WORK IN ANTARCTICA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15626, 4 June 1914, Page 10

WORK IN ANTARCTICA.

SHACKLETON EXPEDITION. ' LEADER'S HOPES AND AIMS. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. ] London, April 29. Thr -Endurance, tie ship of the Shackleton Antarctic Expedition, will reach England from Norway about May 25, and will bo prepared for Mac start for the Antarctic, which is timed for the latter end of July or the first week in August. The vessel has been built specially for Antarctic work. The dogs, which are to accompany the expedition, are coming to London, and arrangements will bo made so that the animals can be seen by the members of tho public.

Replying to the toast of his. health at lan informal dinner of the Pilgrims' Club at the Savoy Hotel, Sir Ernest Shacklelon paid a tribute to the economic value of scientific work on Antarctic expeditions, and declared that by studying meteorology in the WocTdell Sea they Hoped'to benefit the stockbreeders of the Argentine and Chili, because it had already been found that dense ice in the Weddell Sea meant ■heavy rains in those countries. Sentiment was the driving force. It always had been the driving forco in any work that counted for the ages to come. It would be the first crossing of the last Continent to be crossed, and he wanted to do it under our flag. (Cheers.)

Explaining how they hoped to cross the South Polar Continent in four and a-half , months, Sir Ernest declared that their food would contain the highest amount of nutriment. The extract business was wrong. They must have something that would fill as well as heat. They hoped to discover whether the Andes chain linked up with Grahamsland, and the great range of mountains which they had discovered on the other side of the Pole. They liopod to ascertain whether the Antarctic Continent was one homogeneous mass or was divided into two. Within 290 miles of the Pole there was a' huge seam of coal, showing that once tho country' was tropical or semi-tropical. The ice was dwindling away, and in time the country would be tropical again. But not in our time; in 50,000 years. Each step taken into tho unknown unfolded a page of mystery, and as long as there was any mystery on this globe, it was not only man's right, but it was his duty, to try to unravel it, so that in future ages wo should not bo pointed at as tho men who lived in tho dark ages of tho twentieth century. Ho was not going to do any "flag-wagging." The flag _ they were carrying cost half-a-crown, with hunting. If things did not turn out well it would Bo 1916 before they wero heard of again. It lay on the knees of the gods what was goinor to happen, but if they failed it would not ho his fault or that of his comrades it would bo tho forces of Nature. They would try to do their best. In reply to questions, Sir Ernest said alcohol was one of the worst things to take in Polar regions ; oxcept for medical purposes it was fatal. They took bottles of champagne for birthdays,' and the difficulty was to restrict birthdays to one a month. If it was lint tho birthday of ono or other of the members of the expedition there wcro relatives who had birthdays. Tobacco was going to ho taken, because it had a good moral effect and produced comfort, which meant efficiency, when the men were in their deeping bags and smoked. In the open air, with the temperature at 50 degrees below aero, It'could not. used.