THE SOUTH POLE.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 88, 15 April 1910, Page 3

THE SOUTH POLE.

CAPTAIN SCOTT'S EXPEDITION. A NEW ROUTE PROBABLE. News received by a Christc-hurch paper by the last English mail regarding Captain Scott's expedition to the South Pole shows that he may adopt a different route from that adopted by Shackleton. Instead of having one base in M'Murdo Sound, as be previously had, and as Shackleton also had, Captain Scott now proposes to establish a second base in King Edward VII. Land, 400 miles to the east of M'Murdo Sound. Captain Scott recognises that the new base may be difficult to establish, and that it will be exposed to the full rigour of the climate of tho Far South, and the attack on the Polo will be made from one or other of the base*, according to circumstances. On the chart published with a prospectus of the expedition: he shows hit proposed sledge journey from King Edward VII. Land along the 160 th parallel of West longitude. The distance from the Pole will be no greater than the distance from the bas« at M'Murdo Sound. The new track would traverse at first the extensive plateau of the Great Barrier, and then ri*e gradually on the surface of a long glacier. Finally, in its third and most difficult phase, it would tiaverse an inland plateau that probably maintains a great altitude. Captain Scott thinks this track will continue longer at about soa level than Shackleton's track, that it will meet the mountains 'in a more southerly latitude, and consequently leave a shorter distance to be traversed on the lofty inland plateau. Captain Scott recognises the value of puny traction on the plateau, add their uhsuitaltility for glarier work, aa proved in Sharkleton'* expedition. He, therefore, pptpoces tn ute dug* for the later stages of the journey. If the dogs are lightly laden and well fed on the lower plateau, he th>nks they may travel the whole distance to the Pole. He al*o hopes well for the motor fledge as n means of transport. A picked party of men and dogs will make the final dash fur the Pole across the inland ice sheet. One of thtf objects of the expedition will be the thorough exploration of King Edward VII. Land, but Captain Scott sava quite frankly that the main object of his expedition is to reach the South Polo, and to »ecure for the British Empirt tht honour of that tchitr«> meat.