VOYAGERS TO UNCHARTED SEAS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 18, 3 May 1911, Page 8

VOYAGERS TO UNCHARTED SEAS.

WHY DR. MAWSON IS GOING TO ANTARCTICA. THE UNKNOWN CONTINENT. LONDON, March 24. The expedition which Dr. Douglas Mawson, of Adelaide, will lead into the Antarctic next November is an Australian one, and the main outlines of the propost'd expedition are doubtless already known in Australasia. But the following sketch of his plans given by Dr. Mawson in an interview in London on Saturday last may be of interest. Dr. Mawson has come to London to prepare for the expedition, which will cost about .£40,000. “You see,” he said, “Australia and New Zealand get their weather from the South. In order to predict it successfully they must know what the climate is doing on the Antarctic Continent. Secondly’, there are an enormous number of seals and whales down there from which Australasians might win great gains. Thirdly, there are possibilities of coal and precious metals being found. Fourthly, we shall take very careful magnetic observations, by which we shall help to make the compass more useful to sailors, and. possibly, to clear up what is still the mystery of the earth’s magnetism. “Primarily our work is to be geographic—that is mapping. But it has all these practical material sides to it as well. Looking forward to it? I should rather think I am. Everyone who has been in the Antarctic wants to go back. It's the healthiest place in the world. Here’s another possibility—health resorts and winter sports on this coast for Australasians. No, I’m not joking. I don’t see why they shouldn’t grow up in that sunny, germ-free atmosphere.

“Except for a few Frenchmen in 1840 no human being has ever set foot on this coast. It has not even been sighted from a ship since 1854. It is supposed to be mountainous. You musn’t suppose the Antarctic is just a flat sheet of ice. That is only true of the interior. There are very -high ranges of rocky mountains in other parts of this huge continent, which is as big as Australia and Europe put together. Our plan will be to land parties of trained scientific observers at intervals along the coast. There will probably be four such parties. They are being chosen by a committee of twenty-five, which is making most of the arrangements for me out there. These parties will walk or sledge all along the coast, and in the meantime the ship will be surveying the unknown southern ocean.

"We shall keep touch both with each other and with Australasia by wireless telegraphy—the first time it has ever been used in Arctic or Antarctic exploration. Big Government stations are now being erected at Sydney and the Bluff, New Zealand. We are also going to get substantial Government help in money’. But most of the £40,900 will be raised by subscription among Australasians. Both the High Commissioners, Sir Geo. Reid and Sir W. Hall-Jones, are

taking a great interest in the expedition. I don’t see how any patriotic Australasian can help being interested. It is Si fine, big thing that Australasia is doing, and the newspapers over there are all very keen on the idea. “This isn’t, you see, a ‘hit or miss’ expedition. We are not going to look fos something which we may or may not find. We have got a definite area t<> explore, and we know we can do it. But we have no time to lose. There is * Japanese expedition in the Antarctic now, and Captain Seott may decline td have a look at this coast before he come* home.”

Dr. Mawson was, of course, the geologist with the Shackleton expedition in the Antarctic, and Sir Ernest Shackleton is doing all he can to help him. Tfli the “Daily Mail” the other day Sill Ernest contributed an appreciation of t-ho new Antarctic leader, describing hiig as “the embodiment of the best type that grows up in Australia.” Aftes sketching the scientific qualifications ol Dr. Mawson, and telling how he was ones of the three who planted the Union Jack for the first time on the SputH Magnetic Pole, Sir Ernest Shackleton added:

“He knows well what he is going to face in this new attempt to unveil ths mysteries of the frozen South. To himi and to his companions will be given the honour and the joy of tracing what ar® still unknown coastlines, perhaps seeing lifting through the fog and haze neyfl mountain peaks and new volcanoes, They will see the icebergs weaned froni the parent glaciers, and they will sai| over those thousands of miles of still uncharted areas.

“The encouragement and practical sympathy that Australasia gives to hint will, I feel sure, also be given by our people at home, for the work he has pufi his hand to is for the advancement oj science, and for the glory of our Empire Australasia gave our British Antarctic expedition of 1907 the first official held it received, and I feel sure that the home country will not be behind in showing its sympathy -to the expedition of thg Dominic ns below tbe Hne."*