From Pole to Pole

S >> Sven Anders Hedin >> From Pole to Pole

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FOOTNOTES:

[21] A _krona_ is a Swedish coin worth about 1s. 1-1/2d.

VII

THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS

It is barely a hundred years since European mariners began to approach
the coasts of the mysterious mainland which extends around the southern
pole of the earth. Ross, who in 1831 discovered the north magnetic pole,
sailed ten years later in two ships, the _Erebus_ and the _Terror_
(afterwards to become so famous with Franklin), along the coast of the
most southern of all seas, a sea which still bears his name. He
discovered an active volcano, not much less than 13,000 feet high, and
named it Erebus, while to another extinct volcano he gave the name of
Terror. And he saw the lofty ice barrier, which in some places is as
much as 300 feet high.

At a much later time there was great rivalry among European nations to
contribute to the knowledge of the world's sixth continent. In the year
1901 an English expedition under Captain Scott was despatched to the sea
and coasts first visited by Ross. Captain Scott made great and important
discoveries on the coast of the sixth continent, and advanced nearer to
the South Pole than any of his predecessors. One of the members of the
expedition followed his example some years later. His name is
Shackleton, and his journey is famous far and wide.

Shackleton resolved to advance from his winter quarters as far as
possible towards the South Pole, and with only three other men he set
out at the end of October, 1908. His sledges were drawn by strong, plump
ponies obtained from Manchuria. They were fed with maize, compressed
fodder, and concentrated food, but when during the journey they had to
be put on short commons they ate up straps, rope ends, and one another's
tails. The four men had provisions for fully three months.

While the smoke rose from the crater of Erebus, Shackleton marched
southwards over snow-covered ice. Sometimes the snow was soft and
troublesome, sometimes covered with a hard crust hiding dangerous
crevasses in the mass of ice. At the camps the adventurers set up their
two tents and crept into their sleeping-bags, while the ponies, covered
with horse-cloths, stood and slept outside. Sometimes they had to remain
stationary for a day or two when snowstorms stopped their progress.

[Illustration: THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS.]

When the sun was hidden by clouds the illumination was perplexing. No
shadows revealed the unevenness of the snowfield, all was of the purest
white, and where the men thought they were walking over level ground,
they might quite unexpectedly come down on their noses down a small
slope. Once they heard a thundering noise far away to the east. It
sounded like a cannon shot, but probably was only the immense inland ice
"calving." When the ice during its constant but slow motion towards the
coast slides out into the sea, it is lifted up by the water and is
broken up into huge, heavy blocks and icebergs which float about
independently. When these pieces break away the inland ice is said to
"calve."

Shackleton advanced towards the pole at the rate of twelve to eighteen
miles a day. His small party was lost like small specks in the endless
desert of ice and snow. Only to the west was visible a succession of
mountain summits like towers and pinnacles. The men seemed to be
marching towards a white wall which they could never reach.

On November 31 one of the ponies was shot, and its flesh was kept to be
used as food. The sledge he had drawn was set up on end and propped up
as a mark for the return journey. Five days later Shackleton came to
Scott's farthest south, and the lofty mountains with dark, steep, rocky
flanks which he afterwards had by the side of his route had never before
been seen by man.

A couple of days later a second pony was shot, and shortly afterwards a
third, which could go no farther, had to be put out of his misery. The
last pony seemed to miss his comrades, but he still struggled on with
his sledge, while the four men dragged another.

The mountain range which they had hitherto had on their right curved too
much to the east, but fortunately it was cut through by a huge glacier,
the great highway to the Pole. They ascended the glacier and crossed a
small pass between great pillars of granite. Now they were surrounded by
lofty mountains. The ice was intersected by dangerous crevasses, and
only with the greatest caution and loss of time could they go round
them. A bird flew over their heads, probably a gull. What could he be
looking for here in the midst of the eternal ice?

One day three of the explorers were drawing their sledge while the
fourth was guiding the one drawn by the pony. Suddenly they saw the
animal disappear, actually swallowed up by the ice. A snow bridge had
given way under the weight of the pony, and the animal had fallen into a
crevasse 1000 feet deep. When they bent over the edge of the dark chasm
they could not hear a sound below. Fortunately the front cross-piece of
the sledge had come away, so that the sledge and man were left on the
brink of the chasm. If the precious provisions had gone down with the
horse into the bowels of the ice, Shackleton would have been obliged to
turn back.

Now left without assistance in dragging the sledges, they had to
struggle up the glacier between rocks and slates in which coal was
imbedded. On Christmas Day the temperature was down to-47 deg.--a fine
midsummer!

At length the four men had left all mountains behind, and now a plateau
country of nothing but snow-covered ice stretched before them. But still
the surface of the ice rose towards the heart of the South Polar
continent, and the singing headaches from which they suffered were a
consequence of the elevation. A flag on a bamboo pole was set up as a
landmark.

On January 7 and 8, 1909, they had to lie still in a hard snowstorm, and
the temperature fell to-69 deg. When such is the summer of the South Pole,
what must the winter be like? January 9 was the last day on their march
southwards. Without loads or sledges they hurried on and halted at 88 deg.
23' south latitude.

They were only 100 miles from the South Pole when they had to turn back
from want of provisions. They might have gone on and might have reached
the Pole, but they would never have come back.

The height was more than 10,000 feet above sea-level, and before them,
in the direction of the Pole, extended a boundless flat plateau of
inland ice. The Union Jack was hoisted and a record of their journey
deposited in a cylinder. Shackleton cast a last glance over the ice
towards the Pole, and, sore at heart, gave the order to retreat.

Happily he was able to follow his trail back and succeeded in reaching
his winter quarters, whence his vessel carried him home again in safety.

THE END

_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh_.

* * * * *

By Dr. SVEN HEDIN

TRANS-HIMALAYA

DISCOVERIES AND ADVENTURES IN TIBET

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Vols. I. and II. With 388 Illustrations and 10 Maps. 30s. net.

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as the world has rarely witnessed."

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of India's great northern water-parting will render it doubly
interesting."

_WESTMINSTER GAZETTE._--"It is certainly a wonderful story that Dr.
Hedin has to tell, and few journeys have called for more resource and
courage.... A work of great value from a geographical point of view, and
one which to the ordinary reader is full of interest."

* * * * *

OVERLAND TO INDIA

With 308 Illustrations and 2 Maps.

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most skilled observer, gifted with an inexhaustible appetite for hard
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library of travel as well as to the record of patient endurance of
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|Transcriber's Note: |
| |
|Illustrations, originally had a reference to '_facing page_', and have |
|now been placed as close as possible to their original positions. |
| |
|All maps carried an acknowledgement for _Emery Walker sc._ |
| |
|The following PLATE'S also carried acknowledgements. |
| |
|Plate I. BERLIN _Photo. The Photocrom Co._ |
|PLATE II. CONSTANTINOPLE _Photo. The Photocrom Co._ |
|PLATE XXIII. THE KREMLIN, MOSCOW _Photo. The Photocrom Co._ |
|PLATE XXIV. PARIS _Photo. The Photocrom Co._ |
|PLATE XXVI. THE COLLOSEUM, ROME. _Photo. Underwood and Underwood._ |
|PLATE XXVII. POMPEII. _Photo. Abteilung, Zurich._ |
|PLATE XXXIV. CANONS ON THE COLORADO RIVER. _Photo. Underwood and |
|Underwood._ |
|PLATE XXXIX. THE "FRAM". _Photo. The Record Press._ |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

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