Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1921-03-31


are scattered over the earth Next year the
museum will send out biologists and motion
picture photographer, and in 1923 psychologists
and anthrOpoogists will follow
The Royal Geographical society is pushing ahead
It's plans for the conquest of Mount Everest, the
highest mountain in the world, the summit of
which no white man has reached. The main
attempt will be made next year. Sir Francis
Younghusband, the president of the society, has
announced that Col. Howard Bury who has trav-
eled much In Asia, has been chosen to lead this
years expedition, with Harold Raeburn in charge
or the actual reconnaissance of the mountain Mr..
Raeburn has just returned from reconnaissance
OF hangchanjunga, a mountain in the Himalayas
with an altitude of 2S,146 feet The society is also
hoping to secure the services next year of Briga-
der General Bruce the originator of the idea of
ascending the mountain
The ascent of Mount Everest is impractcabe
for many years at least, in the opinion of Henry
f. Montagner of Terre Haute, Ind, who has made
many ascents In the Himalayas the Rockies and
the European Alps, and has attained the highest
attitudes. He says:
Il have no hesitation in predicting that Everest
will certainly not be conquered by the first party
that makes the attempt. In my opinion it will
take years, each party profting by the experience
acquired by its predecessors and each gaining O
thousand more feet on the previous record. One
thing is certain, and that is that the conquest of
the highest peak in the world will be far and away
the most terrific test of endurance human beings
have ever undergone The journey to the north
or south pole, far physical effort and moral
courage are concerned, would be mere childs play
compared with the ascent of mountain more
than 20 900 feet high. The highest altitude yet at
tanned is about 24,600 feet
1--WE know that the number of feet an active
climber can ascend per hour diminishes with the
altitude Thus up to 10000 feet an average climber
can ascend about 1000 feet an hour easy
ground without exhaustlng himself. Above $4,000
feet the ascensional rate falls below 300 feet an
hour even for exceptionally strong climbers. What
it would be at $4,000 feet say without
experience.
Judging by what we know of the diminution
of the ascensiOna rate of strong climbers above
$4,000 feet, 1t would seem doubtful whether 1t
would be possible to ascend more than 100 or $50
feet hour above 270O0 $4,000 feet. And
moreover, these figures based on the suppos
ton that the party meets with no great Difficult
ties, such powdery snow, high wind steep
rocks, Sickness etc.
The one south pole exploration, now on the
way, seems important 1t is the British Antarctic
expedition, headed by Commander John Lachlan
Cope fellow Of the Royal Geographical society
and formerly of the British navy 1t has been
financed for $7500O0, and there will be five ships
125 men, several airpanes and extensive wireless
apparatus. The object is to clfculnnaV1gate the
Antarctic sea, make a dash to the south pole, To-
cate new whaling grounds and map fields that are
supposed to be rich in gold, silver, coal and rubes
Plans have been made for an absence of five years.
Dr. Donald B. Macmillan veteran of six trips to
the Land of the Midnight Sun, heads the list of
Arctic explorers. He is building at East Booth
bay Me- the schooner Bowdoin for an expedition
scheduled to start in July Under favorable wealth.
err conditions the Bowdoin should reach Fury and
Heca strait early in September There the ship
will be frozen in. Leaving their vessel under
guard the party will push forward on sleds drawn
by dogs Doctor Macmillan expects to establish
a camp 700 miles south of Etah, In northwest
Greenland, from which he will try to circumnavi-
gate Bafln Land and to penetrate $500 miles Of
it's western coast said to be the longest stretch Of
unknown coastne in the world. I'll
Four expeditions In progress In Africa,
namely, the British Natural History museum ex-
peditOn to penetrate the secrets of the west coast
and of the Jeb-AIaria mountains the effort of the
duke of the Abruzzi to find the source of the Webb
Shebe river which flows from Abyssinla through
Italian Somaliand into the Indian ocean; the en-
tomological tour of the Belgian portion Of Tan
ganyka and the Eastern Congo, by L. A. Barns,
who explored the Ituri and Semlki forests finding
strange race Of pygnies and making wonder
full collection of moths and butterflies, and the
AIackle chronological expedition into Central Africa
TO study the Bahlma, of the chief pastoral
tribes of Ankole, district west of Uganda