THE ANTARCTIC.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 772, 22 March 1910, Page 7

THE ANTARCTIC.

SIR E. SHACKLETON'S EXPEDITION. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright Sydney, March 21. Professor David considers tho area Sir Ernest Shackleton proposes to exploro offers great possibilities • from a geographical and general scientific aspect. Possibly another. visit will bo mado to the magnetic pole, information regarding which would bo of much importance not only to science but to navigation. Mr. Mavi'son would be an ideal scientific director. A SCOTTISH EXPLORER. London, March 20. Great efforts are being mado in Scotland to raise funds for Dr. Brace's Antarctic expedition. FROM THE ATLANTIC SIDE. Dr. Bruce, the Scottish oceanographer and explorer of the Weddell Sea, has elaborated a plan ■of attack from the Atlantic side. Bruce estimates that the base ho would set up at Coats Land would bo 300 miles further from the Polo than tho recent base of Shackleton or that of Scott. But oven though the distance from the Antaictic coastline to the Pole is greater by 300 miles on the Atlantic side than on the Pacific side, he is not deterred by thut, becauso he considers that the road will be easier, and, moreover, "every inch we cover will be new, absolutely untrodden by the foot of man." Bruce thinks that the South Pole is situated, ■not on the. narrow and steep Pacific ice-sheet that Shackloton tiavolled to within. 97 miles of his object, but on the broad gently sloping Atlantic icesheet. Hence the contemplated ascent from the Atlantic and descent to the Pacific.

To use Dr. Brace's own. words: "This attempt to cross tho Antarctic Continent, even if only partially successful, cannot fail to add mors to our knowledge of Antarctica than any , other route, for it will, with ' Shackleton's work, give the most complete sectional idea of Antarctica. My plan, therefore, is to land in the vicinity of Coats Land and to cross tho Antarctic Continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. We reverse previous Antarctic methods ; we travel rrom the unknown to the known, and not from the known to the unknown.

' "The first port of call in the South will be Buenos Ayres. From Buenos Ayres a zig-zag course will be made to Cape Town between 40deg. S. and 60deg. S.; from Cape Town the ship will prbcjed to Coats Land, where tho wintering station will be set tip; tho ship will then retreat to Melbourno, sounding, etc., en route. The land party will divido into two, or, if possible, throe, parties,' ono for work to tho east, one for work to the west, and a third under my leadership southward across the Antarctic Continent. "From Melbourno the ship, in the second season, will push southward for M'Murdo Bay, to meet my transcontinental party,, setting up caches of provisions as far to.the south as possible, and leavnifi stores at M'Murdo Bay. (Tho ship will then return to New Zealand, with my party. Thence she will sail to Coats Land during the third season to pick up the rest, of the land party, and proceed home."