VAST POLAR ICE TREK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21142, 28 March 1932, Page 14

VAST POLAR ICE TREK.

NEW EXPEDITION PLANNED. ACROSS ANTARCTIC WASTES. MARCH OF 1300 MILES. [Fnost OUR OWN con RESPONDENT. ] SYDNEY, March 17. Among the recent arrivals in Australia is Mr. J. Rvmill, who is recuperating after a strenuous season in tho icy wastes of Greenland with the British Arctic air route expedition. He announced that ho had been selected as a member of a new all-British expedition, which would leave in October in the Discovery for tho Antarctic regions. 'I lie object will be to land a little party of six that would attempt to cross tho frozen continent from one sido to tho other—a feat which Shackleton failed to accomplish when ho tackled it 18 years ago. Shackleton and 'his party were not even able to set foot on the coast, for their ship was caught in the ice, crushed and sunk, and tho party escaped with their lives after appalling hardships. Tho new expedition plans a march of 1500 miles on that ice-bound coast in the hope that they will clear up some of tho last great mysteries of this vast unknown land. Leac;er ol 25 Years. Tho leader of the expedition will bo Mr. H. C, Watkins, the most youthful leader of any polar party. He is not yet 25 and has already led expeditions to Spitzbergen, Labrador and Greenland. His object now is to march across the Antarctic continent from the Weddell Sea to the Ross Sea, thus securing for the British flag the honour of being the first to accomplish the journey. The march will be conducted in the good oldfashioned style with dog sledges, tho young explorers having rejected the idea of a flight in 16 hours on the ground that such a venture would not add to the world's knowledge. It is expected that the journey will occupy 16 weeks, at an average of about 90 miles a week. It is hoped to make a thorough examination of this inhospitable country, in which no living thing exists. It is believed the whole interior is so cold that it never rains and very seldom thaws. Blizzards, which have no equal elsewhere, sweep across tho void. It will be necessary for the party to take food not only for themselves but for their 150 dogs. First Formidable Task. The first task will be to push the old Discovery into the ice and force her down to the head of the Weddell Sea, where, by some means or other, the party should be able to make a landing on Luitpold Land. If they are able to get a footing on the coast the dog teams, sledges and supplies, together with a hut, will be hurriedly taken off the ship, which will then hasten to the open water before she is caught in the pack ice. Tho Discovery will then bo taken right round tho continent to the Ross Sea, there to pick up the party when it concludes its hazardous transcontinental march.

Once the party has landed it will set out to lay down depots and food on the route before the winter sets in. This completed tho men will return to the coast for the long, dark winter night. In the laying down to the depots the expedition will experiment with motor sledges, and an aeroplane will be used for reconaissance work. It is not intended to approach the Pole, but to explore entirely new country, about which practically nothing is known. A portable wireless may be carried, but this will be of little use in communicating with the outer world-