CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12572, 6 August 1901, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

ANXAHCTICA.

hlr Henry ArctowskSSj, who was a member of the

scientific staff of the Belgica Antarctic expedition of 1897-9, react • an interesting paper on the trip before the Royal Geographical Society recently. In the course of his remarks M. Arctowski said that the object of the Belgian Expedition was not to pass the extreme points reached by • Ross and Weddell, but to achieve something new. For this reason the Belgica was equipped for scientific work. She left Staten Island on Jan. 14, 1898, and on Jan. 25 Hughes Gulf . was reached. The outlines of this gulf were but vaguely traced on the Admiralty chart, and the members of the expedition busied themselves in taking notes of tho details of the coast. The lands they visited were very mountainous, and tho mountains almost everywhere reached t]ja ! shores. The glaciers differed completely in appearance from tha Alpine andi -the Arctic glaciers. Tho terminal portion of the ice. stream, which had come to be regarded as characteristic of glaciers, was altogether absent. To their very extremities they were, in fact, included within . the region of accumulation of snow. Tha icebergs of tho Arctic regions were, in general, of very varied form, and usually of small dimensions. The Antarctic, on the other hand, was the region of immense tabular icebergs. The vessel proceeded south and finally became altogether immovable, on March 2, 1898. On May 17 the party saw the sun for the last time, and were condemned to one long night of two months. In the Antarctic regions, owing to th© climate, the disastrous effects of the polar night were far more marked than in the north. There was a general lowering of the system, and the heart acted feebly. Several of the explorers developed serious symptoms, and one man died. The sun re-appeared on July 23, and work was resumed. A way out of the roe pack had to be literally cut, and 1 the vessel finally escaped on March 15, ,1899. The expedition has shown that with a small vessel, provided only with a small .auxiliary engine, explorers could enter and remain in the pack with every confidence, and still more important, get out again a*id return home safe and sound. .

THE BRITISH EXPEDITION.

Before lie retired from thft

scientific staff of the Nar ticnal Antarctic Expedition,

Professor J. W. ..Gregory contributed to “Nature” an interesting account of the work before the explorers wh*i leave England this week in the Discovery* The operations ' are restricted to the tract 1 south of Australasia and the Pacific, the other half of the region being “worked”by the Swedish and German expeditions. This arrangement gives the Germans the chance of making the most striking goo graphical discoveries, while the British expedition should reap an especially rich harvest of scientific results. A, base station will be established in Southern Vic-: t.6ria Land, in the neighbourhood of Mounts Erebus and Terror, for magnetic work. and also for topographical exploration. The chief geographical problem, to be solved concerns the connection between discovered lands in the Antarctic. ... Geologically they belong to. the same .continent, but it is not known whether geographically they are still connected or whether „ they are parrs of a great archipelago. The explorers may also be able to decide, whether the New Zealand volcanic line is really connected with that of the Andes in South America, through Victoria Land and Graham Land, and if this« connection is proved, “ the unity of the great Pacific depression,” to quote Professor Gregory, “will bo established.” Pendulum observations and seismographic records will form another branch of the expedition’s work. The meteorological conditions of the region will of course be investigated, and both the heavens and the sea floor will bo diligently searched. A bucket-dredge will be used to collect' specimens from the depths of the sea. In the biological department, work will be confined chiefly to the fauna and flora of the Antarctic Ocean, for there is little life ashore. The geologists will have -a splendid field, for work, although naturally the conditions 1 are far from favourable. Besides searching for rocks and fossils, moreover, the exploring parties will investigate the nature of the ice sheet® and glaciers, inland and on the ocean rim. The region as a whole is described by Professor Gregory as scientifically .the “critical” part of the Antarctic. The local controversy con-

THE COST OF DRESSING.

cerning the cost of living will not be materially advanced by an entertaining article on

a woman’s dress bills, appearing in the “Pall Mall Magazine.” Its “modern instances” are altogether too elaborate for our .little circle, although its philosophy, embodied in the question and answer, “How much does a woman want to dress on?” “A little more than she has got,” is probably as applicable here as elsewhere Unable to lay down hard and fast rules, the writer sought two friends who had recently assumed matrimonial bonds, and inquired of them what had been paid for their trousseaux. The mother of the first girl had bought everything from one favoured French house, and the little bill ran up to something ever £IBOO. The other girl’s mother, bought: there, paid ready money, let her 'maid' make most of the lingerie, .and spent altogether under £250. XWa

is the same contrast between the prices of “ah'infant’s outfit,’’ running from £450 to £7'los. Such figures show how impossible it is to name a certain sum for a woman’s dress allowance. Many women in London spend annually thousands of pounds on their clothes, while others, in the same social rank, achieve equally satisfactory results with a judicious expenditure of £3OO or £4OO. “Writing as a simple-minded female,” says the “Pall Mali’s ” correspondent, with altogether becoming modesty, “I should! say that £SOO or £6OO is a very ample allowance and she adds, with charming altruism, that “ considering the poverty and misery of the metropolis, to say nothing of personal and private claims on one’s charity, £250 or £3OO is more than sufficient to waste on personal adornment.” Fashionable women, she relates,'are greatly encouraged to dress extravagantly by the gilded youths of smart society, one of whom lately remarked that he liked to “trot his women-folk out properly girthed: up, and new from head to foot.” It is a mistake to suppose that this kind of man: does not encourage extravagance in dress, for as a woman recently observed! with some pertinence, “It is only husbands who don’t notice things, and as t&ey are interested beings they, don’t count.”