TO THE ANTARCTIC.

Timaru Herald, Volume XC, Issue 13298, 29 May 1907, Page 3

TO THE ANTARCTIC.

THE NEW EXPEDITION

Lieutenant E. H. Shackeuori, who is to lead tlie new exp.-'ilition U> the South Polar legions, hr.;; oi'iji.it-d his pian.s in the Geographical Jouixi.tl ior March, -lieutenant- shaekelton, wlio w;u wi.h Commander ficott in thd Discovery Expedition, says:—My purpose is that t)iis expedition should leave New Zealand a. thj- c;;d of January or bc.-ginriing of February, 1908. The expedition will. luiiike. that of the Discovery, consist of a .'-Tiiiill shore party of nin.H to !«•..•]vei men, who n ill winter at the winter quarUio of the Jii.-.covi.-ry. The ship will either be whaivr, specially chartered or purchased, or a full powered utjanii. r, capa'oL- of doing 10 knots, which will not leave New Zealand until l'\ binary, M-hen the tea in the south is free* of ice- On landing the party, the v. ssel will. return to New Zealand, and th- charter will be up until the following year. There will thus bo no risk of- the ship being frozen in, and there will be no responsibility to those at home.

The funds at present at our disposal admit of the following programme. The shore party of nine or twelve men -will winter with efficient equipment to enable three separate parties to start out in the spring. One party will go east, and, if possible, cross the barrier .to tlie new land known as King Edward the Seventh's Land, follow the coast-line there south, if the coast trends south, or north ir north, returning when it is considered, necessary to do so. .. The second party will proceed eolith over the same rjjute as thai} of the southern sledge party of the Discovery; this party will keep from 15 to 20 miles from' the coast, so as to avoid any rough ice. The third party will possibly proceed westward over the mountains, and, instead of crossing in a line due west, will strike towards the magnetic pole. - The main changes in ' equipment will be that Siberian ponies will be talcen for the s'edge journeys both east and south, and also a specially-designed motbr-car for the southern journey. A North China or Siberian pony is' capable of carrying 18001b c>n a food basis of 101b per day. dog drags 1001b at the outside, and requires over 21b of food a \day. Therefore, one pony drags as much as eighteen dogs, at- less than one-third in weight of provision, and cau travel comfortably 20 to 25 miles a day. The motor will be of a rpacial type, taking into consideration tho temperatures to ba encountered and the surface to bee travelled over. I would propose to 'take three or four ponies on the southern journey, and the motor-car. As long as the car continued to remain satisfactory, it alone would be used to drag our equipment and provisions. .If . r;. broke doxyn and could not be fixed up, then the ponies would take over the load.

I would propose travelling. at the rat e, of 20 to 25 miles, a day, and feel ensured that, providing the motor doss it-J \'"ork. we could reach with it a point beyond 82deg. 16min S. I intend, every 100 miles to drop a sledge-load of propitious and equipment-, -so that, in the event of every means of traction breaking down except by men,. we would only have" ICO miles to go between each depot on return. , The geographical south pole is 731 miles from winter quarters, and allowing that we only go with th-a motor 82deg lt>iain, we would then practically be starting for the remaining 464 miles aia fresh as if »vs were starting from the ship. What lies beyond 93deg. )S. we cannot tell, but I am of opinion that we can follow the trend of the southern mountains for a very long way south, before they turn either ' east or west. Should they turn to thsi eastward', and. we find it impossible to get over them with the ponies, we would pull' the sledges ourselves up the nearest available glacier. If no way up th 9 mountains is found,' we would continue following them round to the eastward, until we found it necessary to return towards winter quarters. If, on the other hand, the mountains turned to the wist, we would continue straight south, and, if the surface were favourable, would increase the distance bet,ween our depots to 15(2 miles, to admit of a more extended journey. On reaching the geographical pole, we .should strike at an angle about north-west, and so pick up the mountains to the westward. When it became necessary to return, we would then strike due cast-, and begiu picking up our last depots. 1 do not intend io sacrifice the scientific utility of the expedition to a mere re-cord-brcakiny journey, but say frankly, all the same, that one of my great- efforts will be to reach th 9 so.uthern geographical pole. I -shall in no way neglect to continue the biological, meteorological,' geological, and magnetic work of the Discovery. Should we have sufficient funds, we would land a small party of men at the nearest available point to the south magnetic pole. When the time came for sledging, tliey would move over the mountains towards the pole, taking careful observations the whole time, and if good fortune attends them and they reach the pole, they would survey the( magnetic area as far as possible. During their winter stay in the vicinity of Mount Melbourne, the magnetic instruments would be running, and the meteorological observations would be' taken at the same time as they -would be taken in our winter quarters, so that comparison could bs made afterwards. If possible, in the winter quarters, where also magnetic observations will be taken, wa would have a small launch in use for the remainder of the summer, in which the biologist could do marine dredging in a more continuous way than we were able to do on the Discovery. As regards gt-.olugy, the wintering party by Mount Melbourne would have a new field to work s on, and I would propose that careful observations and collections be made in- all departments, the /results of which could be worked out by those at home more qualified to do so than -the field w.orktrs; and if the expedition proves a success, 'we intend to publish in as complete a manner as possible all 'the scientific results. By this means I would hope to have an expedition that will not only be successful in the field, but will make a mark in the scientific world on its return. .

Oa the return of the vessel in February, 1909, the first party to be picked tip 'would be that in the far south; the. second party at Mourn, Melbourne, would be picked up on the return. Should I only have a fuiipowered steamer of steel, it would not ba possible for me to risk the approach to Mount Melbourne; but I hope through frirnds who are interested in this -work to inn-case the scope of the expedition. 11l n, having a whaling vessel —which even now I may get —I propose, after picking' up the party at Mount Melbourne, to proceed north to the Balleny Islands, tome down south again at the longitiide where, the Discovery turned north, and keep in as far south as possible to trace the northwestern coast of Wilkes's Land, going as far west as possible before it is necessary to turn north. 'lf- we could settle the «cact coast line of Wilkes's Land, it would be a giL'at help to geography. By the sou-hem and eastern sledge journey we may possibly solve the problem of the K'l'i-.'it ice-barrier; by the journey along Wilkes's Land we may lay down a- definite coast line: by the charting of new mountains and discovery of new lands in 'he IVi* south we aid geographical science; by tli? magnetic work we help not only th-» .ir.ulemie side of magnetic science, but we help the mercantile community in tli<?. w;:v >)f baiter variation charts.

As regards personnel this is nob ■ yet settled, but I hope that some of those with whom I was associated before will come again, so that their training and experience of from 1901-4 will ba available. I would like to add thaj, if. possible, during the winter, w.e should try and watch the breeding and nesting of 'die emperor penguins. > As regards equipment, which I lia,ve worked out, I can say but little now, and this is not ! the place for it; but such things as a cinematograph for showing the movements of the penguins, and phonograph for recording their cries, will be amongst the things taken to give oar countrymen at home a better knowledge of the natural histmy of the place.