OBJECTS OF THE EXPEDITION

Evening Post, Volume LXXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1913, Page 7

OBJECTS OF THE EXPEDITION

Dr. Mawson was one of the members of the Shackloton expedition, and to him, Professor David, and Dr. Mackay belongs the honour of being the first to reach the magnetic pole. His present enterprise has been subsidised by various Australian States and the British Government— the latter gave £2000. Tho special object of the expedition was to investigate the coast region between Cape Adare and the GaUssberg, about 2000 miles, a plan modified as regards the former point by the landing there of Lieutenant Campbell's party. Dr. Mawson had no intention of making any attempt on the geographical pole, but hoped to reach tho magnetic pole and- to

carry on magnetic observations, a valuable equipment for which was lent by the Carnegie Institute of Washington. One of the moat fascinating possibilities of the expedition lay in the fact that it was expected that evidence would be collected tending to show that Australia was once united through the Antarctic continent with South America. It is a theory which is strongly held by many scientific men, and proof of this union, between the far western continent and the far eastern would be one of the most remarkable of the many romances of science. According to Dr. Mawson, Dr. Mertz, zoologist, was also a champion Swiss ice man, while Lieutenant B. E. g. Ninnis, of the Royal Fusiliers, was a specialist in field survey work and sketching, as well as a specially good sledger.