Poleward Ho!

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVII, Issue XXIII, 7 December 1901, Page 1077

Poleward Ho!

THE DISCOVERY’S VOYAGE TO ANTARCTICA. AN EXPLORER’S OUTFIT. The British Antarctic exploring* vessel Discovery arrived on Thursday last in Lyttelton, from which port she will take her departure on her adventurous voyage. We give below some of the chief articles used by the explorers. The provisions, general stores and instri ments and the like have been purchased in England, but Norway has been called upon to furui. h the main portion of the necessary fur clothing, sledges and travelling outfit. This peltry includes no fewer than fifty-one blouses of reindeer skins, fifteen of wolf, thirty-six breeches of reindeer and fifteen of wolf, 153 pairs of mitts, 234 pairs Lapp boots, 216 pairs of hide boots, sixty pimm’es, sixty lined stocking hoots for wear inside the pimmies,

102 pairs sheep-skin socks, twenty large reindeer sleeping bags, seven small sleeping- bags for sledging parties, and one large six-men reindeer sleeping bag, thirty-six sheepskin eaps, twenty-four wolf-skin caps, 120 selected reindeer skins, and so on, of a total value of over £730. Among the travelling articles, all of which have been made from the best materials, there are seventy pairs of ski (long wooden snow shoes), six lift ski-sledges (that is to say, sledgts with SKi runners), nine 9ft. and five 71ft ski-sledges, beside five large iron-shod goods sledges, to be employed for transporting heavy weights from the water’s edge to the depots, or over rough ice. There are also two eanvas canoes, each to hold two men, and three prams—a large “ship's pram’’ for conveying stores from the ship to the shore, and other purposes, and two smaller ones for work among the ice. Prame have not been taken by any former expedition to Antarctic waters, but their value is well known in Scandinavia, where,

when the fjords are covered with drift ice or encrusted with newlyformed ice. no other form of boat could be employed, as with their duck-breast bows they never become wedged, and when a heavy tioe is met with are simply hauled up on it and dragged along with ea?*<- until open water is met with at .he other side. 'They will no doubt prove of great service to the expedition on all occasions, and invaluable when in the pack, or for exploring purposes along the shores of Antarctica. As will be seen from the above short description, nothing has been left undone in the

way of procuringan out tit of furssutlieient to meet ail eventualities, while a more ample or better choice of travelling appliances has ne\er been furnished to any former expedition. Everything else having been provided on an equally select and liberal scale, it is not too much to expect that, under the charge and guidance of such able officers as those appointed to th • command. the scientific results will come fully up to the expectations ot the nation which has just sent the expedition on its way. wishing it God speed and a safe return from a successful enterprise.