The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-12
The Last Expedition to the South
Pole.
IT IS WELL PROViSIONED
For Centuries the Antarctic Has Defied
All Efforts to Penetrate It's Mys-
teries - Some Interesting
Scientific Problems.

with the expedition fitted out by Sir
George Newnes, has revived interest in
this enterprise and has aroused a gen
eral desire to know more about the ad-
venture that appears to promise so
Well The hope that Andree will reap
pear from the Arctic night and tell
what happened to his balloon expedi-
ton is dying away. 1t is beginning to
be sadly realized that Andree will never
be heard of again. But here is a new
expedition. The dead are soon blotted
from memory by doings of the living,
and the Southern Cross now monopol-
ICES the attention that was formerly
concentrated on Andree. The expedi-
ton left here with no flourish of trump
cts. Probably few people in America
have heard of it,
The Southern Cross is bark-rfgged
vessel with an auxiliary screw. The
designer had in his mind throughout
the lines and structure of Nansen's IA
nous Fran. Upon that vessel he hoped
that he had improved In various de-
tails. She is 1865 feet long, 307 feet in
the beam and 17.6 feet deep and Is of
4Sl tons register. Also she is without
doubt the most pachyderma tous of
peaceful vessels. for her bows are of
oak and II feet thick, and her sides are
three feet thick in her thinnest part,
and outside all this she has an over
'ofit. 81 " speak. Oh American green
heart. She can certainly stand a great
deal of crushing, and she will want all
the strength she has, for little as We
known of the Antarctic ocean, the ex-
petition OF Sir James Clark Ross in
1S41 and the invasions of that sea by
the Challenger show that its embrace is
liable to be rigid, constraining and I'M
relenting.
Since the expedition is not expected
IN oh f1,o
1900, and very little is known as to the
opportunities of obtaining fresh meat,
the matter of making food provision
necessarily occupied great deal of at
tention. Rut in this respect the mod
ern explorer is at a very great advan-
tage by comparison with those who
have gone before, for scurvy can now
almost be defied. The preservation of
flesh foods, and the methods of concern
trating the essential strength of VIC
tuals, are a great step; but even more
important is the immense improvement
which has taken place in the bottlns
and timing of vegetable foods, without
which man is always liable to the ter
rible and fatal attacks of the disease
which sailors have almost forgotten to
dread, although formerly it was the
scourge of their class. On this depart
ment of provisions great care and
thought were expended, to say nothing
of money, and the Adventures are sure
to be able, in old-fashioned phrase, to
keep a good table. sr'
Since the expedition is to be amphibi-
Gus, as indeed is necessary, capital plo-
vision has been made for travelling by
sledge. Little green rot-proof tents are
carried male bamboo alpenstocks, poles
for marking positions, alpine rope, ice
spikes for hummocky surfaces, ingeni-
ously combined spades picks. hammers
and shovels. folding lanterns of tin ard
tale in great abundance; and the light
est of metals is utilized for cooking
stoves.
But the most important adjunct of
the sedging operations are the dogs.
They are a fine pack of Samoyed dogs,
and they are the first collection of tl1eGe
dogs that We're ever introduced to Eng
land. To collect them cost Dr. Russell
Jeaffreson a long and arduous journey.
For centuries the Antarctic defied all
human efforts to penetrate its myster-
les owing, no doubt, not only to the for
bidding natural features of that conti-
nent and it's adjacent waters, it's re-
moteness from the Inhabited world and
lack of human population, but to the
want of properly organized scientific
expeditions until in 1871 Sir James Ross,
with his well-found ships discovered
and landed on Possession island, and
,
named the adjacent country Victoria
was dispatched from France to find the
land reported as seen some way to the
southeast of the Cape of Good Hope
This he succeeded in reaching, and pre-
sumed it to be continent, but it was
proved to be but the ISL
and which now bears his name.
In 1774 the list parallel of south lati-
tude was crossed by Captain Cook in
longitude 1O6 degrees, 81 minutes west,
and on that voyage the Southern seas
were traVersed to such an extent as TO
show that if any continent existed it
must lie considerably within the Ant
arctic circle In 1923 Weddell sailed
some three degrees further to the south
ward, and gave his name to the sea
lying between Grahams land and En-
derby land, but did not sight the coast.
In 1S4l Sir James Ross discovered Vic
toria land and its adjacent islands,
traced the coast line for 500 miles to
the southwark, until faced by mighty
wall of ice which barred all further
progress, but which he skirted for 300
to the eastward and westward. In 1889
Wilkes observed land in latitude 70 de-
gress, longitude 100 degrees west, and
m 1S4l almost simultaneously with
i urVllle, discovered that portion of the
continent now known as Wilkes land
The celebrated voyage of the Chal-
enSer audeu materially to the knowl-
edge of ocean depths currents, temper
ature and marine biology of the south
ern waters, but since then no organ
zed expedition. with the exception of
Lhat of M. de Gerlache in 1885, has been
dispatched to the Antarctic. In 1885,
however, Mr. Borcngrevink, who nomi-
nally sailed as A B. on board the Nor
Wegian whaler Antarctic, landed on
Possession island (Which had not been
-rodden by man since 1871, when Sir
James Ross set foot on iD, and was the
irst to tread the shores of the great
southern continent at Cape Adare. He
-ound there a spot most suitable for
anding, and that the adjacent country
would form good base for the opera
lions of any future expedition, He re-
.urned with a valuable collection of
notes on the flora and fauna of land
md sea, and series of interesting OBJ
;ervationS which have added consider
IDLY to the slight knowledge hitherto
,ained of the vast Antarctic continent
md its adjacent waters and from