MAWSON EXPEDITION

Evening Star, Issue 15344, 19 November 1913, Page 8

MAWSON EXPEDITION

NEWS BY WIRELESS. ALL W 7 ELL. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright. SYDNEY, November 18. Dr Mawson has sent a wireless message from Adclie Land stating that tho first penguins of the season arrived on October 17 They killed a large sea leopard at tho end of September, which landed immediately in front of the. house. A heavy southerly swell on October 19 indicated that the pack-ice outside tho bay had broken, and that the. ice in Commonwealth Bay had thawed. The winter experienced was unusually severe, and there wetv heavy snowfalls in spring. They were only now beginning to recover tho stores which .tud been buried under the huge masses of snow. This had caused some inconvenience.

They had been able to send time, signals to Melbourne Observatory, which had enabled the longitude to lie obtained very exactly. They had also made auroral observations, and secured valuable information regarding the aurora. All the members were well, but were anxious to return. Dr Mawson expressed his deepest thanks for Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth's gilt of £I,OOO to the expedition. _ Tho greatest need, Dr Mawson explains, is a month'.; silence in regard to w'ireless communication. Tho wireless operators havo much impeded the Antarctica Aurora —a tact which is quite new to science. THE AURORA". LEAVES HOBART TO-DAY. WIRELESS WEATHER STATIONS. SYDNEY, November 19. (Received November 19, at 9.25 a.m.) Tho Aia-ora departs from Hobart for Antarctica to-day. She takes a. meteorologist .and two wireless operators to man tho. permanent wireless weather stations which tho Federal Government havo undertaken to maintain in view of the groat value of the. daily weather data j;<>nt bv wireless to tho Melbourne Observatory. It is considered probable that Adelaide will be- tho Aurora's first port of call on reluming from tho Antarctic.