NEW YORK TO PARIS BY MOTOR-CAR.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13663, 30 March 1908, Page 8

NEW YORK TO PARIS BY MOTOR-CAR.

DANGERS THAT WILL HAVE TO BE FACED. -

(By Harry De Windt in ' the Daily Mail). , following Prince Borghese's motorpar drive from China to France, the Paris Matin was led to organise another expedition on the same lines, the competing cars in which started this week on their attempt tc^ tfavel b> land from New York to Paris, via Alaska and Siberia. .

I havo wade both €he aforesaid journeys, and can therefore' testify that the former is a mere little t pleasure trip compared to the stupendous undertaking now in, contemplation — an undertaking accomplished for the first twric in history by .the writer and throe companions fiye years ago. My object was to ascertain the feasibility oi a. railway, and Paris, was Jmr point of departure. But' as we barely managed to reach the Bpihring Straits alive by means of dog and, deer sleds, after crossing 4000- miles of ghastly desolation, followed by another 2000 mijes over the roughest sea- of ice, I can scarcely picture an intricate motorcar experiencing the same strain without serious mishap at an early stage of the proceedings. But these are minor difficulties compared with others which will confront the intrepid chauffeurs, and these I propose to enumerate briefly. The distance we travelled from Paris to Now York is, roughly speaking, 18,500 English miles, about half of which may bo covered over fairly good roads in the United States, Europe/ and civilised .Siberia. But Alaska and Arctic Siberia are quite anbther matter. As regards the former there is, in winter, a sleigh track, witif ijost -houses at intervals, from the terminus of the White Pass Railway to Dawson City; but beyond this to the Behring Straifcs lio lbuO miles of precipitous mountains and dense forests, intersected by numerous rivers and "\ practically unexplored. The mere idea of aii automobile negotiating, this region has caused much amusement in Dawson City, and no wonder! \ On the other hand, the frozen River Yukon might be utilised as a road; but os the cars only leave New York this week, they may !>c unable to reach Northern Alaska beforo the thaw sets in., This fact, however, will not affect the proposed crossing of Behring Straits over the ice, which I once imagined \\.i< fep«rbie, only to find that the forty^pV&a uific-s between Asia and America -arc never completely frozen over. And evon were this the *caso, where would a motor-car be amid the towering- hummocks and" deep crevasses through which a man on* foot can scarcely thread his way ! An 'avalanche of gigantic boulders fallen from some Alpme peak somewhat resembles the frozen surface of Behring Straits, and there being a terrifit* current., the "leads*' or spaces f oi> jopen water are often many miles, wide. ' But, -let us assume that, notwitlistandingifchese pbjsrtaoles, the motor-cars h/kv«»'landed safely on East Cape, Siberia — which^in my .humble opinion, they will^iever reach except on shipboard'; here there are some walrus-hide huts docupied by the half-savage Tchuktchis, where we found a squalid shelter for fiv^ wfeary weeks. Between this and Brednj-^olymsk, a tiny (settlement of half-stafVed natives and Dolitical exiles, there are 200U miles of ragged sea ice (no do** sled could follow the eoasfc) w^th :v|«?w walrus-hide huts at' intervals of 100 to 200 miles, where we wore $He to obtain a little sea! meat and nothing olse. y e^ the announcement has ejj<?orf«Hy been made that 9O0 1 kilometres (or about 603 miles) will be the* lon«r»st stretch the cars will liare tr cjvci- without a frosk>supph ox, pctml! .-.-: i: matter of fact, "they will not -iir.d ._ c-orol or anything! ielso betnvr^ji B"In :";.■; Stroits and IJietown of \ ,■>- kut-.k (a di.sui=<v of 1000 English i»Uc: ) whirls ivo covered with do«>-3'.and rciu[ce&t. (-^countering, perhaps, a dozen f\im->le down shelters and feweV th^n 100 :niserablo natives thtou<jhoTrt tho i riirney. The 2000 miles from the Arrt!c O'"iantto Yakutsk lay chieflly overifuirlv lov»l country, which, however, c^n <>vAy },c crossed in- mid-winter on j3cc;nir«- of numberlfsa swamw, lakei, and livers. Here another difficulty i will be tiio Verkoyansk Mountains, the [only r^ss across which is an almost perpendicular ice-slope. In SwitzerjlADd it would entail ropes and ico-axei. [Hory v. c experienced a temperature of rSdc^;. botow zero. What effect wotU<2 ■ this hive unon petrol? - In rnring tinie the overflow of tlic jgreat vena River arid its tributaries' converts Yakutsk into an idand, a;id the p.VvOo, is uuaDproacliable on ovory r tide for several Hundred miles. From Yakutsk to Irkutsk ig another 2000 miles, and there is only one road, the river, so dense are the forests on either, 'side. I So much for a few of the difficulties jv.'b li:«.d to overcome in accomplishing a journey which for aH the gold in London I weuld rtdt attempt atrain. I may add that we ' nearly ~t>erished of ; starvation near Tdhann Bay, on tlie jbiberhji coast, and that for throe jinoiitlis afterwards we subsisted on Koal or wr.lnis meat~<>fton eaten raw. Our I only fuel was the scanty drift wood jwashr-d up in summer by the tVHvs. JAs f-:r supnl'>f>, jiotltinK whatever wfis proyiirunfr* behve^n Yakutsk and Nome City hi Alaska— a distance of over 60' X) »mihv:. But tLe whole scheme is, in my cminion, so fantastic that it scarcely repays serious discussion. Many peripie r''liculfj the idea of reaching tji'> t North Polo by airship; but Mr Welliriian's project h at any rato practically f>n far as carefiil experiments hnve been nblo i) make it. A oreJiminary survey of the oQuntry M-liich has been talked of go lightly as about to bo negotiated undo:- .impossible conditions would speedily demonstrate the uU< r absurdity of the Now York-Paris motor expedition.