SHACKLETON'S STORY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 466, 26 March 1909, Page 6

SHACKLETON'S STORY.

WITHIN A HUNDRED MILES OF THE POLE

A GREAT POLAR PLATEAU. MANY PERILS-INTERESTING DISCOVERIES. Tho greatest achievement of Lieutenant Shackleton's Antarctic expedition Is tho penetration to within about 100 miles (our Christchurch telegram says 97 miles) of the South Pole (gaographlcal). Tho previous furthest south was over 500 miles from tho Pole. Lieutenant Shaokleton's new record Is 88 degrees 23 minutes. Tho record northing In Arotlo exploration Is 87 degrees 6 minutes (little more than 200 miles from the North Pole) by Commander Peary, who is now again on a North Polar expedition. The reaching of the Magnetic Pole by Professor David is rwt to be looked on from the "furthest south" standpoint, but as an interesting scientifio event.

iBI TKLEGBAPH-*PKES9 ASSOCIATION.) Christohurch, March 25. and was not signalled till 3.45 p. • jonsiderable number of people went down by tS and the Harbour Board's tug took out the Harbour Board members and offidat, with the intention of gmng a forma ' welcomo to the gallant explorers. On the tug were M-P.'s, civic authorities, Bishop Julius, at least twenty members of .the press, many friends of both sexes of the Nimrod people, and Dr. Upham who was to formally give the Nimrod a clean bill of health. One other small steamer also went out full of people. . , The Nimrod was met at the Heads and was greeted with cheers. p l ®} lt -, Sh / Jc f kl r radiant with the success of his dash foi the Pole, which only failed by 97 - miles, was heartily greeted, and with his men cheered in return. There were loud calls for_ 1 rofessor David, who was described as below at his toilet," but presently appeared and received a warm greeting, ihe Nimrod looked in excellent order, and showed no sign of hard usage. ~ The tug drew near, and everyone who could scrambled on board, not waiting for what was understood would merely _be a perfunctory passing by the Health Officer, who was overborne in the rush. .The ship was soon swamped with cheery, talkative visitors, who were shaking everybody, and especially Lieut. Shackleton, by the hand. _ All attempt at the formal oeremony ongmally designed went by the board, and just about dusk the Antarctic ship was quickly berthed at a wharf crowded by people. On the way the Maheno passed her, and fired a bomb, which was the signal for more cheering. ■ The return of, tho explorers was a scene of quiet and pleasurable heartiness, without hysteria. Everyone on board seemed in splendid condition and the best of spirits, and all wero pleased and proud that there had not been' a single casualty except' that Sir Philip Brocklehurst-mourns the loss of a big toe from frost bite. _ _ i The manager of the Press Association has arranged with Lieut. Shackleton to. furnish ■ a further,supplementary report in extension of that which was cabled. Professor David loft for Sydney by the Maheno. 1 Shackleton Tells His Story. The following supplementary narrative is specially supplied to the Press Association by Lieut. Shackleton:— ' We started, said Lieut. Shackleton, from Capo Royds, and on Novembor 3 from Hut Point. We had previously laid out at Hut Point, by man-sledging and the motor car, the main bulk of our equipment, consisting of provisions for 91 days. Those provisions • were pemmican, biscuits, cheese, chocolate, plasmon, and small bottles of emergency oxol. We had also four sledges, four ponies, two tents, and four one-man sleeping bags. The whole of the tents were made of light Willesden duck, and the whole, including poles, etc., weighod only 301b. The sledges were lift, sledges, each sleigh weighing 601b., equipped with straps and box as for carrying oil and instruments. The instruments were theodolite, prismatic compasses, cameras, thermometers, and boiling-point thermometers. The food of the four ponies was maize and a ration called Maujes ration, a dried ration consisting of carrots, currants, sugar, plasmon, and meat. We would have started before November 3 from Hut Point, but that one of the ponies went lame when crossing tho sea ice towards the point. We started, then, from Hut Point on November 3, with a supporting party provisioned for fourteen days. They were to go nine days with us, and return in five days, but owing to the soft snow and a four-days' blizzard, I sent them back on November 7. A Narrow Escape. We were then in a maze of crevasses off White Island, about 30 miles south of Hut ' Point. Mr. Ernest Joyce (who, with Mr. Frank Wild, was officer in charge of horses, dogs, and sleighs, and who had been on the Discovery) was in charge ot tho supporting party. When the supporting party left the weather cleared for half an hour, and ivo were under weigh when ono of the ponies (which was being led by Adams) suddenly got on to, a hidden'crack and went down to its mitldle with him in the soft snow. Wild, who was going astern with the other sledge, ' 6aw the danger, and pulled the sledge along, enabling Adams to haul his pony out, just whore the crack opened into an apparently bottomless cavern. Another three or four feet and we would have lost Adams, the ' pony, and half of our provisions.' We were going then on an apparently level plain, full of crevasses radiating in all directions, and when the weather cleared wo were ablu to see where these were. We camped there for a day, whn tho weather cleared. In pitching camp the ponies havo first to be tethered out, and for that 'purpose there is a wire made fast on to one sledge, then another sledgo is brought up about 25 feet away and the wire is stretched between these two sledges. The pones are tethered by tho heels to tho wire. The reason for this is that if we had an ordinary tether, they would bite through it' and eat the rope. These Manchurian ponies prefer buckles and leather and each others' tails in preference to good ordinary food. Quan, my pony, was particularly keen on these dainties. Having got tho ponios tethered, they are brushed down, the horsecloths aro put on, and they aro .then fed. They get 101b. of food per day, and if they finish that and seem to want more, wo' always gave them a bit more. Tents 'and Meals. We then pitch-our own tents. Each tent ' ha 3 five bamboo poles, three poles being put to windward and two poles for the door, and all aro made fast at the top. Then tho tent is hauled over tho top like a bell tent, only with five poles. With a shovel wo dig, snow and put in on the snow cloth around tho bottom of tho tent; this keeps tho tent from blowing away in a .blizzard. The hardor it blows tho more drift gets round, and the more secure the tent. Theil come tho meals. The cook for tho week would spread tho : cloth insido tho tent, light a Primus stove, and tho cooker (mado of aluminium) was passed in to him, then the food bag, and generally in half-an-hour the meal was ready. We mado what wo called hoosh; that was ■ mado with pemmican, emergency ration, and powdered biscuit, and each man got a pannikin full. A pannikin would hold about a pint. Then tea was made. We put the tea in with tho snow in a strainer, and when it boiled we served it with sugar. Sugar is one of tho staple things, because it is heat-giv-ing, and all our food is calculated by Dr. Marshall according to its food value and heat-giving properties. The ration when we started was 320z. of food a day. Wo all got into ono tent for the meal—the cooking tent —and it was the best tout to be in in cold weather. The m£al over, tho men belonging to the other tent filled tho cooker again with fuww- and if there was any water

over that helped to melt the snow, and savo a certain amount of oil by tho timo tho nest cooking was required. No Clothes Off for 126 Days. The sleeping-bags were spread and the men got inside them clothes and all. i never took off my clothos for 126 days. hue we had tho ponies we marched nine hours a da}', from aboutlß a.m. to 6 p.iu.> allowing ono hour for lunch. t It. was always 8 or 8.30 p.m. before we got into bed, and up at twenty minutes to 5 in the morning. It was daylight, of course, all the while. Ihe weather being so cold, it took us all this tune to get' dressed. The meal being cooked and the ponies ready for another day's start, wo had breakfast at-6 a.m., consisting of hoosh, biscuit* and tea, lunch at p.m., consisting of chocolate or cheese, biscuit, and tea, dinner at 7 p.m., consisting of hoosh, biscuit, and cocoa. During this period we were going over wind-swept snow, with wind furrows on,' for about 15 Wo started in tho morning cach man leading a pony, and 'taking turns every hour to break the trail that is to lead tho horse in front. They havo the roughest time, and the following horses step in tho tracks of tho front horse. Every hour we had a five minutes' spell. The work was hard both on man and horse, especially after the first 15 days, because tho horses were sinking right up to their middles in soft snow. We were not working in ski or snow shoes, but we wore is. fur boots made of the skin of the reindeer with the fur outside. We sank into the snow sometimes well above our ankles, and the horses, of. course, .sank in much deeper, they .were dragging'so much weight. It was monotonous work travelling. The men woujd travel about 12 or ,15 feet apart for fear of accidents with tho sledge or ponies; •

The Sight of New Land. In answer to further questions, Lieut. Shackelton explained that the journey did not become particularly interesting until they began to sight new land. That was done about November 22. Then we saw new mountains stretching away to the south beyond Mount Longstaif. We were separated from these by a broad expanse of plain. We had diiferent depots. One depot, "A," had been laid out previously, and we reached that on November 15, sofne days before we sighted tho mountains. Tho depot was a mere spot on the great white plain. The next depot was mado in lat. 81 degrees 4 minutes south; that was to pick up on tho way back. It was 88 miles from depot "A." There wo shot tho first pony ; cut him up, and made a depot of oil, biscuit, and pony meat. Then we took on about 501b. of pony meat to oke out our provisions. We saw at depot "A" that, to do any big journey, owing to the surface of tho snow being so bad, we must reduce our daily ration of regular food, and we supplemented half a ration of ordinary food ■with horso meat. We started using the horso meat about November 23. We wero using up for the ponies 401b. of food per day, and when ono was shot tho man who had been leading him put on his own harness and helped to pull tho' extra load' given to another pony. The sledge that had been emptied was made into a depot mark, placed end up in the snow with a bamboo-rod and black flag attached. On November 22 we had sighted the new mountains, and were still moving due south. On November 28 we shot another pony. Treatment of the Ponies. Did you shoot them simply for food? asked the reporter. • No, was the answer, not altogether. We were getting short of food for the ponies, and it was, thereforo, necessary to decrease

the number of ponies in order that the others might be kept on full rations. Wo always made a point of keeping the ponies on full rations, so that they never needed the whip. The ponies wero doing splendid work, and we treated tliem as well as possible. The third pony was shot on November .30. By this time tho mountains had trended out to the south-east, and as our course was duo south wo decided to tako advantage of any gap to ascend inland. From November 22 to November 30 nothing particular occurred, excepting that we had vory thick weather and tho snow was getting softer all tho time. Then we mado a .-econnaissanoe up the mountain about 3000 ft. hi'gh, leaving the tent and tho last pony in camp. From tho top of the mountain we Baw an apparently

smooth glacier rising with a gcntlo gradient to what was apparently inland ice or a plateau. Wo at onco decided to go up this glacier. We called tho mountain Mount Hopo, and tho entranco between tlio two mountains the Southern Gateway. The last pony wo took with us. Wo started on December sto go up the glacier. Our general direction now was between south-west and south-south-west, and at onco we saw wo were not going to have such an easy time of it, because tho apparently smooth glacier was simply honeycombed with crevasses. Wo managed to got tho pony in among the rocks on December 5 and 6. Of courso wo could not draw the sledges over the rocks, as that would tear tho wooden runners. Tha Slowest Travelling.—Last Pony Lost. On tho 6th wo had to unload tho sledges and relay them with a little equipment ono at a time, and on that day we wero all day doing 600 yards. That was tho slowest travelling; up to t(ien wo had been doing 12 to 15 statute miles per day. On December 7 one section of tho party of three men went

on ahead with one sledgo. Whilst Wild was leading the pony,, Socks (?) followed in our wake with tho other sledge. Wo wero looking out for crcvassos, and wero altering our course to avoid them. The object was to get a perfectly safe courso for the pony. Suddenly wo heard a shout from Wild, and on stopping and looking round wo saw the sledge tilted and Wild with his /arms and shoulders on the edgo of the crevasse. He was sunk to tho shoulders right on the edgo of the crevasse, and was keeping himself up by tho arms.' No pony was to be seen. We at onco went to his assistance, and found that the pony had stepped on the show lid of a hidden crevasse, and gone straight down an enormous chasm, snapping the swingletree, and thus saving both Wild and the sledge.' There was no sound to be heard down below, and Wild , said all ho felt was a sudden rush of wind and then it was all over.

Further Transit Troubles. From this time onwards, continued Lieutenant Shaekleton, in answer to further questions, we wore crossing crevasses the whole time. The undor-runners of the sledges suffered severely by the sharp ice tearuig the wood. Now, a sledge to travel well on a 6now surface such as wo had eventually on the plateau, ought to bo absolutely smooth, becauso the friction is so great. Ultimately wo had only one whole runner, and that was worn on our last sledge, the runner on the other side having worn away almost from the middle, and tho pulling then became very arduous. We reached 6500 ft. up the glacier about December 19, and there we thought we could see the plateau level ahead of us, so w6 depoted everything except the food to carry us on, the necessary instruments for finding our position, and the clothes we stood up in. We left our warm clothes behind, which, as it turned out, was unfortunate, for the plateau lovel was not reached until we had ascended to a height of 10,500 foot above sea level. From 9000 feet upwards wo had a constant blizzard wind from the south dead in our faces, with the temperature always below zero. Sometimes wo had 60 degrees of frost. Tho clothes wo were wearing consisted of two pairs of socks, pair of Jaager pyjama trousers (we wore these because they did not chafe so much), a singlet, a shirt, and a guernsey, then Burbery overalls. The whole outfit weighed about 91b. to 101b.

Reduced Food Impairs Vitality. By this time we had reduced our daily ration of food to 20oz. per man per day, and in this climate, with the temperatures and winds prevailing, counpled with tho high altitudes, it was not sufficient to keep tho necessary amount of heat in our bodies, ill this time wo wero sighting new mountains. Lieut. Adams was taking many times daily meteorological observations, and it was in lat. 85deg. 5 minutes south that Wild discovered, on going up a mountain.to look at tho plateau, seven distinct seams of coal. This _ was a most interesting discovery, as showing that the Antarctic regions once had a very different climate. Dr. Marshall, who had charge of the surveying, ha,d a very cold job. At every camp he was taking theodolite angles and putting in a great deal of timo on this worlc. Ho also took all the photographs on this journey. On January 4 we decided to risk leaving a depot on the plateau. We had no land then to take bearing by, and had to trust to Providence to find our depot with tho help of guiding poles. These we made by all hands using one tent, and dividing the tent poles of the second tent for posts. On those poles we put flags, made from provision bigs. Thus lightened,! we pushed rapidly south till, on January 7, we had reached lat. 88deg. 5 minutes south. Blizzard Increases—The Last Dash. The constant blizzard from the south-south-east developed then into one of extreme violenoe, the wind travelling at 70 miles per hour. The temperature was down ■to 72deg. of frost._ This continued for 60 hours, and maay times we had to take our feet out of the sleeping-bags -.to have them restored to feeling after being frost-bitten. Wo were very cramped in the one little tent, the four of us being in a tent made to accommodate three. By this time our food was gotting very low, and when the blizzard was over we realised that it would be impossible for us to oontinuo sledging further south, both from lack of food and our diminished strength. Our body temporatures showed only 93deg. We, therefore, dccided to leave the camp, and make a forced march to the south, taking food with us, and in' 88deg. 23 minutes we hoisted the Union Jack, which her Majesty had given us in England before leaving. THE MAGNETIC POLE. Tho North and South Magnetic Poles are points on tho earth's surface whpro tho dipping needle stands vertical. Tho term has also sometimes been improperly applied to tho points of maximum magnetic intensity, of which there are two in each hemisphere, neither of them near the pole of aip.