White Pine news weekly mining review. [volume] (East Ely, Nev.) 1910-1920, 1913-02-16
ANOTHER POLAR TRAGEDY

Briton. who reached the south pole
on January Is, 1912. was over
whelmed by a blizzard on the return
journey and the captain and his
companion explorers persisted. 1t
was SCOTS ambition to reach the
Roald Amundsen. and this he did.
The Briton had a splendidly equipped
expedition, and apparently every
thing had gone we'll with the party
until the return trip was attempted.
Then misfortune in the way of fear
fui storms, sickness and lack of pro-
visions overlook them. and death
mercifully ended their sufferings.
News of the tragedy first came
through Oamaru, New Zealand, from
the Terra Nova, the vessel which had
carried the explorer and and his
expedition to the antarctic, and which
late last year vent nee again TO the
far south to bring Captain Scott and
lis companions back again. The
lrews dispatch reeounting the
tragedy states, that after attaining
the pole they faced about for the re-
turn TO civilization. For two months
they struggled to get back TO lone
ton depot" which they had establish
ed $50 miles north of the ultimate
south. But one by one they died on
the way. Seaman Evans died from
conclusion of the brain on Febru-
airy II. Captain Oates died from
exposure on March II. Captain Scott,
Lieutenant Bowers and DR.. Wilson
died from exposure and starvation
during a blizzard about March %.
The fate of the expedition made
a profound impression throughout
the civilized world, and Captain Scott
and the men who went TO their deaths
with him are heralded as heroes
and martyrs to the cause of seien-
tifc Investigation. But it makes pa
thetie reading, as for instance:
Scott sitting with his back TO
the tent pole. Between his head and
the tent pole he had placed his
diary as a support TO his head. DIT.
Wilson and Lieutenant Bower were
lying in their sleeping bags" and
so on. And all were dead with
their faces set towards the homes
they were never to see again.
The love of conquest. the human
desire TO attain the unattainable or
to excel the efforts of some other
adventurer, is as old as the race,
and it is a sad commentary that the
red blood which ran in the veins of
Captain Scott and his men had TO
away and desolate latitude. To many
il is difficult to arous enthusiasm
over the ambition that prompted men
to take the chances called for by a
polar expedition. The very desola-
ton and the GOODNESS repels and
the resulting good of il all is not ap-
parent. The average reader of the
Scott tragedy will ask, What's the
use of trying TO reach the south pole,
or the north pole. either. for that
natter
1t is not the question of location
so much as the spirit that prompts
men to penetrate the uttermost and
heretofore inaccessible points of the
earth. 1t is this spirit of conquest
that has made waste places bloom
and opened up the world to
p~osterity.
This may not be a source of i'm
mediate comfort to the wives and
families of the dead soldiers of
adventure, but the balm will come
in after years through the homage
of memory to the mes sacrificed.
But another point of suggestion
arises. Is it the duty for a man with
wife and children to take the risk
oee~asioned by an uncertain expedi-
tion to the extreme attitudes. That
would be a difficult question to an
swer, and the chances are that even
now, Captain SCOTS widow will take
the view that her husband died in
the performance of duty, as he saw
it and in which spirit she acquiese-
ed.