Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1909-06-30
THE SOUTH POLE.
Account of Its History With Result
of Shackieton's Voyage.

Il
of Shackieton's Voyage.
The south polar region, unlike the
northern. is almost covered by the ocean,
the only extensive land being far to the
south. Ii was, OF course, entirely un-
known to the sncients and TO the early
navigators OF modern Europe, although q
theory prevailed among geogrsphers that
a great continent existed round the south
pole. the terra Australis Incognita. Tie
governor OF Peru sent out an exploring ex-
petition as early as 1867. Another left
Callao in 1905.
These were the fret regular expeditions
in search of the supposed southern conti-
nent. What is now known as the New
Hebrides group was discovered. The fret
ship that ever approached the Antarctic
circle was one OF O feet which started
| from Rotterdam In June, 1898. She dis
covered high land in 81 degrees :. This
named the South shetiands. Capt. Cook
and many others subsequently sailed In
this region. and during the last 200 years
| numerous islands, now well known, were
visited, but they were many miles from
the pole.
| In recent years there have been numer-
| Gus exploring expeditions to this region,
/ but the most notable was that in charge
| OF Lieut.. T.. II. Shackleton. This officer
| OF the British navy left London ON July
| 30, 1907, in search OF the south pole, and
he has returned after breaking previous
records of 1852 miles aud reaching a point
III miles from the pole itself. The party
sailed in the ship Nimrod 1000 miles due
| south OF New Zealand, and were left
ashore in the frozen wilderness at Nc
Murdo sound, where they erected the
wooden house they had brought in Sec
tons from London.
From this point they travelled i7os miles
inland, giving l2s days to the expedition.
They crossed several mountains and
| reached q plateau 10000 feet above sea
level. After passing the south magnetic
pole at latitude OF ~ degrees IS minutes,
long. i5 degrees, . party of four turned
aside to ascend the great antarctic volcano
| Mt. Erebus, 13,i2o feet high, the southern
most volcano in the world. This they
assembled for the first time, and found its
crater to be half mile in diameter and 500
feet deep. 1t was throwing up great
volumes OF steam and suiphurous gas to q
height Of 1000 feet.
From detailed story OF this expedition
in Worlds Work, it appears that assem-
bling at the base station at Camp Royd. .
second party, including Lieut.. shackieton
himself, with four Manchurisn ponies,
| started on Oct. y, 1905, for . anal dash for
the pole. They were stocked with pro-
visions for ninety-one days. The winter
being mild, the lowest temperature they
encountered was 70 degrees below zero,
Fahrenheit. At irregular intervals they
made depots of food for their return.
At a latitude Of IS degrees, the party
discovered an enormous glacier I'D miles
long and approximately forty miles wide,
running in q southwesterly direction.
Beyond the glacier they came upon .
great plateau 1900 feet above sea level.
which rose gradually IN long ridges to
1880 feet.
They had left all the mountains behind.
and had entered upon a great plateau
which apparently stretched unbroken to
the pole, when, on Jan. . Of this year. in
the midst Of a violent blizzard, the whole
party, weakened from the effects OF
shortage OF food. fell ill and were forced
to turn back. This, the most southerly
point ever reached, was in latitude OF IS
degrees, % minutes, longitude i62 +. The
violent billiards raging On the plateau
appear to disprove the superstition that an
area OF atmospheric calm surrounds the
pole,