TO THE SOUTH POLE BY MOTOR.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 8, 10 January 1908, Page 2

TO THE SOUTH POLE BY MOTOR.

"Motoring to the Region (so-called) of the South Pole, but More Proper Victims to Science;" Such is the alluring title written at the head of a letter that Mr Samuel Ramsbottom, of Holmfirth, writes to • the Daily News. He says:—

Sir, —I notice your report of Lieutenant Shackleton's enterprise to explore the South Polar regions. Now, supposing he and his company are successful in their motor being placed in a favourable track for the desired journey, and they proceed to the point desired, I am not a prophet nor the son of such; but mark my words: The forces of Nature are so much opposed to such wild enterprises that Lieutenant Shackleton nj&r any of his associates, nor the gallant motor, will never in this life be heard of again.—Yours faithfully,

S. RAMSBOTTOM

In face of this statement, it is a comfort to have Mr Ramsbottom's own assurance that he is not a prophet. He belongs to a small section of religious persons who have always taken this curious view of the natural difficulties that beset the way to the Poles. They regard those regions

("so-called," as Mr Ramsbottom mysteriously says) as among ' 'the secret things belonging to the Lord our God," and remind the world that "He hath compassed the waters with bounds." The only living significance that this opinion has for our times, we think, is in the fact that it is the inspiring idea of, one of tne most remarkable Englisn novels ever written, 'The Purple Cloud,' by Mr M. P. Shiel. In this story the solitary discoverer of the North Pole returns to the world to find that the human race and-< all animal life have been destroyed by the poisonous vapors of a volcanic upheaval; and his life and wanderings on the sepulchral planet are described. Another novel, of quite recent publication, and of very slender merit, applies the idea of Divine prohibition in the case of the! South Pole. We do not recommend either work for Lieutenant Shackleton's ship's library, of which, we sup-; pose, cheerfulness should be the do-, minant note. . ■ I