Across the Frozen Continent.

Huntly Press and District Gazette, Volume 3, Issue 6, 24 July 1914, Page 3

Across the Frozen Continent.

A GREAT MARCH IN THE GREAT WHITE LAND We are soon to see the setting forth of a new expedition to the Antarctic regions. Sit Earnest Shackleton, who in 1908 9 got to within 97 miles of the South Pole, the nearest point reached by man up to that time, is going out on a marvellous adventure. He is to attempt what no other man lias dreamed of attempting. He sets himself the terryfying task, not of simply marching to the Pole, and then back to the coast by the same route, but of marching right across the unexplored continent This great wiiite land owes us much. It owes us the lives of men we loved. But we owe this same land more than most people know. We owe to the search for it that thrilling voyage round the world which Captain Cook made. We owe to it the discovery and the possession by Great Britain of the Australasian continent. We owe to it the adventure of Juan Fernandez, who gave his name to the island on which there lived the man whose experiences formed the subject of “ Robinson Crusoe. ” To the same age-old quest of the land, with its fabulous stories and incredible legends, we owe an ironical work written by a bishop, making fun of the unfound land and of imaginary men, a book which suggested to Dean Swift his immortal “ Gulliver’s Travel.” This book, intended as a political satire, has by some strange chance become the friend and companion of millions of children, age after age, the world over. That is a record of some of the things we owe to this great still land in which Scott and his comrades lie, and now we are to have a new chapter, one of the most thrilling of all. Some generous friend lias given Sir Ernest Shackleton a present of £50,000, and he is making his plans and enrolling his staff. He is to go out in two ships, land on the coast of the Weddell Sea, and march with five companions across the continent to the Ross Sea on tho other side, from which both Amundsen anil Scott reached the Pole. There, all being well, he will be met by one of his ships, which should in the meantime have explored the coast and given us new outlines for blank spaces on the maps. Now this plan is without parallel. Brave Lieutenant Stefans-

t son in the Arctic is left, as we - remember, to find food for him--3 self, but he has human beings ) within reach and can find t natural supplies. But there are 3 no living creatures in the All- - tarctic, no human beings, no 3 animals away from the coasts. . SirjErnest Shackleton must take - his food with him for a march of i certainly 1500, and perils ps 1700 r miles. When he made his last 1 great march he was beaten by > starvation after travelling a 1 little over 600 miles, and was ; able to turn back, follow his r own tracks down to the coast, ■ picking up at each seventy > miles the food he had stored 011 - the way up. This time there i will be no such alternative ; he l must go straight on or die. He will start with 120 dogs and about 12,000 pounds’ weight 1 of food. By the time he reaches the Pole liis dogs will be reduced to about 50, for, as the journey draws out, dogs must be killed to feed other dogs. There will then remain at least 700 miles to do, with only six sledges, for. as the dogs disappear, so sledges must be dropped. The explorers wiil then have to face the unknown second half of the journey constantly diminishing supplies, If the ships are so fortunate as to get up in time, depots will have been laid for 300 or 400 miles from the coast of the Ross Sea.xbut there must be a hopeless stretch hundreds of miles away from any food supply. The leader of the expedition puts the matter picturesquely in these words ; “It is an essay into the unknown, but that is where the attraction lies. We do not know what we may come across. The distance we expect to cover is about that from Jolin-o’-Groats to Constantinople ; but you can get a dim idea of the undertaking if you imagine a man setting out to push a wheelbarrow across Europe— not Europe as we know it, but an uninhabited continent of which he had no maps. Imagine that man suddenly con- j fronted by the Alps ! That is the I sort of thing that might happen to us.” That last remark is true , indeed, for the Antarctic continent is crossed by a great range 1 of mountains ranging from 12,000 to 20,000 feet above sealevel, though we do not yet know in which direction they run. If the explorers should find themselves faced with the task of climbing this range when short of food, their fate will be sealed. As it is, the supplies with which they propose to set out allow for ‘ only ten days’ delay. We know that eleven day’s delay brought Scott and his party to their J deaths. There are several fea- s tures of interest in the equipment of Sir Earnest Shackieton’s party, ,

ui on E/ct 1 iitjbu oiiciOKiocoil s pai ty» sledges made of a new metal lighter than wood, and not affected by the severest frosts; and a sort of aeroplane engine with airpropeller, not for flying, but for hauling sledges. All other great explorers are firmly opposed to any system of haulage except dogs. Motors have failed, ponies have failed ; up till now only dogs have succeeded. It is said that the unnamed friend who has given £50,000 for this expedition is Sir James Barrie, and, if this is true, it is pretty to think that “ Peter Pan ” is paying for this thrilling march across an unknown world ; for it was Sir James , Barrie who gave us “ Peter Pan ” and “ Peter ” must have earned him much more than fifty thousand pounds.