MAWSON'S EXPEDITION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 282, 21 April 1913, Page 8

MAWSON'S EXPEDITION.

A NARROW SQUEAK

Tor Press Association,

Christchurch, Last Night. Mr. E. X. Webb, a son of Air. S. K. Webb, of Lyttelton, who was magnetician with the Mawson Antarctic expedition, in the course of an interview, stated that, with J, Hurley, photographer, he formed one of the party in charge of Lieutenant Bage, which was detailed to penetrate Adelie Land in the direction of the South Magnetic Pole area. The party travelled about ;;00 miles from the expedition's base, and at that point, which was some 50 or (iO miles from the Magnetic Pole, found that the magnetic dip obtained by a series of mathematically rigid observations was 89 degrees 43.3 minutes, or 16.7 minutes from the vertical. They obtained a chain of observations which were almost unique in respect to the South Magnetic Polar regions. They readied the extreme southerly point of latitude 70.30, longitude 148.14 east, and left on their return on December 21, 1012. They met with overcast weather, anil spoilt several days in a fruitless endeavor lo locate a depot 08 miles from the base. A dash was decided upon, and was undertaken on one-third rations. Ultimately they reached a depot live miles from the base, and their base hut. Webb said this was the nearest tiling to an ont-and-out disaster similar to Captain Scott's, and it was largely by pure luck that the party reached safety. The scientific results of the expedition, exclusive of the magnetic observations, are being continued by Lieutenant Bage. who, with nine others, remained at the base to search for Mawson, who. however, arrived shortly after the Aurora left the base. The magnetic field results obtained by Webb have been prepared for working up, and will be sent to the Carnegie Institute, which has undertaken to work them up. The observatory results are waiting to he taken over, to be worked, probably by Lord C'hree, of the Kew Observatory. 'Webb is not now a member of the expedition, and intends taking up civil engineering.