THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



415 



Route followed by E. FI. Shackleton, 1908-1909. 



Amundsen to state that the explorer 

 reached the pole on December 14, and 

 remained there for three days. The 

 sun was bright, and observations were 

 carefully made with the sextant and 

 artificial horizon. The great snow 

 plane elevated more than 10,000 feet 

 above the sea was named King Haakon 

 Plateau, though it may be that priority 

 should be given to the name of King 

 Edward VII. Land, as the plateau ex- 

 tends to the point within ninety-seven 

 miles of the pole reached by Lieutenant 

 Shackleton on January 9, 1909. The 

 Fram, made famous by Dr. Nansen 's 

 expeditions, reached the Bay of Wales, 

 south of New Zealand at a latitude of 

 78 degrees and 40 minutes on January 

 14 of last year. There it was seen by 

 the Terra Nova of Captain Scott's ex- 

 pedition, and news was thus first given 



to the world of Captain Amundsen 's 

 plans. 



The trip to the pole was begun on 

 October 20 and proceeded without no- 

 ticeable event at the rate of twenty 

 miles a day. The general course can 

 be traced on the maps, showing the 

 course of previous expeditions, repro- 

 duced here by courtesy of the American 

 Museum of Natural History. The cold 

 and blizzards were a serious hindrance, 

 but not so bad as traveling over the 

 floating ice floes in the north without 

 the possibility of establishing depots 

 for food and being assured of a return 

 by the same route. The great ice plane 

 without a trace of life appeals to the 

 imagination, but traversing it has prob- 

 ably not added considerably to our 

 scientific knowledge, and there does i^ot 

 seem to be much likelihood of economic 



