THE SHACKLETON EXPEDITION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXXI, 11 January 1916, Page 8

THE SHACKLETON EXPEDITION.

- X . ' Xy NO CAUSE FOR APPREHENSION

■V?. llf all is well with Sir Ernest Shackleton's party they will probably have eaten tneir Christmas dinner at the South. Pole, and: now be sledging 'toward the Australian side of the Antarctic Continent."

There is no man in Sydney at present better acquainted with Antarctic conditions than Captain J. K. Davis, who was in command of the Aurora on the Mawson expedition, and who made the remark quoted to a representative of the Sydney Morning Herald. He is now in the Commonwealth transport service, and has just come back from Salonika. He discussed the prospects of the Shackleton expedition, which is in the South Polar regions, and is due to return to Hobart in March, and said that it was not to be inferred from the fact that no wireless communication had been received that anything untoward had happened. He saw iio reason why the expedition should not come through safely. It will be remembered that one section of the party, under Captain Aeneas Mackintosh, R.N.R., left Sydney in the Auroa in December of lastyear for the Ross Sea base, on this side. of the Antarctic Continent, and the other, the main party, led by Sir Ernest Shackleton himself, left from the South American; side in the Endurance, for the Weddell Sea, base. The objects of the great adventure were tocross Antarctica from sea to sea, securing for the British flag the honor of being the first carried across the South Polar continent, to carry on similar scientific work by the parties operating, from t-he two bases, and to trace unknown portions of the coastline. For j over:'7oo miles' the region to be traversed is one that has never been penetrated before. .- "Sir Ernest Shackleton would probably have'started from the Wedded! Sea on his long transcontinental journey in November," Captain Davis said. "It is quite likely, if all has gone well, that they would have had their Christmas dinner at the Pole, and now be making towards the Beardmore Glacier on their way to Ross Sea. Nothing is more uncertain than ice navigation, and it is quite impossible to anticipate events in the Polar regions; but I -see no reason why the party should not come through" all right. They are thoroughly well equipped and Ted by the "most experienced of our, Antarctic explorers, and, with- ordinary luck, should turn up safely at. the due time. As-for the absence of news by wireless from the expedition, that may be accounted for veryeasily. They probably have experienced the same troubles as we did during the first year of the Mawson expedition, when, owing to the difficulties in erecting masts and insulating them; we found it impossible to get our wireless going. By , and by we gained greater experience of the weather conditions, and were able to rig our masts during the • quieter weather of the summer months. 'At the present time the '.lone dayligh* in the Far South is a sufficient reason for the messages not being received, a? such conditions reduce the radius of the installation by about a third of it? ordinary, distance, and in any case the installation with which the Ross Sea party is equipped is not a high-power* one."