WHO WILL BE FIRST AT THE SOUTH POLE?

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXV, Issue 13055, 25 April 1910, Page 3

WHO WILL BE FIRST AT THE SOUTH POLE?

LONDON, March 11. "Fretting and straining like a greyhound on the leash,” Captain Bartlett, who will lead the American Antarctic expedition, has returned from Newfoundland to New York, presumably to supervise the preparations for his South Polar', cruise. Captain Bartlett is, described as “the “Shackleton of America.” He it was who helped to get within 119 miles of tho North Pole and then turned back to allow Peary to push on to the goal, He thinks'the Antarctic travelling will be rather easier than the : Arctic. As* he explained to the, New York correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph: In the. Arctic around the North, Pole, there iis : always that, terrible , nightmare of shifting ijje. and open water. The. high winds .and crevasses of the Antarctic, have difficulties of their own,, but they spem preferable to me than the haunting knowledge of a dangerously insecure surface of ice, .. Even the Eskimos hate,,to leave the sight 6f land, and, Arctic explorers are like foam who have rushed in where l .angels fear to, tread, WHAT PEARY THINKS OF IT. Rear-Admiral Peary says that this race to the South Pole will be the most nerverackihg . contest: the world has ever seen. Captain Bartlett was accordingly risked whether tho sporting side of the affair appealed to him., , . '.“ Not the least hit,” said the Newfonnd- : lander, dryly. “Sport he blowed! This race, if ever, it comes'off, will he practically decided before it has begun. It is chiefly a question of equipment, organisation', and training. I Relieve Captain Scott will reach the South Pole, but it will be a hard, uphill, continuous fight every yard of the way. America will also reach the South Pole, but who reaches the goal first. England or America, depends upon what I have said about preliminaries. The idea some people have of a pack of dogs galloping south in quick stages, with hot coffee at convenient stopping places for explorers on the way, is childish.”, “Were you- present when Peary, in Greenland, got the first nows that Cook had found the North Pole?” ‘•'Yes; wo had expected it.” “What were Peary's precise words?” “Well, they’re not fit for reproduction in a high-class paper like the Daily Telegraph.- All Cook tactics will be avoided in the American hunt for the Pole. We shall take- no Eskimos with curious names; we shall hand no data to passing whalers, or cache it; and there will be no demand for gum drofis.” ' ‘When will the 'American expedition start?” “The date is still unsettled; but I'll hazard a guess.' Probably earlier than most people on your side of the Atlantic expect.”