SOUTH POLAR RACE.

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 135, 8 June 1911, Page 5

SOUTH POLAR RACE.

AMUNDSEN'S PLANS. LAYING DEPOTS FOR THE DASH THEORY OF LAND FORMATION. (By Cable.—Press Association.—Copyright.) (Received 8.5 a.m.) LONDON, June 7. Ronald Amundsen, in a letter to the '•'Times," dated February 0. gives bis reasons for originally believing that the Bay of Whales was produced by the upheaval of underlying land. These reasons were confirmed when he saw the formations more clearly. They are sharply delined, and at the southern end he distinctly discerned hills and valleys,, indicating that underlying land or shoals had here arrested the course of a mighty glacier and forced it out to cither side. Amundsen christened the station he established in latitude 78deg 40min south Franiheim. He intended to establish his main depot at 80deg. and a smaller one. as far south as possible. He hoped to reach S3 with the smaller depot in the autumn, before the dark season commenced. A JAPANESE OATH. THE POLE OR EXILE. SYDNEY, June 7. It is authoritatively stated that the Japanese explorers, before leaving home, took an oath not to return until they had reached the South Pole. The captain of the ship, who did not take the oath, has returned to place the true position before the public in the hope of raising additional funds. AN OFFER TO MAWSON. (Received 9-35 a.m.) MELBOURNE, this day. The director of terrestrial magnetism at the Carnegie Institute, Washington, has offered the loan of a complete set of magnetic instruments to Dr. Douglas Mawson's expedition. The offer is conditional on his securing the services of Mr. Norman Webh. of Christchurch, or some other competent person.