ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.

Mt Benger Mail, 4 March 1914, Page 3

ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.

SIR E. SHACKLETON'S PLANS

TO LIVE SIX MONTHS IN FIVE

Only a week has passed since Sir Ernest Shaekleton announced h.s intention ot leading an expedition across the South Poiar continent, but the week has been a busy one tor the great explorer (stated the 'Daily Mail' ol January 5). "Of course," Sir Ernest said yesterday, "the plan* for tiie journey ha.e been carefully thought out tor some tunc, and the idea lias been in my m.nd since I returned iroui my last expedit.on. Nevertheless the last tew days have brought many suggestions some 01 which must be considered. The most inteie.vting comes from Dr Marshall, who was with me on my last expedition, and .1 we can odopt it we shall save ;-S5 hours a week. Uriyrlv, as Dr Marshall puts it, it is this: "AU the time we are in the Atlant.c the sun will l>e above the horizon. Day and night will be merely artificial distinctions, and Dr Marshall has suggested that we should ignore the clock and adopt a 19-houra' day. Thus, we should perhaps rise at seven, begin marching at eight, cease marching at 12, resume at one, and stop at fire. We should sup trom five to six, and then sleep for eight hours till two in the morning. I he next day would begin at two a.m. and we should set out on the march at tliree o'clock. This wouid mean a saving ot 36 hours a week, or nearly a month in the five months of the expedition. We shoiud live s:x months in hvo.

"Hitherto we havo slavishly taken our Euiopean customs to the Polar regions and spent tedious hours n the sleeping bags—hours which we did not, spend in sleep. We lay and yawned imd waited for the day. Now we have realised that the day was already there all the while if we had only known how to use it. This t:me we shall abolish the clock and the calendar—everything except the sun.

Plunge Into the Unknown. "1 have had letters from people who tell me that the task I propose is impossible. 1 admit it is an e.-say into the unknown —but that is where the attraction lies. We do not know what we may comeTicross. The" distance we expect to cover is about that from John Groat'a to Constantinople—but you can get a dim idea of the undertaking if you can imagine a man setting out to puSh a wheelbarrow across Europe—not Europe as wo know it but an uninhab ted continent of which he has no maps. Imagine that man suddenly and unexpectedly confronted by the Alps! That's the'sort of thing that might happen to us. •The vital part of the>e expeditions is the commissariat. A Polar expedition, like an army, marches upon its stomach. Of course, we are making r»ur own calculations, but we are much interested in the 'well-stocked depot' which Amundsen has left in FOdeg. south latitude. This depot will be a boon to us if we reach it, for a depot is an elastic term —in some cases merely a oomrtesT title. On our last expedition one contained a tin of jam, a tin of sard ties, a lew biscuits, and a large stock of hope. "I have had many inquiries about our aeroplane sledges,'* and .some people frankly declare that we shall not be able to make use of them. All I ca e to say is that the sledges we propose to use, which will be fitted with an aeronlane engine and propeller, are beiag used in the snows of Russia.

More Speed, More Danger. "la Polar travelling easier than in the ok! days? Well, there's a double answer to that. You can travel faster, but increase in brings proportional dangers. You can get farther and farther from your base, an allmportant factor if anything goes wrong. "Here is a letter which 1 have just received about a new metal which, as far as possible, we shall U6e in place oi wood on account of its lightness. Here is part of a typical rost—one volunteer to join the expedition (a Frenchman), a donation of two guineas towards the cost of the expedition, a request for my autograph, and an offer to sell me some old books on fhe Arctic regions. But here is a telegram that I value. 'My warmest wishes for your magnificent undertaking.—Amundsen.' "