Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-03-26
THE EARTH's TWO POLES.
How Amundsen's Trip Completes Our
knowledge Of the Globe.

THE eAh H'S iWo roIIS'
How Amundsen's Trip Completes Our
knowledge Of the Globe.
The earliest discovery Of the North
or South Pole is the one aspect Of Arc
tic discovery which attracts and inter-
ests the public.
But each polar expedition has its
larger place in extending the field of
geographical knowledge. Capt. Amund-
sens exhibition establishes the fact,
already known in general terms, that
while the North Pole Is ocean, the
South Pole is mass Of land large
enough to constitute small continent,
II 1t were in a more favorable region
and more accessible.
The North Pole represents part Of
the low waste of marsh land and wa
ter which fills northern Siberia, ex-
tends over the shadows to the north
of it, deepening as it goes and gradu-
ally making the broad shallow basin
whose shores are the northern coast
of Siberia and the northern coast OF
Canada, half of it sprinkled with is
lands Of low level and without noun
tains until the plateau Of northern
Greenland Is reached and the volcanic
area which gives the world Iceland,
Spitzbergen and the mountains Of
Lapland and Norway. The sea be-
tween these low coasts is, like them, Of
no great depth. swept by the great
current which passes through Behring
straits and down Baffin's bay and
along the east coast Of Greenland, q
shallow stretch of strange water, most
of which has not been explored.
The South Pole, on the other hand,
is land area considerably larger than
Australia, ice-begirt, a great plateau
whose surface is 10000 to 1900 feet
high, with mountain ranges crossing
it. All this is doubtless part Of that
upturn which passes down the Andes,
crosses "Antarctica," the Antarctic
continent and goes directly on along q
great circle, up the east Asian coast
by way Of Sumatra in the great sys-
tenn of volcanic action perpetually
breaking into active volcanoes which
had lifted Borneo, the Philippine is
lands, Japan and extreme East Siberia.
These mountains and volcanoes are
part of great fissure in the earth's
crust, which returns into itself by way
Of the Antarctic continent. 1t starts
in the volcanoes Of the Aleutian is
lands and Alaska, coming down in a
vast curve along our eastern coast and
the Andes, reappearing in Antarctica,
finding it's way up the islands that
fringe the east coast Of Asia and re-
turning to it's original beginning. where
our far flung flag looks out from the
last Of the Aleutlan islands. This great
girdle of fire, dotted with volcanoes,
rings about the Pacific.
The North Pole is, on the other hand,
under waters which are part Of the At
lantic ocean, whose shores either in
south or north Atlantic areas have
few volcanoes, display in general the
low sloping line Of our own coast and
that of South America, with a large
part of West Africa, a tyne represent
ed in the northern coasts Of both
America and Siberia.
The great return and result OF
Capt. Amundsen's trip, therefore. is
that it completes our general knowl-
edge of the globe and leaves us aware
that it's two oceans and the continents
between them are themselves part Of
great world building which rings one
ocean and fringes two continental
masses with volcanoes and leaves the
other ocean and the continental masses
fringing it without this seismic dis
turbance, except at certain isolated
points.-Philadelph Record.