WORTH WHILE?

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 199, 23 August 1930, Page 10 (Supplement)

WORTH WHILE?

ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE.

POLAR EXPLORER'S BOOK.

APPEAL OF THE UNKNOWN,

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

LONDON, July 7. Willi tlio open season in waters approaching it is worth while asking the question, "What is the use of polar exploration?" Dr. Griffith Taylor, Professor of Geography at the Chicago University, answers it in the volume of the "New World of Science" series which is being published by Appleton. Professor Taylor is himself a polar explorer and was attached to the Scott Expedition (1910-13) when he led the party which explored the Ferrar Glacier. "It has been customary," ho says, "for promoters of a new expedition to' dwell largely on the 'quick returns' which may accrue from exploring an unknown land. Somo good Antarctic friends of my own have, in this connection, stressed the fact that Alaska was bought for a song, when its resources were almost unknown, and that its gold yield has made it a very profitable investment for the United States. Subconsciously, I fancy, the hesitating supporter thinks, 'Well, Alaska is a mighty cold place;' so is Antarctica. Why shouldn't the expedition find a second Yukon near the South Pole?' Personally I don't believe that this method of angling for support does much good. The hard-headed business man learns that hardly a single mineral product and certainly 110 vegetable products of present value have been discovered in the Antarctic, and that the chances arc against such being discovered in tho relatively small areas of rock which are not covered deep beneath the Antarctic ice cap. But he gallantly subscribes to help in the.cause of exploration. Why? Because other considerations beyond mere pounds, shillings and pence appeal to his pocket." Two Reasons. He declares further that there are two real reasons for Antarctic exploration— appeal of the unknown and the elucidation polar regions help to provide for certain scientific problems. "The world has been educated to revere astronomical research, and governments feel it part of their duty to support public observatories for tho study of far distant stars. I hope (says Dr. Taylor) for a time when tho larger nations of the world will look" nearer home and subsidise work on this very large segment of their own planet, whose study would repay them equally well in the advance of scientific knowledge. .. . There is hardly a branch of. science which is not awaiting help from data to be studied properly only in tho inaccessible lands of high latitudes." One of these scientific problems—the distribution of the lines of magnetic force—has a .very practical value to the navigator, and it was the search for the Magnetic South Polo which dictated the dispatch in 1840 by the British Government of Sir James Ross, the discoverer of the Northern Magnetic Pole, who, however, did not succeed, nor did D'Urville, the French explorer, who was also bent on doing this. That was not achieved till Professor Sir Edgworth David, in whose party was Sir Douglas Mawson, discovered it in 1908, during the first Shackleton Expedition. Next to problems of magnetism rank those of meteorology. Perhaps in these days of travel by air meteorology should rank not next, but first, for, according to Professor Taylor's description, the phenomena in the heart of tho Antarctic may be compared to an organic "heart," which pumps the streams back again to revivify regions' of vital importance to man. "The layman knows that the general surface calculation of the atmosphere is from the colder regions toward the equator and back again at higher levels. But it is only since Scott's discovery in 1902 that Antarctica is a gigantic ice-covered plateau that meteorologists have appreciated the special localised action of the phenomena at the South Pole. (There is, for instance, nothing of the kind at the North Pole, and, indeed, tho meteorological pole in the Northern Hemisphere is to be placed in North-east Siberia rather than in the deep ocean at the Pole itself.) We may picture the poleward-flowing streams sinking to the earth at the intensely cold elevated South Pole and thence streaming out, either with moderate speed or as furious blizzards, back again to temperate regions."

Problems of Migration. In the field of natural science Antarctica is expected to yield the answer to the puzzlo how vertebrate animals migrated over the face of the globe and whether Antarctica was a sort of halfday house whence animals could spread by vanished "land-bridges" to South America, to South Africa, to Australia, and to New Zealand. "The real proof would be forthcoming only through the discovery of marsupials or other pertinent material in fossiliferous beds of Antarctica." Wonderful fossils, both of plants and animals, have been discovered in South Victoria Land and in Graham Land, which also throw a flood of light on the fascinating problems of past climates. In West Antarctica (Graham Land, etc.) we seem to see a continuation of the South American Andes. These are folded mountains occurring often in arcs, one of which appears to link Chile with Antarctica by way of the drowned islands of South Georgia, South Orkneys, etc.

The Political Aspect. Here, then, within the covers of a small text-book of 230 jpages there is to be found a spirited account of exploration and an analysis of the scientific results obtained therefrom. It touches but slightly on the political, apropos of which we-may content ourselves with the last paragraph of this, a book bound to be increasingly in demand. "Norway is the third nation to expand its territories in the Antarctic. In November, 1927, the ship Norvegia, under Captain Christensen, sighted Bouvet Island, that elusive island in the South Atlantic Ocean. He fixed its position at 54 degrees 2G minutes south and 3 degrees 24 minutes east. The island is pentagonal iu shape and about eight kilometres wide. Its snow-clad sides rise evenly to a central plateau of about nine hundred metres elevation. There was practically no vegetation, but the seas teemed with life, and a number of fur seals were killed. Tho ship stayed there during December. In November, 1928, the British waived any claims to the island in favour of Norway. In the last whaling season (1928-29) the Norvegia made a journey to Peter Island (90 degrees west and 69 degrees south) and annexed it to Norway. This island was the first land seen south of the Antarctic circle, and was discovered by the Russian, Bellingshausen, in January, 1821. Thus Norway has just taken possession of two of the most interesting localities discussed in Antarctic history. Perhaps they epito-1 mise Antarctica as a whole. Land cov-1 ered by ice, hard to discover, valueless for commerce, but surrounded by richly endowed seas and touched with mystery and the,romance of the i nknown." 1