NEW LEADER

Hokitika Guardian, 14 January 1932, Page 2

NEW LEADER

FOR THE ANTARCTIC. The leaded of the next expedition to the Antarctic, Air H. G. Watkins, and who was educated at Cambridge University, organised with other undergradutes, in 1927, an expedition to Edge Island, in the Spitsbergen group, lie went right across the island a perilous feat, never pertorined before. With four companions he had only gone a lew miles inland, when they were marooned ior five days by a. fog. At last lie and one of the others set out to try to determine their position, but a blizzard cut them off freini the rest of the party for thirty-six hours. One of his discoveries was that the island was subject to a gradual uplift, resulting in the formation of canyons 250 teet dtep. For his work on this expedition lie was awarded the (.'uthbery Peek grant of the Royal Geographical Society.

In 1928, with two companions, Air Watkins went exploring in Labrador. They spent a year there, experiencing hunger and other hardships. Foi months they were engaged in fighting their way back to the coast, and after kill-ink some of their dogs to feed the rest, had to drag one of the sledges for a long distance. Their hunger became s o acute that they nearly decided to kill and eat one of the dogs. I.n July, 1930, Air ‘Watkins headed an expedition to Greenland to carry out a survey of the planning of an Arctic air route from England to Canada, His fourteen companions wen. all young men, mostly from Cambridge University. After setting up a base near the coast, they spent sevoi.d weeks in exploring the ice-covered inland area rising 7000 feet above sea level. On the summit they built a small hut as a weather observat'oii post'. It . was desired to obtain records of winter conditions there, and Air Augustine C’ourtauld volunteered for the task. Air Watkins raised objections, hut as Air Courtaulcl insisted, let him have his way, and leaving him there m December, promised to relieve him in February. r lhe news that Air Watkins had been prevented ly blizzards from doing this aroused great anxiety, and in May an aeroplane was sent from Sweden to make a search. Air Watkins and hi# colleagues had already see out again with sledges, however, and after a fortnight’s arduous journey they rescued Air Courtlnnd hv digging him out of the snow-buried hut. The Weddell Sea, from which Air Watkins proposed to make his trip, is almost directly across the South Pole from the Ross Sea, where Amundsen Scott and Shackleton established their bases. The Weddell Sea, like the Ross Sea, makes a big indentation into the “main mass- of the Annrctic continent, the edge of the ice barrier being ’ about the same distance from the Pole as the Ross barrier, namely, 800 miles. His last civilised port of call will probably be in the Falkland Islands,