Amundsen Relic

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 858, 30 December 1929, Page 10

Amundsen Relic

AMID POLAR MOUNTAINS Note Found Under Cairn U.D RUSSELL OH'EX Copyrighted, 19JS, by the ".New York Times” company and the St I c.uis AVix4leS IS to'the ”x'e'v I: sSrl- S Times 1 ” liC at ‘° n reserved throughout the world. BAI OF WHALES, Friday. A CASE left by the late Captain Roald Amundsen on Mount Betty, at the foot of the Axel Heiberg Glacier, has been found by Dr. Gould, leader of the geological party in Queen Maud Mountains. A note written by the famous Norwegian explorer, and first man to reach the South Pole, was found in a can buried under a rock cairn, where it had been placed IS years ago, on his return journey.

The mountains to the east of Axel Heiberg Glacier were found to be very different from those to the west. Dr. Gould has reported to Commander Byrd that the mountains in Marie Byrd Land, east of the 150th meridian, are so low that they do not form a massive rock rampart holding the interior Polar plateau, and that the ice floods down from above and forces the Barrier up into great pressure ridges 50 miles out from the range. His discoveries suggest that possibly the Barrier covers a vast area east of the hitherto known limits. Dr. Gould also found copper and other minerals in the eastern mountains. The finding of Amundsen’s message was described' in the following message to the commander: NORWEGIAN’S CAIRN “We camped near Mount Betty, and before leaving for Strom Camp, decided as a last • hope to look at a curious pile of rock far down on a low ridge from the main mountain. It was agreed that Mike Thorne and 1 would ski over and take a look, to save bringing the teams. But this time we were not disappointed, so We signalled with our flags for the rest to come, and it did not take them long to get there. Even the dogs felt the excitement in the air, and hurried. For we had found Amundsen’s cache. “We stood about the cairn and uncovered our heads for a moment of

silence, in respect for the memory of the remarkable man whose hands had built it, before we even touched the stone. And then, as though it were a sacred relic, we removed it. “It contained a five-gallon tin of petrol, in excellent condition, besides two packages of matches. Then there was a tiu can, containing Amundsen’s note, and another bit of paper with the names and addresses of Hansen and Wisting. “I put a new note in the can, telling briefly about the Byrd Expedition and the geological party. We also took the liberty of tearing open one package of matches, and then carefully replaced each rock and left the cairn as we found it, just as Amundsen had left it IS years ago. TEXT OF THE MESSAGE “His message was in Norwegian. Translated it reads as follows: “January 6, 1912. Arrived and encircled the South Pole, December 14-16, 1911. Have confirmed Victoria Laud, so it is most likely that King Edward VII. Land has no connection at SC degrees south latitude with Victoria Land. It also shows that this land continues in a colossal mountain range toward the south-east. We could see this enormous mountain rangje to S 8 degrees south latitude, and most likely from appearances it continues farther in the same direction over the Antarctic continent. “ ‘We passed this cache on our return from tile South Pole with provisions for 60 days, and two sledges and 11 dogs. All well —Roald Amundsen.” Amundsen’s message greatly thrilled the men in camp, especially the one Norwegian in our expedition, Martin Ronne, who was with Amundsen on his South Pole expedition, and who made their wind proof clothes and other articles, and who also made the north-east passage of (he Arctic Ocean with Amundsen. Ronne came running into the library with his autographed copy of Amundsen’s book of his South Polar journey, which the explorer had given him. “See, it tells here,” he said, and began to read in Norwegian. The hook relates the reaching of the Barrier cache at 85 degrees 5 minutes south latitude, after the trip down the Axel Heiberg Glacier, and the making of preparations for the last stage of their journey homeward. The book continues: “When he had accomplished all this repacking and had everything ready two of us went over to Mount Betty and collected as many different specimens of rocks as we could lay our hands on. At the same time we built a great cairn and left there a can of 17 litres of paraffin, two packs of matches containing 20 boxes, aud an account of our expedition. Possibly someone may find use for these things in future.” There is a slight discrepancy in the book on the amount of food taken with them, for Amundsen says that when they left their depot they had provisions for 35 days, instead of 60, although he adds: “Besides this, of course, we had a depot at every degree of latitude up to 80,” which may explain the difference in the estimates of food. The two men whose names were found on the pieces of paper are Helmar Hansen and Oskar Wisting. They were with Amundsen on the north-east passage, and Wisting stood at one ot the controls of the Norge

on the flight that Amundsen and Ellsworth made from Spitzbergen to Alaska. IMPORTANCE OF DISCOVERIES Of the five who went to the South Pole and built the cairn found by Gould, only Wisting, Hansen and Bjaaland are alive. I-lassel died ill Amundsen’s home in Norway, and the great explorer himself perished ill an attempt to fly to the rescue of the crew of the ill-fated Italia, of the later Nobile expedition. The importance of Gould’s discoveries to eastward is emphasised by Commander Byrd. ‘‘l believe,” he says, “that geographers have thought of the area east of Amundsen’s trail and south to the Queen Maud Mountains as being land forming part of a great continent. From an altitude of 3,000 ft on a day of good visibility we scanned the eastern Barrier but saw no land between Little America and 85 degrees south.

“Our photographs taken of the area called Carmen Land indicated that the mountains rail very little north of S 5 degrees. There were some huge pressure ridges which gave the appearance of land and fooled us at first. In other words, there was no evidence that the great ice Barrier does not run hundreds of miles to the eastward. “Now Gould has verified this indication by travelling on foot well beyond the mountain range as indicated on the map. He saw no range running north of S 5 degrees 25 minutes. This means that 100 miles of the Carmen Land mountains will have to be taken off the maps. “The Barrier curves around Charles and Bob Mountains south-east, beyond 147 west longitude, but it is impossible to say how far. I wish to state emphatically again that this is no reflection on Amundsen’s findings, as a foot traveller naturally would mistake enormous pressure ridges for snow-capped mountains.