South Pole

“ I had better be honest and admit straight out that I have never known any man to be placed in such a diametrically opposite position to the goal of his desires as I was at that moment. The regions around the North Pole — well, yes, the North Pole itself — had attracted me from childhood, and here I was at the South Pole. Can anything more topsy-turvy be imagined? ”

“ I cannot say how glad I felt that my journey through the axis of the earth occurred at that period of the year when the current set from the south to the north. The prospect of safety if I were to be discharged from the south pole, would be slight indeed; but familiarity with the writings of various explorers in the Arctic regions gave me the very natural feeling that I should be in a measure at home in that part of the world. ”

“ Because I am soon to start on my own expedition towards the South Pole I am particularly interested in a letter Maury wrote under date of August 20, 1860,viii in which he said: “I have reason to believe that there is, about the South Pole, a comparatively mild climate. The unexplored regions there embrace an area equal in extent to about one-sixth of all the known land on the surface of the earth. ”

“ Let us follow the narrow sledge-tracks that the little black dots of dogs and men have drawn across the endless white surface down there in the South -- like a railroad of exploration into the heart of the unknown. The wind in its everlasting flight sweeps over these tracks in the desert of snow. Soon all will be blotted out.
But the rails of science are laid; our knowledge is richer than before. ”

“ It is strange, too, that, when you are in the far north, you do not look towards the south until the north turns an iron hand upon you and refuses the hospitality of food and fire; your eyes are drawn towards the Pole by that charm—deadly and beautiful—for which men have given up three points of the compass, with their pleasures and ease, to seek a grave solitude, broken only by the beat of a musk-ox’s hoofs, the long breath of the caribou, or the wild cry of the puma. ”

“ The Mystery of the South Pole—Ignored by Early Navigators—An Accidental Dutch Discovery—Captain Cook Sets Sail—Discouraged by the Ice—Turns Back in Despair—A Second Accidental Discovery—Weddell breaks the Barrier—Antarctic Land revealed—British resume the Search.
While the desire to penetrate into the mysteries of the North held the mind of mankind from the earliest times, the very existence of a similar world of ice, at the opposite pole, was undreamed of until a few centuries back. ”

“ I give this Hint to encourage our South Sea Company, or others, to go upon some Discovery that way, where for ought we know they may find a better Country than any yet discover’d, there being a vast Surface of the Sea from the Equinox to the South Pole, of at least 2000 Leagues in Longitude that has hitherto been little regarded, tho it be agreeable to Reason, that there must be a Body of Land about the South Pole, to counterpoise those vast Countries about the North Pole. ”

“ Icebergs float much further into the warm sea on this side of the equator before they dissolve. The South Pole is evidently a more thorough refrigerator than the North. Why is this? We shall soon see. We push through pack-ice, and through floes and fields, by lofty bergs, by an island or two covered with penguins, until there lies before us a long range of mountains, nine or ten thousand feet in height, and all clad in eternal snow. That is a portion of the Southern Continent. ”

“ The test of the weird-looking contrivance was made on a day in early spring, when, as far as the eye could reach, a great solid sea of ice spread to the northward, and to the south only a vast expanse of snowy level was visible,—with far in the distance the outlines of some mountains which, in Captain Hazzard's belief, guarded the plateau on the summit of which perhaps lay the South Pole. ”

“ Wegener’s reconstruction of the geography of this period places the south pole a little to the south-east of South Africa, surrounded by a great continent composed of the junction of Africa, South America, Antarctica, Australia, and an extended Deccan added to by smoothing out the folds of the Himalayas. This great circumpolar continent he considers to have been the site of an immense ice-cap. The North Pole lay in the Pacific Ocean, so that almost all the remaining land areas enjoyed temperate or tropical climates. ”

“ And every day Professor Gaston took a new observation. Every day he declared that they were growing nearer the Pole.
“I have a great curiosity,” he declared. “You know it is a commonly accepted belief that the region about the South Pole is very open and warm. That in fact ice does not exist there at all!”
“I believe that is true,” declared Frank. “The most extensive volcanic region in the world, I believe, lies adjacent to the South Pole.” ”

“ In the mean time longer, but more successful, voyages were made towards the South pole. There we do not find the same commingling of land and sea, ice and tempestuous thaws, that make up the great horror of Greenland. There is a boundless sea of immense and mighty waves, and a glacier far more extensive than ours of the North. ”

“ From your verbal statement I learn that Helmer Hanssen and Bjaaland walked four geographical miles from Polheim in the direction taken to be south on the basis of the observations. On the chart the letters efgh give the field within which the termination of their line of route must lie. It will be seen from this that they passed the South Pole at a distance which, on the one hand, can hardly have been so great as two and a half kilometres, and on the other, hardly so great as two kilometres ”

“ The North Pole is supposed to be cool enough for anybody who hates to go to sleep in an overheated bedroom; but it has been shown to be a depression in the earth’s crust filled with ice, and it [Pg 4] therefore does not mount far above sea level, while the South Pole, aside from lacking the sun’s comforting perpendicular rays, reaches besides so high up in the atmospheric layers as to preclude all possibility of the prevalence of hot birds. Cold bottles are about the only means of enjoyment which the tourists, thirsting for amusement, find there at their disposal. ”

“ The average layman will probably consider the first of these conditions, the extreme cold, as the most serious. As a matter of fact, the second is the most vital, and is the one which has caused the discovery of the north pole to drag along through hundreds of years, while the south pole was attained twice within thirteen years after the first sledge-journey in that region. ”

“ For when the sun and moon are in the same meridian, and pass over the mass of waters lying east from Van Diemen’s Land, New Zealand, and the South Pole, the resulting force of their combined attraction, penetrating to the abyss of the deep and boundless circuit of the Southern Ocean, raises a vast wave or ridge of water, which tends to follow the luminaries to the north and west, and continues to flow in that direction long after the bodies cease to act upon it ”

“ From the specimens of rock brought home by Roald Amundsen's expedition it is established that the plateau of foundation rocks is continued eastward to Amundsen's route to the South Pole, and that King Edward VII. Land is probably a northern continuation, on the eastern side of Ross Sea, of the foundation rock plateau of South Victoria Land. ”

“ Theoretically it is convenient to define the Polar Regions as those areas that lie round about the North Pole and round about the South Pole, within the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, which are defined by being those circles of latitude where the sun on midwinter-day does not rise and where on midsummer-day it does not set. ”

“ All the while as he went about the country holding his little exhibits of the tip of the planet we could not help wishing, many of us who were in the Audience, that this man who sat there before us, the man who had the Thing in his hand, who had collected the North Pole, would not notice us, would snub us if need be a little, and would leave these people, these millions of people, with their heads up and go quietly on to the South Pole and collect that. ”

“ As the return voyage occupied several days, the engineers had a good opportunity for obtaining from the passengers much interesting information concerning the past history and present condition of the southern hemisphere. In both physical structure and configuration the northern and southern portions of the planet are very similar; a great polar continent, with many islands off the coast, being the leading feature common to both. The south pole itself is situated in the middle of a very wide and fertile valley, surrounded on all sides by gently sloping hills. ”

“ Looking forward to this certain materialization, it is a source of satisfaction that the two last great physical adventures, the winning of the North Pole and the South Pole,—the feats which clinched and made complete man’s conquest of the globe,—were accomplished without the aid of such modern devices and inventions. ”

“ There is a great deal of land in the north, while the unbroken ocean seas stretch away from the South Pole for hundreds and thousands of miles in every direction and the prodigious masses and mountains of ice make it impossible to get anywhere near it. ”

“ They resolved to hold on their course, due south, till they either reached land or the South Pole itself.
On the ninth day after their emergence they sighted land. The country was evidently mountainous; overhead, the cloudy screen continued unbroken, and seemingly 121at the same elevation as in the north. Soon the ship was near enough to the shore for the crew to be able to discern unmistakable signs of life; and, on rounding a headland, a city of moderate size came into view. The style of the buildings was in no way different from that which was familiar to them at home. ”

“ The excessive cold, the many islands and vast floats of ice, all tend to prove that there must be land to the south; and for my persuasion that this southern land must lie, or extend, farthest to the north opposite to the southern Atlantic and Indian oceans, I have already assigned some reasons; to which I may add the greater degree of cold experienced by us in these seas, than in the southern Pacific ocean under the same parallels of latitude. ”

“ Since my origination of that departure, Nansen has crossed Greenland; Conway has crossed Spitzbergen; and if our present idea of conditions in the Antarctic be correct, it is entirely within the possibilities, that the conqueror of the South Pole will achieve success by adopting my methods and equipment.”—Peary in “Northward Over the Great Ice,” 1898, Vol. I, page lvii.
“The North Pole is reached.”
In a flash the news spread over the world. The goal of which so many had dreamed, for which so many had labored and suffered and sacrificed their lives, was attained. ”

“ But the thirst for knowledge and the love of adventure and exploration where no financial reward can be expected is creditable to humanity, and shows that the love of knowledge is sometimes above that of sordid gain. The struggle for two centuries has been to reach the North Pole, and it has been approached as near as 700 miles; but recent reports indicate that conditions are more favorable for reaching the South Pole; and a French expedition outfitted this year for the North Pole have changed their destination to the South Pole. One or both poles are likely to be discovered in a few years. ”

“ After all, we have given our lives for our country—we have actually made the longest journey on record, and we have been the first Englishmen at the South Pole.
You must understand that it is too cold to write much. ”

“ The inhabitants of those countries, however, situated on the southern hemisphere, have at that time short days and long nights. But when the time comes that there is six months' night on the north pole and six months' day on the south pole, then will the inhabitants of the southern hemisphere have long days, and we long nights. ”

“ It is quite evident to me that most of these animals belong to races that no longer exist among us, and that this world at the South Pole has many characteristics which are like those of what is known as the Coal Period. ”

“ It was the members of the society cheering Stephen Janess.
This is the first of a group of three famous "Polaris" stories. The next of the trilogy is "Minos of Sardanes."
[1] The South Pole was actually discovered by Roald Amundsen in 1911, a fact which the editors feel it is necessary to mention in deference to the great explorer. The discrepancy need not detract from the value of the great fantasy of the snow-country. ”

“ We are on our way to the South.
This first inland trip on the Barrier was undeniably exciting. The ground was absolutely unknown, and our outfit untried. What kind of country should we have to deal with? Would it continue in this boundless plain without hindrance of any kind? Or would Nature present insurmountable difficulties? Were we right in supposing that dogs were the best means of transport in these regions, or should we have done better to take reindeer, ponies, motor-cars, aeroplanes, or anything else? We went forward at a rattling pace; the going was perfect. ”

“ "Now when I was a little chap I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration. At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that) I would put my finger on it and say, 'When I grow up I will go there.' The North Pole was one of these places, I remember. Well, I haven't been there yet, and shall not try now. The glamour's off. ”