The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-02-01

the amount OF work put on the engine
when passing over varying surfaces
generally causes the motor TO break
down. Sir Ernest proposes to build
sledge larger than the usual size, and
on this to mount an seroplane engine,
with an aeroplane propeller in front.
He figures that a sledge of this de-
scription is capable OF dragging a ton
at five or six miles an hour.
Instead OF one sleeping bag. each
explorer will carry three, so that when
one is iced up IL can be discarded. The
tents will be made of three ply wood.
strong enough to support a dome
shaped covering of snow. thus insur-
ing more warmth.
The full complement of the shore
party will be twelve men and six of
these will make the journey across
Both OF the ships will be fitted TO burn
oil instead of coal, as the liquid fuel
extends the radius OF action and rem
ders the vessels independent of bal
last. The ships. which will carry
thirty men altogether. will be fully
equipped with cages and tanks for
bringing home live penguins and seals,
such as have never been taken from the
antarctic regions.
"Movies'' to Stay Behind.
Each ship will have a biologist. geolo-
gist and physicist. and the three from the
first ship will be stationed in her winter
quarters in the weddell Sea. Another
party OF three will explore unknown
tracts along the coast near the winter
quarters.
BY the time the pole Is reached the Id
dogs OF the expedition will be reduced
to fifty or sixty. The explorers will end
up with no dogs at all.
The problem Of food Is being worked
out by experts. Sir Ernest has found
that highly concentrated food, the kind
which makes you feel as IL you had eaten
nothing, is of no use in the antarctic.
He hopes his food this time will be an
Improvement over that of his 1su7-1sos ex-
petition, when he reached q point Ill
miles from the south pole. Every man
in the expedition will know how to cook.
The aeroplane with clipped wings will
not be able to fly. Its wings will take
practically all the weight of the wheels
Under favorable conditions it should
carry 200 pounds at about thirty miles an
hour.
Wireless and moving picture outfits will
not be carried. II is expected, on the
transcontinental trip. But one cinemato-
graph machine will go with the party
WORKING from Ross sea anu dnOtner WIN
the party working about Weddell Sea.
These films will have both scientific and
popular interest Pocket wireless outfits,
having a range Of from 100 to 800 miles,
will also be carried by these two expedi-
tons, but the main party will not at
tempt the added weight OF either device
While the north pole is situated aoout
two miles beneath the sea the south pole
is on the plateau two miles above the
sea. The conditions of journeys to the
two points are widely different In the
north, within 500 miles Of the pole, in
summer time. there are 100 different
species OF Towering plants There are no
Towering plants within 100 miles of the
south pole, and within 100 miles Of it
there is no plant or animal life Of any
description whatever.
Difference In Dangers.
In the north you may expect to get
the Arctic hare and the ptarmigan on
the northernmost land. There. are also
bears and the life In the sea
On a trip to the north pole the explorer
sledges over a moving sea of ice that
packs up and breaks up, and it is i'm
possible to lay any depots- The danger
Of northern sledge travelling In the
break up of the ice and tho opening of
what are called leads-open water chan
nels left by the parting Of the ice.
In the south the difficulties are the
varying nature Of the snow surfaces. the
fact that the temperatures are much
lower and the danger of crevasses. In
the north one can fall ten 0r twenty feet