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POLAR EXPLORATION

POLAR EXPLORATION

Sailing south July 18, Indian Harbor was reached Sept. 5, from which point the wireless message was sent to the world.

Both Peary and Cook state that conditions for travel were more favorable in the region near the Pole than in lower latitudes. The ice was less rough, there were fewer leads, fewer ridges formed by ice pressure, and the temperature was not so low. Cook reported a temperature of 83 degrees below zero at Ellesmere Sound. Peary reported a minimum of 59 below between the 84th and 85th parallel, while at the 8gth the temperature rose to 15 below, and at the Pole the minimum was 33 below zero. Cook reported a minimum of 38°. There was no land and no life; a dead sea of ice and snow.

Few attempts to penetrate the unknown regions of the southern or antarctic pole were made, after the expeditions of Wilkes, d'Urville and Ross (1839-43), until recent years. Knowledge of these regions is valuable only from a scientific point of view. But in 1892 Larsen of Norway discovered fossils in 64° 10' S., 57° W., which interested him as showing that the antarctic regions were once covered by coniferous trees. Next year Larsen led an expedition through this region, reaching 68° 10' S. and 60° W. The coasts were high, rocky and [mostly covered with ice. Seven islands were discovered, two covered with volcanoes. In 1894 Foyn, visiting the southern seas in search of whales, reached 74° S., and on Jan. 23, 1895, a landing was made at Possession Island. The first vegetable growth (a lichen) ever found within the antarctic circle was found at Cape Adare and Possession Island by C. E. Borchgrevink, a Norwegian, while upon this expedition. Part of the lands supposed by previous explorers to constitute islands were found to be joined to the main land of the antarctic continent; and lands supposed to be islands by the earliest explorers were found to be surrounded by water. In 1898-9 a British expedition under Borchgrevink reached 78° 50' S. In 1901 English, German and Norwegian expeditions sailed to see whether there is an antarctic continent. In 1904 Charcot of France wintered off the western coast of Graham Land, south of Cape Horn, and in 1908 he headed another French expedition. Arctowski, a member of the Belgica expedition of 1897-9 organized a Belgian expedition in 1908 to make a cir-cumpolar voyage, with special attention to the region between Graham and King Edward Lands.

In August, 1901, an antarctic expedition sailed from England on the Discovery, in command of Captain Scott, reached Victoria Land in December and wintered at the foot of Mt. Erebus. In September, the beginning of the antarctic spring, Captain Scott pushed forward with a sledge party and reached 82 degrees and 17 seconds, the farthest south up

to that date. This expedition was followed by that of Lieutenant Shaekleton, who sailed from England on the Nimrod in August, 1907. Shackleton left Lyttleton, New Zealand, Jan. i, '1908, and reached McMurdo Sound, where winter quarters were established on Cape Royds. September 22 a division was sent in search of the magnetic pole, and on Oct. 28 Shackleton with three others started on the long sledge journey toward the South Pole. During nearly the whole course they were beset with hardships and perils. A final march was made January 9, 1909, and latitude 88° 23' was reached, one hundred and eleven miles from the Pole, the altitude being between 10,000 and 11,000 feet above the sea level. Both food and endurance were so nearly exhausted that to go further was out of the question. Returning Shackle-ton reached New Zealand March 22, 1909. The results of the expedition were important. The Magnetic Pole was located at 75° 45' south, longitude 145°. It was established that the Great Southern Ice Barrier is bounded by mountains running in a southeasterly direction from 78° south to 85° south at least, and that an immense glacier leads to a plateau over 10,000 feet above the sea level, on which is situated the geographical South Pole. Rock formations show that at some period a warm climate prevailed in these regions.

Stimulated by Shackleton's report, and also by Peary's capture of the North Pole, no less than five expeditions soon followed in search of the South Pole—Capt. Scott's (English), Dr. Mawson's (Australian), Lieut. Shirase's (Japanese), Lieut. Filchner's (German) and Roald Amundsen's (Norwegian). The prize was won by Amundsen, who sailed from Norway in 1910, in the Fram, the vessel in which Nansen had sought the North Pole. He reached Whales Bay early in 1911, and there went into winter quarters. He pushed on in February as far as 84° south latitude and established depots of food supplies at intervals, returning to winter quarters. The sun disappeared April 22 and returned Aug. 24. On Sept. 8 he started for the Pole. Finding conditions unfavorable he returned to winter quarters and waited until Oct. 20, when with 5 men, 4 sledges, and 52 dogs he again started south. On Nov. 17 he reached the great ice barrier, latitude 85°, and climbed to the top of the polar plateau, to a height of 10,000 feet. Here he killed 24 dogs, and with 18 dogs and three sledges pushed on over a vast plateau clad in snow and glacier ice, reaching the Pole Dec. 14. Here he remained three days. On the 16th he took observations every hour for 24 hours, and located the Pole in a vast plain, which he named King Haakon yil Plateau. Here he planted the Norwegian flag and a Fram pennant. Returning he reached his winter quarters Jan. 25, and on March 7 from Tasmania he announced by