SOUTH POLAR EXPLORATIONS 



THREE expeditions, a British, a 

 Japanese, and a Norwegian, will 

 be struggling during the next 12 

 months to reach the South Pole. Un- 

 fortunately for scientific purposes, all 

 three are endeavoring to gain the goal 

 by practically the same route — from the 

 vicinity of Mount Erebus over the great 

 ice barrier, and then up over the great 

 inland plateau. This is the route dis- 

 covered by Scott and Shackleton, and 

 over which the latter gained a point 

 within' 97 miles of the Pole in 1909 (see 

 map on opposite page). 



The British expedition is led by Capt. 

 Robert F. Scott, of the Royal Navy, who 

 directed the very successful British party 

 of 1901-04. Two years were spent in 

 preparations for this last expedition, 

 which left England in June, 1910. The 

 party comprises 60 persons, including a 

 large number of scientists and scientific 

 assistants. They are provisioned for 

 three years, and are using as their head- 



quarters the same base that was occu- 

 pied by Scott, 1901-04, and by Shackle- 

 ton, 1908-09. 



The Terra Nova, which has recently 

 returned after landing Scott's sledge 

 parties, reports that Amundsen, the 

 leader of the Norwegian party, is also 

 camped near by. Amundsen, it will be 

 remembered, had been planning for sev- 

 eral years to reach the North Pole by 

 drifting across it. When he left Europe 

 on the Pram in 19 10, it was with 

 the announced intention of proceeding 

 around Cape Horn, thence up the Pa- 

 cific through Bering Strait into the Arc- 

 tic Ocean, where he was to allow his 

 ship to be frozen in the ice. He was 

 provisioned for five years, at the end of 

 which time he expected to have drifted 

 across the North Polar area and to be 

 freed in the vicinity of Iceland or Nor- 

 way. But from Madeira Amundsen 

 cabled that he had altered his plans and 

 would spend a year endeavoring to reach 



SEAL SUCKLING YOUNG AND TAKING NO NOTICE OF THE MOTOR CAR 



Photo taken on the Great Ice Barrier. Frorn E. H. Shackleton, "The Heart of the Antarctic," 



J. B. Lippincott Co. 



