Polar Perils.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXXI, Issue 1924, 30 June 1905, Page 7

Polar Perils.

While there has been a very natural enthusiasm oyer the successful results of several of the international expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic regions, it still regains all too apparent that even under improved conditions the members of such expeditions take their lives in their hands. The Russian expedition under Baron Toll, which left Russia in the summer of 1900 to explore that portion of the Arctic circle which lies north of the New Siberian Islands, has at last been given up for lost, and tbe painful conclusion has been reached that the explorer and his companions must be added to the list of those who have lost their lives in the attempt to extend our knowledge of the Polar regions. The expedition met with* grave difficulties from the start, and'only succeeded in reaching the New Siberian Islands in time to winter there during 1901-1902. In the spring of 1902 Baron Toll, accompanied by several other members of the expedition, left their ship with the object of pushing on to the little-known Bennett Island. As they did not return, it was presumed that they had been obliged to winter there, but in the following year a relief expedition, upon reaching Bennett Island, found a record that the party had left again for the New Siberian Islands on November 8, 1902. The explorer and his companions were such experienced men that even in the face of this news, Russia declined to give up hope that the party had escapod mischance. Time has, however, compelled the acceptance of the belief that the Baron and his companions perished at some unknown point in the ice on the journey back. There was for some time considerable anxiety concerning the fate of the French Antarctic expedition. The Argentine warship Uruguay, which followed in its track, found no records of the expedition at the places where it had been arranged they should be left, and as the Uruguay experienced a terrific storm, there were grounds for fear. But. happily, the expedition has returned safely. Dr Charcot proceeded much further south than the Uruguay reached, and as it happened, he was prevented from landing to leave records at the agreed-upon points. The difficulties of other expeditions serve to point to some extent the excellent manner ih which the Discovery and her consort, the Morning, were handled in their journey south, and the wisdom of despatching regular relief ships.— Lyttelton Times.