THE MAGNETIC POLES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12185, 29 March 1909, Page 5

THE MAGNETIC POLES

The hoisting of the Union Jack at tho Soutli Magnetic Pole must recall the proceedings of the first of June, Ib3l, when the British flag "Took possession of- the North Magnetic Pole and its adjoining territory, in the name of Great Britain and William the Fourth." The account is to be found in tho "Narrative of a Second Voyago in Search of the North "West' Passage," by Sir John Boss, including the reports of tho then Captain James Boss, who was tho actual discoverer of. the right spot. Having arrived at a moderate distance from where science had determined this Po!e should be, he with a small party made a light journey forward, talcing nothing but bare necessaries, and "persevering with all their j might, I had the joy of arriving, at eight o'clock that morning, at the 'point where the total action of the magnetic needles told thaFthe goal was reached, and an exeffcd leader could "so set his ; foot that it now lay between him and the centre of the earth." His only regret was that the place looked uninteresting. He could have pardoned anyone, "wha had been so romantic or absurd as to expect that the magnetic pole was nn object as conspicuous and mysterious as the fabled mountain of Sinbad, that it was even a mountain of iron, or a magnet as large as Mont Blanc." But though Nature had done little for "the spot, and deserted huts hard by showed that careless Esquimeaux feet had trampled roxind unaware of all their scientific privileges, still this was a morning of great triumph. ."It almost seemed as if we had accomplished . everything that we had come so far to see and to do-; as if all o;ir voyage and all its labours were at an end, and that nothing new i-vMv.ainod for us but to return" and be happy for tbe rest of our days." All tho correct' business was done* wjth mathematical numbers and signs, and tho flag was hoisted over the host achievable commemorative cairn. "Had it been a. pyramid as large as that _pf Cheops, I am not quite sure that "it would have done mere than satisfy our ambition under the feeling of that exciting d:iy." With all this in mind, it is easy to conceive Sir James Boss's; chagrin when, ten years later,, he had to turn back after beholding, at a distance? the range {jf mountains, amongst which the Southern magnetic secrets hid. "I felt myself, however, coiftpelled to abandon the perhaps too ajnobitious hope, t'iat I might plant the flag ojf my country on both the magnetic .poles! pi' ; our glcbp," His fine patriotic^ son J might be satisfied now to know ilmt the same flag fliesy though the South reserved its capitulation for another adventurer and a later king. ' - • '