SOUTH POLE EXPLORATION.

Otago Witness, Issue 2927, 20 April 1910, Page 34

SOUTH POLE EXPLORATION.

CAPTAIN SCOTT'S EXPEDITION

A NEW ROUTE PROBABLE

{Fbom Oub Own Cobbespokdent.)

WELLINGTON, April 13. News by last mail regarding Captain Scott's expedition to the South Pole shows that he may adopt a different route from that adopted by Sir E. Shackleton. Instead of having one base in M'Murdo Sound, as he previously had, and as Sir E. Shackleton also had, Captain Scott now proposes to establish a. second base in King Edward VII Land, 400 miles to the east of M'Murdo Sound. Captain Scott recognises that the new base may be difficult to establish, and that it will be exposed to the full rigour of the climate of the Far South, and the attack on the Pole will be made from one or other of the bases, according to circumstances. On the chart published with a prospectus of the expedition he shows his proposed sledge journey from King Edward VII Land along the 160th parallel of west longitude. The distance from the Pole will be no greater than the distance from, the base at M'Murdo Sound. The newtrack would traverse at first the extensive plateau of the Great Barrier, and then rise gradually ori the surface of a long glacier. Finally, in its third and most difficult phase, it would traverse an inland plateau that probably maintains a great altitude. Captain Scott thinks this track will continue longer at about sea level than Shackleton's track; that it will meet the mountains in a more southerly latitude, and consequently leave a shorter distance to be traversed on the Jofty inland plateau. Captain Scott recognises the value of pony traction on the plateau and their unsuitability for glacier work, as provedl in Shackleton's expedition. He therefore proposes to use do,gs for the latter stages of the journey. If the dogs are lightly laden and well fed on the lower plateau, he thinks they may travel the whole distance to the Pole. He also hopes well for motor sledge as a means of transport. A picked partv of men and dogs will make the final dash for the Pole across the inland ice-shee -.' One of the objects of the expedition will be the thorough exploration of Kin." Edward VII Land, but Captain Scott savr, quite frankly that the main object of his expedition is to reach the South Pole and to secure for the British Empire the honour of that achievement.