South Pole Relics.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 7 August 1914, Page 2

South Pole Relics.

A big plain cooking pot, whos* interior has been scraped clean and bare by men at the point of death by starvation ; an empty provision bag, a sledging shovel, the inner lining of the tent in which the remains of Captain Scott and his companions were found by the search party, and a shabby, much-thumbed sixpenny edition of Harry Johnston's story of old Virginia, "By Order of the Company," which, when picked up in Captain Scott's tent, was curiously enough open at a chapter headed "We (Jo Out Into the Night" —these are among the relics of the great Antarctic tragedy which were brought back by the Terra Nova, and which are now attracting thousands of people to the Earl's Court Exhibition, where they are being shown. < It is a pathetic and most impressive collection, and not the least* x ..interesting feature is an exact model 4 in section of the igloo, or cave, dug in snow by the northern party of the expedition, owing to the ship beinp; unable to pick them up. For seven months the party lived in the cave of snow and ice, on rations sufficient for only one month. There were six mea altogether, under Lieutenant Campbell, and they used blubber for everything—food, light, and fuel. When found, their ice cave was as black as a coal mine with carbon, and so were the men. When Lieutenant Campbell visited the exhibition, he remarked to Lord Cheylesn>ore that he "shivered", when he looked upon the realistic reproduction of the igloo, wnich brought back to his mind so vividly those terrible seven months. Among other relics might be mentioned the theodolite which fixed the position of the South Pole, thecamera with which photographs of the Pole were taken, sledging ther-' mometer and compass, a repair bag, a lamp made from an empty tin to' burn a mixture of vaseline and spirit, a typewriter, several sleepingbags, skis of Captain Scott, Lieutenant Bowers, and Dr. Wilson, and an instrument box which Captain Scott and his party used on the return journey from the Pole.

The tent of death is perhaps the most striking of the relics. It i« the inner lining only, the oute* covering having been used as a palJ for the bodies —a tiny structure hart* ly, to all appearances, fit shelter against the Antarctic blizzard.