THE SOUTH POLE.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 9 March 1912, Page 5

THE SOUTH POLE.

RETURN OF THE FRAM. CAI'TAIN AMUNDSEN'S CLAIM. (Press Association.—Copyriqht.\ LONDON, March 8. The '"Daily Chronicle" published a Christiania telegram signed by Captain Amundsen, stating that the Pole was attained from the 14th to the 17th of December. The "Chronicle" will pub- . captain Amundsen's story to-mor-row.

Sir Ernest Shackleton states that Capt. Amundsen, bv taking three days' continuous observations, would be able to safely assume his position to be accurate. A flying snap-shot was less reliable than a continuous series of observations. He discusses whether Captain Scott reached the Pole before December 14th.

A DENIAL. HOBART, March 8. Captain Amundsen denies sending to London a cable stating that Captain Scott reached the Pole. He cannot understand how the rumour got about. SIGNIFICANT! CAPTAIN AMUNDSEN TO LECTURE IN AUSTRALIA. MELBOURNE, March 8. Before starting on his expedition, Captain Amundsen made a provisional agreement to lecture in Australia, provided he put up a record in Polar exploration, and his patrons gave him time to fulfill his agreement. Arrangements are being made for a lecturing tour covering a month.

THE RIVAL EXPLORERS. NORWEGIAN KNOWS NOTHING OF CAPTAIN SCOTT. (Received 10.15 a.m.) HOBART. This Day. In denying respon.sibilitv for the rumour that Cnptain Scott had reached the Pole Captain Amundsen declared that he knc?w nothing of Captain Scott's movements. Captain Amundsen still refuses to be drawn in reference to his own achievements. H<> told the secretarv to the Mawson expedition that the weather conditions to the Antarctic were favourable for Mriwson's observations. CO N G R A TUL ATI ONS FROM COUNTRYMEN.

(Rec. March 9. 10.30 a.m.) CHRISTIANIA, March 8. King Haakon, the Government, and the Geographical Society, have telegraphed congratulations to Captain Amundsen. The city is beflrigged. ? FIVE EXPEDITIONS. INTERNATIONAL POLAR RACE. PLANS AND OBJECTIVES. There are at present.ffi e expeditions in the Antarctic, no less than four of which are working in the region directly south of Tasmania and New Zealand. The remaining -expedition, that of Lieut. Filchner, the German explorer, is working south from Cape Horn. British Expedition.Captain R. F. Scott, " in Terra Nova (749 tons, left. New Zealand oil November 29, 1910. Terra Nova, returned to New Zealand, March 27, 1911, after establishing winter quarters at Cape Evans, near old Discovery quarters, an-d landing at Cape Adare. During the cruise, the Fi' 3l ? l with Captain Amundsen's expedition, was found in Whale Bay. On December 15 last the Terra Nova again left Lyttelton for the south. Amundsen's Expedition.—Captain Amundsen, in iJe rFam, spent part of 1910 in oceanographical research in the North Atlantic. His plan was then to continue his investigations in the South Atlantic and Pacific, and then to set out on an Arctic voyage from San Francisco, taking seven years' provisions. On August 22, 1910 ? lit wrote to Dr. Nansen from Madiera, stating that h© had changed his plans and would visit the Antarctic, on his way. Oh January 13, 1911, he reached the Bay of Whales, near the British headquarters in MacMurdo Sound, and on February 22 the British party were much surprised on discovering

him there. Japanese Expedition.—This expedition in the little schooner Kainan Maru, will b e remembered by Wellington residents. It left Toltio in 1910. It put into Wellington on February 8, 1911. and <*n the 11th sailed for the Far South. The expedition was next heard of at Sydney on May 1, wh-en it returned, reporting that after 5 ® ing a landing at Goulman Island it found the season too advanced to do anything. In November last the vessel, after a thorough refitting, again set out- for the Antarctic, and lias not since been reported. Dr. Mawson's Expedition.—Dr. Mawson's Australasian expedition in the Aurora is not in search of the but is doing research work in the Southern Ocean and along the tic coast west of the Ross Sea. Ino ■expedition left Hobart on December >5 last. > German Expedition.—Lieut. * llchner s German expedition left Hamburg in the Deutschland early in May last and sailed from Buenos Ayres for Coats Land and the VVeddell Sea in September last. If the conditions were tavourable its plans may be extended to include a sledge journey across Antarctica via the Pole. —"Dominion. CAPTAIN SCOTT. I AN EXPERIENCED EXPLORER. | Captain Robert Falcon Scott has been described as a man of keen sentiment and enormous enthusiasms, hidden below the surface of a very placid and unconcerned demeanour. The traditions of the naval service on the one hand and of the great explorers on the other inspire him. Clean-shaven, with a stroii" and determined face!, tight firm lips, "and keen but kindly light-blue eyes, he is forty-two years of age. He was thirty-three when he first se t out towards the South Pole in the wonderful but too expensive and not over-satis-factory Discovery, in which he made the great ' expedition which penetrated farthest south for the time being. That was in 1901, and extended the approach to the South Pole nearly 100 miles over the previous record, reaching a point in south latitude 80.17, 670 miles from the Pole. Shackleton, in his 1908 expedition, reached- latitude 88.23, and hoisted the flag of England 111 miles from the Pole. Thalf' exploit I stands as the Farthest South yet reached by man. Here are furfitier touches to the picture'of Scott. "He has something of the bulldog look not; rare among naval officers .... not the sort of man who would turn back while he could go on, one would say .... but lie doesn't look as if he had the habit of quoting poetry either .... thorough-going, level-headed, business-like, with enough imagination for a leader, and most determined in a quiet way—that is the impression Captain Scott gives."