THE BELGICA EXPEDITION.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 16, 19 January 1901, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE BELGICA EXPEDITION.

AN EXPLORER'S SENSATIONAL; EX

PEUIEN'CES.

Shrouded in lee mystery, the South Polar logloms have miralned since the earliest tlnu-s an enigma to man. For 300 years the glacial lands under the pale ray 6f the Pole Star have been gradually made to yield their ice strongholds to the daring assaults of the explorer, whilst the portion of the globe Illumined by the Southern Cross has been left almost unvlslted.

V]) to the time of the Belgian expedition in> mortal being had sojourned au entire scutum tv the South Polar seas. I consider, therefore \msa a famous traveller) that in itoiH'liHtlujt through tin- first Antarctic tilltht the little band of explorers of which I hml tlu> honour to be one has marked an W* lv th>> records of I'olar research. Their Work Is I lv* stepping-stone to new ventures.

In Clip end of IS!>7 nineteen men entrusted lhi>lr lives to the little Belgica—au auxiliary bftFQUo of 250 tons ami with her attacked tht> previously impenetrated barriers of ice which edged "lv the region south of Cape Horn. They discovered & new and beautiful highway, hi sl«te comparable to the Straits of MftßOllun, and through this pushed into a now world of Ice, visiting a hundred Islands inul several hundred miles of land upon wh'cli no other human eye had ever rested.

t'pou this land were found great cities ttr wolrd orontures nnd a profusion of curlOUS oilier-world life. After passing through thin Unknown land our little party entered Upon au equally unknown sea. This sea forged its Ice manacles about us nud for au entire year we were prisoners 'n mi Impregnable fortress of ice. We were the football of Fate, at the mercy of every wind which drove us to and fro over a mysiwltjua ocean.

For the first time in the history o£ mau we passed through an Antarctic wtater—a. continuous night of inky blackness, which lasted seventy seemingly endless days.

During this eternity of gloom the Belgiea, was the only speck of human life within the Antarctic and sub-Antarctic regions —an area equal to the combined spread of Europeand Asia.

Our one ye;ir's imprisonment would have lengthened into many years—and doubtless our corpses would to-day repose in the frozen silence of some 100 pack.—had we not, by almost supei'hiiinan efforts, extricated our ship from the ice by digging a great canal more than two thousand feet long and sufficiently wide to allow of the passage of the ship.

But it was not only in the South Polac regions that we made intei-esting discoveries. We had an opportunity to study that strange race of giants inhabiting the southernmost portions of the Southern Hemisphere—the Fuegians. These people, called Ouas by their neighbours, have hitherto resisted all the efforts of civilisation. They •have persistently withstood all attempts of white men to enter imto relations of friendship. As a consequence, they remain to-day more unknown than the pigmies oj Africa. . ' The home of the giants is on the mainland of Tierra del Fuego. Their island Is large. It has great prairies, mountain for. ests, unknown lakes and hunting grounds^ which the Island dwellers have kept through ages exclusively ror themsejyej, resisting up to within recent years all et> forts of the invader.

Gradually, however, the onward maxoh o{ civilisation has made Its conquests. Whit* sheep farmers have overcome by trade where they could not succeed by force. Th» Onas are at length yielding to the subtle influence of the luxuries and comforts of civilisation. The mining camp of the'"pale* face" is crowding the dusky race back into the forest-covered lowlands and the iceJ capped highlands of the interior, wher» they must either freeze or starve, at the mercy of the Caucasian invader. ; . §

There is perhaps no race in the worlj with a more perfect physical development than the Ona men. Tlieir average, helghj is about six feet, whilst a few attain-si* feet six inches. This wonderful develop* ment has arisen through the exigencies of their life and the distribution of game,' which make long marches necessary. Ths Ona men are certainly the greatest crosa* country runners on the continent. ' t

The only weapon which these giants ost' effectively is the bow and arrow. The bo*'..: is made of the wood of the Antarctic beech; scraped into shape by the edge of a riieH.; The string is composed of the sinews Of Ihi,'/ guanaco—an animal of the camel species which resembles a cross between a goatiattj.' f an antelope. The tips of their arrows arif composed of glass. This glass they doityt make themselves. It is picked up-isojj wreckage found about the barren shottS;

A whole Ona family participates In.tili : sports of the chase. They march for'days over wind-swept plains.through Icystreams, into regions seemingly deserted by animal I life. The women and children travel i» one group, the men In anofher. Slckand ■ ! helpless persons are left behind to.siarr'e.oj support life as best they can. . .• . I

When a herd of guanaco is found the fliefl creep oa their bauds and feet, covering 1 iheir bodies with their robes to imitate S animals. When close to their, prey they; '"."k rise, throw aside their robes, and sprint e= aaked upon the guanaeos, killing some yM« their bows, others by means of knlfe. and tg elulx Sometimes they secure- ;Ah! ■■'eatltfl-Ii:;; herd. Then begins an orgie of. gluttony.£ which, knows'no bounds. Their, life is m&do i|< up of short feasts and long'famines, v 1 Their mentality is of a low order; The|;;ii are improvident and unpfogressive." Tiiett^. houses consist of bunches of branches, witt;:|j skins fhrown over them to afford a.partial^, protection from storms. Their children .artif; allowed to go almost naked ia,ttie.Mea£||clime, even though there are warm sklMj with which, to protect them. .. '"'; "'img

In physical development the womea ti'i''. fit matches for the men. They bear Tfltfi-'j them the brunt of the long chase, and affy | like American Indian squaws, the heffWfl of wood and drawers of water. Tlte OmS

man kills the game—that is his province} his wives—for polygamy is practises' amongst them—carry it into camp, -''"ti^ moving the women transport the householjfurniture and also the small children.

The £*ha population is at present aboutjf' Sixteen hundred, biit this number is coft|| stantly diminishing. Many natives , hjs|j|! been killed by white men who have resent- ■> etl the sheep raids iv which these-tribe* ) inuulge. Without firearms, the physical ■; power of the giant race is of no avail, The'v twaug of the bow is not so deadly as tlie :-i *'r.aok of the Winchester. Doubtless It,, I will not be many years before the Onasanfl '\ I ether tribes in these southern latitudes l^ ■ come extinct. . ■•■','■. ■ .i . - After remaining for some days amongst..' these giant tribes aoid obtaining many valtK \ | able photographs, we pushed on towards; I the South Pole. We sounded the water! ■; between Cape Horn and the Shetland I* '1 lands—an undertaking never attempted bt> .1 ■ I fore. Our sounding line often went dowir I two miles; and, in the most tempestfttnt? 'f% 1 seas on the globe, the difficulties' of '6*1«; ; task may be imagined. It was perfornjep;^ >:i successfully—not the least of triump'bs' Sl^i1?: the Belgian expedition. -r > I Passlug all the known land south 'of tlie' Horn, we discovered, after emtering the icfebelt, a vast continent which has been al- : 1 luded to by no previous navigators or'getf-^I grapnel's. Part of this new country tW 1 named Dancoland, after Lieutenant Effiw/v 1 Oanco, our maginetician, and one of our newly-discovered islands'- we christened ;; I Brooklyn, which name I had the pfivfl&g*>, oi' giving. The new land -we found is, dottbtMSt'^ part of a great South Polar continent. W».; charted live hundred miles of this territory. It is buried, even in midsummer, under *"/ tremendous mass of everlasting Ice. ■; ■,■■'■;>}■ We strove to follow this unknown' matt*, land southward, but the pack ice forced lW; away. Late in February we entered tn'e main body of the sea ice, penetrating this",for a distance of 90 miles. Here we wera firmly held by the Ice, and for, 13 inontflJl ;J our vessel lay— \ ij.-i *jm

As idle as a painted ship • '' Upon a painted ocean. We read and re-read all our bodkS< aft<* told and re-told all our tales. For TO da/ 9,; we were enveloped in worse thanElrypttau darkness. Our future was involved in R?gg rifyiug uncertainty. At any moment our ship—frail compared to the mountains oi; lee surrounding us—might be crushed. At times nil was monotony. Days passfj" without conversation. The ship was . a* JH" > enc within as the wastes of ice witloTHc The long black night and the isolation preyed on us mentally and physically. T*.Bbecame actually greenish in compl«Ioa» and our hearts grew unreliable in For months we had nothing to tell us tfben; night ended or day began. "".' ' ki January, Sliding tnat a gaphad o**p ■ formed in the lee about 2000 feet aWW.; from the ship, we decided to cut & cbgJj°zi • to this open water. "We blew up P°Wn of the lee with tonice, which explosiTfchowever, proved a failure In that low temv. perature. Then we sawed out great "lo^ '' of ice, accomplishing a little each day. "f ' worked eight hours a day, all H"^..'^,-' I by February had pushed our canarto.,wltwu ; ■ a* hundred feet of our ship. On slar2Liflr ! we were once more in open water—«6gJ.:.< from the Ice chains which tad bouca US iw . more than a year. ' i-m