RETURN OF THE DISCOVERY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 250, 19 October 1904, Page 9

RETURN OF THE DISCOVERY.

ENGLANTTS WELCOME TO THE EXPLORER*. PROMOTION' AND MEDALS. (From Our Special Correspondent.) LONDON, September 18. Looking as trim ami taut as on the day when, three years back. >be =ignaV.ed good-bye to Old England. t\o good s-hip Discovery sailed into Port - nioiiih on Saturday. It was hard to icxVt-.c that Uie little vessel had spent two winters locked in the icy grip of the wild Antarctic. Her deck* and fitting* were spotless, from stem to stern the was as "tidy' its a man-of-war, nor was there :i trace of hardship in the bronzed and healthy faces Cf her officers and trow. Nothing in (he *hape of a public! reception at Portsmouth Harbour had been arranged, and the Discovery ran alongside the jetty with none to welcome her ;t few personal friends of tin- expedition, and a group of pressmen and photographer-. Doubtless those on ! hoard wen- not sorry to avoid the. en- ! forced restraint of ;> public ceremony in I the. joy of homecoming. There wen; I somn touching j-ciMie-; of reunion as longI parted relative* s-uw each other face to fare again, and the absence of i-heering crowds and waving llajjw was more than compensated in the warmth of private and personal greetings. Admiral Sir Clements Markham. the ieading spirit in the despatch of the expedition. was present to welcome it home, and the Kirnr sent a telegram congratulating Commander fcjeott and his gallant band on their *ai> return. When the Discovery was made fast at the jcttv. Captain Scott exchanged a. tew words with the pressmen, though. there were many tail-- upon his time. As michT have be*-n untieipnted. he told Ithem ho had "nothing fresh to .-ay." All the officer* and men were in excellent health, he remarked, and the voyage ! Home had been a good one. 1 hough rather slow. An invitation to inspect the ship and talk to the men was thru issued. Inquiries among officers ailfl men evoked nothiajr but the highest praisr tor Captain Scott, who had sue- ! ceeded in making the Discovery a tlboroughly happy ship, General eoniplatnl, however, was made about the provision's supplied from Home. "I attribute our pood health -oleiy to the fact that we let these provisions alone and lived upon seal-/ -aid one officer: "the scurvy teamed as soon a-, we did this, and it never broke out alter." When the Discovery touched at the Azores on her Homeward voyage the Prince of Monaco (went aboard and displayed much interest in the specimens she is bringing Home. These include the Emperor ]>enL'lun and other rare Arctic birds and their eggs; geological and other spectrins, and a large number of photoI graphs of Antarctic scenes, some of which were taken by moonlight. Dr. Wilson has also completed a set of coloured drawing of the parhelions which were observed when the sun rose, and which gave very beautiful prismatic effect-. All the Siberian dogs taken out by the DUeovery died, but four were bred from them, and are now aboard the ship. -In an interview -with Reuters repiesentative. Captain Scott said: "There i≤ not much that is new for mc to tell vim, and any extensive details of our ' work must wait until the approaching ' mt'OtitlJJ in London. The two primary objects of the expedition, according to my instructions, were magnetic work and geographical discovery. As far as the [ [magnetic work is concerned, the va=i ' amount of data we have obtained will 1 take a long time to work out. The I geographical results are pretty Avell [■ known. As to the scientific otitcome of what has been done, that it will ! i prove valuable, but" to' what extent it iis impossible to say until our data havo I haVfi been carefully analysed, a work [[which must necessarily take a long tiaje. Rut with regard to Antarctic research, there is very much yet to accomplish in „ j the future, and what has already been i done can only be described as a scratch "ion the ice. On the return journey from , I New Zealand the Discovery was able to '. ! obtain some interesting soundings in j I the South Pacific, and we proved that . j Dougherty Island . docs not oxist. All .(the members of the expedition/ contms ued Captain Scott, "worked well together, and the behaviour of everyone 'I was all that could be desired. I have not one word to say against the conduct t of anyone .from stirt to finish.*' Captain Scott added that he had no plan for any further expeditionary work, s The first public reception of the Di*- » eovery expedition took place on Tues- ■• day evening, when Captain .Scott and I his officer-"and crew were entertained ■J at a banquet in the Town Hall by th* " I Mayor of Portsmouth. Congratulatory f speeches were made by the Mayor. Sir n Clements Markham. Rent-Admiral Ilen- ;- (lpr« t on. and Mr Arthur Lee. M.F.. and .- Captain Scott received a great ovation, s on rising to reply. s After a -tift" battle with the wind on a Thursday morning the Discovery round- <• ed the Nor u h Foreland and steamed t up the Thames to the East India Dock, d In the evening Captain Scott and his ■- officers were entertained to dinner by y the Royal Geographical Society at the. g Criterion Restaurant. The president, g Sir Clement? Markham, in proposing the S health of the commander of the ex1. pedition. said he was sure Captain Scott c and his officers would wish him to mene lion the hospitality and invaluable ejhelp they had received from the colony kj or Now Zealand and elsewhere. Captain I- Sr-ott. in the eour«p of hi? reply, said c the Discovery"* detention in The Antg'.arctic for a second winter was extrenro|ly fortunate, though it did not appear cI to be so at the time. It had oftpn t astonished him since to think of the t number of ial-e iniDressiops in regard d to matters of detail that they would have come home with, and the number 15 of unobserved facts thai would have c been omitted. It was to the second wine- tev. that they owed any measurement y of the movement o£ the ice in those r- parts. They would have missed the? it great discovery of the fossil: they would ie have nti.-'SPd the irreat biological eollee--3 tion which Mr Hodgson continued tr> s make: and they would have missed .a knowledge of the interior of Victoria. cl .Land beyond the imme:lintr> mountains, i-I Moreover, they would have missed fwo j, i consecutive years of ir.rtoorolMjjii.-al and i, magnKie observations. Although it I caused them considerable anxiety and j .aunoyancc to stop behind, yet Ii« eouWl ." i never look upon the circumsiances as l " anything but a blessing in disguise Captain Scott. who held the rank of n Commander in the Royal Navy, has been s > promoted to the rank of Captain, in. s ' recognition of his ses-vie.es in the Antn arctic, and the King has also honoured i-Jbim. with * summons to Balmoral,