Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1912-03-09
COMMENT ON FEAT
Sir Ernest ShackIeton Dis
Cusses Pole Discovery.
REMARKABLY FAST TIME
Says Capt. Amundsen Was Favored
by Fine Weather.
SPLENDID CONTROL OF DOGS
Norwegian Passed Winter in Com
fort, Reporting Only Two Gales
of Any Severity.
CONTROL OF DOGS
BY Sir ERNEST SHACkLETON.


Norwegian arrived at the south pole. 1t
| is true that in the cabled account there
are certain minor discrepancies, due no
doubt to its translation from an alien
language into English, that admit of
minor questions being asked. but the
plain, broad facts of the case resolve
themselves into the following important
points:
/. Capt Amundsen reached the geo.
graphical south pole.
2. He made the journey in remarkably
short time.
3. He was favored by fine weather, not
in the matter Of low temperature, GER
| tainly. but with easy travelling.
4. Whether Capt. Scott, leader of the
British antarctic expedition, has reached
the pole or not, we must wait until the
Terra Nova returns before we can learn.
Analysing Capt. Amundsen's dispatch in
detail. it appears that Immediately after
landing at the Bay of Whales he COM
menced to lay depotS toward the south
in view OF the projected march to the
pole Contrary to certain surmises that
he would travel through the winter. he
decided to wait until spring before he
commenced the serious attack on the
geographical pole.
Managed Dogs Well.
From the first it appears. he had his
dogs in splendid control. and in this
particular 1 must say that throughout
the journey Amundsen got more out of
his dogs than any British expedition
could hops to have done. 1 personally
pin my faith on ponies, but the Nor
wegians, as I have said before, are SO
used to driving dogs and Amundsen mad
such a vast experience in this method of
L l,o 1n,,bt ndl m
advantage of it.
Amundsen had his final depot in lati-
| tude 81 south, and 1T must be remem-
bered that he had the advantage In latl-
| than Scott. He appears to have passed
| the winter in comfort, though situated
on the edge of a sea where one would
! expect to have a heavy snowfall but he
records only two severe gales throughout
! the winter. An interesting scientific point
is to be noted that at the edge of ROSS
sea open water existed throughout the
i winter.
| A very low temperature was expert
enced in the early part of the spring,
] and Amundsen found that the start Tor
| the pole would be eventually made Sep
TENDER 8 Amundsen found when he
started Sept ember 8 that the temperature
was too low to enable him to make a
protracted journey south and still Keep
his dogs efficient. We started our spring
| sledging journeys on the Nimrod eXpedl-
/ ton AUGUST HcdTly IiOuiu diiISh
| than Amundsen, and we also found that
| in Temperatures of between 60 and ~
degrees below zero Fahrenheit We took SO
much out of ourselves because of the
cold that it was not practical policy to
continue.
Makes Another Start.
Amundsen returned, and eventually de-
cided to start toward the end of October.
and instead of taking his whole party of
eight men and all the dogs south he took
five men south and left three men to eX-
plore King Edward Land, discovered by
Capt. Scott in 1902, thus insuring a GER
| tain amount of scientific and geographical
! work quite apart from the important
meteorological observations he had car
| ried out during the winter night.
He seems to have had most favorable
conditions. On the barrier the surface
was smooth, giving ample opportunity 10
use his skis. and as the dogs were In
excellent condition. though the tempera-
lures were low, they were able to march
at a rate Of ever thirty kilometers a day,
| and from this one must gather that the
weather was fine and the surface good
After leaving his last depot. made IN
latitude 81 south. Amundsen began to
build snow cairns at each camping place
following out the same method I used on
our southern journey. From latitude 8.
to S3 he reports fine going and lair tenn
toria Land. In latitude S3 south he es-
tablished depot, and on the 18th made
what was one of his most important dls-
coveries that the Ross barrier is termi-
mated by the junction OF the southeast
erly range Of mountains that we noted on
our expedition, with range of noun
tains running southwesterly. evidently
from King Edward VII Land.
Kept in Touch With Land.
Just here the cable is somewhat vague
as regards the actual latitude and lon
gitude, but fuller advices will clear up
the exact position of Amundsen when
he touched the southeasterly range of
mountains. 1t appears that he expert
enced no difficulty in keeping up commu-
nication with the land from the barrier
surface. as there was only a space OF
some 800 feet before he reached the foot
Of the mountains and here begins one
of the most interesting phases OF the
whole expedition.
So far Amundsen's ground is entirely
new. and now that it might be expect
ed that he would proceed on the Beard
| more glacier, he does not do so, but hnds
| a new route of his own to reach the IN
| land Ice Like we, who on our expedition
saw great mountains, he also observed
mountains rising from 1900 to 10000 feet,
and several others farther south l5,oOo
feet in height.
from MS cdDle II SteHiS tHdt at hSt
| it was an easy task to advance toward
the inland plateau, but soon he met
trouble in the shape of small steep
glaciers, and relay work had to begin.
| OF all the heart-breaking, weary jobs
| that Of marching over ground three
times in order to advance a load south
is one of the worst l know, and 1t Is
apparent that Amundsen began to ex-
perience these troubles at a height OF
1850 feet. They had to leave the side
track they were going up, and came TO
what he describes as mighty glacier
He makes an interesting observation,
which corrOborates our own, that these
great southern glaciers have but little
movement now and that creVasses are
often snow filled at height OF o,OOo rect.
Kills Some of the Dogs.
He again gets into trouble. but in spite
OF this reaches height of $500 feet in
record time Amundsen's cable is some
what obscure just here. and there may be
certain clerical errors that a more de-
tailed account will reveal. He reached
the inland plateau of ice at a height of
10, 600 odd feet killed some of his dogs
and kept eighteen for the final march,
Then he was struck by that great bug
bear of southern explorers. a blizzard.
and for four days was held UP by bad
weather in latitude So south He saw
mountains stretching away to the south
when the weather cleared, and still found
his journey upward. On December ) he
left DEVILS Glacier and was about 100
feet above the sea. 1t 10 interesting to