POLAR EXPLORATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21580, 27 February 1932, Page 21

POLAR EXPLORATION

, MAPPING THE ANTARCTIC MR H. G. WATKINS’S PLANS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, January 21. Mr H. G. Watkins, the explorer who led the British Air Route expedition of 1930-31 to Greenland, is contemplating another expedition to the Antarctic this year. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph representative Mr Watkins said: “ I hope to discover how far the Victoria Land mountains, which bound the Roes Barrier, extend across the conti-nent—-to establish whether or not the Ross Sea connects with the Weddell Sea, thus dividing the Antarctic land mass into two large continents. “The Antarctic Continent consists of a mass of land, roughly circular in shape, with the pole at the centre of the circle. On opposite sides of the Continent are two large inlets —the Ross Sea and the Weddell Sea. Scott, Shackleton. and Amundsen chose the Ross Sea as the base for their attacks on the South Pole. After this had been reached Shackleton conceived the idea of going. into the Weddell Sea and crossing the Continent to the Ross Sea. He sent one ship to the Ross Sea to lay out depots which would be used by the transcontinental party on the last part of their journey across. Shackleton himself went with his ship ,to the Weddell Sea. Unfortunately, his ship was crushed in the ice and he was unablo to land on the continent. TRANSCONTINENTAL TREK. “ A German expedition under Filehner attempted to establish a base on the barrier ice at the head of the Weddell Sea, but this time the ice broke off and carried a large part of their equipment out to sea. They wore forced to leave in their ship with their mission unfulfilled. “ The forthcoming British Antarctic expedition will attempt to force a way to the head of the Weddell Sea by the end of January, 1933. Here the transcontinental party will be landed, and after establishing the base the ship will move off to do the mapping of the southwest coast of the Weddell' Sea. “It will then, return north until the following summer, when it will proceed to the Ross Sea to re-cmbark the transcontinental party, who, by then, should have crossed to this point. If the ice is too thick to allow the ship to do the coastal mapping the journey will be done by sledge parties in the early spring.’* The party that is to be left at the head of the Weddell Sea, with Mr Watkins in command, will consist of eight men ( surveyors, a geologist, and a physicist! , MOTOR AND DOG SLEDGES. “ After the base has been established,” Mr Watkins added, “reconnaissance flights will be made along the proposed route of the transcontinental journey, and with motor sledges depots will be set up to a distance of 300 or 400 miles. The party will then go into winter quarters unutil the following October. when the journey will begin. “The transcontinental journey will not be rftade along the route via the Pole, as (his would mean that the last half of the distance would follow the known route already covered by Scott, Shackleton. Amundsen, and Byrd. Instead. the party will start south-south-west from the head of the Weddell Sea, aiming to reach Amundsen’s base on the Ross Sea. By this moans 1400 miles out of a total of 1500 will be over entirely new ground.” Mapping, geological, magnetic, and meteorological work will be carried out over the entire journey. The main portion of the journey will not be made by air, as this would be too rapid to permit of useful scientific observations. Eight teams, of 15 dogs each, will be used for the transport of stores. It is estimated by Mr Watkins that with these dog teams it should be possible to traverse the 1500 miles across the continent in about- four months — that is unless mountain ranges are found in the interior. The existence of such ranges wduld be disappointing, for the party in that case would be greatly delayed. and might even be forced to turn back.