Amundsen's Expedition

Hokitika Guardian, 31 March 1922, Page 3

Amundsen's Expedition

A writer in a New York paper recently gave some details of the new expedition: “Amundson will leave Seattle in June and go north through the Behring Straits as far as lie can. He will wait there to he frozen in, and then drift with the pack across the ■polar sea. dim ice travels in a- dense mass through the Arctic straits at an incredibly slow rate. It will take from three to five years, he thinks, to emerge in the- open Atlantic before Norway. The vessel in which Amundsen will start on his new expedition is a stoutly-limbered boot o| 309 tons, called the Maud. •''•■ will carry pro- ■ Lints for seven years. The expedition. though i< co n s'sis of only nine men. goes out fully equipped for every

’ in 1 of s -icnt'fic observation—metcro- j logical, astronomical, geographical said j tin' writer, ‘'Every man in it is an ■. acknowledged expert and svientisa ; oilier to observe, the iloral and arum.., j life of the Arctic, or to make gee- J graphical surveys, to make marine or j stellar observations, to take soundings ; of the sea and analyses of the sub- ; strata of the sea s bottom. In h\c I years the Amundsen expedition will briny back the first full and com pro- j hensive survey of life in the Arctic j Circle. Amundsen is enrrving two aeroplanes and a very powerful wire- , less equipment with him on his next expedition. This is bis admission of a very different set of conditions than those under which fie first set out as an explorer with, the Belgian Antarctic Expedition of thirty years ago. “Amundsen is carrying a few dogs and sledges fop caution'. But nil tho

1 reconnaissance will lit' done aeroplanes, and when the boat settles down for its long drift these will make j surveys in every direction.” i Amundsen was asked:—“What "ill ’ ho the value of the scientific observa- ) tions you tiring hack.''” I He replied: “That remains to he j set n. No one can tell until they have I been worked out later in the labora- | tones. We shall bring back every ! kind of geological, botanical, and amj mal specimen that we can find. Wc i shall make meterological observations and perhaps we shall arrive at some understanding of the greater myster ies of storms and tides. We may find ways of predicting weather conditions and storms so far ahead .that man can provide himself against them The results in nautical and agricultural undertakings may he very far-readi-in<r. Or we may find valuable nnnera deposits. The iand is frequently ox posed during the summer season, am the animal and floral lift- is very ahun dant.”