THE RETURN JOURNEY

Evening Post, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 72, 26 March 1909, Page 3

THE RETURN JOURNEY

TRYING EXPERIENCES. FOOD SUPPLIES EUN SHORT. FORCED MARCHES. [BT TBLEGBAPH — PBEBS ASSOCIATES.! CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. On our return journey, continues Lieutenant Shackleton's narrative, we picked up our 'outward sledge tracks, and this was fortunate, because the blizzard had blown away the flags from the poles. After that, with a sail up on the sledge (the sail being improvised out of one of the floorcloths of the tent), we did marches daily, assisted by the wind, of distances ranging from 20 to 29 miles, crossing crevasses at full speed. We reached the upper glacier depot on the 19th January. VERY SLOW TRAVELLING. The travelling down the glacier was not so easy a job as we liad expected. We had only left four days' food to carry us to the depot at the foot of the glacier, but owing to the bad crevasses — rendered worse by the snow which covered them lower down — our travelling was very slow. On the morning of the 26th January we had finished all our food ; our la&t meal consisted of boiled pony and maize. Seeing the absolute necessity of reaching the depot, we tried to make forced marches, but through the deep snow and amongst the crevasses, we only succeeded by 2 a.m. on the morning of the 27th in covering 16 miles in 22 hours' hauling. We eventually reached within a mile of our depot on the afternoon of the 27th, and whilst some of us pitched camp, Dr. Marshall went on and got some food, consisting of horse meat and biscuit, from the depot. Lieutenant Adams fell half an hour before we came to camp, but directly he had recovered a little, he went on pulling again. ON THE ICE BARRIER AGAIN. After leaving the depot, wo got soon on to the ice barrier again, and reached Gresi depot on 3rd February. Mr. Wild during this time was sutt'ering from dysentery, due to something being wrong with the horse meat. After leaving Gresi depot, the whole party was similarly affected, and for one whole day we were unable to leave camp at all. Helped by strong southerly winds, we eventually reached Chinaman depot with no food remaining. At Chinaman depot we loaded horse meat, and digging down in the snow, found the frozen Blood of the horse. This we added to our stock of food, the daily ration now consisting of (for the whole day) one pannikin of half-cooked horse meat, ! with blood, and four biscuits, two pannikins of tea, and half a spoonful of cocoa in warm water per man. We 1 reached depot "A" with no food left. I We reached the Bluff depot, helped by strong southerly winds, on 3rd February. A "SQUARE MEAL" AT LAST. \.This depot was made by Joyce in January, and here, for the second time since the middle of November, we had a square meal. The other time was on Christmas Day, on the plateau, when we had a full feed consisting of pemmican, pony ration, and a small plum pudding, weighing about half a pound. We boiled the plum pudding in the cocoa water to give oil. Leaving the Bluff depot, we made a forced march the second day of 24 miles, as Dr. Marshall had a relapse of dysentery, and we were very anxious to get to the ship as early as possible. Though he was suffering much he kept going in his harness all that day. On the 17th in the afternoon he was too ill to proceed. i TWO PUSH ON FOR BELIEF. Though he wished to go on I decided to leave him in camp with Lieutenant Adams in charge, whilst Mr. Wild and I pushed on to the ship for relief. We reached Hut Point in a blizzard on the night of the 28th. On the morning of Ist March \\*e heliograpbedi the ship, which had been lying at shelter at Glacier Tongue. At two o'clock the same afternoon, with a relief party of three men — M'Kay, Mawson, and M'Gillan — we started back to pick up the rest of our party. We found Dr. Marshal] much better, and eventually we all arrived at Hut Point late on the 3rd March, and burnt a flare to the ship, which picked us up early 'on the 4th. JUST IN TIME. During the morning we sailed north, and only just in time, for we were two days pushing thiough heavy new pancake ice. We tried to push to the westward beyond Cape North, but were held up by heavy old pack ice, but not before we had found 45 miles of new coast mountains? ranging fiom 5000 to 7000 feet in height. Ai'.er a boisterous pass-age we arrived at Half Moon Bay on the 23rd March. THE FINDING OF THE MAGNETIC POLE. i A MOST DIFFICULT TASK. In answer to a question regarding the expedition that lcsultedi in the attaining of the magnetic pole, Lieutenant Shackleton said that this had' been a very important part of the work, and was a most difficult one for those who engaged in it. This party did' 800 miles of relay work over the eea ite. They hauled one sledge for a certain distance, then returned) and hauled up the other sledge, and they didi this from sth October to 15th December, and under the relay system every mile of ground had, of course, to be covered three times. The surface of the sea ice was very fcticky with salt, and made the sledge travelling extremely laborious. What about the piovi&ionsY asked the reporter. The party, said Lieutenant Shackleton, to eke out theii piovisions lived on seal and penguin meat. One of them tasting the seal oil in the blubber lamp pronounced it excellent, and fiom that time on seal blubber was- always part of the menu. The party was entirely unsupported by ponies, and 1 their piovisions were much the same as ours, excepting that they had dried milk instead of plasmon. The equipment was similar to ours. IMPORTANCE OF THE ATTAINMENT. Could you say a word as to the importance of the attainment of the magnetic pole '! j Mr. Mawson, with the Lloyd-Creak dip circle, absolutely fixed the position of the south magnetic pole, which is a matter of great interest to science, and helps the forwarding of that branch of knowledge. It is a matter of great importance in all magnetic survey work. This party arrived' at a point on the sea coa%st on a glacier 180 miles from the winter quarters with practically no provisions except a few biscuits. On arrival there they obtained seals andi penguins. I had left instructions at winter quarters that if they had not returned there by Ut February the ship was to search the coast for 'them. A DANGEROUS UNDERTAKING. This seems a fairly simple thing to do, but one must realise that it was a practically unknown coast, with heavy pack-ice extending out from it. and Captain Evans had a most trying job manoeuvring in blizzards and through the pack whilst going up that coast to search for a black flag only about 2ft

wide. He went as far as Cape Washingtou, and then, keeping in shore again on the way south, searched every inlefc and nook. He arrived at the spot where the northern party had come to camp only sixteen hours earlier. He sighted the tent, fired a double detonator, and the three men came rushing out. IVlawson immediately fell down a crevasse, and was held up on a- snow abutment 20ft below, and was pulled out by the party from the ship, so that in a moment the gloomy prospect in front of them was changed, and they were in comfort. WESTERN PARTY PICKED UP. Previously to picking up the northern party, continued Lieutenant Shackleton, in answer to further questions, as the Nimrod was steaming across M'Murdo Sound on the 24th January, a heliograph was observed flashing- in the western shore. Pushing through the broken pack-ice, Captain Evans picked up the western party, consisting of Mr. Armytage, Sir Phillip Brocklehurst, and ll r. Priestley. This party had been exploring and doing geological work in the west. On the 22nd they were camped off Butter Point, on the apparently fast ice. ADRIFT ON A FLOE. Waking up on the morning of the 23rd, they found the .ice had broken up in the night, and they were drifting north on a floe. Fortunately the current set south that night, and at midnight one corner of the floe touched the land ice, and in three minutes they had all their equipments across into safety, and immediately after the floe went north to the open sea for good. Next day they observed the ship in the distance, eleven miles off, and heliographed to her. When the ship first arrived in M'Murdo Sound on 6th January, Captain Evans despatched a party of four men, with Mr. M'lntosh in charge, to convey the mails to Cape Royds over the apparently fast ice. JUMPING FROM FLOE TO FLOE. The same night two of the men returned to the ship, and, continuing the next day, Mr. M'lntosh found the ice breaking up. By jumping from floe to floe, they just managed to reach the land ice with the mail bags in safety. After remaining nearly a week by Mount Bird, they decided to push overland across the mountains to Cape Royds, twenty-eight miles distant. AN EXCITING EXPERIENCE. They got into very much crevassed country, and M 'Gibbon went down a crevasse, being hauled by M'lntosh, who improvised a rope out of a belt and a bit of line. All the equipment was lost in this crevasse except a camera and a stick of chocolate. FOUND" IN AN EXHAUSTED CONDITION. However, they pushed on, glissading down ice slopes amongst crevasses, and eventually reaching the vicinity of Capo Royds in a blizzard the following day, where they were found greatly exhausted by Mr. Day, who happened to have left the hut. At the time they were not aware that they were so close to the hut, and were walking round ayd round in a circle frying to keep warm. NIMROD CAUGHT IN THE PACK. Captain Evans, with the Nimrod, had arrived at Cape Royd on the 6th March, and hearing tihat M'lntosh was not there, left at once in search. The Nimrod was caught in the pack, and subjected to severe pressure for ten days. Eventually she was extricated, and returned to Royd. GENERAL_RESULTS. SUMMARISED BY LIEUTENANT SHACKLETON. Asked regarding the general results of the expedition, Lieutenant Shackleton said that the geology of the country had naturally been well looked after, as we had three geologists on board — Professor David, F.R.S., and Douglas Mawson, B.E. and B.Sc, and Raymond Priestley. Very good collections were made, but at the present moment we cannot say the full value of the various finds, because they have to be examined microscopically. THE REMARKABLE ROTIFEROS. In the biological department there is a distinct new feature in the finding of tht microscopic animals in the lakes. Mr. Murray, the biologist, is an authority on this particular branch. One peculiar thing about the rotiferos is that instead of laying eggs, as they do in temperate climates, they bring forth their young alive, and they can exist in the very lowest, temperatures, and even in ice, and yet water of 200 degrees heat will not kill them. ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT FEATURES. Professor David considers that the I meteorological records and information ] gained are one of the most important features of the scientific work, and will be especially important to New Zealand and Australia, as the upper currents of atmosphere have an effect on Australasian weather. Observations of the steam cloud on Mounu Erebus have been of great importance in determining the direction of movements of the upper currents of the atmosphere. Every other physical and scientific branch had been carefully worked at. BRILLIANT AURORAE. It is interesting to note that the New Zealand and ' Australian magneticians predicted good auroral displ.i^s in the south, and we had exceptionally brilliant aurorae. In fact, we have a photograph taken with au ordinary camera which shows distinctly the auroral light. OUR MUSEUMS TO BENEFIT. As regards zoology, Mr. Joyce looked particularly after this branch, and we have a good collection of penguins, seals, etc. Various museums in Australasia will be given specimens of the fauna and geological collections, also the marine animals. As far as exploration is concerned the expedition has been eminently successful. WORK OF THE STAFF In answer to a question regarding the work of the staff, Lieut. Shackleton said thiit everybody got on splendidly together. 'Every one not only was interested in his own department, but ready to help in other departments when the need arose. Men who had goue | down there to engage in a particular I branch of science were quite willing to give a hand wherever it was wanted.