The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-08-11
MOTOR TO SOUTH POLE.
North Pole Must Be Content With Dog
Team Explorers.

The recent departure of Commander
Peary in renewed search for the
North Pole brings to our attention once
more the tireless efforts of certain
spirits who are increasingly planning
| journeys to the unexplored ends of the
earth. The Antarctic region, being fur
| ther removed from civilization. is per-
| haps even more romantic in its unknown
| desolation than is the Arctic Circle,
and for this reason many a timid citi-
zen reading his newspaper in his cosey
| fat will be fascinated by the adven-
lures of DR.. Jean Charcot, the French
explorer, who on August / was to
set out once more to pry into the mys-
FERROUS and awful Antarctic.
The special interest of this expIora-
ton lies in the means of locomotion DR..
Charcot has planned-three motor
sledges, instead of the usual teams of
dogs Dogs are superior to motor in
that they can be eaten in case of GER
tain emergencies, but, then, they re-
quire food themselves. and are always
falling sick and spreading disease.
The aeronaut CASTOR Heryiew, in
1906, was the first man to employ a
motor sledge of the sort DR.. Cbareot
will use-a sleigh with a large, wide
wheel, like the propeller of a paddle
boat, driven by 24-horsepower pc
troleum motor The machine has been
tested, with success, on the snowelad
sides of the Hautes-Alpes, in Dau-
phine. where it climbed hills and seud-
ded into valleys at about eight miles an
hour. Whether one can learn to meet
the terrors of the Antarctic by taking
pleasant toboggan rides in France re-
mains, however, to be seen.
Dr. Charcot took these preparatory
polar gymnastics at Dauphine in com
pany with three English colleagues,
members of the English Antarctic ex-
petition of the Discovery, 1901 '04,
who had motor sledges of their own,
which were also tried, but not with the
success of Dr. Charcot s machine. The
special excellence of his, LIE Monde
Tllustre'' points out. consists in the pro-
pelling wheel, which grips the snow by
means of row of clutches and which
is articulated so as to follow exactly
all the ups and downs of an uneven
road
DIR. Chareot may perhaps be called
on. even in the Antarctic, to lend
monkey wrench to a fellow motorist
in trouble. for another explorer, Lieu
tenant Ernest Shackleton, it will be re-
membered, took with him when he set
sail for the South Pole last July mo-
tor sledge. His ship, the Nimrod, came
back this March. having left him en-
eamped at the foot of Mount Erebus,
and it is to be hoped that he is still
motoring away in the everlasting SHOWS.
Shaekleton was with Captain Scott
in the British Antarctic expedition men
toned above, and he, Scott and another
member of the party made 960-mlle
sledge journey to 81 degrees II min
utes south. Lieutenant Shackleton, be-
fore he sailed, had a blessing from King
Edward VII. in the shape of Vic
torian Order, and from Queen Alexan-
dra British flag. Commander Peary
has just received an American flag, to
put on the North Pole. from the Daugh-
tiers of the American Revolution. Who
is TO press upon DIR. Charcot the fri
color2 The Divine Sarah?