NEW IDEA OF ANTARCTICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 14940, 13 March 1912, Page 7

NEW IDEA OF ANTARCTICA.

POLE CALM, ALMOST WARM. AMUNDSEN REPORTS NO REAL HARDSHIP. FURS TOO HOT TO WALK IN. ! ALTITUDE OF POLE 10,500 FEET. By Telegraph —Pre** Association.—Copyright. Sydney. March 12. The embargo placed on the Fram since her arrival at Hobart was removed yesterday, when Captain Amundsen invited the pressmen to visit the vessel. Everything was found to be spick and span. Further statements were made by Captain Amundsen and by members of his party. A further instalment of Captain Amundsen's story has also been published by the Daily Chronicle in London, and from these sources the following new facts appear : — The four men who accompanied Amundsen to the pole were the central object of attention when the pressmen boarded the Fram. They are named Bjaaland, Hansen, Haasel, and Wisting. All are accomplished snowshoers, and better comrades, Amundsen declared, one could not wish to find. To them, to the dogs, .and to the cess was due. Value of Dog Flesh: Canine Deserters. Haasel said the cold experienced on the journey was" really not very formidable. Near the pole itself the weather was fine most of the time, and he had known it colder in Christiania. They wore furs to start with, but found them too warm for marching in, and went in ordinary clothing. They would never have got through, as far as food supplies went, without the dogs. Dog flesh was not of the worst, while the dogs themselves seemed fond of each other as food. Some were fonder of their companions dead than alive. Amundsen was a wonderful man, and to him was due their getting through without accident or mishap.

With regard to the 24 dogs that they killed at 85£ degrees, Captain Amundsen says they were fat and good eating. The dogs always had full meals. Three of the best dogs were lost by desertion, and the return journey showed that they had plundered one depot. He attributed the success to the use of skis and the magnificent condition of the dogs, which were quite fat at the end of the journey. The party suffered no real hardship. A feature of the journey was the remarkable absence of life, only two skua gulls being seen after passing 84£deg. What Happened at"the Pole. " We were four days at the pole itself," says Captain Amundsen, "and we exercised the greatest care in making observations. We stopped when we got, as nearly as we could ascertain, to 89deg. 55min., or five miles from the pole. We took a reckoning from there, and then went on to the pole itself, where individually we took the most careful observations, we could.

"In order to make quite certain four of us went out to four points at about five imles from the pole as centre, and took observations there in addition to observations at the pole itself. " We could not, of course, determine it as exactly as a man in the observatory with all his instruments at hand. At the same time we used all possible care, and I do not think that there could be any material error." Captain Amundsen found no stones at the pole, and was therefore unable to erect a cairn. He pitched a small tent, and flew over it the flag of Norway and the Fram's pennant. He considers that calm, still weather is a prevalent condition around the pole, and thinks that the tent and flags should remain in position for a long time, unless the weather is. worse than was experienced "by him. There is no danger of the tent being blown away, and it will probably be a couple of years before it was covered with snow. Not the Same Plateau. Referring to Sir Ernest Shackleton's statement that the King Haakon plateau was the same as he christened King Edward plateau, Captain Amundsen says that there must be some mistake. He does not think Shackleton said that. He may have meant that it was all part of the same elevated area. " Shackleton, when he reached his farthest south, was still going up," said Amundsen, "while we reached our greatest height about the same latitude as. that at which he had to turn back, and then began to descend again the slightly sloping plateau on which the pole stands, and which we called the King Haakon plateau."

The altitude of the pole itself is 10,500 ft. (In his statement in the London Daily Chronicle Amundsen states that altitude was his greatest difficulty, sometimes reaching 16,500 ft; but this statement, which conflicts with the one published on Monday, is queried. He also says that the explorers had difficulty in breathing.) A Better Route Than Beardmore. Captain Amundsen further points out that the place he ascended the mountains was about 150 miles eastward of the Beardmore Glacier, up which Shackleton made his way. It would have been a roundabout route for his party to have gone up the Beardmore Glacier, and the place which he chose was easily ascended to a height of over 10,000 ft. The spot where he located the pole "is perfectly flat, as far as the eye could reach. Had Shackleton crossed the plateau he named King Edward VII., he would have been within seeing distance of the pole, so flat and even is the ice." Christmas Day fell on the return journey. It was spent at a high altitude, and extra biscuits and porridge were served out. Did Scott Reach the Pole First ? In his additional message, published by tho Chronicle in London, Captain Amundsen says that he saw nothing of Captain Scott. " If he did not get there sooner than myself," he adds, " it is exceedingly likely that Scott reached the pole later." The Norwegian Arctic explorer, Dr. Nansen, in a statement published in Christiania, states that Captain Amundsen's discovery that the amount of precipitation is small in the country he traversed may explain why the land was not buried under an icecap similar to that of Greenland. It is unlikely that Captain Scott got ahead of Amundsen to the pole, which was only one of the many tasks Scott set himself. It was impossible for Scott's ponies to travel so early'in the spring as Amundsen's dogs. Hews of Japanese Explorers. Captain Millson, of the Fram, states that while Amundsen's men were in the Bay of Whales they, met the Japanese expedition-, !

The Japanese landed,' climbed the great barrier, and stayed till the following morning. They afterwards erected > a tent on the barrier, and left two men there. Five days later a strong breeze sprang up,, and the Japanese vessel left. That was the last they saw of her. The two Japanese left behind said that the ship had gone to King Edward Land, and was going to call back for them. "They are well provisioned and found," said Captain Millson, " and were still there when the Fram left with the Amundsen party on January 30. Edward Land Party Has a Rougher Time. Besides the Amundsen polar party, another party, under Captain Johansen, operated from Framheim (the expedition's winter base, named after the Fram). This party devoted itself to exploration of the neighbouring portion of King Edward VII. Land, travelling eastward. Johansen's men met with many narrow escapes, and lost several dogs. It would happen that the skis would pass over the ice all right, but suddenly, without warning, the dogs would sink right through into bottomless crevasses, and would not be seen again. The men, by following the dogs, escaped what otherwise would have been instant death. The King Edward VII. Land party saw a bird of a new species. SUBSCRIPTION IN NORWAY. LIQUIDATION OF DEBTS. (Received March 12, 10.5 p.m.) Christiania, March 12. A committee has been formed to secure subscriptions to pay Captain Amundsen's debts in connection with his Antarctic expedition, amounting to £3910. It is proposed to raise afterwards a national subscription for Amundsen himself. A number of Norwegian residents of ; Auckland, through their Consul (Mr. Robert Millar), have sent a congratulatory cable message to Captain Amundsen.