The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1914-06-02
THE CALL OF UNKNOWN
FASCINATION THAT DRAWS EN-
pIORER TO ICE-BOUND LAND.
ca, Ernest Shackleton Tells of Plans
to Revisit South Polar Regions
Wants Mystery Analysed.

Wants Mystery AnalyZeu.
1ONDON.-S Ernest Shackleton,
at 2 Pilgrims club gathering at the
savoy hotel, outlined his plans for
bis nolar expedition and kept his
antarctic polar regions from the
was speaking.
Sir Ernest's scheme is to cross the
antarctic polar regions from the
Weddell SEQ ia the Ross sea, taking
in the pole en- route. He begins his
great adventure next October.
I'VE are going to try to cross the
south palor continent" said Sir Ern-
est "Why we go l cannot say. What
the impelling force is that makes ex-
plorers. / cannot describe. 1t is one
of the sort of things of which, if you
could describe it in so many words,
half the charm and half the interest
would be lost. When you are in the
antarctic you have an uncomfortable
time frozen one minute and roasted
the next, but when you come back
tn civilization and sit down to dim
ners. before you have been home six
months you want to get out on the
lone trail again"
Sir Ernest said that he could i'm
agine nothing better in life than to
be marching through unknown coun-
try like those regions and then, after
sleep, to awake and find surrounding
them hills or mountains which they
knew no man had ever seen before.
There must be some sort of interior
pride that made one want to look on
things no man had previously seen.
He could not analyze the psychology
of travel.
Undetermined BY SkeptiCs.
He had often been asked what was
the good of it all. If anyone were to
offer to defray the cost of this eXpe
dition, if he could point to any single
economic fact of value in such an ex-
petition, he would reply that the cost
of the last expedition had been saved
in the three years by the magnetic
work that was accomplished.
By studying the meterology in the
Weddell sea they hoped TO benefit
the stock breeders of the Argentine
and Chilli, because it had already
been found that dense ice in the
Weddell sea meant heavy rains in |
those countries. Sentiment is the |
driving force, 1t always has been the
driving force in any work which |
counts, for the ages to come. 1t will |
be the first crossing of the last con-
tinent to be crossed and we want to
do it under our flag"
Explaining how they hoped to
cross the south polar continent in
four and a half months, Sir Ernest |
declared that their food would con- |
tain the highest amount of nutritive
value. The tabloid business" was
wrong, it was useless to live on tab |
loid food. They must have some
thing that would fill as we'll as heat.
The last food he took contained |
large percentage of water, which was
an absolute dead weight, as there
was potential water at their feet.
Wants Mystery Analysed.
Each step taken into the unknown |
unfolds a page of mystery, and as
long as there is any mystery on this
globe it is not only mans right, but
also his duty to try to unravel it, sol
that in future ages We shall not be I
pointed at as the men who lived in |
the dark ages of the twentieth cen
fury
Il am not going to do any flag |
waging. The flag we are carrying |
costs half a crown with bunting" If |
all went we'll they might expect to
hear from them about the middle OF |
1916. 1T lies on the knees of the |
gods what is going to happen, but |
if we fail, it will not be my fault
nor the fault of my comrades. 1t |
will be the forces of nature. We
will try to do our best"