THE ANTARCTIC. MAKING PREPARATIONS.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LX, Issue LX, 1 November 1910, Page 5

THE ANTARCTIC. MAKING PREPARATIONS.

SCIENTISTS BUSY AT CHRISTCHURCH. [By Telegraph: — Special to Star.] CHRISTCHURCH, Nov. 1: Some of the scientists belonging to Captain Scott's expedition have been busy to-day at the magnetic observatory in the public gardens here. It is an institution which has been established about ten years, and has been found very valuable in connection with all Antarctic expeditions that have had their principal base in this Dominion. The branch of science study it represents is a somewhat obstruse one, and is one which does not come much under the public eye. At the same time a great deal of attention is now being directed to terrestrial magnetism and polar meteorology, and. Nature's secrets in this direction have gradually been laid bare. Dr G .S. Simpson, who will attend to most of this work in tiie Antarctic told me yesterday that he had spent some time on similar quest in Lapland, where he investigated the northern lights. He is fascinated by the mystery and beauty of the Aurora, into which he will make special enquiry. He said that very little was known about it, and that nearly all , knowledge in that respect had yet to be gained. The Aurora, he added, was an electrical phenomenon of some kind, but nobody could say what .caused those electrical displays, or whether the electrical energy came from the earth, sun, or stellar spaces. On some occasions the Aurora was a hundred or two hundred miles high, and some investigators believed it also came to earth. Dr Wilson, head of the scientific staff, has also got to work here right away, and to-day was bwsy in Canterbury Museum with his coat off. He says that he has a lot of things to attend to. It is expected that the Terra Nova will leave about the end of November, Ttmt no cla-fce for her departure is fixed yet. ' TRYING THE HUTS. CHRISTCHURCH, Oct. 31. . Captain R. F. Scott, R.N., went down to Lyttelton this morning, and, accompanied by Lieut. Evans, went over to Quail Island, for the purpose of inspecting the ponies and dogs for his Antarctic expedition. The crew of the Terra Nova has commenced operatiens, discharging the timber which is to be used in the erection 6f huts. .It is proposed to erect the skeletons temporarily on the Recreation Ground, and the ship's carpenter expects to commence work tomorrow morning. IN SOUTHERN SEAS. WHERE CROWNED HEADS ARE REPRESENTED. THE MOST ARISTOCRATIC REGION IN THE WORLD. FAMOUS EXPLORERS AND THEIR WORKS. (Specially Written for the Star.] If a collection of the names of Crowned Heads makes a country aristocratic, the barren, storm-swept, ice-bound Antarctic is the most aristocratic region in the world. The map of the Antarctic is brilliant with the names of European Sovereigns. Amongst them are Queen Adelaide, the wife of William IV., Queen Victoria, George IV., Edward VII., Alexander I, and Peter I. of all the Russias, Louis Phillippe of France, and King Oscar 11. of Sweden. This great array has been made on account of the large number of nations which have attempted the task that was nearly accomplished by Sir E. Shackleton, or have, at least, tried to solve some of the problems of the Great White Land. Many nationalities have been represented in the race to the South Pole, and each of these competitors can claim that it has added something to the knowledge that has been accumulated. The first, and up to the present time, the last, of the Antarctic navigators are claimed by Great Britain. Captain Cook was the first to sail across the the Antarctic Circle. On his second great voyage, in 1773-75, he went in search of Southern lands, and crossed the Circle in three places, reaching within 1,1130 miles of the Pole. Fortyfour years later, the Czar Alexander 1., prompted by a commendable ambition to extend geographical knowledge, simultaneously sent two vessels towards each Pole. The Vostik and the Mirni came south in charge of Captain Fabian Bellmgfcausen, who was tho fortunate discoverer of the first land known in the Antarctic Circle. It consisted of two islands. One, which is fairly large, he named Alexander I. Land, and the other Peter 1. Island. Two years later, in 1823, James Weddell, in the brig Jane, 100 tons, pushed south from the South Orkneys, sailed through the sea that bears his name, went within 945 miles of the Pole, and brought back to Europe the first specimen of the Weddell seal examined by scientists. On WeddelPs heels there came John Biscoe and John Balleny, both, of whom were sent out by Enderby Bros., a firm of London shipowners, who did a great deal for discovery in the early part of the nineteenth century. A FRENCHMAN'S ENTHUSIASM. / It was about 1840 when the real race amongst the nations began. That year, and subsequent ones, saw two national expeditions, French and American, in the Antarctic, and also some regrettable ill-feeling and bitterness between the commanders, both courageous and capable men. Dumont D'Urville, commander of the French expedition, was actuated by the highest motives of patriotism. His journal is full of interesting references to his wish to do something for his beloved France. When he discovered Adelie Land, for instance, which he named after his wife, he observed as much ceremony as if he had conquered one of the richest countries of Europe. "I immediately sent out men to unfurl the tricolor flag on this land, which no human creature had either seen or stepped upon before," he says. "Following the ancient custom, faithfully kept up by the British, we took possession of it in the name of France. Our enthusiasm and joy were .such that it seemed to us that we had just added a province to French territory, by this completely pacific conquest. We dispossessed none, and our titles were incontestable. We regarded ourselves, therefore, at once i as being on French soil, a^d tliTo '«- at least this advantage, that it will never raise up war against our country. To the c;lory of France, which concerned us deeply just then, we emptied a bottle of the most generous of her wines, which one of our companions had had the presence of mind to bring with him. Never was Bordeaux wine called upon to play a more worthy part ; never was bottle emptied more fitly. Surrounded on all sides by eter-

nal ice and snow, the cold was extreme, and this generous liquor reacted with advantage against the rigours of the temperature." The French sailors showed that they could face hardships and dangers as well as drink wine. They passed some terrible days before they reached the placid waters in the roadstead at Hobart. It was while D'Urville's vessel, the Astrolabe, was struggling through a storm that the regrettable incident occurred. In a lift in the fog the Astrolabe sighted a brig flying the American flag. It was one of an American squadron sent to the Antarctic in command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes. J.t might be thought that in those desolate seas, where dangers abound, and where men seldom go, even the most unrelent- . ing enemies would observe outward courtesies. These two vessels, however, parted in the fog without the dip of a flag, and full of bitterness towards each other. It was afterwards explained that they misunderstood each other's intentions. Each intended to salute, and each thought that the other wished to avoid an interview. Wilkes's squadron consisted of six ill-assoTted vessels, manned by half-hearted crews, but he did some fine work. In 1840 Great Britain again entered the competition, sending out Sir James Ross with the Erebus and Terror. Ross Avent 235 miles further south than Weddell, and reached within 710 miles of the Pole. Other expeditions, conducted or inaugurated by Englishmen, Norwegians, Scotsmen, and numbers of other nationalities followed. The Belgica, which carried as surgeon Dr F. A. Cook, who recently claimed the discovery of the North Pole, was the first vessel to experience the terrors of the Antarctic night, in 1898. She went down on the South American side of the fflobe, and was followed by Dr J. B. Charcot, in the Francais* who has made several successful and important expeditions to Alexander 1. Land and Graham Land. Amongst other notable Antarctic explorers may be mentioned Dr W. S. Bruce, an indomitable Scotsman, and Mr C. E. Borchgrevink, who was in charge of Sir George Newness Southern Cross expedition. It established a "Furthest South" record of 670 miles from the Pole, which remained unbroken until Captain Scott brought ia the new era of Antarctic exploration in 1902, and went within 463 miles, a • distance which, as stated before, Sir E. Shackleton reduced to 100 miles in" 1908. Step by step, with courage and determination, since the day when Cook first crossed the Antarctic Circle, 137 years a^°'-r mm i en have P usned °n steadily to the Pole; and if the past may be .regarded as an earnest of the future, the step which will be taken in a few months should bring the South Pole, with its mysteries and its majesty, withm the explored area of the earth's surface.