The Washington herald., 1912-03-10

very difficult. It was much broken ant
bridged by thin snow formations, which
| frequently broke beneath the men anC
| dogs
From the camp this night they had
splendid view over the mountains {,
the east. They saw Helmar Hansen
summit, the most remarkable of all tn,
mountain peaks they had encountered
1t rose 1900 feet and was brilliant witt
| facets Of broken glacier ice.
Devils Glaciers proved a very hardy
obstacle. Amundsen and his men wer,
three days in surmounthng It, and or
December they gladly left it. At 4
height OF 800 feet they found a leve
plateau. which looked in the mist ant
the drift OF snow like a frozen sea A
nearly as they could observe. 1t was ar
inland sea, and progress over II was fal
from pleasant. The footing beneath Tho
marchers sounded quite hollow, anc
some OF them compared It TO walking or
empty boxes or casks. One man fel
through. and then a couple Of dog.
broke through. 1t was not practical FOL
the men to use their skis.
Devils Dancing Room"
This curious area was named tht
Devils Dancing Room, and ii was here
countered the most unpleasant part OF
their march. The greatest height at,
tanned during the entire march was or
December 6. when the hypsometer and
aneroid showed them to be 1870 feet
above sea level. This was at 81 degrees
10 minutes south latitude.
On December s, bad weather was left
behind. The sun shoLe and the march.
ers were able to get an observation and
dead reckoning. To their great salts
faction they found that they were ex-
actly alike at IS degrees 10 minutes Be-
fore them now stretched an absolutely
fat plateau marked only here and there
by tiny mounds OF wind-sWept snow. on
the afternoon OF December S Amund.
sen and his party passed IS degrees =
minutes. which was Shackleton's far
thest south. They continued on TO s.
degrees S minutes. where they camped
''farthest SOUTH for the night On The
morrow they established their last de-
pot at Sc degrees Is minutes.
Here the plateau commenced to slope
down slowly and very smoothly toward
the other side OF the world. They reached
IS degrees 80 minutes on December 9 The
next day they gained IS degrees IS min
utes: December l. So degrees Is minutes,
and on December Il they reached So de-
grees 30 minutes. only thirty-five miles
from the south pole.
IT was 'on to the pole" now, and on De-
cember &c a mark of So degrees 4S minutes
was attained. Up 10 this time the obser-
vatons and dead reckoning had agreed
remarkably we'll and they figured they
should be at the pole on December Il
TC the great delight OF Amundsen and his
hardy band. the day was clear and beau
tiful and with only a light breeze from
the southeast. The temperature was -
degrees below zero.
Their First Stop at Pole.
Sledging was perfect and they pushed
forward until o'clock p. m, when
they came to a halt. According 10 their
reckoning they had reached their desti-
nation. The colors-a beautiful siIken
1ag-was broken out and all hands gath
cred around and took hold of the stand
ard and planted it on the spot. The las:
plateau was named for King Haakon VII.
During the night the explorers circled
their camp mile after mile to a radius of
twelve miles The object of this 90.
doubt, was to find IL any record existed
Of a previous visit by msn.
The following day the fine weather con-
tinued and observations were taken from
s o'clock in the morning 10 at night.
The result gave them SO degrees IS min
uteS- JnlS was really at the pole, but
in order to observe the position as closely
as possible they Travelled south for the
remaining six miles and campcd on the
true pole. This was December L.
Under the brilliant sun four members
of the party took observations every hour
o. the day for twenty-four hours. The
exact result OF these observations will
be a matter for expert examination, but
there is no doubt In the mind Of Amund-
sen that they observed the position of
the pole as closely as 1t is within human
power to do so.
Left Pole December IT.
On December II the observations were
at an end. Amundsen and bis men fas-
tened to the ground a little tent and
broke from its top the Norwegian fiae
and the pennant from the Fran. It was
a Norwegian home raised on the south
pole. and was given the name of Polheim.
The return trip began hat day and
the weather proved unusually favorable.
Winter quarters were reached again on
January 25. 1s12. They averaged twenty
four miles a day on the return trip. The
Fran left the Bay OF Whales on January
DC. and owing to contrary winds did not
reach Tasmania for more than q month.
It arrived safely, however, with all well
on board.