The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-08-19
ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION

WV the worlds history Is being made
~ upon the North Pole the stil less
known and more difficult problem
of the Sou~-- Pole Is not going to be al
lowed to abide In innocuous desuetude
Three expeditions, representing Great Brit
ain, Germany and Sweden. are not fitting
into the dangerous and unknown expanses
that stretch for millions of mes about
the Southern Pole.
Here the unknown regions are more than
four times as extensive as those about the
North Pole. lne unknown area Of the lat
ter Is equal to ..aat Of European Russia,
while that about .A.e South Pole is in ex-
tent twice that of all Europe.
According to the French geographer.
Eltsee tteclus. the moon might fall in the
unknown regions of the Antartic without
touching any known country.
AAere has never been anything like the
activity in Antartic as In Arctic discovery.
During the last century only a --alf dozen
expeditions put forth in the long quest of
Antartic researche. In 1S3S-40 Dumont
d'Arville. the French explorer. conducted
two expeditions south Of Cape Horn and
New Zealand. At the same time the
American, Wilkes, made some observations
in the same neighborhood. And then
Jamse Ross. leading an Eng. expedi-
ton, discovered Victoria. the most south
erly point reaceu by any man. This Is the
strangest land In all the worlu. A huge
shell of ice rises in crystalline cliffs more
than three hundred feet at the seashore.
while in the very midst of this froxen
world volcanoes spout fire and lava.
Sixty years rolled away before any FUR
Their work was carried on in the Antartic
field. Then Carsten Borchgrevink awoke
new interest in this field, after a somewhat
desulIory trip in whaling vessel to the
land that A.oss had discovered.
The we'll equipped Belgian expedition
commanded by Lieutenant de Gerlache en-
tered Arctic seas in 1897 and for thirteen
montns were frozen in the ice pack. The
members of this expedition were the first
human beings to pass through the Ant
arctic winter = heir experiences and the
results of their labors have been graphic
ANY described by the American members
Of the expedition. DIR. Frederick A. Cook.
The main results of the expedition were
the discovery of a new strait nearly as
large as the Strait of Magellan; the dis
covery of about I've hundred miles of new
coast, and of submarine plateua west of
Graham Land and complete series of
meteorological and magnetic observations
throughout one year.
The last Antartic expedition was an Eng
lish one. under the command of Borchgre-
| wink. With his Sap. the Southern Cross.
he penetrated the latitude Is degrees SO
minutes. or to within IA miles of the
South Pole. A..-s is record which re-
mains to be broken by the expeditions
now about to venture FORTH Borchgre-
! wink also located the southern magnetic
pole, and IS Wa be OF great value in
helping scientists to determine the nature
OF magnetism.
The sending out of three expeditions
during one year disclises an unprecedented
interest and stimulus in antartic work.
Early in the sixteenth century Magellan
/ put line around about the earth from
east to west. and 1t looks as though the
early years of the twentieth century would
see an eartn encircling line run through
the poles. :
The British Expedition.
The British expedition will be the first
to get away and will start nits specially
built ship. the Discovery. some time dur
ing this month. The commander of the
expedition is Captain Robert l.. Scott r.
NJ, and Lieutenant Albert B. ..rmitage is
second in command. 4-.ree scientific spe-
cialists are included in the personnel
Professor John Walter Gregory, professor
of geology in Melbourne university; Mr..
Hodgson. biologist and Mr.. w. Shackle-
ton. physicist. DIR. Rudolph koett.Iz. who
!, accompanied the Jackson-Harmsworth ex-
petition, Is the surgeon and botanist. and
will be assisted by DR.. Wilson, who is also
the artist of he expedition.
The expedition has financial backing of
100000 to which the government contrib
uted $225. 0O0 and the balance has been con-
tributed by the Royal Geographical So
ciety and by private individuals, chief of
whom are Mr. Alfred Harmsworth and
Mr.. l.. w. Longstaff, who each contributed
$125 900.
The expedition hopes to go beyond the
spot discovered by Ross and to solve the
great problem of the huge ice barrier. 1t
aims to discover new lands and to render
benefits to those who navigate south of 40
degrees south latitude by correcting the
new erroneous magnetic curves. also to To-
cate the drifting south magnetic pole. and
| to advance the knowledge of southern
meteOroiogy.
7,3%S MT,
/ of explorers, yet the Discovery is the first
ship ever built in England for the express
purpose of exploration. She Is the sixth
of her name. and all of her predecessors
have done yeomans service in the fields OF
exploration.
The Discovery was launched at Dundee
on March q last by Lady Markham. The
new Discovery is a remarkably strong sh T..
being built of we'll seasoned oak and
greenneart She is solid for nine feet from
her stem. which is bound round with iron
. plates Her massive ribs almost touch one
another. and her sides are 1-2 feet in
thickness. To enable her to make really
good and depndable magnetic survey, not
a single scrap of magnetic material has
been used for thirty feet. all around. above
and below or fore and aft Of the magnetic
observatory which Is fanked by two labo-
ratories for biological work.
The snip is -. feet long. 33 feet broad
has a main draught Of Is feet, and dis
| placement LIT
ted for dredging. TRAVELLING and taking deep
sea Temperatures. The Admiralty are fit
tin her out with every conceivable kind OF
instrument required for navigation sur
| veying, sounding and meteorological work
and she is being provisioned for three
years.
The German Expedition.
| To some extent the Discovery w.l work
in conjunction with the German expedition
| ,;oy~ hno hoo
government at the suggesuon of Count
Posadowsky-N elmer. Minister Of the Tn
terion. This expedition also expects to sal
in .ne latter part of July or early in Aug
ust A special ship has been constructed
at Kiel for this German Antartic expedi
ton. which in external appearance greatly
resembles the Fran. though 1t is much
larger. Her length is 1853 feet and breadth
26 feet. She is 2 1-2 feet thick. draws IL Il
feet of water and has displacement o.