The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-12
First Start For the Pole.

| fer at all from this cold Our good furs
| protected us But with our dogs it was
| different matter 1t would easily be
seen that they Shrunk from day to day
and we understood pretty soon that
they could not stand the long run to
our depot at 80 degrees south.
We agreed on returning and to wait
for the arrival of spring. The provi
sions were cached. and off we went for
the hut With the exception Of the
loss of few dogs and a couple of
frozen heels everything was all right
Only in the middle of October spring
came in earnest Seals and birds APP
peared The temperature was steady
between 20 and 30 Celsius (6S degrees
and S6 degrees FL
The original plan that all of us should
60 toward the south had been changed
Five men had to do this work. while
the other three were to start for the
east and visit King Edward VII. land
This last mentioned trip was not in
cluded in our program. but owing to
the fact that the English had not reach
ed it at least this summer. as was their
intention we agreed that the best thing
! to do was also to make this trip.
On Oct. 20 the southern party started
five men. four sledges. 6fty-two dogs
and provisions for four months-every.
thing in excellent order.
The Journey to the Pole.
We had made up our minds to take
the first part of the trip as easily as
possible in order to give ourselves and
the dogs a rational training. and on
the 23d we made our depot in 80 de-
grees south. We went right ahead.
In spite of the dense fog an error Of
two to three kilometers happened once
in awhile, and we were caught by the
flag marks and found these on our way
without difficulty.
Having rested and fed the dogs on
all the seal meat they were able to eat
we started again on the Goth. with the
temperature steadily between minus 90
and 80 Celsius a degrees and % de
grees below zero F.l.
From the start it was the intention
not to drive more than thirty kilo-
meters a day. but it appeared that this
was too little for our strong. willing
animals. At 80 degrees south we began
to build snow cairns of mans height.
in order to have marks on our return
trip On the 31St we reached the depot
at 81 degrees and stopped there one
day and fed the dogs on as much penn
mican as they wanted.
We reached the depot at 80 degrees
on the 5th of November. where the dogs
for the last time got all they wanted to
eat. On the 9Th. southwark again. with
daily march Of 80 kilometers.
In order to tighten our heavy sledges
we established depots at each degree
of south latitude
Like a Pleasure Trip.
The trip from 80 degrees to IS de-
grees became pleasure trip-excellent
ground. fine sledging and an even
temperature. Everything went like a
dance.
On the 9th we sighted South Vic.
toria land and the continuation Of the
mountain range which Sir Ernest
Shackleton mentioned In his chart as
running toward the southeast from the
Beardnore glacier. and on the same
| Gay W. reached SO degrees and estab-
lished here depot No. 4. On the 18th
we made the interesting discovery that
| the Ross barrier terminated in a blight
toward the southeast at Sc degrees
south latitude and 1853 degrees west
! longitude. formed between the south
east mountain range running from
South Victoria land and a range on
the opposite side running in south
westerly direction-probably a continu-
alton of King Edward VII land
On the 18th we reached "a degrees,
where we established a depot: on the
10th we were at So degrees. where also
we made depot
From our winter quarters. FRAN
| heim." IS degrees 3S minutes south lat
| itude. we had been marching due
| south. On the 18th of November. at s.
| degrees. we arrived at a place where
| the land and barrier were connected
| This was done without any great diff
| 6culty. The barrier here rises in I'm
dulations to about 300 feet. Some few
|
boundary.
Here we made our head depot. TAX
! ing provisions for sixty days on
sledges and leaving thirty days pro-
visions on the spot.
A Difficult Climb.
The land under which we lay and
! which we now had to attack looked
quite imposing The nearest submits
along the barrier had height Of from
1000 to 10000 feet. but several others
further south were 1900 feet or more
| The next day we began the climb
The first part of 1t was an easy task
light stops and we'll filed mountain
sides. 1t did not take long time. for
our willing dogs worked their way up
| Further up we met with some small
but very steep glaciers Here we had
to harness twenty dogs to each sledge
and take the four sledges in two turns
In some places it was SO steep that 1t