Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-01-11
IN frozen COUNTRY
Capt. Amundsen's Story of
South Pole Discovery.
WEARY TRIP IN SLEDGES
Stands at Southern End of Earth's
Axis December IA, 1911.
TRIBUTE TO HIS ASSOCIATES
Distinguished Norwegian Explorer
Delivers Lecture Under Auspices
of Geographic Society.
WEARY TRIP IN SLEDGES
TRIBUTE TO HIS ASSOCIATES

Capt Roald Anlundsen. discoverer of
| the south pole first traverser of the
| northwest passage and locator of the
magnetic north pole. told an audience con-
| sisting of members Of the National Geo
| graphic Society and it's distinguished
| guests, which filled the New Masonic
| Temple to it's limit last night, of the SOL
| emn moment December "a. 1911, when lie
| and his four companions stripped from
| the frozen south one OF earth's last great
| secrets.
| He told again. at first hand-for the
| first time in America-in modest language
| and with constant reference to his four
| companions. the story of how we at
i! tanned the south pole. His lecture bristled
with illusions to Ross. Shackleton and
Scott. who had preceded him in the south
| giving credit to them and to the Japanese
expedition with which he met.
| He said he and his companions had
| kept far away from tho other eXpedi-
| tons already in the south, in the location
| of his bases and starting points, as posi-
| BILE in order not to be in their way. He
| thanked the National Geographic Society
| for the opportunity to speak from the
| same platform from which had spoken
| "Pearv. who had the glory of planting
| He declared the work of his associate,
| Nelson, the captain of his vessel the
| Fran, would probably in the end prove
| to have been the most important work
| of his expedition from a scientific point
, of view.
Story Thrills Audience.
| Following all this rendering unto
Caesar the things that arc Caesars.
| after he had told of the details of the
expedition and of the dash to the south
| pole, which his journey in fact was, 1T
was with a thrill evidenced by the tense
silence. that his audience heard him say:
| December II, 1911, five men stood at
| the southern end of the earth's axis,
planted the Norwegian flag there and
named the region after the man for
| whom they all would gladly brave offered
their lives-King Haakon VII. Thus the
veil was torn aside for all time. and one
of the greatest of our earth's secrets had
| ceased to exist
| ment was all the more marked by reason
| of the fact that the photograph which
| was shown on the stereopticon proved to
| be a picture Of the rocks and ice and
| snow built up to mark the spot, sur
| mounted by the Norwegian flag. with
| only Amundsen's four companions shown
| as being present. The explorer had evil
IDENTIFY stood off and taken a picture of
!
| one he chose to exhibit.
| Capt. Amundsen was introduced to the
| society and its guests by Henry Can
| nett. its president. The explorer said, in
part:
| 1--WE left Norway in the Fran August
3. 1910. with provisions and outfit for
| two years. We travelled 5000 miles
! from Norway to our base in the Bay of
| Whales. The Fran, the most solid polar
| ship in the world. sailed through the
! roaring forties, the foggy fifties' and
the icy sixties They declared in Nor
| way that we could not carry our Eskf-
mo dogs across the equator. that they
| would not survive the heat of the trip,
but we arrived at the great ice barrier
with 116 dogs. after starting with 81
Notes Progress of Expedition.
I'VE arrived at the Bay Of Whales
January IA. 1911, We sailed farther
south than had any of our predecessors.
We discharged there provisions enough
for nine men for several years. We d.
vided into two parties, Capt. Nelson re-
manning on the Fran, with the under.
| standing that he was eventually to sail
her to Buenos Aires. or these two par
] ties-shore and ship parties-the shore
party divided again into two, one to ex-
plore the near surroundings and one to
march south.
1--WE established our first depot at so
I ucSfccSs OcSlilllHS ILLS WOih VI cotduAiSH-
ing depots in February. March We
went to 81 degrees and established an
| other depot. Three men returned and
five continued south. We reached 50 de-
grees and established another depot. We
returned home and set out again with
1900 pounds Of fresh seal meat and 400
pounds of other provisions, which We
| took to the SO-degree depot. In all, up to
this time we had placed 1000 pounds Of
provisions at the so, 81 and 50 degree de-
pots. We had found seals by the thou
sand and had only to kill them.
Instead of marking our depots from
| north to south. we marked them by ten
| mile line from east to west. We had
| therefore no trouble in finding them
| again. When we returned from stablish
| ing the depots We prepared for the long
| est winter ever experienced by men In the
| arctics. We built good house. well ven
| tilated and, indeed heated. We built baths
"a plain bath and steam bath. We hOl
| lowed out passages from the hut we built
| and cut rooms in the solid ice of the great
| 100 to $50 foot ice barrier. Here we es-
bathroom. coal and wood room-in fact. all
the rooms we could need. We found our
sledge equipment too heavy, and our
sledgemaker rebuilt that during our win
ter of waiting so that the sledge which
I weighed at the start $50 pounds weighed
at the end only one-third of that. The
average temperature was 10 degrees be-
i low but We often had 60 below, and at
times we had rs below. We had but two
gales during the winter.
i Meets Japanese Party.