BACK FROM ANTARCTICA.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 51, 25 March 1909, Page 3

BACK FROM ANTARCTICA.

KTMKOD NEWS FROM LONDON. MT. EREBUS SUCCESSFULLY SCALED. AN AWE-INSPHUXG CRATKIt. SHACKLETOX CONGRATULATED BY THE QUEEN. Received 44, 10.55 pan. London, .March 24. The Queen, through the Daily Mail, has sent her hearty congratulations to Lieutenant Shaekleton on his great achievement. Lieutenant Shackleton's cablegram to the Daily Mail states that Lieut. J. B. Adiiiuc, It.N.R. (meterologist and niagncliciaa), Sir Philip Brocklehurst (surveyor and baker), Professor David (geologist, Dr. Forbes llackay (surgeon, farrier aud surveyor), Dr. E. .Marshall (surgeon, magnetician and surveyor), and U. E. Jlarson (artist) left Cape lioyd on the sth March to a stead Mount Erebus. They climbed, on thj 7 th, with a sledge., carrying | equipment on. their bacta, to an altitude ot 95U0 feet, the thermometer registering 50 degrees below freezing point. After a violent blizzard, lasting several liours, they reached an old crater on the Ht-li. They found unique fumaroles or smoke holes in the crater, filled with' felspar crystals, pumice and sulphur. The summit was reached on the 10th, and to their gaze was revealed: an active crater, halt a mile is diameter, 800 feet deep, with volumes of steam and sulphurous gas rising for 2000 feet. After making collections, they glissaded down, and reached Cape fioyd on the lltb. ' Meteorological observations were taken until the end of the expedition.

INTERESTING .PARTICULARS. MAGXETIO POLE REACHED. , " UNION JACK PLANTED. Received 21, 11.56 p.m. , London, March 24. Mr. 'Murray, the biologist, found abundant microscopic life, rotifers, etc., m fresh water lakes near Cape Royd, also the ringed Penguin, lichens and mosses. Mr. ilarson, the artist, made records of the Aurora displays, which were exceedingly brilliant throughout tie winter. They showed, mostly in the east, and seldom in the direction of the magnetic pole—racing cascades of luminescence darting across tlie heavens. .Many and full records were obtained of currents aad tides, by which they •will be able to guage detailed work in physics. , Professor David- considers the Antarctic bergs mostly, snowbergs. Fossil radiolaria, ,(a genius of fossil shells) were found in glacial boulders. Much marine dredging was done during the wj liter, shafts bang sunk in the ice. Biological winter studies were continued, and cinematograph, records obtained of natural history. The lowest temperature recorded was 72 degrees below freezing points. Sledging on the 12th August, Mr. B. Armytage, Professor David and I, continues Lieut. Shackleton, examined the Great Ice Barrier surface, showing 89 degrees of frost, and returning to Cape Royd: on the 10th September. 'Adams, Joyce, Marshall, Jlarson, Wild and lie-started on the 22r.d, and placed •124 miles south of the Discovery's winter quarters a depot for our southern journey. „ , Shackleton further states: Professor David reports that the northern party, consisting of Jtlarson, Mackay- and himself, started on the sth Octobed over a difficult route, in tie course of wbeh ibhey met with many, hardships, and reached on 16th January the magnetic pole, to latitude 72 degrees 25 minutes and longitude 154, where they hoisted the Union Jack.

BASE FOR THE SOUTH. A NEW, RECORD ESTABLISHED. Received March. 25, 12.10 a.m. London, March 24. A blizzard held us up for a week, tne lowest reading slowing 88 degrees of frost. The barrier surface was found impracticable for the motor sledge, but the Arrol-Johnstou motor proved useful over the sea ice laying depots and covering distances aggregating 400 miles. - . f The southern party, consisting «i (Adams, Marshall, .Will and 1, and four nonies, and a supporting party, namely Broekleliurst, Joyce, Marson, Armytage, and Priestly, left Cape Royd on 2Jtli October. We left the nut at point the third with 91 days' provisions. We were detained at White Island by a {blizzard for four days. The supporting iparty returned on the seventh. Adams and a pony were nearly lost owing to bad light, in ice crevasses. On -the 13th we reached the depot established in September in latitude 79 degrees 38 minutes, longitude 108 degrees, and took- oa pony maize tind provisions, and, having reduced our rations, travelled south along meridian lbß over high ridges covered with snow, alternating with soft snow, in which the nonies often sank to their bellies. Lieutenant Shackleton, in latitude 81 degrees 4 minutes, shot a pony and made a depot "for oil, biscuit, and pony meat. The remainder oi the latter we carried to eke out the dried rations. On the 20th we reached the Discovery's southernmost latitude. We encountered soft snow in large undula-] tions, and two ponies went snow-blind and had to be shot. ,We made a depot in latitude 82 degrees 45 minutes, longitude 170. [Captain Scott's turning-point in lJlfc. mas at 82 degrees' 17 minutes.] OFF CAPE SAUNDERS.

' By Telegraph.—Press Association.. 1 Ohristchureh, Wednesday. The Xirnrod was signalled off Cape Saunders at 6 a.m. to-da.v, 208 miles from Lyttelton. < HISTORY OF THE EXPEDITION. the NIMROD'S voyages.

V !"■' SCIENTISTS AND CREW. 1

The broad histoTy of the expedition » quickly told. The gtout little Mm- Jrod left London on July 31, I!X>7, and J called at Cowes, where the lung and Queen w.ent on board oil a out of ln " section. His Majesty interred the V A'ictorlau Order on Lieutenant Shackle- 1 ion, and the Queen presented the ship = ■with a flag, to be planted oil the South Pole, if the explorers were lucky •enough to discover it. The vessel arxived at Lyttelton on Saturday, Novem- « ber 29, after a splendid passage. The ship's company then was as follows: c Captain Rupert England, in command, formerly of the Antarctica relief steam- i ei Morning; Mr. John K. Davies, for- , inerly chief officer of the training ship , Port Jackson; Mr. A. E. Mcintosh, late | of the P. and O. service, second otheer, . Mr Cluthon, formerly boatswain of the Morning, third officer; Mr. Dunlop, chief engineer; Mr. Craft, second engmeer; Dr Mitchell, medical officer; Mr. Mur iav biologist; Mr. McKay, assistant biologist. Dr. Mitchell, M.8., the ship a surgeon, is a young Canadian, who took his degree at Toronto Umv.rs.tv. Ita experience of snow and ice iH°iario was expected to be of use to ta in he Antarctic. Dr. Mackay, logist, was to have, charge of the Man churiatt ponies, besides coUectiugwo. Mr. Murray, biologist, is a Glas 0 jnM, without previous experience of Soyember 23 the Nirnrod reached lyttelton And aocra afterwards Lieut. Shackleton #«ived m Wellington,li4ng come out m Australia. The d parture from Lyttelton was ™ ade lanuary 1, 1908; the «d to the ice regions by the Union Company's steamer Koonya, under ur;taitt Evans. Bad weather was exper eaeed, and after some days it was J ou ™ that the «train of the towing was te in* on the ship. She was badly strain Sf and tegan to leak. . Lieutou. ghacktetoa put c the puinpa, day and nigty. u »ot pa«t the shrieking fifties, and t ieatto improved. The heavy seas had washed away the butarks forwarf; rjort and stafboard sides. On J an ''"> 15 the vessels reached the icc. an Koonvft back to Lyttelton. of tlic ara.llamoarLt

ice, and then an open buy was readied, alive with huge, tinned-back whale. Alter dillieulties caused by the breakbg 01 the ice -barrier, ami dangers due to blizzards, a hut was built ill a sheltered valley at the foot of .Mount Erebus, oil Cape ltoyds, about 20 miles north of the Discovery's winter quarters, and a shore party Jaaded. The Ximrod then l'eturn.'il to Lyttelton, which she reached oil March S, 1908. The shore party, of about a dozen men, included Lieutenant Shaekleton as leader, Professor David, of Sydney University, Sir Philip Brocklehunst", ill'. Hurray, biologist, .Mr. Douglas llaiwso'i, chemist and physicist, of Adelaide, anil -Mr. Arniytagc, general sledger. 11 r. Mcintosh, who was to have stayed, had the misfortune to lose aji eye by au accident on boaru the Niuirod, and returned witli her to Lvttelton. The Ximrod left Lvttelton on her second voyage, to bring oil' the exploring party, un December 1, 1908. Captain England liad resigned hie command of tlie vessel in the meantime, and on her second trip she was commanded by Captain Evans, formerly of the Koonya. The other officers were unchanged, and the crew was the same, except ior two new bands, one of whom, D. Nelson, had been o-ii the Horning. There were four new men in the engineers' department. The New Zealand Government contributed £IOOO towards the expeutics of the expedition, and the Commonwealth £SOOO.

Lieutenant Shaekleton intended to follow the route of Captain .Scott's expedition of 11)02, and from its termiaus make a dash for the South Pole. Lieut. Shaekleton fixed his winter quarters in the vicinity of Mount Erebus.

THE POLAR, RIDDLE. The peculiar geographical aspect of the expedition is especially interesting. "No one," said Lieutenant Shaekleton, when he was in Wellington, ' knows what lies to the south of King Edward Laaid, because the Discovery's party, which I accompanied, only saw a short distance through falling snow and mist. We hope, by landing there, going to the westfward on to the Great Ice Barrier, antl travelling southward over the Barrier surface, to solve the greatest problem that remains in solar work to-day. The great question, to be solved is whether this vast Barrier is the remains of a sea, frozen in the last glacial age, with layers upon layers oi snow spread on it, or whether it a great glacier, coming from a gigantic mountain range in the far south. It is from this Barrier, as you know, that the great icebergs toeak off and float up towards the region of New Zealand. It is quite possible, looking at it broadly, that we shall find King Edward the Seventh Land is the north end of another range of mountains similar to that which wc discovered on the farthest South journey with Captain Scott. If these mountains go round to Graham Land, and link up the two lands, it will prove the entire continental nature of the Antarctic, giving an area probably greater than that of Australia—roughly speaking, some four million square miles."