ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8538, 19 March 1908, Page 7

ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.

The plans of the French Antarctic expedition are so far advanced that Dr Charcot hopes to leave Europe in July of this year. He expects to be absent two years, and will go at first to Graham Land, where his last work was done. "There can be no doubt," he told Router's representative in Paris recently, "that the best route to the Pole is by way of tho Ross Barrier, but this we regard as belonging to English explorers, and I do not propose to trespass on other peoj)le's grounds. Much better and more important work can be done in a matter of this kind by friendly co-opera-tion, and I am happy to be able to say that I have received valuable advice and co-operation from Captain Scott and Dr Bruce in making my .preparations." The ship is being built at St. Malo, the design being revised by Dr Bruce, who commanded'*the Scottish expedition. She will be barqiientine rigged, and will have engines of 550 liorsp power. Of the crew of twentytwo, at least ten will be Antarctic veterans. The scientific staff willnumber eight. A preliminary vote of 300.000 francs has been made by the French Parliament, and a similar sum will be voted next session. Private subscriptions will provide the rest of the money needed for the enterprise. Dr Charcot's earlier vessel, the Austral, was recently ' wrecked on the coast of Uruguay. She was built in 1904, for Antarctic work, and was sold to the Argentine Government. During this summer she was to have taken a scientific expedition to Graham Land, and set up a new meteorological station on "Wandel Island. The Argentine Government has now made three attempts to establish a station in the Antarctic, and on each occasion it has been defeated by storms. The Argentine weather office seems to have been exceedingly unfortunate in its enterprises, but it is determined to have continuous records taken in Graham Land, and it will also have periodical ocean surveys made, recognising that a working theory of South American weather is only to be reached when the Antarctic, Pacific and South Atlantic data have been obtained.