D R. MAWSON'S recent voyage into the antarctic world was one of the most remarkable from a scientific standpoint that has ever been made. He did not attempt to reach the pole; his aim was scientific research and he succeeded famously. The scientific importance of his discoveries make him one of the world's greatest explorers. But his own fight for life, written large in the book of the world's great deeds, will probably be his greatest monument, when all is said and done. Dr. Mawson was inoculated with the antarctic wanderlust when he accompanied Sir Ernest Shackelton's polar expedition in 1909. On his return to civilization, a professorship in Adelaide University could no longer hold himthe end of the world was calling. He was as restless as a polar bear during silk parasol days in the zoo. Slipping his Slipping his halter two years later, Dr. Mawson dashed back into the whitened silences of the South. And here this story begins. His ship, the Aurora, fought tremendous seas, plunged through hurricanes, battered ice-jams, and landed sixty men on the desolate lofty rocks of Macquarie Island. Dr. Mawson's expedition from here discovered land no human eye had ever seen. Yet just over the hill was Buckingham Palace-thanks to Marconi. By wireless Dr. Mawson obtained the King's consent to name the terrain King George V Land. The hut erected at winter quarters had only one door-reached by a winding entrance. The snow sometimes buried their dwelling deeply and despite the fire the windows gathered an inside. coating of ice five inches thick. The most magnetic refrigerator representative on earth could not have closed a single sale in King George V Land, no, not even on the installment plan with trading stamps. The inhabitants of its one lonely hut used a natural refrigerator in the ice. Here the seal meat was stored; the small entrance would scarcely admit a man. Promptly a process was perfected which solved the problem-at the present writing Washington has received no application for its patent right. A dog shoved through the small inlet would bolt out with a piece of meat; the chef then promptly pounced upon him and jerked away his toothsome treasure. (In operating a refrigerator of this kind. it is necessary to use a dog who would make his exit before dining.) The second winter all available reading matter had been carefully digested; so the men started to wade through the encyclopedia and cook book. Soon afterwards that little group, isolated from civilization, could have shamed a college faculty with their versatile information. Had you inquired of them about the pottery production in Cirenca, the lemon lily of Siberia, the distinguishing characteristics of Telemetacarpalia deer, the population of Ypsilanti, or the recipe for chocolate blanc-mange, they. could have told you before the wind, going at one hundred miles an hour, raced across the roof. Lieut. Ninnis, Dr. Mertz, and Sir Doug-, las then went on an exploring trip. "Watch out for this crevasse," Dr. Mawson, who was with the front sledge, shouted - back to his companions. Thinking they had heard him he continued for some time. trackless, wind-swept miles, stretched between them and the camp. Mertz and Dr. Mawson after waiting nine hours at the crevasse, started back to headquarters, racing with death. Hunger gnawed at their vitals and the specter of starvation lashed their minds. None of the small store of provisions could be spared for the dogs; they trudged faithfully at the sledge until starvation cut them down. The last one died upon SIR DOUGLAS MAWSON Looking back he His fight for life forms one of the most thrilling incimissed his rear com dents in the history of antarctic exploration. panion Ninnis. Sir Douglas and Mertz hurried to the crevasse-a few fragments of the sledge load and a dying dog on a shelf one hundred fifty feet down, below that darkness; presently the moans of the dog ceased. and the freezing vault was silent again forever. The sledge which had gone down carried most of their provisions-only ten days' supply of food remained. Three hundred eleven miles, New Year's Eve. While Broadway dined, wined, and noised the old year out the two explorers hunched over a little blue flame in a howling blizzard, and ate the last of Dr. Mawson's favorite dogGinger. "The poor chaps," remarked Sir Douglas, "dying of starvation, there was not much left of them besides hide and bones. The bones we crushed to get the marrow. "Most of the fuel too, had been lost with Ninnis' sledge. We held the dog meat over a blaze and partly charred, partly fried it-fuel was so scarce we ate the meat very raw. The sinewy dog's paws, half cooked were al most inedible. Later we found that the oil held out better than we had anticipated. So we boiled the dog meat; the paws cooked into a jellylike mass and were quite palatable." A grewsome sort of meal, that-but it meant life to the starving men. On January 3rd, 1913, Mertz, ex- . hausted, frost bitten, and starving, could no longer proceed on foot. Dr. Mawson hauled him on his sledge. Mertz suf fered acutely and grew delirious, Four days later he died from cold and hunger after being unconscious for twenty-four hours. Over his emaciated body the drifting snows erected a white tomb, and the Southland sealed. it with perpetual ice. "My first impulse after Mertz died", said Dr. Mawson, "was to wrap myself in my sleeping bag, go to sleep and forget it all. I finally determined to take at least my diaries to Aurora peak, about one hundred miles distant from the camp-there was a chance my records would be |