ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE DEPARTURE.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11153, 20 December 1901, Page 5

ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE DEPARTURE.

The Discovery came out 0/ dock punctually at seven o'clock UsV «ve©uag, end there is every probability o! her sailing on Saturday afternoon. No tinae haa been, lost in replacing the plates on her stem, tod yesterday morning very few ol th« bolta remained undriyen. The steamer presented the usual busy scene, atorea being stowed, frames of timber, for the houses to be built on the ice and snow, being shipped,' and numerous rues made ol reindeer skin* being taken on board. The harmonium arrived yesterday afternoon. Amongst the favoured visitors yesterday wee Professor Scott. The Union Steam Ship Company will pub on the Botomahana and the Tβ Anaa to take, to the Heads excursionists who may wjbh U> see the Discovery , make her final departure on her important and interesting mission to the Antarctic regions. Any 1 other steamers that- cu\~b» spared will «v compam the Discovery.!© the Heads. The Cygnet has been' chartered by the Harbour Board to take the members to the Head* to-morrow. < In connection with the magnetic work of the expedition, it may be mentioned that the readings taken* daily between Simon's Bay and Lvtteiton reveal westerly errors in the Admiralty magnetio chart, supplied to mariner*, amounting in some places to 4 degrees. That is to say, fhab along a curve marked- "30 degrees west , ' variation, the true variation was found to be perhaps 34 degrees, so that a navigator relying on the chart would b« steering more than a third of a point off his oourse. It is to be remembered, though, that the Discovery's officers have only worked out these , items approximately, and the result* will not be definitely known until the hydrograpker in [London, to whom the observations have been forwarded, calculates the whole matter ac* i oorately. Aβ the last magnetio work in the area in question was done -in 1842, and the curves on the chart were merely figured out from the known northern movement of the south magnetic pole, it was quits expected that readings of good instruments, by the competent men on the Discovery, would show certain errors.