THE RETURN OF THE AURORA.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14308, 20 March 1912, Page 9

THE RETURN OF THE AURORA.

There is no mention in the reports to hand of the Aurora having been nearly wrecked at tho Macquaries. It is stated, however, that on Christmas Day the vessel dragged her anchor to sea, and proceeded South. A message from Hobart to the Sydney " Daily Telegraph " last week said:—The Antarctic exploring ship Aurora has arrived back somewhat unexpectedly from tho polar regions. Captain Davis, when interviewed, said they; found the pack ice had considerably increased, and in every instance it extended further north than whon Captain Wilks (of the United States expedition) was there in 1840, and d'Urville's French expedition (1838) was thore, both of which got farther south in every direction beforo meeting the pack than the Aurora did. As instances of what was taking place there, Captain Davis mentioned that d'Urville discovered land which he named Clarie Land, and it was described by him. It was marked on Captain Davis's chart, but it could not bo located. As a matter of fact, they sailed over where it was supposed to be, and sounded on top of it. Then again, Wilkes discovered Capo Carr, but that had also disappeared, for Captain Davis sailed over it, and sounded there. Those were two very interesting points that were mado. They could not find any trace of other marked land, with the exception of what was known as Termination Land, and here again a strange thing happened. There were two expeditions, known as the Challenger and the Serman, both of which were close down there. In fact, the Serman was within 13 miles of where they expected to find Termination Land, and they returned and reported being unable to find it. Captain Davis, coming west about, found itThe captain of the Aurora was satisfied that recession was taking place in the Antarctic, and that tho permanent ice was constantly being pushed farther and farther out to 6_ea; that there was a greater accumulation of ice, and that it was still going on. He found it out as far as 180 miles from land. It was also apparent that very little melting was going on in summer. He had never seen such a mass of consolidated bergs, and they were of different character altogether from what wero fou,nd in Ross Sea. They apparently did not melt at all. Conditions down there were generally much more severe on that coast than they used to be, as the Aurora found heavy, vast iioo ice at the end of February, which was tho time of year when it ought to be broken up, and it did not look as if it were going to break up by the end of the year. If the Terra Nova had got caught in that floe she would have had to spend the winter there. They were close to the same place whero the Gauss (1902 German expedition) got caught ; n a blizzard, being unable to see their hands before them, and beforo they could do anything the ship was fast.