COLD HELL

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 759, 5 February 1954, Page 12

COLD HELL

SEVENTH CONTINENT, by Arthur Scholes; Allen and Unwin, English price 21/-. ALTHOUGH this book is sub-titled "Saga of Australasian Exploration in Antarctica,’ and similarly described in the author’s foreword, it is also a summary of the whole of Antarctic exploration. This gives the reader a_ perspective view, often with plentiful detail, of progress from Captain Cook to the aeroplane age, so that he cs#n see the procession of victories and defeats, and how man has learnt to tackle the most formidable of the continents. High courage was there from the first;

knowledge had to be won. One of the reasons why Amundsen beat Scott to the South Pole was that he knew more about dogs. The contrast between the rate of Amundsen’s march and that of Scott, as set forth by Mr. Scholes, is startling. Traditionally, hell is a very hot place; but might it not be very cold? Perhaps because so much Antarctic experience is concentrated here, this book seems to convéy a particularly terrifying effect. No other part of the world has tried man so high. Yet, as Mr. Scholes points out, the fascination of this hell has brought many men back to it, some of them more than once. The bede-rol] of explorers from Australia is long and glowing: Borchgrevinck, Bernacchi, David, Mawson, Wilkins and others. Mr. Scholes puts Mawson at the top; in his four journeys to Antarctica, "he has achieved a reputation which is equalled by few others in this world.’ Besides its part in the organisation of expeditions, New Zealand has produced one outstanding figure-Frank Worsley, a true Elizabethan of the 20th Century. Another point brought out clearly is the work of scientists in building up a great body of knowledge, often under terrible conditions. This has been less spectacular than dashes for the Pole, but like the labour of the coral insect it raises a reef of knowledge. In a chapter ominously entitled "The Nations Quarrel," Mr. Scholes closes with a consideration of Antarctica today, still largely an unknown continent, but drawn into the arena of international rivalry by. thoughts of global] strategy and atom bombs. His survey is a reminder that a quadrant of the Antarctic is a New Zealand dependency, and naturally it is being asked what we are doing

about it.

A.

M.