FURTHEST SOUTH.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14019, 26 March 1909, Page 6

FURTHEST SOUTH.

comforts of civilisation. When you are down there, he says, you vow that nothing will induce you ; to go back, but from a distance there is a fascination about Antarctica. ; The picking i of the parties was one of the most arduous parts' of the ship's company. ; Some of Professor David's specimens had to be left behind though efforts were" made to get them from the place where he : had placed them; The attempt was frustrated by the inexorable pack ice. The silence of the day.in Antarctica has been commented on before. ■ It is a thing one cannot get used i to apparently. Mr. Macintosh commented on the absence of sickness, the practical immunity of the parties from serious illness being one of the features of the expedition. THE ICE BARRIER, GEOLOGICAL RESULTS. • INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSOR :/ : : '-' DAVID. ■ (Br TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] Christchuech, Thursday. Professor David, interviewed to-night, said:" There can be little doubt that the barrier is formed partly of glacial ice and partly df snow. This view as to its origin is rendered highly probable through the discovery by Lieutenant Shackleton and hie party of a vast glacier 50 miles wide and 120 miles long, descending from an elevated, inland plateau over 10,000 ft above sea-level. This glacier is probably one of many which go to feed the great barrier. Important evidence was found by Mr. Macintosh and the depot-laying party as to the '■. actual seaward movement . of the barrier caused by the pressure of the inland glacier, further south. It was found that the Discovery's depot 'A' near Minna Bluff had travelled two geographical miles to east-north-east in a period of six years and two months. It was also proved by the same party that Bft 2in of snow had fallen during the same interval of time at the present site of depot 'A.' This . may be considered to be a fair average estimate of the snowfall for the barrier in this latitude. "It is obvious,: therefore, that as the head of the barrier is approximately 300 or 400 miles south of its seaward front, there is time for many hundreds of feet of thickness of snow to accumulate on the surface of the slowly moving glacial ice before it traverses the above distance in order to reach the sea front from which icebergs are from time to time broken off. " A large tabular berg grounded in what subsequently proved to be 13 fathom's of water. This goes to show that probably most of the bergs launched from the great ice barrier "are' in their upper portions, at all events, if not throughout, formed of enow, rather than from glacier ice. Glacier ice, on which snow was originally deposited, has probably been dissolved away in sea water, on which the barrier floats, probably for many scores of miles, : before its northern limit is reached. <'.'".. .";-;":/. ; . " One of the most important geological results of the expedition is to prove that the Antarctic region from Ross Sea to the South Pole is a great continental area, in the nature of a high plateau, its northern | extremitv near Cape North being from 6000 ft to 7000 ft above, sea level, 1 : over 7000 ft near. the magnetic pole, and over 80001t % where ; it was .traversed .by, Captain Scott's expedition, and about 10,500 ft at the furthermost point reached

bv Lieutenant Shackleton and a party, 88deg, 23min. south. This plateau continues across to the South Pole for some distance, and probably , extends onwards in the direction of South America, towards Coats' Land, discovered by Bruce. " The discovery of coal measures, and of thick measures of limestone, as far as 80 degrees south, is obviously of extreme in- j terest, as showing a former mild climate! close to the South Pole, for both limestone and, coal occur only under such con- : ditions. The coal measure and limestone•, formations. extend from 85 degrees south across to the* magnetic pole, a distance of over 1100 miles. Under the coal and i sandstone formation is a widely-spread | foundation of very old rocky granites, : schists, and a coarse., crystalline marble \ mineral. Monazite, from which thorium is commercially extracted for incandescent gas mantles, is so common in places that it is one of the local rock formations. A mineral like black mica was discovered by Mr. Douglas Mawson at several spots along the coast on the west side of Ross Sea." Professor David said that the ringed penguin found at Cape Royds probably came all the tremendous distance from Graham Land, and was the only bird of the sort seen at this particular spot. The speaker also stated that the results of the meteorological observations were being worked out ; and it was hoped they would prove eminently useful both to New Zealand and to Australia, as solving many important questions as to the bearing of Antarctic conditions upon the weather in these latitudes. The observations would be worked up, here by the local and expedition scientists, and they would be enabled to compare a series of observations taken simultaneously ove? a period of 15 months in the South Polar regions and here, -and to ascertain the effect of the tremendous blizzards experi- j enced in the South upon the weather con- \ ditions of Australasia. At Cape Royds the: northern' party. Lieutenant Shackle-;j ton's party, and the ship's party all took observations. Their situation at Cape j Royds was most favourable for studying the effects of upper air currents. A most! interesting feature in this respect was the ! fact that.they were enabled to watch the clouds of smoke moving over the top of Mount Erebas. - PICKING THE PARTIES UP. "A BIG PIECE OF LUCK." 'j [BY TELEGRAPH.— CORRESPONDENT.] ■ CmuaTCHURCH, Thursday. .One of the members of the expedition had a most interesting tale to unfold regarding some of the non-scientific aspects of the great enterprise. ..■" We lost one of . the boats in a gale," he said, "and several members of the party nearly lost the number of their mess. This boat and another were engaged in transferring stores (from the ice, when a blizzard came on with great ferocity. One of the boats succeeded in- getting back to the ship in safety with the crew badly exhausted. The other boat, however, did not fare so well. An oar was broken, and the boat was forced back to the foot of the ice. . Those on "board -had to ;' be ; hauled up by ■■ ropes, , all more or less frostbitten, and the boat' itself { sank out of sight. The ship had to put out to sea for '.two days, and was unable to take the men off the ice owing to the severe weather conditions prevailing. .On the second day, however, they ] were all got off safely.;

| "The northern party, which discovered the magnetic pole, viz., .Professor David, Dr. Mackay, and Mr. Mawson, were given up as hopelessly lost by the ship, as they were long overdue.* The ship searched 300 miles ; of coastline, and eventually picked up the party in a little inlet of dry galeki barrier. They had* had a very rough time. They only arrived there the night before, and were staying in the hope of being picked up. It was the biggest piece of luck in the world that we managed to' find them. They-were, due back in January, and it was then February 4. • "After landing them at the hut the ship -proceeded to the great ice barrier to search, for Lieutenant Shackleton's southern party, which should have been back by February 15. The Nimrod got a severe gruelling in going round, and many days were occupied in the journey. All hope of seeing them again was abandoned. As it turned out they were not picked up until March 1 at Hut Point, and were found through their heliographing to the ship. Only Lieutenant Shackleton and Mr. Wild could be seen, they having come in after a forced inarch to get relief for Dr. Marshall, who was suffering from dysentery, and Lieutenant" Adams, who. was staying with him, they, being camped 28 miles away. Naturally those on board received a terrible shock, thinking that the other two members of the party had been lost. However, the matter was. quickly explained, and Lieutenant Shackleton, after getting a little to eat, set off again with a relief party two hours later, and picked them up. All returned safely to the ship at midnight on March 3. They were all terribly thin, but as soon as they came on board they were given decent food, and you could almost see them putting the flesh on again. Everybody was tremendously proud of Lieutenant Shackleton's great achievement of beating Captain I Scott's furthest south by 366 miles." • , The speaker stated that the ship had proved perfect for the purposes of the expedition, and had stood the ice pressure wonderfully well. .-■'' USE OF THE MOTOR. TRAVELLING IS A ICE. ; AN INTERESTING STATEMENT. [BY telegraph.—special CORRESPONDENT.] ■•■;■•■■ ' Cbristchttrch, Thursday. The motor expert who went to Antarctica with the expedition (Mr. B. C. Day) gave some interesting details'of his experiences with the car.' The car did about 450 miles, remarked Mr. Day, between Cape Royds and Glacier Tongue. The class _of country travelled over was sea ice, with patches of snow, which varied from about 6in in : depth. He had a bit of trouble with the lubrication of the machinery, finding that "the oil froze at minus 30 degrees— was the lowest temperature at which he had driven the motor. . It was absolutely useless to expect the car to run on the surface of the barrier, as the surface was so soft. : : It was composed of . compressed snow, in layers about . Ift ,in depth, into which the wheels of the car sunk to the axles. The rate of progress ; was, about six miles per hour, but if the surface was good the car sometimes did ;; nine or 10 miles an hour. Without a load the car could do 30 miles an hour over sea ice. The surface of the sea ice was practically, smooth, the only break being caused; by snow flowers (heaps of snow about the size of a man's .head). This made the surface a little heavier.

Mr. Day stated definitely that motors .* were absolutely k useless :on 7 the great ice barrier. No car could meet the varied character of the country to; be • travelled, \ >• and no car could be built light enough to go over the deposits of snow. He.was of; opinion that motor sledges similar to those : that are to be used by the French Antarctic ; expedition under ; - Dr. / Charcot " would be very useful in Antarctic exploration. The . car taken on th© Nimrod had been brought back, >", ; and :■ was at I that; moment; ■ on; board; the boat. It was not damaged in any way.; There had been no breakages. ■ ,•: l ■;/•■■ HEARTY WELCOME BACK. PRIME MINISTER'S MESSAGE: -': [BY TELEGRAPH. —PRESS ASSOCIATION.] ' ; .Wellington, Thursday. / ■The Prime Minister (Sir J. G. Ward) forwarded the following message to Lieutenant Shackleton :—" I extend /to you, your officers, and men, a hearty welcome . back to New Zealand; lam very glad, . indeed, to hear that all is well with you.' :To nave come successfully through the great expedition that you have, undertaken reflects the greatest; credit on yourself, as commander, and on behalf of my colleagues and myself, as well as the people of New Zealand, I extend my heartiest felicitations to you. I shall look forward to ; reading with great interest , the account 1 of /what has been undertaken by yourself and those associated with you in th© interests of scientific research. Please accept for yourself, and convey to officers and men, my heartiest good wishes." HARBOUR BOARD'S CONGRATU- - x ';' V' LATIONS. < : : ::' [BY TELEGRAPH.— ; ASSOCIATION.] Dunedin, Thursday. " . / At the Harbour Board's meeting this i : afternoon the chairman referred •, to the. success of Lieutenant Shackleton's Antarctic expedition, and f-th©; Board decided to send a telegram of congratulation to him on the party. having • reached the south magnetic pole. ■/ , THE MAGNETIC POLE. IMPORTANCE OF THE DISCOVERY. In reply to a question put to him yesterday regarding the magnetic poles, Professor Brown explained that the earth behaves as a kind of magnet. ' The ;■ north pole of, 6uch magnet is situated in Northern Canada, latitude T 7odeg. north, and longitude about lOOdeg. west, and the south pole had not hitherto been discovered. The direction of the magnetic needle in the southern oceans, however/seemed v to indicate that there were • two south poles. ; Lieutenant Shackleton's party's discovery had located the , south magnetic' pole, and would seem to.show that there was only one, as in the case of the north--pole. J": * .-'" :'''-<<• / "At the magnetic poles" said Professor Brown, the needle drops 90deg., ~; and points vertically downwards,> and has ; no particular horizontal direction. At all other points the dip of the needle is Jess than 90deg. The actual magnetic pole' is supposed to be inside the earth,' so hat as' you get the needle nearer to it the dip becomes greater, till immediately over j'V pole it would point straight downwards^''' The professor said he looked upon the recent discovery of ; the magnetic south pole as of importance to navigators in the southern seas. AUSTRALIA'S CONTRIBUTION. LIEUTENANT SHACKLETON'S OBLIGATIONS. Melbourne, March 25. The Minister for External ; Affairs is surprised that Lieutenant Shackleton sent him. no report regarding the Nimrod's explorations, seeing that the Commonwealth Government subscribed £5000 towards the cost. He states that \ whatever, his contracts with newspapers / were ; Lieutenant Shackleton must recognise some obligations to the Commonwealth.