The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, APRIL 17, 1901. THE ANTARCTIC.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 84, 17 April 1901, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. GISBORNE, APRIL 17, 1901. THE ANTARCTIC.

Ix is hard to realise nowadays, says a recent writer, what the mysteries of geography used to he. In the days of tho ancients the lands of fact and fable lay close together. Once cross the narrow boundaries of the small part that was really known, and one would find, perhaps, the land of the pigmies, or of the people “ whose heads did grow beneath their shoulders,” or of the coast where mermaids dwelt and sirens sang. One might meet dragons, and griffins, and centaurs, and perhaps stumble upon tho fountain of perpetual youth, or the tree whose mystic leaves cured all diseases. Geography was a fairy story then, and the explorer was ready for anything, from giants and ogres on the land to magic rocks which drew nails out of his vessel. The alluring haze of fancy covered land and sea beyond narrow known limits.

But to-day all the mysteries have boen solved, except one. We have maps, detailed and accurate, of all the corners of the earth (if a globe can be said to have corners at all), and wo know Africa as if it were the next street, and march our armies into mysterious Cathay. Asia is crossed on bicycles, and a constant trade is being carried on with Timbuctoo, the long-hidden city of the desert. The North Pole has yielded up its secrets at last. We have not quite reached it, but we know what the near approaches to it are, and Nansen has proved what its conditions must be. Only / ono stronghold remains, and it is being attacked—the mystery of the Antarctic. Several expeditions are scheduled to explore these frozen fastnesses in the coming five years, and end the last secret that earth holds away from her master, man.

But even man, with all the powers placed at his disposal by the last wonderful century, may not be too sure of conquering the Antarctic. Many good sailors have tried their best there— Cook, Boss, D’Urville, Kynlen, Wilkes, Bonnet, Kemp, and Enderby, The whale has been hunted, and the seal well-nigh exterminated in the outer seas of the South Pole; and yet all that is known of the Antarctic could be summed up in a single page. Land—whether island or continent no man tell—has been sighted, and even landed upon, but not explored in any true sense, at three points on the polar circle—King Oscar or Graham’s Land, below South America; Kemp and Enderby Lands, to the far south-east of Africa ; and Wilkes’ Land, south of Australia. Near Wilkes’ Land the ships of Boss, sailing within the polar circle, have skirted the coast of Victoria Land, and seen its flaming volcanoes through the frozen fog. But even Ross, with his good ships Erebus and Terror, could get no nearer the pole than twelve degrees, while for the most part some twenty degrees of unexplored space in every direction surround the South Pole.

In fact, the .Antarctic is a problem compared to which the exploration of the “ White North ” sinks into insignificance. In the North, there are Esquimaux tribes here and there, walrus and bear as far towards the Pole as the explorer has pushed, and quite an Arctic flora. The summer is warm, and the skies often fairly clear. In the Antarctic, there are a few mosses and litchen on the land, and, at the most Northern points only, a icoarse tussock grass, and a few species of plants. There seems to be no land animals £of any kind, though in the water there are whales and seals and water-birds, the king penguin being the most common. As for climate, one authority remarks that compared to it “ the climate of the most Northern Arctic regions known to us may be considered delightful.’’ The Antarctic summer day, on the average, hovers around the freezing-point, and has been known to go down to eleven above zero. Cook’s expedition wintered in the Antarctic. It was not far in towards the pole. In the three voyages of Boss, he records only one single day when seven-eighths of the sky was cloudless; at other times, dense masses of clouds filled the upper strata of the air, whilst impenetrable fog and mist lay over the sea, and fully shrouded the ice masses, to the great danger of navigation. Through this frozen mist, the explorers’ vessels must pick their way, often against howling winds, and amidst groups of fantastic and most tremendous icebergs. When the land is found, it is like the Arctic land—low and easy of . access. All along the Antarctic i

coast, except in very rare places, runs the most mysterious feature of all, a great, white wall of ice, from fully fifty to two hundred feet high (usually the latter), sheer, perpendicular, inaccessible, unbroken. Whether it floats or rests on the land is a mooted question ; at any rate there it is, and though behind it ranges of snowy hills may lie, or great volcanoes steam and smoke through the foggy air, no foot has ever passed the enchanted barrier of the ice wall. What lies behind the barrier ? Is there an open polar sea or a snow-clad polar continent ? Are the great volcanoes of Mount Erebus and Mount Terror (named after the ships of Ross, but so appropriate that we wonder at the coincidence) merely island volcanoes or part of the backbone of a continent ? Erebus is one of the loftiest volcanoes upon the earth, and violently active, though covered with snow to the very point from which the flaming lava is seen bursting forth. Will it ever be climbed by man ? If the Antarctic mystery is to be revealed, then the bold men now preparing to explore these latitudes will succeed ; but if they fail it is likely to remain a mystery for ever.

George Poulgrain, of Te Arai, laborer, has filed a petition in bankruptcy. A meeting of tho Land Board is to bo held at Gisborne on Saturday next, at 10 a.m. A number of by-law cases are to be dealt with at the Police Court this morning. The monthly meeting of the Charitable Aid Board was held last night, and formal business transacted. The members of the Orchestral Society re-assemble for practice this evening at the Holy Trinity School-room at a quarter to eight. Captain Edwin reported at noon yesterday : “ North to west and south-west gale after 20 hours from now; glass fall; poor tides.” At the Borough Council meeting last night an account of T 1 was passed for the supplying of rats. It was said that one youth had brought in a dozen in a cage. Mr.R. Little waited on the Borough Council last night, and as an experienced resident of over 20 years in Gisborne he made a trenchant speech as to the proper way. to carry out works.

The names of the following new subscribers have been added to the telephone exchange list: T. A. Coleman, 102 ; Rev. Father Mulvihill, 86. The undermentioned have discontinued : The Dustpan, Mrs Lewis, Messrs Dawson and Featon. Gisborne people will much regret tho death of Mr R. T. Walker, the editor of the Napier Herald. Mr Walker was on a visit to Gisborne a short time ago, and was not looking at all well. He was the founder of the Poverty Bay Herald. At the Council meeting last night Cr Lewis said that on some nights the street lights were very poor—one night he had noticed that they gave a very dim light. The Mayor said that it would only be necessary to call the Company’s attention to the matter. It was stated at tho Borough Council meeting last night that the Council had reached tho limit of the overdraft, ;£8,200. The Mayor : They cannot complain that we are not progressive enough. Cr Hepburn : They cannot say that we are not spending the money. Cr Joyce: But is it being spent judiciously '? Cr Hepburn : Ah, that is tho question. ' The following return has been prepared by the Borough Inspector (Mr J. li. Little) of the number of cases of typhoid fever which have occurred within the borough from January Ist, 1898, to April 16th, 1901: From January to December 31st, 1898, 56 ; January to December, 1899, 33 ; January to December, 1900, 21; January to December, 1901, 25 to date.