HEROIC FIBRE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 281, 19 April 1913, Page 10

HEROIC FIBRE

DR. MAWSON'S LONELY FIGHTMAN OF INDOMITABLE SPIRIT. , A letter from Professor Henderson to the Chancellor of the Adelaide University with regard to Dr. Mawson was read at the council meeting of the University on March 29, and Dr. Mawson was granted extended leave of absence and a substitute appointed for this year. A wireless message will be sent to Dr. Mawson. The letter stated: "In company with Lieutenant Ninnis and Dr. Mertz, Dr. Mawson set out from the main base to explore the coastline stretching to the south-east. He particularly wanted to examine the shores of the bay discovered 18 months ago by Lieutenant Pennel. He was 300 miles away from the south-east of the main base on December 14, when Lieutenant Ninnis, with one dog team and nearly all the food, disappeared into an unfathomable crevasse. For the next 34 days Drs. Mawson and Mertz struggled on with inadequate provisions. Oil January 17 Mertz died. From January 17 to February 7, a period of 21 days, Dr. Mawson battled along by himself, through blizzard and fog, over heavily crevassed country, till he reached headquarters, just a few hours after Captain Davis returned, but was unable to get a boat to the shore because of the hurricane velocity of the wind. The rate of travel on the homeward journey was about live miles a day. The significance of these figures was that they brought out further the fact that the average rate of travelling in the Antarctic is about 15 miles a day, and Dr. Mawson was fighting for his very life at every step. These are the facts so far as I knew them. They are based upon statements made by Professor David. TJiere is enough evidence of a reliable character here to make me feel proud that I have- done something, be it ever so little, to help Dr.. Mawson. I am inclined to believe that Dr. Mawson's journey of 300 miles after the death of Lieutenant Ninnis, and especially that part of it when lie traversed alone after the death of Dr. Mertz, in the face of innumerable hardships and perils, was one of the most remarkable feats of endurance ever accomplished by a man of indomitable spirit and heroic fibre."