. It would have been a roundabout route to .have gone up the Beardmore glacier, and tho placo chosen by Amundsen was easily ascended. It was over '10,000 feet high. How the Spot V;as Fixed. "We were four days at the Pole itself," continued Amundsen. "We exercised the greatest care in making our observations, and stopped when we, had got as nearly as wo could ascertain to SOdeg. 55min., or live miles from the Pole. 'Wo took our reckoning from there, and then went on to the Polo itself, where, individually, wo took Hie most careful observations we could in order,jo mnkej.quUo,.pertain. Four of us went out to four points at about iivo miles from the Pole as a centre, and took observations there, in addition to observations at the Pole itself. We could not,; of course, determine it as exactly as could a man in an observatory, with all his instruments at hand. At the same time, wo used all possible care, and I do not think there could bo any material error." • Amundsen says the spot located as the Pole is perfectly 1 Hat as far as the eye can Teach. Had Shackleton crossed the plateau he named King Edward Land he would- have been within seeing distance of the Pole; so flat and even was the ice. Besides the Amundsen party, another party under Captain Johansen, with a base at Framheim, devoted itself to exploration in the neighbouring portion of King Edward Land. The party went eastward and met with many escapes, losing several dogs. It would happen that the skis would pass over the ice all right, but suddenly, without warning, tho dogs would sink right through into bottomless crevasses and not he seen again. Tho men, by following the dogs, escaped what otherwise would have been instant death. Japanese on the Ice. Captain Millson, of tho Pram, stated that during his stay at the Bay of Whales ho met the Japanese expedition. Tho I Japanese landed, climbed the Great Barrier, and stayed till the following morning. Tiiey afterwards erected a tent at tho Barrier, and left two men there. Five days after a strong breeze sprang up and tho Japanese vessel left. That was the last he saw of her. The two Japanese loft behind said the ship had gone to King Edward's Land, and was going to call back for them. They wore well provisioned and found, and were still there when the Pram left with the Amundsen party on January 30: Gifts for Dr. Mawson. Captain Amundsen announced his intention of presenting the Mawson expedition with twenty-one Greenland dogs and two sledges used by him in his expedition, and also of giving advice with regard to the Mawson relief ship. Previous expeditions, he said, had declared that the normal conditions in South Polar seas were terrible, but his experience was entirely to the contrary.