TO KING EDWARD VII LAND.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1927, 9 December 1913, Page 10

TO KING EDWARD VII LAND.

A SEW EXPEDITION. Jfr. J. Foster Stackhouse, E.R.G.S., KK.S.G.S., a nephew of tlio lato'Sir Jonathan Hutchinson, F.R.S.. is tho latest Englishman to enter the iield of Antarctic exploration. The South Pole itself having boon discovered, his objective will be Kins; Edward Vll's Land, which is recognised as belonging to Britain, although 110 Briton has yet set foot upon it. Jlr. Stackhouse has travelled in many lands. He was an intimate lriend of Captain Scott. To a representative of the ".Manchester Guardian" ill'. Staekhouso said: "The great idea of the expedition wo are planning is to explore Kmc Edward V ll's Land. \Ve shall try to outline the coast, which as yet remains nilcharted. Capo Colbeck may be the most northerly point, and the coast may stretch south as far as M'Murdo Sound. T'lie fact is that the whole coast is full of mystery. It is. we suppose, about 900 or 1000 miles long, and wo will survey as much of it as possible, but the task may involve our staying three or four years within the Antarctic Circle. At the end of the coastal survey we cxpect io proceed to M'ilurdo Sound, where, naturally, we hope to visit Observation Hill, on which stands the -cross to tho memory of Captain Scott and his comrades.

31 r. Stackhouse was asked to describe the real meaning of sonwof the terms so fldibly used in connection with Polar -work, and ho admitted that very inadequate notions prevailed among laymen of the meaning of terms that arc commonplaces of exploration. For. example, the uencral idea of a blizzard ■was a heavy fall of snow with, a wind behind it. "But when you .get into Polar regions," lie continued, "the snowflakes are hard as iron, sharp at botli ends, and sharp all round, and they are blown by a wind travelling at a violent rate that blows in cyory conceivable direction.'' 1 Go* into'that with a temperature at 30 or 40deg. below zero and you may not bo able to see your hand before your face. Then, ton, a crevasse, which to the man in the strcofc is simply a crack in tho ice, which mayor may not bo deep, has been known in Polar regions to be 170 feet deep at least. It may be two feet wide; sonio are- even 30 feet or more. A thin bridge of snow may conceal tlio peril. You have to feel each /step on tlio way cautiously. As to an icefield, it is not like u pond frozen smoothly over. The ice.'J'orms tho pack, and in it aro gener-/ ally found bergs which drift along with the current."

Mr. Stackliouso explained that many years ago lie first crossed tho Arctic Cirelo oil a visit to 1 Iceland; later ho went to Spitsbergen and tho Kara Sea. "Then I went on to South Cape, Wild Hay, Cherry Island, B.ear Island, and these parts. In 1911 I left for Jan Mayen. I saw.Yoglo Hook, where there is no monument to tho seven Dutchmen who died thero in 1623. Tho place was discovered by Hudson, tho British whaler and explorer, and the Dutch sent over about two dozen men for seals and walruses. Only seven stayed right through tlio winter, with the result that one after another died, and the last h.gd to writo his own death story, and succumbed shortly beforo the ' relieving boat arrived." Tho expedition will leavo the Thames about the urst of August of next year, and it is expected that several members of the Terra Nova Expedition will accompany Mr. StacUhouse. Sir Clements K. Markhain, I'Mi.S., ono of tho oldest Arctic explorers, is deeply interested ill tho. enterprise, lie feeis that it is in overv way essential as completing tho work of' Captain Scott that King Kduard YH's l.and should lie explored, and its coastline added to the. got>"Tiiphieal knowledge of the world. Tho headquarters of tlio expedition are at Sardinia House, Kingswav, London.