Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1920-02-04
The Lure of the Antartic
By Frederic ]. HaskIn

Washington, ID. c., Feb. Now tina,
che wnr - over, men Of daring arc agnir
turning their eyes toward the last great
UNEMPLOYED wilderness Of the or Id, and
tho most terrible Of them all
tho antarctic continent DR.. John
i. Dopc, commandment the British
imperial antarctic expedition, has an
nounced that one feature OF the five-ycar
expedition which il to start next June will
bc dash at the south pole by airpIane
On cou.Sr the south pole has already
becn reached. This most inaccessible Of all
places on earth was reached first by
Ammundscn, who got there and back in
safety, and in the same year by Scott, who
got his goal and then died with his com
panions OF cold and starvation on the
way back, leaving a journal which wns
aftcrward recovered and il one OF the
most inspiring accounts Of death coolly
met that was ever written.
EXPLORING lust BEGUN.
To the average man whose chief object
in life II TO make himself as comfortable a.
possible, il might seem that the explorers
would bc satisfied 10 leave tho antarctic
nlonc now that the pole has been reached
But 70 the hardy and courageous souls
who delight in explorations, the antarctic
II still a challenging opportunity. Its
exploration has really just begun. Geo
graphcrs still differ AZ 20 whether IL is one
great continent or two Of them, or an
archipelago composed OF number Of
islands. And despite the many expeditions
which have gone there and the number Of
brave men who have died there, many
things about the south polar region remain
TO bc studied. Problems not only in
geography, but in geology, terrestrial
magnetism and metcorology remain TO be
solved, and the life of the frozen southern
seas has not been adequately studied
The south polar regions present n
much more difficult problem to human
courage and ingenuity than does the actic.
Ocean currents warm the region about the
north pole much more than they do those
about the south pole, so that there is a
warm summer and an abundant animal
life in the north at latitude which in the
south is bitterly cold all The year around.
There is practically no animal life on the
antarctic land mas. Bcsidcs this the
great southern blizzard rs a more deadly
thing than the north has 10 show Every
explorer who goes into the antarctic
practically CANDLES on the blizzard with
his life az the stake.
Given fairly decent weather and rcs-
sonable luck | am convinced that we will
safely return To our base" says DIR.
Cope.
That is what Scott said But be got
neither the decent weather nor the luck
One Of his men fell on the ice and suffered
fracture of the skull from which he soon
died. Another became i'll and soon saw
that he was a burden 10 the party. He
walked out Of the tent one night and never
carne back. The rest puzzled on little
farther and then with the blizzard and
their luck still against them, and their
food and strength gone, sat down calmly
to die.
The story of the antarctic is full Of CT
amples of heroism like that and go il the
story Of arctic exploration-of men diving
ooolly, laying down their lives for each
other, pcrsisting in the face OF difficulties
that seemed insurmountable. The stories
Of polar explorations are al stranger than
fiction, and yet they are all fact, vouched
for by men OF the most Thoroughly
integrity. Pioneering in other
lands, when you get down to the facts
about IT. is often found to be a sordid
business. The exploration Of our own
West for example, mingled examples Of
The greatest courage with many which
show men at their worst. There is more /
han one example of a man killing and I
"a ting companion to save his own life. /
The rule of each for himself and devil /
AXE the hindmost prevailed more often I
han the higher one that each mans life /.
8 at the service of his fellows.
But there are few stains on the record /