AMUNDSEN AND SCOTT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVIII, Issue XLVIII, 13 February 1913, Page 5

AMUNDSEN AND SCOTT

Captain Amundsen, in iiis recent work on "The South Pole," makes this reference to the scene of the Pole, where the cables relate Captain Scott found Amundsen's record:— At three in the afternoon a simultaneous "Halt" rang out frcm the driyer«. They had carefully examined •their sledge-meters, and they all showed the full distance—our pole by reckoning. The jjoal was reached, the journey ended. I cannot say—though 4. know it would sound much more effective—that the object o,f my life was attained. \ That would be romancing rather too barefacedly. I had better be honest -and admit straight out that I have never 'known any man to be placed in such a diametrically opposite position to the goal of his desires as I was fit that moment. The regions around the North Pole—well, yes, the North Pole itself—had attracted me from childhood, and here I was at the South Pole. Can anything more top-sy-turvy be imagined ? ... It was not for one man to do this, it was for all who had staked their lives in the struggle and held together through thick and thin. . . Five weatherbeaten, frost-bitten fists they were that grasped the pole, raised the waving flag in the air, and planted it as the first at the geographical South Pole. "Thus we plant thee, beloved flag, at the South Pole, and. give to the plain on which it lies the name of King Hakon the Seventh's Plateau." That, moment will certainly be remembered by all of us who stood there.