Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-04-07
SOUTH POLE BY AUTO.
Charcot Will Make Part of Trip In His
New Ship.

Pourquoi Pas, is the name Of DR..
Charcot's new exploring ship which
will start with his party for the Ant
arctic in July, says the New York
Sun. He sees no reason why the
stanch vessel, especially built for pol
ar exploration, should not lead him
to more discoveries than he made on
board the less efficient vessel Fran
cais, which carried him safely
| through the ice and enabled him to
map all the seaward coasts of the
chain of islands extending. along the
shores Of Graham Land for over 100
miles. Why should he not do more
when in command of far better
ship. SO his new ship has been nam
ed POurquOi Pas, or in English, Why
Not.
But he plans to penetrate much
further into the unknown than his
ship can carry him. The fact is in
teresting that though DR.. CharcOt is
one of the most scientific of polar eX-
plorers no one holds more enthusias
tically than he to the belief that the
automobile will carry explorers to or
far toward the South Pole.
He will put his faith to the test in
the coming season for Antarctic tray
el; and in the latest number Of La
Montague, the monthly magazine of
the French Alpine club, he tells why
he pins his faith to the automobile
He describes the vast plain Of nearly
| level glacier ice whose northern front
is Ross Great Barrier Ice Wall.
On it's northern edge this ice plain
connects the two lands of Victoria
and Edward VII, which are 400 miles
apart From it's northern edge Scott
| travelled south on this ice for nearly
| 500 miles, and there he saw it's fiat
surface stretched south as far as he
could see. For all we know it may
extend to the Pole itself.
This same flat ice between Victoria
and Edward VII lands, which will be
the route of Shackleton in his quest
of the South Pole, is many hundreds
of miles from the west coast of Gra-
ham Land, where the French eXplOr-
er will make his headquarters. Is
there reason to expect that it extends
| so far to the east that Doctor Charcot
can utilize it for his own automo-
bileS?
Charcot says there is abundant evil
dcnce that these fiat ice plateaus sta
tionary upon the sea surface, practi-
cally cover the whole area of the Ant
arctic in the latitudes where they
have been found near Victoria Land
From these plateaus alone come the
great tabular iceburgs that are char
acteristic of the South Polar regions.
Driven by the winds and currents
they are encountered far north of the
Antarctic Circle. 1t is impossible to
conceive that the Ross Barrier ice is
the only source of these thousands Of
bergs.
There must be other ice plateaus
| frOnted by similar walls from which
the icebergs break off. He has seen
ice of this very formation near Gra-
ham Land, and has no doubt that he
will find the fixed ice not far from his
winter quarters and that it will sup
ply an ideal route to the south.
The explorer does not minimize the
dangers that deep snow and low tenn
pcrature may offer, but all the obsta-
cles that can be named do not shake
his faith that the problem of the Ant
arctic is to be solved by automobiles.
He believes that over the ice he will
be able to travel toward the south at
the rate of from 30 to 80 miles a day.
If he reaches land on this southern
journey he has no idea that he will be
able to use his automobile over the
rough land ice, but he will have
found new land at any rate and this
is one of the main purposes of Ant
arctic exploration.