SCOTT'S EXPEDITION TO SOUTH POLE.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 3 April 1912, Page 3

SCOTT'S EXPEDITION TO SOUTH POLE.

SOUTHERN DASH DEFERRED,

BAD LUCK WITH PONIES.

From a special summary of the work of Captain Scott's Antarctic expedition, up till September last, when preparations were being completed for the dash to the South Pole, news came to Akaroa on Monday by Scoit's ship, the Terra Nove, under command of Lieutenant Pennell.

Captain Scott and most of his men are still in the Antarctic, and when last heard of, was making a gallant effort, despite adversities, to achieve his objective. Lieutenant Pennell expressed the utmost confidence that he would succeed,

Roughly Captain Scott's narrative covers from v January to •1911, so cleaily therd is a furthor story to tell.

Captain Amundsen's real start was made in mid-October, 1911, he reached the pole on. December 14, and was back with party and dogs at his base on January 25, 1912. The question whether Scott got there later is still unanswered.

One deduction is that the English explorer has had intensely bad weather and bad luck ; the Siberian pony being not as adaptable to pole-conquer-ing as is the Eskimo dog used by the Norwegian; all btit one, out of one lot, were lost on drifting floes, from which even the men had difficulty in essaping.

This story of the struggle to escape from the churning ice and the killer whales, by climbing the sheer face of the ice-barrier, is intensely thrilling. The dogs also met with misfortune, at first in crevasses, later by a mysterious disease that suddenly killed tho best of them. These disasters to tho animal traction department have seriously affected the mobility of the expedition, but not, it is hoped,, sufficiently to make its success impossible.