AMUNDSEM & THE SOUTH POLL

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 8349, 8 February 1913, Page 10

AMUNDSEM & THE SOUTH POLL

»ho South Pole, tho Norwegian Antarctic Expedition in tne Pram, 1910-1912. Translated by A. 3. Chator. Maps and illustrationa. 2 vots. tLondon John Hurray!. So little Las been published in ■ tho freed ' confcerhinis tho ' details', or Amund- - on a conquest, of tho Eolith Pplo that a pecial interest attaches to tho two handonio volumes, published by Mr John ■iurray. in which wo have at last a lull aid : authoritative record. of . the Nor/egian Antarctic Expedition m .the 'ram, 191(M‘J12. Translated Horn tho. riguial Norwegian by iir A. .1. Chater, 'ho ■ gentleman to whom wo owe the ranstation of Nansen's great work, in lortheru Mists/’ and prefaced by an ntroditctloxi by Dr Nansen, Amundsen a iarrativo is »ins;ularly attractive. Wnten In a laudably simple and direct stylo, lamently characteristic of the modest aanpeml, yet gallant explorer who leaded the expedition, it m an imiwntly readable production, ctuite ipart from jits . value as a [eographieai and scientific work. it s pleasant to note , not only tho modesty nth whuch Amundsen refers to his own icliievorn'ents, but the frankness and tan(erity of his references to the work of da English proilecessors, facott and ihackleton. There can bo littlo doubt jia success owed much to tho experience mined by ; tho two Britons. IXs was, it S true, a rival and. competitor of Scott. P r ith tho Norwegians to set first to The ola, was clearly thy main object. But Ajuundoea never beixitles tho work of his WraJa,. ivwi ho puts down bia opinion Ehuat with! the Scott expedition tho Tolo g "merely a side issue." The latest BaK expedition was, ho asks his roadto remember, “designed entirely tor uientifio purposes." Another pleasant W-ura about tho Norseman’s book is jho author’s continual insistence upon Ihe value of the work done by his comadea. By. Amiundsen the expedition was leror 1 regarded' as a oine-iiian Bhovr. tie Norwegian is not a "Peary. Prom list to last a most no ticca bio spirit ol unfeigned comaraderio existed, between gbo of th.o —expedition and kich and every member of the expedition, mdeed* reading, this faoofc,, one cannot Clp coming to the conclusion that tho bffioexa and men of the tfram wero simply me hie happy 'each ■ and , every kne imbued with the spirit of eeltibegnakion, each and civory ono domin* U*j2 only by the ono great commanding Snciple: *'W« must win through. \\e tea and hear far. more of "tho men n book than in those, of Sir Edward Shackloton'and. Captain Scotty V greater . spirit of fraternity and Wmanty, never however at tho. expense if rightful discipline, was always protont. Amundsen never wearies of de(cribiUß the habits the hobbies, the imuaem onto, tho tastes of . his men, and it is cU«r that on both eidee there was tors than mere diking.and cheerful )bediensci>— there was something approachjog affection. Tho Eh am was not a, teetotal ship. 'Without', exception" all On board took md enioycv'l an occasional glass of ir a tot of - spirite.”' Oh the sledge (ourmys alcofloV was tabooed, ‘ not i-drink off a f,writs can do any harm, but ,n account of- the weight and space. In Xniundaou’s oi union coffee call bo .mat i* injurious as alcohol, and he wisely niinhaaiees the-' importance of the part .laved "‘by a gU-ss at wine or toddy m Ocial 'ftatheringe on such a -voyage. la says'i Two men who, have, Allien out a littlo in tin- course of - the, .weOk-.aro..recoii--■ilcd at onco hy tlio scent of rum, i‘li o 'uasO i» forgotten, and they start i.i-t’sli. -it,V 'friendly eo-<>peratiou. Take ilcolioT a\Vay from these littlo festivil;cs mid' you will soon see the dif- - f-"-o*nce. .'■■■• P It seems as if we civiliinl’ human! beings muot have etimuliitili"- drink 9, and that being so, we li-n-e” to foil ow our owen convictions. I: am for a gTaes of totWy-, Let those who- will eat .plum cake and swill hot coffee—heartburn and other troubles are often- tho result of this kind of refreshment. A littlo toddy doesn’t hurt anybody. ' , Also, the ship's company were well .applied' with" tobacco and cigars. Cleary amongst tho men- who were the first p reach- the South Pole, the ProhibiSonista and Anti-Tollhacco enthusiasts kill fsearch in vain, for supporters of their ideas. Bht' if the Eram’e atom ware given, in aoderaJdom, to tobacco and toddy, they tad'a fe'rtile source of mental recreation, the-ship carried- a library, of at least (000 volatues; and whait inspecting the Vepht at IT-amheim, Amundsen was Mciaily pf-eased to .se© that a good Section of books—numbered X to 80 m Eieo shelves, with catalogue beside them SIT in ddo order —was a feature. of the Btablislimeut. Oames, too, were liberally wovided; aixd musical instruments, but, £ys the author, “a gramophone, with a tree.supply of records was, X think, our Cost tnencL” In personal equipment -Ctory man was splendidly provided for. Asides .iff usually , liberal supply of ittra thick woollen underclothing, each nan had a complete suit of sealskin from Greenland, and reindeer skin suits as yell, also inner and outer sleeping bags, i’or overalls on the sledge journeys Liittuldscn- “unhesitatingly recommends jSiirberry/’ ‘ Amongst tho provisions Ccnumicam was cliiefly- used on the sledge pumeysv with biscuits (oatmeal, combinJd -with driedmilk and a littlo sugar), bilk-powder and chocolate. Amundsen ipeclally praises tho milk-powder, which riedthor heat cold, dryness, nor .wet iould injure/ Amundsen has hot much to say about ihe Japanese, whom ho first met at too Bay of "Whales, hut tho impression W loft on tho reader’s mind that tho Sorwegiau commander did not care very much for tho grinning littlo sons rf Nippon. Tho following extract may bo bihmendod to those Wollingtomans who rent into raptures over tho pleasant banners of tho Kainan Mara’s company: , Tho leader of tho Japanese expedition has written somewhere or other that the reason of Shackleton’s losing all his ponies was that tho ponies wero hot kept in tho tents by night, but had to lie outside. Ho thought tho ponies ought to be in the tents and tho men outside. From this one would think they wore great lovers of animals. but I must confess that was not ihe impression I received. They had pnt penguins into little boxes to take ’ them alive to Japan! Round about ::ii* deck lay dead and half-dead skua •n is in heaps. On tho ice, close to the : is.vl. was a seal ripped open, with , in of its entrails on the ieo; but in. so.il was still olive. Neither Prcstirnd or I had any sort of weapon that in could kill the seal with, so wo h.oied the Japanese to do it, bat they only laughed and grinned. A littlo way DJf two of them were coming across tho ice with a seal in front of them; they drove it on with two long poles, with which they pricked it when it would not go. It it fell into a crack, they dug it up again as you would see men quarrying stone at homo, it had not enough life in it to be able to escape its tormentors. Ail this was accompanied by laughter and jokes. On arrival at tho ship the animal was nearly dead, and it was left there until it expired. Undoubtedly Amundsen and his men mjoyed good luck as regards tho weather they encountered, but his special advantage over Scott lay no doubt in that liS men ware all exports in tho uso of die ski and in sledge work. As Dr Nan«n says in his introduction, tho work u which they .were engaged, mis “tho

Hpo fruit of Norwegian experience in pucient and modern times.” .Scott had uad luck with his dogs in tho 1902 expedition, and both Shackleton and himself, on his present expedition, jirefcrrod ponies. But Amundson swears by the Arctic dogs. When ho started on Oc|tuber 19th, ho had fifty-five of these u*etful animals. Of these ho took fortytone on the high-plateau and eighteen to tho Pole, whilst twolvo went tho whole way to tho Polo and back, Amundson evidently thinks that if Scott fails to reach the-Polo it will bo because ho has been obliged to reject tho aid of his ponies awl rely purely upon human haulage of the sledges. The dogs had some' rough work 'to ‘do even "on the Barrier, where tho surf ace . hotter salted them. A special trouble was the crevasse.- Ou the thirteenth day of the march, on October 33st, 1011, Amundsen’s record reads : Hanosen had to cross a crevasse a vard wide, and in doing it he was unlucky enough to catch tho point of his ski in the traces of tho hindmost dogs and fall right across the crevasse. This looked unpleasant. The dogs wero across, and a foot or two on the other side, but tho sledge was right oyer the crevasee, and had twisted as Elanssen fell, so that a little more would bring it into lino with the crevasse, and then, of course, down it would go. ; . Like a lot of roaring tigers, the whole team set upon each other and fought till their hair (flow! . . . If- this wont on, all was irretrievably lost. Ono of us jumped tho crovasso. went into tho middle of the struggling team, and fortunately got them to stop. At the same time Wisting threw a line to Uanssen and hauled him out of his unpleasant position. As to tho value of the dogs when the arduous task of ascending the groat glacier range on to tho plateau had to be faced, it was simply inestimable. Amundsen had calculated that tho asceut would take ten days, but four sufficed.. But had not the dogs boon there? The outhor says: For this last pull up I must give the higjiest praise both to the dogs and their drivers. It was a brilliant performance on both sides. . . The dogs seemed positively to understand that this was tho last big effort that was asked of them> they lay flat down and hauled, dug thoir claws in and dragged themselves forward. But they had to stop - and get breath very often, and then tho driver’s strength was put to the test. It is no child’s play to set a heavily laden sledgo in motion time after time. How they toiled, men and boasts, up that slope! But they got on inch by inch until the steepest part was left behind them. As to the sort of work that both men and dogs had to do on this, the most perilous portion of the journey, the illustration facing page-oSC.' in - ;the second Volume, “ILeU’s Gate on - the Devil’s Glacier,” tolls its own tale. It is easy to understand the feelings of the explorers when at their first camp on the 1 plateau 10,920 feet above-the sea, twentyfour .of tho animals, “Our brave companions and faithful helpers, were marked out*for death.” . , , It was hard—but it had to he so. Wo had agreed to shrink from nothing to reach our goal. Each man was to kill'liis own dogs to tho numlipr. that had been fixed. When the dogs had been killed—the place was christened “The - Butchers’ Shop”—“there was more than one among us,” soys Amundson, “who at first would not hear of taking any part in this 'feast, but as time went by, and appetites became sharper, this view underwent a change until,, during the last four daySj we all thought and talked of making but dog cutlets/dog- steaks - and the like.” The comrades of the dead aiumnls would uot at first touch the - entrails, but their appetite came after a while.” To follow closely-the.’wonderful journey of Amundsen and his men would be impossible within' the'.'limits* of my available space, but room must be found for an extract or two from, the description of the scene at the Pole. At three in the afternoon, a simultaneous “Halt”, rang out from the drivers. They had carefully examined their sledge-meters, and they all showed the full distaace-^our-Pole'-'by reckoning. Tho gdil“ Iwsa.V-Jre'oiilied, the journey ended. 1 cannot say—though 1 know it would sound much more effective —that the object of my life was attained. That would be romancing rather too barefacedly. X had better bo honest and admit straight out that I have never known any man to bo placed in such a diametrically opposite position to the goal of his- desires as I was at that moment. The regions around the" North -Pole—well, yes, the , North Polo , itself —had ..attracted me . from chi-kihixKl, und' liero- 'i' was at- ’the South Pole. Can -aiiythtajj 'morb topsyturvy ho imagined? ■ 1 ' Before commencing to circle round the camp at the Pole, at a radius of twelve and a half miles, it .was only natural that there should be congratulations and festivities.. These latter were mild enough in all conscience. Of course there was a festivity in the tent that night—not that champagne corks wore popping and wine Sowing—no, wo '.contented . ourselves with a little piece of seal meat each, and it tasted well, and did us good. There was no other sign of festival indoors.. Outside wo heard the hag flapping in the'breeze. Conversation was. lively in the'tent that evening, and-we talked of many, things. Perhaps, too, our thoughts Bent messages home of what wo had doneA q to the flag that was flapping, reminding these hardy Norsemen of the full success of their arduous enterprise. It is good to read that “the hot of planting it—the historic event —should be eexually divided” amongst them all. Amundsen’s record. is simply yet truly eloquent : It was not for one man to do this, it was for all who had staked their lives in the struggle and held together • through thick and thin. . . . Five wea- - ther-beaton, frost-bitten fists they were that grasped the polo, raised tho waving flag in tho air, and planted it as the first at tho geographical Soutn Pole. “Thus we plant theo, belovea Hag, at tho South Pole, and give to tho plain ou which it lies tho name ot King Haakon tho Seventh’s Plateau." That moment will certainly bo remembered by all of us who stood there. But the little .things of life were not forgotten. One of the little band, skilled in engraving, marked the men’s pipes “South Pole.” “Tobacco in the form of smoke had hitherto never made its appearance in tho tent.” Bnt that night how Amundsen did enjoy "a pipo of fresh, fine out plug”! In addition to Amundsen's own narrative, there is a chapter by Lieutenant Prestrud on bis sledge-jounrncy to Ring Edward Land, and another by Lieutenant NiLcn descriptive of the voyages of tho From to and from tho base on the Hal--rier. Also, thore are several appendices in which much interesting and valuable scientific information, meteorological, geological, astronomical, and oceanographical, is given. Tho illustrations, which number over a lujndred. reproduced as they are from original photographs taken by the explorers, are most interesting, and several maps and charts add to tho vahto of tho observations taken and recorded- It is almost needless to say that every public library worthy tho name should possess a copy of this decidedly interesting and valuable work.