AMUNDSEN'S EXPEDITION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17889, 17 September 1921, Page 2 (Supplement)

AMUNDSEN'S EXPEDITION.

EXPLORATION IN THE ARCTIC.! While the expedition which hopes to ■■ conquer Mount Everest is blazing a trail toward the forbidden heights, pioneers are still exploring the lands of tragic memories toward the Poles. Amundsen left Nome Alaska, for his latest effort last August, but, being baulked by ice in his course due north, he took his little ship Maude across the Bering Strait, and at the end of three weeks reached Serdze Kamen, in Siberia. A strong current" helped the ship's engines, and whan they reached anchorage they found that their propellers had been smashed by the ice. They were at the mercy of ice and winds, and these forces combined to thrust the vessel high and dry out of the water on to tie beach, where she remained from October 13 till November 9. They kept her upright and got her afloat again, but a mighty mass of ice came to within 50 yards of them; and after escaping that they were imprisoned by the formation of new ice from the water in which they floated, and on November 27 winter set in. At the end of January two members of the party travelled over the ice for a ten weeks'_ survey, and did their work nobly, returning with precious records. Up to May 27 the Maude was still frozen in the ice off the Siberian coast, and Amundsen then left the ship to return to Nome, where he sent back his message to civilisation. As soon as the ice permits, the Maude will return to Seattle to refit. The expedition will start again next year. There we have the ice man's spirit.