INLAND PLATEAU.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 13921, 26 March 1909, Page 5

INLAND PLATEAU.

SEAMS OF COAL.

CHRISTCHURCH, March %j. Continuing, Lieut. Shaekleton said: "As the mountains trended south-east and our course was due south, we decided to take advantage of any gap and make a reconnaissance. At about 3000 foet up wo saw an apparently smooth glacier with a gentle gradient leading inland ice or plateau, and decided to follow it. Wo < called tho mountain Mount Hop. We took the lasti pony and started on December 0,, but found the glacier full cf crevices, and one day did only 600 yards. Wyld, who was leading the pony and sledge, was in the wake of the party on December 7, when it fell into the orevice.< Most fortunately the swingletree snapper, and so saved the man and sledge. Wyld managing to hang on to the edge by" his arms. Be said that all he fel^ was a sudden iush of wind and all waSj over. From this time onward we were crossing crevices all the time and tho sledges suffered severely by the ice tearing the wood, which made them harder to pull. "Ultimately there was only one whole runner, and that was worn, on the last ! Sledge, . and pulling then became very arduous. We reached 6500 feet altitude on December 19, and there thought w<s- could see a plateau level ahead r and so made a depot of everything except food, instruments to find the position, and the ckJthes we stood up in. "We loft our warm clothes behind, which was unfortunate, because we had to ascend to 10,500 feet. From the 9000 ft. level we had a constant blizzard in our faces, with tho temperature always below zero, and sometimes 60 degrees of frost*. : The clothes weighed 9to 10 lbs. By this time we had reduced our daily ration -to *2ID ! oz". por man, which was not sufficient to keep heat in Our bodies. "AH th#time we were sighting newmountains, and in SOdeg. smin. Wyld discovered seven* distinct seams of coal. This was interesting as showing tho Antarctic once had a very different climate. Dr. Marshall had charge of the surveying and also took all the photos. On January 4 we decided to risk' leaving tlie depot on the plateau. We had then no land to take our bearing by; and had to trust to Providence to find our depot, with the help of guiding poles. To provide these we used one tent and cut up the poles of the other with flags from the provision bags. "Thus lightened we pushed rapidly south till on January 7 we reached 88 deg. smin. The constant blizzard then became extremely violent, the wind travelling at the rate of 70 miles an hour and the temperature was down to 72 deg. of frost. This continued for 60 hours, and many times we had to take our feet out of the sleeping bags and restore them to feeling after being frost bitten.

"Food was now very low, and when the gale was over we realised it wa? impossible to continue, both from want of food and diminished strength of our bodies, the temperature of wliich showed only 93 degrees. We therefore do-/ cided to leave camp and make a forced march south, and in 88deg. 23min. hoisted the Union Jack which her Majesty the Queen had given us in England before leaving."