The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1928 ARGONAUTS OF THE SOUTH

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 502, 3 November 1928, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3, 1928 ARGONAUTS OF THE SOUTH

AWAY beyond the boundaries of civilisation lies the great unknown that through all the ages has lured brave men to the quest of difficult and dangerous adventure.. ‘ Some have dedicated their courage, skill, physical health, even their lives, to exploration in the dark forests and matted jungle of the Tropies. In some, it is the towering spires of stupendous mountain chains that arouse the will to fare forth and conquer. For others the chosen field of exploration and research lies within the narrow, seemingly prosaic walls of a laboratory or workshop; hut none can say what tribute and sacrifice exacting Science may demand of them, nor what, again, may he the fruits of their labours. Lastly, there is the ehosen hand of hardy adventurers in whose breasts has been implanted, since the days when the voyages of Eric the Red furnished the material for the first saga of polar exploration, some unquenchable impulse guiding them, toward the ice-covered ends of the earth.

Rearing down on Yew Zealand now is Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd, with an expedition organised in the most modern fashion, and equipped with the most modern contrivances. He has some sort of a relationship with old Bartolomeo Diaz, first to round the Cape of Good Hope, breast the gusty latitudes of the Roaring Forties, and open the colourful chapter of Antarctic exploration. Byrd is in a sense the successor, too, of Abel Tasman, who journeyed South in quest of a great unknown continent, leaving a thin string of queer names, Fishpingle Hoek (Cape Foulwind), Cape Pieter Borziel (Cape Egmont), and Cape Maria van Diemen, to mark his passage along the New Zealand coast. Then there was Cook, in whom we take a personal pride. He was the first, after a remarkable voyage along the seventieth parallel, to dissipate the myth that the vast, legendary Antarctic continent extended into sub-temperate regions. Scurvy, cold, bitter winds, and the still-imagined demons that brooded over the lost seas at this far end of the world, dogged these early Argonauts of the South, hut participation in the quest became a point of national pride. Kerguelen, Bouvet and D’Urville voyaged for the gl<sry of France ; Bellingshausen raised the banner of Russia among the ice-floes, and Weddell and Ross gave British names to the twin seas of the Antarctic shore, seas that still hold a mystery, which Commander Byrd may help to solve.

While Byrd is nearing New Zealand, a second intrepid explorer and airman, Sir Hubert Wilkins, is making a base in the South Shetlands for another airway dash across the AntarcticContinent. It is not a rival venture in the sordid commercialised sense of the termbut a spirit of sporting rivalry will doubtless inspire the preparations of the two camps with a keener enthusiasm. In Byrd’s case the expedition is particularly wellequipped. Every device that money can buy will ease the rigours of Antarctic life. The contrast with the expeditions of last century is profound. These adventurers of 1928 will carry with them four stout airplanes, powerful lighting equipment, and radio gear that will keep them in touch with everything that happens in the outside world. But in spite of these refinements they will still be faced with the old, elemental dangers. One of the resnlts hoped from the Wilkins and Byrd expeditions is a closer knowledge of the bearing Antarctic storms have on the weather conditions of the world. In establishing this knowledge the explorers may come into unpleasantly intimate eontaet with the grim forces of blizzard and snowstorm. The hazards of flights at considerable altitude over the stark uplands of the great white continent will be enormous, and the safety of the men and machines will at best be precarious. The explorers hope, beside circling over the Pole, and perhaps landing there, to make side-trips into the great frozen fastnesses of unknown King Edward VII. Land. Such flights, in view of the uncertainty of Antarctic weather, and the incredible difficulties of travelling on foot in the event of a forced landing, will be fraught with the deadliest perils. The Byrd expedition, for all the blaze of publicity in which it has set out, for all the vast extent of the commissariat department, and the Inxnry of its appointments compared with those of earlier explorers, is not embarking on any pleasure jaunt. Byrd and Wilkins, should their plans succeed, will make a great contribution to the sum of scientific knowledge. Only men of the staunchest hearts could do so. The aerial explorers of the twentieth century are true in lineage with the hardy seafarers of old.