AN EXPLORER HONOURED

Evening Post, Volume CI, Issue 51, 1 March 1921, Page 7

AN EXPLORER HONOURED

SEAPLANES FOR POLAR

RESEARCH.

«BOJI OUR UWN CORRBSfONDSNT.)

LONDON, 23rd December. It was unfortunate that y Dr. W S. Bruce, head of the Scottish Oceanographical Society, Edinburgh, vvos unable to ,be present at the meeting of .the Royal Geographical Society, winch Was held to'prisent to him the gold medal of tlio American Geographical Society of Now York, for his distinguished services in the interests of .sciontijic research. „ Sir Francis: Youughusband was in the,chair, and Mr. Davis (American Ambassador) paid a warm tribute to Dr. Bruce's work as Arctic and Antarctic explorer, naturalist, botanist and ioolofrist. The medal was accepted on behalf of Dr. Bruce by Dr. Rudmore Brown, Lecturer in Geography at Sheffield University.

CAPTAIN SCOTT MEMORIAL. Subsequently a. paper on the " Future of Polar Exploration.", was read by Mr. Frank Debenham, who announced that the trustees of the Captain Scott Memorial Fund had decided, with a portion of the funds, to establish a Pol<ir Research Institute. The institute will 'tie attached to the Department of Geography at Cambridge, and its aims will include the encouragement and assistance of future Polar expeditions and the provision of facilities for ithe publication" of research work. Mr. Dobenham justified the conr tinuance of Polar exploration in the interests not only of science, including meteorology, but of commerce, pointing to the £20,000,000 realise* by the whaling industry in Antarctic waters, which had been made- possible by South Polar discoveries. After showing- that in the past Polar exploration had more than paid financially, by the new industries it had reveal© \ or opened up, and that from the scientific nide it is of no less practical value— meteorologists cannot learn how to foretell the weather accurately until they know more about conditions at the Poles—Mr. Debenham turned to future methods of Polar travel. Up to now, he said, the dog has proved paramount as a means of locomotion. Mechanical transport: had been tried in the form of wheeled motorcars, sin aero engine fitted to a sledge, and a caterpillar tractor; but mechanical transport would necessarily.be confined to comparatively level areas with suitable surface. In his view, the airship might at once, be dismissed as being far too, expensive a-nd fragile, except when working from civilised a.nd inhabited centres. For detailed work the heavier-than-air machine was much more likely to be of value. But the chances of a safe landing from an aeroplane on such oountry would be very small. By seaplanes from ships, excellent work could be done, and they might add considerably, not only to speed of manoeuvre in pack-infested waters, but to tho chances of survival of a beset ship. The seaplane would have a very definite value as a pilot alone, even thoufrh it could only, bo employed in comparatively loose pack-ice. As an auxiliary for plotting •coastlines it would bo invaluable. The enclosing of both engine and crew in a suitably shaped body would overcome many practical difficulties of temperaturo and air-blast; tho evolution of special alternative landing-gear to adapt the seaplane to emergency landing on sea ice would be another line of experiment likely to produce fruitful results.