The South Pole

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 217, 12 March 1912, Page 5

The South Pole

A GREAT FEAT. THE NAMING OF A PLATEAU. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. London, March 10. Sir Ernest Shackleton, in an article, says that Captain Amundsen undoubtedly reached the Pole, and had easy travelling owing to the fine weather. He that the plateau christened Haakon is the same as he (Shackleton) named King Edward VII. The Chronicle congratulates the Pacific Board on the expeditious and excellent transmission of the cablegrams, "which filled a page of the newspaper, Mr. Stead congratulates the Chronicle on demolishing Dr. Coolc at the North Pole and establishing Captain Amundsen at the South.

AMUNDSEN INTERVIEWED. ■CAPTAIN MAY HAVE SUCCEEDED. Hobart, March 11. Late last night Captain Amundsen consented to be interviewed. He declared that there was not much to add to the cable. His base was 400 miles •from that of Captain Scott, and he did not Icnow when Scott made his dash for the Pole. Captain Amundsen camped nearer the Pole than Scott, who preferred the dry land for travel. Amundsen elected to make his wav over the Barrier. He sincerely hoped that Scott readied the Pole. He might have done *o 'before him, since it is his second attempt. He added that he received ltondreds of congratulatory messages, including one from King George.

"THE MOST WONDERFUL STORY." PROFESSOR DAVID'S VIEWS. Sydney, March 11. Professor David considers- that Captain Amundsen's is the most wonderful story ever brought back by an explorer. The moßt striking fact is.that Amundsen did not use Shackletnn's old. tracks by way of the Beardmore Glacier, but did a sporting thing. What is by far the most important feature in the interests of science is the fact that he struck south from his winter quarters. The party was extraordinarily favored regarding the weather. Captain Amundsen "had mentioned that one man and two dogs fell though the ice. In the case of Sir Ernest Shackleton's attempt almost everyone fell through the lids of crevasses every day. Evidently the Devil's Glacier is far more favorable than the Beardmore for sledging. From the point of view of travelling speed, Amundsen's famous march had seldom been equalled and never surpassed. The discovery that from 88.25 deg. S. to * the Pole the plateau sloped downwards was scientifically extremely interesting. It shows that no important ranges of mountains such as would check the outflow of ice lie midway between Adelie Land and the Weddel Sea.

MR. FISHER'S CONGRATULATIONS. Received 12, 1 a.m. Melbourne, March LI. Mr. Fisher has cabled to Captain Amundsen, "Congratulate you heartily on the success of your expedition and safe return, and hope to see you on your visit to Melbourne." ROMANCE OF THE ANTARCTIC. THE MARO& OF SCIENCE. 11l a lecture before the Science Congress at Sydney in January. 1911, Dr. Mawson. who was.a member of the scientific staff of the Shackleton expedition, and is now leading an Australasian expedition to the Antarctic regions, traced the history of Polar discovery in the Southern Hemisphere from 1531, the date of thfe publication of the hypothetical map at Orantius Finne. "The befief in a vast southern'land," he said, "wtending over a large area, now known to be ocean, grew stronger dnring the lflth century, owing to the false and unwarranted reports of Portugnese and Spanish navigators. Voyagers travelling eastward from Malacca and westward from South America repeatedly fell in with the very numerous islands of the Pacific, and charted them as projections of the vast southern continent. Thus in 1526 New Guinea was met with for the first time by a Portuguese. In 1667 the Solomon Islands were discovered by the Spaniard Mendana. In 1606 Quiroa landed in the New Hebrides. Sir Francis Drake, the boldest navigator of the Elizabethian age, after having passed through Magellan Strait in the year 1578, was driven south bv a storm, and accidentally proved Tierra del Fuega to be an island. To the southward he logged: The Atlantic Ocean and the South Sea meet in a most large and free scope.' Dutch navigators sailing south-east from their possessions in the East Indies slowly mapped in tiie adjoining coast of Australia. Taxman finally crowned their' efforts by sailing round the south coast, isolating a great mass of land. Australia, from the "hypothetical continent. Sailing further to the eirt. Taxman fell in with New, Zealand, which, however, he regarded as a portion of the southern continent." OOOK AND BELLINGSIAUSEN. The various other voyages of exploration np to the, time of Captain Cook are briefly sketched. It was Cook who settled for ever the possibility of an extensive Antarctic continent, except within the iee-infested region of the far south. He inaugurated a new era in long voyages. Then followed the days of the sealers in (toe south, the voyages of Cook proving a jVery profitable investment for the natioty During the early years of the 19th century, at least, the Americans controlled'the sealing industry. In 1826 Captain Robert Johnson set out for New Zealand, vfith the object of exploring the Antarctic £f the south, but was never heard'of again. Earlv in 1819, Dr. Mawson went on to relate,*the'Emperor Alexander I. decided to Bend okt an expedition of two ships to the South Polar regions. Ultimately Admiral Bellingshausen was chosen as commander. The expedition had to sail, however, without a scientific staff. W hen near the Antarctic circle they were rewarded by the discovery of several isolated islands, one of them provin" to be a volcano in active eruption. Skirting the pack i< c. whlM preserving an easterly course in as high a southerly latitude as possible, they continued until arriving in the vicinity of Australia. They entered Svdnev Harbor 131 days after leaving Rio Janeiro, and received a hearty welcome fro* Governor Macquane and the leading .citizens of Sydney. Altogether Bellingshausen completed a magnificent voyage of two years' duration with a loss* of only three men. a wonderful record for those days.

THE PIONEERS OF WHALING. Among other voyages were those of Enderbv Brothers, the great pioneers of the whaling industry, who had sent their •hips into the. southern seas since 1785, instructing their captains to take every opportunity - to advance geographical knowledge of those little-known region?. "There if," said Dr. Mawson. "no other instance of a private mercantile firm undertaking so extensive a .-"lies of voyages of discovery without much encour: agement in the way of pecuniary returns. As a result of their enterprise.

Messrs Enderby ultimately obtained from the British Government a concession for the exclusive possession of the Auckland Isles for a whaling station, and the Southern Whale Fishing Company was established. SCIENTIFIC RENAISSANCE. Then followed a scientific renaissance. The nations woke up to the importance of scientific observations in high latitudes, especially in regard to magnetism. The science of terrestrial magnetism was then is its infancy, A science such as this, based on observation, required the toil of thousands of observers for scores of years, or even centurie?, before the raw material could be accumulated in sufficient quantity for the mathematician to deduce and prove his theory. All Europe and America were seized -with enthusiasm at the prospects of scientific research within the still unknown Antarctic. In Great Britain the Royal Society clamored for an expedition, and hoped it might be under the leadership of young James Clark Ross, the discoverer of t'he North Magnetic Pole. Eventually France, the United States and Great Britain all participated. Ross took command, and the distinguished batonist, Sir Joseph Hooker, was a member of the scientific staff. For the excellent achievements of the expedition Ross was awarded the highest honors. AFTER SIXTY YEARS.

The researches of Dumant D'Urville, Wilkes and others were briefly sketched, and Dr. Mawson went on to state that for a period of 60 years no serious Antarctic exploration was undertaken. America was engaged in a civil war, and England was fully occupied in searching for Sir John Franklin in the Arctic. A competent scientific staff on the Challenger, a roomv wooden corvette of 2306 tons, set out in December, 1872, to circumnavigate the world. During the course of the voyage the expedition ran into Antarctic waters, and made valuable discoveries. For many years after this voyage nothing more than rumors of Antarctic voyages were heard of. It was not until the summer of 185)2 that sTiips actually set out. Four whalers sailed from Dundee bound on a <>ommercial cruise in the Weddell Sea. Dr. Bruce, of subsequent fame, being the surgeon on one of them. In southern waters they fell in with Captain Larsen, with the Jason, who did some valuable scientific work. The Jason returned again the following year, and the expedition then succeeded in penetrating well within the Antarctic Circle. FIRST SPECIMEN OF PLANT LIFE.

There was at this time a strong feeling in Australia that expeditions should be sent to the south, and to help matters the Victorian Government offered a sum of £SOOO to any such venture. This was not taken up. Then came the expedition planned by Mr. Bull, a Norwegian, to investigate the possibilities of whale fishing in Ross Sea—an expedition which Borchgrevinck, who was serving as a surveyor's assistant, succeeded in joining in Melbourne. They landed on Possession Island, where Borchgrevinck found a lichen growing on the rock —the first specimen of plant life within the Antarctic Circle.

Though touched up as early as 1820, only six or seven expeditions, the speaker went on to say, ever came within sight of the land until during the last 15 years. It was not until 1898 that an Antarctic winter had been experienced, and the contributions of the various exexditions referred only to isolated spots of the 8000 miles of coastline. The passive condition of Australian enterprise respecting the potentialities of the Antarctic continent was really due to lack of public knowledge relating thereto.