NEW VOYAGE OF THE DISCOVERY

Evening Star, Issue 20310, 19 October 1929, Page 12

NEW VOYAGE OF THE DISCOVERY

SIR 0. MAWSON'S EXPEDITION .: PROBLEMS OF ANTARCTICA Sir Douglas Mawson’s new expedition in the Discovery is expected to leave Cape Town to-day for the Antarctic. ; The expedition has been made possible by financial grants from the British. Australian, and New Zealand Governments,, together with a generous gift of £IO,OOO from a prominent Australian: chocolate manufacturer, Mr Macßobertson. It has been estimated that the total ; charges for the expedition: will be £40,0(X). . An article in a recent London ‘Observer ’ states that although there has been a little doubt as to whether the full programme will bo carried out, the plans are for a two years’ voyage. This means that the Discovery, calling at Kerguelen Island, will reach Antarctic shores iu November, and then for the summer months of December and January will carry out the investigations of the first vear, at the end of which the vessel will proceed to either Melbourne or Hobart. If a second season’s work is carried out the vessel will probably return for the same periods, and the destination of the vessel after the season’s work is at present uncertain. Sir Douglas Mawson’s statement, on his arrival at Cape Town, was that the vessel would make two summer cruises through the Antarctic Circle, up to Australia, before she was imprisoned in the ice.

The bbiecfcs of the expedition arc various. In the first place there is a large section of Antarctica still unexplored and unmapped. The portion around which it is expected the Discovery will proceed has, in fact, not been observed .since the voyage of Bisooe over 100 years ago. Sir Edgeworth David—the first niau to reach the South Magnetic Pole (in 1009) —lias stated that from the scientific standpoint the outstanding problem is geographical.' It is to determine whether the great range known as the Antarctic Horst continues until it reaches the highlands of the eastern shore of the Weddell Sea or diverges to the left so as to leave Weddell Sea on its right and pass into the Antarctic Andes on the west of Graham’s Land. METEOROLOGICAL PROBLEMS. The Antarctic Andes are recognised to be a continuation of the South American Andes, but the rocks characteristic of the Antarctic Horst are not of volcanic lavas and other indigenous material like the South American Andes, but consist mainly of sandstones, i shales, limestones, and coal seams. A fact not generally recognised is that the Antarctic Horst, which at Mount Nilson rises to 15,500 ft, forms the rim of the great island plateau which, even at the South Pole itself, is 10,000 ft high. Second to _ the geographical problem is the question of meteorology. The actual relation between the stato of sea ice in the Antarctic—“ the greatest refrigerator in the world ” —and Australian weather remains to be determined, but it is interesting to note that a member of the Bruce Expedition concluded that from the date of early melting of ice in the Weddell Sea if. was possible to say whether winter rains would he heavy or light in the southern part of Chili. The importance to an agricultural country like Australia of being able to provide a

long-range forecast from meteorological observations in the Antarctic is obvious. One great advantage would lio in being able to say whether or not fodder conservation should be practised in respect of stock. It is probable, too, that these observations may throw light on the incidence of hurricanes in the dangerous Australian Bight. ' The economic possibilities of Antarctica have never yet been tested. The nature and quantities of fish and other marine life still remain to be determined. A British firm, Messrs Irvine

and Johnston, are conducting _ whaling and sealing from South Africa, and further south from Kerguelen Island, and various Norwegian firms have in recent years made immense profits from their whaling expeditions. There are, however, many gaps to be filled in our knowledge of the marine life of Antarctica. MINERAL WEALTH. Apart from the harvest of the sea, Sir Douglas Mawson, the leader of the present expedition, considers that there are real grounds for believing that mineral deposits may be located in payable quantities.

Sir Douglas Mawson likens the present attitude of people to the Antarctic to that of former generations towards Alaska— a frozen waste. Yet after the United States Geological Survey Party had visited Alaska, and gold was found, the land proved an unexpected source of enormous wealth. The question is whether this will happen in Antarctica, and the only way to answer the question is to search.

Apart from the above-mentioned objectives, there is a mass of less popular features' which form the necessary

groundwork or basis of scientific development. Among these are the preliminary survey of coastline and altitudes which can be expedited so wonderfully by aerial photography; the study of temperature and 7 salinity of sea water at different depths, of the nature of the ooze at the sea bottom; of the typfes of marine life of the smallest size—plankton, which are the food supply of fishes. For all those objectives the Discovery has been equipped. For the geographical work all surveying and sounding gear lias been included in the ship’s equipment.

Tiie wonderful echo sounder from the time taken for a detonation produced electrically at the ship’s keel to travel to the sea bottom and back to a diaphragm, also on the ship’s bottom, automatically records the .depth of the ocean. This instrument, in case of accident or breakdown, is supplemented by the Lucas sounding gear, with its thousand-ton weights and fire miles of piano wire. Meteorology demands not only to know the speed of the hurricane by the hand anemometer, but by balloon observation : and puffs of smoke, the veriest zephyr can be noted both 1 in direction and velocity. The photometer will give data regarding the nature of the sun’s radiation, while a dust mole counter will record the clearness of Antarctic atmospheres. Those more familiar instruments—the recording barometer and barograph, and recording thermometer or thermograph, will write their records of Antarctica as the Discovery sails onwards. . FISHING TESTS. The economic possibilities of the seas will be determined directly by the huge Otter and Mpnagasque trawls winch-ax'© to be worked from the great new trawl winch carried by, the Discovery. This will bo the direct test of fishing. The indirect test will be ,by the observation made with the varied sizes of smaller nets, some as fragile and delicate as a hair net, and others almost as thick as the heavy trawls. So from the tiniest plankton to the largest sea elephant,- the Discovery should collect them all. Then will be the task of sorting out into those ijxousands of bottles and jars—of all sizes and shapes. For bigger specimens there are specially enamelled lined tanks and barrels, so that specimens of all kinds can be returned for examination in British and Austraian marine biological laboratories. The results of such an expedition arc not completed until many months after the vessel has returned to civilisation. Complete as-the-chemical and biological laboratory is on board the Discovery, the scientists cannot carry out in the rough conditions of sea life the intricate examinations • that are required. And in the matter of mineral possibilities, the land parties, whicli may be absent from the ship for a day or so at a time, have their sledges, their geological gear and cameras. And in the laboratory there are the fluxes, the acids, the microscopes, which can facilitate the identification of minerals and metals. In the work of charting, the aerial photography is made possible by the De Havilland Moth aeroplane carried amidships, and fitted with wheels, or skids, for the ice, or floats to land on the surface of the water. In fact, should it be necessary, the Discovery is so fitted as to allow the Moth to be catapulted from the side of the vessel. Should the Moth be forced down, the small and powerful wireless set she carries is not put out of order, for the wind drive can be removed, and a layman, by turning a handle, can churn out messages which- are determined by small discs. This automatic generator is, in fact, one of the latest things of its kind. The large and powerful Marconi wireless set on the Discovery, together with its direction finder, enables the vessel to keep in touch not only with the aeroplane but with the whole outside world—a great advance from the old days when, a vessel went out into the darkness of the Antarctic one knew not whither. Of the ship’s stores it is unnecessary to talk except to say that, as with ail experienced explorers, enough has been taken to last, if need be, through the rigours of an Antarctic “freeze-in.” Most of the ship’s provisions have been presented by English firms.