Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1912-03-09
Ownership of Pole Is.
Subject for Concern


upon men sound in min and body
ready TO set about the tremendous tasl
that had TO be performed.
So on September 8 eight men ano
seven sledges. ninety dogs and provi-
sions for four months, started in theiI
quest for the pole. The ground was
perfect. The temperature was not ex.
IRENE. but the next day IL appeared
that they ha started too soon, for the
temperature fell.
Amundsen soon realized that the dogs
could not stand the long run to his
depot in so degrees of south latitude,
so he determined to return to his depot
and await the arrival of spring.
1t was only in the middle Of October
that spring came in earnest. seals and
birds appeared. the temperature was
steady between 20 and 80 degrees,
Celsius.
On october 20 the party going south
! started. IT consisted of the leader,
four of his men. four sledges and fifty
two dogs: they took with them pro-
visions for four months. Everything
was in excellent order.
Amundsen had determined to make
the first part of the trip with as little
labor as possible, so as to not take too
much out of his men and his dogs. and
to give them an opportunity to get fat.
They made their depot in the S0th de-
gree on the 23d, and went right ahead,
although there was a dense fog. Be
cause of the fog an error of two or
three kilometers happened once in a
while.
Having rested and fed the dogs on
all The seal meat they would eat, the
party started again on the 18th. The
temperature remained steady at be-
tween twenty and thirty degrees Gel
sius. 1t had been Amundsen's inten-
ton not to drive more than twenty to
thirty kilometers a day, but 1t soon APP
peared that this was too slow for their
dogs while they were strong and will
ing.
Made Fifty kiiometers a Day.
In so degrees south, they began
to build snow cairns of the height of a
man so as TO mark the way for their
return. They stopped there a day and
fed the dogs on as much pemican as
they wanted, They reached tho depot
in So degrees south on November 8,
where the dogs for the last time got all
they wanted TO eat
On November s they started south
ward again, making a daily march Of
fifty kilometers. To tighten their heavy
sledges they set up depots as they
completed each degree. The trip from
the SD to SD degree was a little
more than a pleasure jaunt. The
ground was in excellent condition for
sledging and the temperature was all
they could ask for.
Everything went on like a dance"
exclaimed Amundsen in telling the
story.
On the 9Th he sighted Victoria Land,
a continuation of the mountain range
as running towards the southeast from
Beardmore Glacier. On the same day
they reached the SD degree and there
established a depot.
On November II they arrived at a
place where the land and the barrier
were connected, the barrier here
rising in an u%ndulation about 300 feet
high. Here Amundsen made his head
depot and look provisions for sixty
days on sledges and left sufficient for
thirty days more. The land under which
they lay and which they had now to
attack looked quite imposing. The
nearest summit along the barrier
ranged from 1000 to 10000 feet in
height.
Several other SUBMITS farther south
were 1900 feet or more. They began
to climb. The first part of 1t was an
easy task. the ground rising in light
slopes. 1t did not taxi long with their
willing dogs to work their way up. At
the farthest point they met some very
small but very steep glaciers. There
they had to harness twenty dogs TO
each sledge and to take four sledges
in w shifts.
Encountered Huge Glacier.
On the third day, a huge glacier, Axel
Heidelberg's glacier, which divides
the coast mountains and the noun
tains of the south, was en-
countered. The next day began the
longest part of their climb. Many de-
tours had to be made to avoid open
crevasses. Amundsen considered that
these had filled up almost to
the top, as the glacier in all probable
ity had stopped moving long ago.
At the bottom of the glacier Amund-
sen could see Mt. Ole Engelsted, a big
snow cone 1880 feet high. The glacier
was very much broken in this
comparatively narrow pass. Mighty
crevasses threatened to stop their fur
ther progress, but 1t was not so seri-
GUS as it looked. .
They had now reached $500 feet alti-
tude, an almost incredible record and
it had taken them only four days from
the barrier until they were all on a
vast Inland nlateat1 rrhay rarnnad
that night at a height of 10000 feet.
There Amundsen's heart was almost
broken, for he had to kill t~wenty-four
of his brave dogs and keep only eigh-
teen, six to each of his three sledges.
He halted there for four days on &C.
count of bad weather.
On November 25. weary of the delay,