POLAR EXPLORATION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 203, 1 October 1909, Page 2

POLAR EXPLORATION.

VIEWING THE NIMEOD. ByCablc-P/ess Asaociation.-<)opyrigllt Loudon, September w. The Lord Mayor of London opened (he Nimrod for public inspection at Temple Pier. An exhibition of liMUnant Shackleton's equipment and photographs of the expedition has been opened at the Koyal College of Surgeons.

"C.W.W." 'writes to the editor as follows:—Despite the "icy friction" existing between the two North Polar competitors, Dr. Cook and Commander Peary, it might still be unquestionable that both distinguished explorers may have arrived at DO, although I am inclined myself to venture the opinii* that neither hero has attained strictly the North Pole proper. The details of the expeditions are hitherto meagre; indeed, no mention seems ever to have been given by previous members of Arctic expeditions of the different height* and proceedings of the "sun" at tfij Pole, upon which the whole authenticity or accuracy of the alleged latitudes leached rest. The attitude of til? "sun" at the Pole would depend on which summer month arrived at that "ultima thule." He who was on the scene on the oth April would, rough l / speaking, find the sun about 3y, degrees above the horizon; the explorer who reached the mystical polar north on the 21st April, might discover the sun about eight degrees above the horizon; on the 21st Juno the sun's height wouid be 23'/ 2 degrees, in every likelihood. In each and every case the diunial circuit V the sun would be precisely parallel to the plane of the horizon, otherwise the observer Is not at the Po'.e.

The slightest inclination to the horiz.-n of the sun's apparent counse during tb.o twenty-four hours—the slightest difference between his mid-day and midnight altitudes—would show a lower latitude than the Pole. If photograpns be possible in such Tegions a view oi the aspect of the sun might not be undesirable, as seen at the presumed Pol*, Miles might also have been traversed over polar ice in the extreme north without any perceptible difference behw noticed in the altitude (giving 90) of the sun let alone variation in the position of the 'Pole star' if visible with telescopes. Dr. Cook mentions illimitable fields of purple snow, the tint possibly due to reflection from sky or cloud*. The mirage of an inverted mountain is scarcely to be considered likely without some material origin. Commander Peary saw no snow in the highest latitude, but describes the lee an grinding in every direction. Now, on the perhaps wild hypothesis that although centrifugal force is almost nil at the Pole, there might be sot up cpme central oceanic turmoil, conflict, bubbling or eddying of waters. Such commotion might be miles in extent and its ripples o r surges from its more central tumult of grinding, crashing, if thundering, ice, might be perceptible very considerably remote from its origin at the terrestrial rotating point. Though the supposition of violent aqueous eddy or eddies at the Pole may not be tenable, still the prospect to the explorer of crossing such gurgling or icy action might, if American phraseology be permitted, make him feel "kinder skeared like" and "sorter" wish to be in different "sareumstnnees," ns the incautious venturer might not return, The pouth magnetic pole is either a fiction or its influence is so slight as not to deflect the dip needle until just over it. If the force bore comparison to that of the north magnetic pole, then a little north of the equator the compass would point norih, while a little south of the equator the needle would fly round to the south, which it decidedly does not.,