THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1925. EXPLORATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19050, 22 June 1925, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, JUNE 22, 1925. EXPLORATION.

The long silence of Captain Amundsen's party, followed by their sudden emergence from the mists of the North, have shown that tho world can still be thrilled by stories of adventure and exploration. It is a shrunken world since tho days when Columbus sailed tho Atlantic, or when the Portuguese voyagers skirted the coast of Africa dreading the black magic which they thought threatened tho adventurer who was too bold. It is a smaller world than when Cook charted tho seas of tho Southern Pacific, saw in much more detail what Tasman had seen in part, and provided maps which the seaman could use showing land tho very existence of which had earlier been merely conjectural. In this ago of the machine, when means of speedy travel are so plentiful and so powerful, almost all tho exploration work possible on the globe has been done. Almost, but not quite all If nothing else remained, Everest still rears an unconquered peak into, the skies. To attain the summit would be a mountaineering feat, but a piece of exploration as welL But Everest is not all that remains. Discovery has not been confined to tho laboratory, or made the sole prerogative of the man who searches the skies with telescope and camera. The face of the globe still guards secrets which will one day be made plain. If tho opportunities of a Columbus, a Cabot, a Tasman, a Cook or a Marco Polo aro not offered the modern adventurer, he still has challenges to meet. How real they are despite the march of science and tho progress of mechanical invention has been abundantly proved by the ordeal undergone by Captain Amundsen and his party among the ice of the polar seas. Even the aeroplane has not made easy a voyage which without it was almost impossible. The polar expedition just returned proves again that the explorer has never waited for the means to make his work easy; once, the method of transport or the navigational device presented itself, he began to use it, leaving daring or resource or endurance to deal with any situation which deficiencies might cause. The aeroplanes which Amundsen employed were frozen fast the moment that he landed. An airman-explorer of experience suggested this possibility during the time of silence and suspense when the fate of the party was still unknown. It is perfectly certain that Captain Amundsen himself, armed with a lifetime's experience, knew the chances of this happening. Yet he did not wait until a machine was designed specially for the conditions. He took what the makers had to offer and made his venture. It turned out exactly as suggested. Tho endurance of the party and the discipline of its members wero tested by the emergency. They met the test, so that the one aeroplane extricated bore them back to safety! In thus moving ahead of the perfect means of travel, they carried on the tradition of all who dared- the unknown before they could be certain that their equipment was- equal to every emergency. There were the Norsemen who sailed the broad seas without a compass—as indeed the Polynesian nomads of the Pacific did; there were the men who set out knowing not how long they would be at sea, before the days of anti-scorbutics; there were those who dared perils of savages, wild beasts, and, as they firmly believed, enchantment, in their passion for discovery. The fear of being lost in a limitless ocean, tho fear of scurvy, the feat of hostility from man or beast failed to stop the struggle to reveal the secrets of the unknown world. In the days when the field was wide, the adventurers were many. Often they made discoveries which were afterwards forgotten so completely that the work had to bo done all over again. Those days are gone, but however narrow tho field may be, it is good to be reminded that the flame of adventure can still burn as brightly as ever it did. Not only have tho opportunities of the explorer grown fewer, the motives which send men out have changed. It was the lure of the East and the. desire of the precious merchandise of the Indies which first led navigators to America, and set them to doubling tho Cape of Good Hope. Then the lust of gold entered when the riches of Peru and Mexico roused the cupidity of all Europe. Then came colonisation and the demand for new territory. It is very significant that this phase witnessed the real entry of British people into the ranks of the explorers. This motive was long dominant, until scientific curiosity began to add force to the urge for exploration. It must be remembered that Cook first entered the South Seas to observe the transit of Venus; he carried a highly-quali-fied naturalist with him. The scientific side of exploring, added to the pure desire of achievement, now dominates all other motives. Little of the earth's surface remains to be parcelled out among competing Tho virgin parts of Central and South America, unknown t Papua, or untrodden Africa may yield some treasures to the seeker, but those who go to pierce remain-

ing mysteries are not primarily concerned with such possibilities. The I polar regions, north and south, have not given up all their secrets, but nobody now expects that they concoal ordinary habitable country. Mineral wealth is spoken of, but miners arc not likely to hurry there if a route is marked out. Expeditions to them arc essentially adventures of scientific discovery. Thus with the shrinkage of the unknown world, the motives for penetrating 1 its fastnesses have become definitely 5 loftier. Seen through the perspec--1 tivc of history, the merchant adven- [ turcrs or the semi-buccaneers who L blazed the earliest i rails may not be wholly admirable, even when full 1 justice is done to their intrepidity. There is no need to qualify admirai tion of the modern explorers who, j like Amundsen, dare tho rigours of . the Arctic seas, or, like that band ' of hardy British climbers last year, " assault the summit oE Mount ' Everest.