THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1926. THE LURE OF THE SOUTH.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19952, 20 November 1926, Page 12

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1926. THE LURE OF THE SOUTH.

There is something wonderfully inspiring in the story of the Antarctic, and the contrasting characters of the heroic men who have sallied forth on the splendid quest of Polar exploration, from the days of Captain Cook right down to the more recent expeditions, inspire both admiration and reverence. The great deeds and the greater men who haye followed the lure of the south are our priceless heritage. Whatever foreign explorers may have accomplished—and they have accomplished much—the magnificent doings of our own British adventurers, of Scott and Shackleton and their companions, together with the tragic deaths of Scott and Oates amongst others, have thrilled the popular imagination, while the sterling courage and modesty of the men who wrought and died are matched by the simplicity and candour with which their doings are recorded. The Northern Polar regions were well charted before the south received any great attention, and of the twenty or more intrepid discoverers whose names are emblazoned on the almost trackless expanse of south Polar exploration, at least half a dozen stand out in special prominence. Southern exploration really began with Captain James Cook, who circled the whole south region and penetrated into the Antarctic in 1772-75. Nearly forty years later, Charles Wilkes, an American naval officer, made further explorations and left his name on a portion of the great ice continent. Almost .simultaneously, James Ross, a British navigator, penetrated Ross Sea, and took formal possession of that portion of the continent for his own Government. From then on, comparatively little was done for over half a century, until, in 1902, Captain Robert Scott commanded an Antarctic expedition, and made the first definite laud exploration in those regions. Landing at South Victoria Land, he penetrated a considerable way into the interior, discovering a chain of mountains and other features. This expedition accomplished some very valuable scientific work. Five years later, another Briton, Lieutenant Shackleton, made a dash for the South Pole from Scott’s previous base, but was turned back by extremely adverse conditions when within 97 miles of the Pole. Captain Scott, on a second expedition, actually reached the Pole in January, 1912, only to find that Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, had anticipated his conquest just one month earlier. The story of the return journey of Scott and his party, who perished on the way, is one of the most tragic and heroic in English history. But the days of Antarctic exploration are not over. Indeed, it would appear that they are scarcely commenced. Within the last few days we have heard of a plan on the part of an Argentine expedition to fly across the South Pole next month from Grahamland and to make Christchurch the terminus of the flight. The lure of the south still calls for men of strong heart and iron will, and the secrets it shall yet yield up may have far-reaching effects upon human history. The race for the Pole is a mere athletic exercise in endurance compared with the more important work that is yet to be done. Something more even than the geographical mapping of the great continent is necessary. There is scientific research work to be performed, both by land and sea. Science demands a thorough investigation of this unknown land, and there is abundance of scope in ocean research, to say nothing of systematic exploration of the upper atmosphere. Almost any fresh facts would add to the store of human knowledge and that means an increase of human comfort and usefulness. It is natural to look upon the Antarctic as a region of ice, and this would seem to be largely correct. We are told there is but little rain on the great southern continent, but snow falls frequently. Only hero and there, where the sun gets specially favourable conditions, on black rocks or in sheltered spots, does the snow melt at all, and there are found small creeks and stunted vegetation. But the ice is everywhere—huge glaciers and icebergs, field ice, floe ice, pack ice, and so on, —and some of the accounts given by the explorers who have returned show that ice conditions are of indescribable beauty, both of form and colour. Another of the peculiarities of the Antarctic, and of all Polar explore tion, is found in the unique astronomical features that prevail, —in the polar time and the polar seasons. Admiral Peary, in his boob on Polar travel, has a very striking statement regarding the trials of Arctic exploration. He states that, whereas to most people the word “polar” is synonymous with cold, to the one who has spent a year in Arctic or Antarctic regions it is more likely to be synonymous with darkness. He writes; “A man of the most sanguine temperament cannot avoid entirely the effects of mouths of Polar night, and there are those of a nervous temperament whom a night in the Arctic would drive insane.”

Naturally we are interested in the South Pole and its surroundings, for New Zealand has formed the convenient jumping-off place for many of the expeditions, and, in the work which yet remains to be done, we may well expect to bear a not unworthy part. The story of Antarctic plant life is so far extremely meagre. The .Scotia discovered many forms of seaweed in the shallower waters, and bacteria and various forms of algae are abundant. A feature apparently peculiar to the Polar regions i.s that no seaweed seems to be found between the high and low tide water lines. There are said to be many interesting plants on the adjacent islands, just outside the Antarctic circle, but so far only two iiowering plants are known to exist on the great southern continent. P'erns appear to be quite absent, but, about fifty-one known species of mosses have been catalogued, and lichens also are very plentiful. The South Pole is less happy in its flora than the Arctic, where several hundreds of flowering plants are known, ranging from the Iceland poppy to the

buttercup. The Antarctic animal life seems to be in even a more precarious condition than the vegetable kingdom. For one thing, there are no southern human inhabitants like the Eskimos in the north. With one exception, also, there appear to be no Antarctic land vertebrates jmd certainty no land mammals nave been found there. There are no exciting encounters with grizzly bears and wolves, such as one reads of in northern regions. There is apparently only one southern land bird, and there are no fresh water lish. This absence of animal life has opened up very interesting geological questions. Was the Antarctic continent at one time joined to Australia and New Zealand If so, at what period did the severance take placer 1 There have been fossil discoveries in Antarctica which seem to point to an early union at one time with the neighbouring lands to the north, while the naturalists with Shackleton’s expedition suggested that at one time a temperate climate prevailed in those latitudes. Rut if the land is apparently desolate, the Antarctic seas teem with life, and the sea birds literally swarm into millions. The physics of the southern region are also full of interest, while it has been suggested that a closer study of its meteorology will go far to solve many of our weather perplexities. But, quite apart from the scientific aspects, to read the story of the south, as set forth by the men who have been there, is to catch something of an infectious joyousness. There is a remarkable atmosphere of every-day-ishness that invests the tales of most amazing endurance and dogged courage, and they reveal a spirit without which the world would be infinitely poorer.