The Washington times., 1915-01-16
antarctic Explorer Relates
Great Tragedy of Solitudes
OF Outer Rim of the World
Sir Douglas 'Mawson Describes
Loss Of MINIS and Metz
During Expedition.
SOUGHT GEOLOGICAL DATA
will Describe Billiards Of Con.
tinent Before National Geo.
graphic Society.

graphic Society.
BY KENDRICK SCOFIELD.
If. from the Odyssey Of his Antarctic
escapes. you have pictured Sir Douglas
Mawson a bearded explorer, showing
in Erayed head and bent shoulders the
Aftermath Of the dangers he has run,
you will be disappointed.
| II, from the saga Of his experiences
in the stark solitudes which sentinel
the Southern Pole. where the hurricanes
which sweep northward over the stormy
South Pacific are spawned. you have
imagined him as wearing the cloak of
| horror which sometimes falls upon men
| who. In the heart Of an uninha bited.
unexplored wilderness OF ice and wind
| and danger. have watched while their
companions dropped one by one. you
Will nnd yourself mistaken.
For Sir Douglas Mawso whose ex-
pedition to the Antarctic continent were
described by him last night before the
Nftional Geographic Society, is any
thing but aged. bearded. or the palsied
1t 10 true that his lean features are
lined with the sort Of deeply-graven
creasee about the wide. friendly mouth
ana the clean-cut nose which come
only from the chisel Of suffering. 1t
sgain be as plentiful as 1t was, and that
his deep, blue eyes still hold some
tning OF the cold. hopeless CLINT of the
oar dark Antarctic ice. Yet he is young in
AZ men are old who set first foot in
etrange. uninha bited, inhospitabIe.
1eeatn,deaiing waste places Of the still
unexplored earth.
mas made an adopted home in South
australia. where he is a member OF the
proiessorial stan Of the University of
Adeiaide. talks with low rumble which
comes from the barrel chest of him like
the grinding Of the ice whose threats OF
obstruction he fo!led.
For Glory of Empire.
He IL giant Of q man. standing we'll
over six-feet-two. lean as a wolf-hound.
and OF that breeding Of England's sons
from whom she has sent so manv to
search the Outer Rim Of Things to the
glory Of thg empire.
son-since last Birthday Honors." q
peer OF the realm in recognition OF his
services IN the subarctic continent-has
croised the South Pacific and the Ant
dss dscsic seas % IN search Of new geological
Australia, charted the New Hebrides
Islands. and went with Lieutenant
Shackleton on the Magnetic Pole En-
pedition Of 1907-S.
Returning to Adelaide. South Aus
traiia. he conceived the idea OF return
Ing to the Antarctic continent, not 10
discover the Pole. for both Scott and
Amundsen were even then pushing their
aog sledge way toward the coveted goal.
cal information to chart the coast line
OF continent which will make two
Europes. and on which only two spots
have hitherto been known to man-the
localities from which dash to the
distant Pole could most easily be made. -
He drafted his party from young COL
iege men with scientific educations. for.
he declares. salary chaps who are after
pinch comes. they ask for more money
ana they usually fail in a crisis
Parties ct Three.
He selected the vast unknown Of ice
and Antarctic wilderness whicn lies be-
tween the one hundred and tifty-cighth
and the one hundred and ninetieth me
ridians east Of Greenwich as the field
! for his exploration. and when me
| reached the unknown land the expedi-
tion divided into sledge parties of three
to radiate from their base Of supplies
out into the stark sOlitudes.
But before the expedition was COM
pleted more than 5000 miles OF new
territory had been mapped. and two
good men had given their lives as the
price: to rema In there under the snow
| silent stanzas in the long saga OF which
Kipling wrote:
Hear now the Song of the Dead
In the ice by the torn berg edges;
They who look still to the Pole
Asleep by their hide-stripped sledges!'
When ne talks merely OF the cold.
| scientific facts which his party uncov-
cred. Sir Douglas Mawson speakS rap
is first and last an enthusiastic geolo-
gist. But when he speaks OF the death
Of his comrades his voice sinks into the
depths Of his chest. and he talks slowly
and impressively
Hangs Great Tragedy.
"Oyer and above it all there hangs a
great tragedy" he says And. strange
ly enough. it was upon my paIty that
the misfortune fell. leaving Lieut.. b. +.
| MINIS, of the Royal Fusilliers. and
DR.. Xavier Metz. who was skcc-rlInning
champion OF the world in 1905. back
| therethere in the ice.
"The supply ship Of our expedition
was stationed at Amelie Land, our
base. There the wind blows with an
hour, and there believe is the
spawning ground for the South Amer
| icap hurricanes.
every party which left our base
| started toward what was an absolute
| blank on the maps, and Lieutenant
| MINIS, Dr. Metz and my self pushed
eastward along the coast. sometimes
| making as coed time as twenty-five
miles a day. We left the base in
early November. and all went we'll for
| mary weeks.
| "Then one day we were pushing
| across the ice which bridges deeu
crevasses Metz was In the lead. and
| l came second. On our dog sledges
| were our instruments and the tents
| On Lieutenant MINIS sledge in the
| rear was our entire food supply. for
| We thought this the best plan, as our
sledges might be expected to test out
\ the ice.
Once when looked back for Mir
| lis he was there. following half n
| hundred yards in the rear. The next
time l looked he had disappeared.
Camped For Days.
| 81 shouted to Metz. and together We
went hack over the trail, to fnd that
| the ice crust, bridging a thousand
foot -deep crevasse had given way be,
meath his team
"Far below on a ledge OF rock which