SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 66, 11 December 1907, Page 5

SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION.

THE TRIP TO THE SOUTHERN ISLANDS. (iiv OTO SrF.CIAI, COIinESPONDENT.) 111. After a stormy passage tho Hinemoa readied Camp Cove on the morning of Mon.diiy,, November 25. The Auckland Island party mustered at tho landing, and, as they, too, had not shaved and did not wear their store clothes, the Campbell Islanders, now shaved, and some even wearing collars, addressed them for their good, making it clear that they looked the most abandoned set of pirates ever seen on this earth. This the Auckland Island party did not seriously deny, possibly, because they recognised its truth; possibly because they wero too busy striking camp; They had had an excellent timeconsiderable bad weather it is true, but in the forest shelter this did not matter much. Thoir camp was all the time infested by blowflies, and these can give New Zealand blowflies points and beat them every time, 'l'he expression, "You be blowed," is said to have originated on Auckland Island, and to bo as malignant a curse as the Maori one, " May your head be boiled."

HARD WORK. , Here, as at Campbell Island, hard and practically unceasing work had been done by each .-division of the party—magnetic, biological, and geological. The . boat with . its :Crew of Stewart. Islanders had proved indispensible, and had enabled two living camps to be established—ono at the head of North ■Arm,, the other on Adam's Island. The higher peaks were ascended by the party, and careful observations, were made everywhere'. To all members, not only to the botanists, were the natural gardens, especially " Fairchild's garden," of'surpassing interest. Here the leading place is taken by the great pleurophyllums. Of trees the_rat'a predominates, and with it are associated many of tho plants that one finds with it in New' Zealand.

FEATURES OF THE FOREST. The great feature of the Auckland • Island forest, however, is that tho trees lean and their, branches touch the ground on 'the lower. side, taking root wherever ■they touch. Tho forest is, in fact, a rain forest modified by wind. Above the forest alnd . sometimes alternating with it . is dense scrub formed mainly by tho grass tree. ANIMAL LIFE. • The zoologists searched assiduously and with-special hope of finding archaic forms. Animal life is nore much richer than on -Campbell Island, and many interesting finds were made, although no very sensational discovery was achieved. Tho geologists discovered unmistakable evidenco of glacial action—therefore of a former elevation of the land, and evidenco was forthcoming also or a former great extension of land surface. ;/ REMAINS OF THE GRAFTON. ; Musgrave Harbour is the scene of the wreck of the Grafton, and to this .place an excursion was.mado. Some remains of the Grafton herself still.lie on tho stony beach, and tho walls of the stone and sod house that the castaways built can bo easily traced. Great as their hardships were they did not equal thoso of the Dundonald men, for the Grafton moil had their vessel to break up, :and .thoy got the fittings, including the galley stove, ashore. The adventurous voyage td.'Stowart Island in the ship's dinghy, however;-' ranks with the achievement of the Dundonald men in their trail coracle. • NORMAN INLET. ■ ■

:!,.\V))eh. all-.were again on the Hinemoa a start was made for tho Norman. Inlet depot, and- there the night was spent. 1 There would bo four hours.,to spend ashore in the morning, and few remained in bed when ilie first boat left tho-ship's side at 4 a.m. -At once everybody got to work, tho magnetic party to take observations amid a cloud of sandflies,' the 1 geologists to -reach, by a troublesome walk; an old moraine, the botanists and zoologists to explore tho forest. They found the tree-ferns that are tho most southorn tree-ferns in tho world. These belong to the Now Zealand fern Hemi'telia Smithin, but present some slight differences of habit. At' 8 o'clock all mustered oil the beach, most of the party wot from scrambling through damp scrub or from slipping from tho slimy boulders of tho stream, but, wot O'.- dry, ; all hungry. Tho anchor on deck, a start was again made, every inlet of tho coast being examined, and tho siren frequently sounding to make sweet music in tho 'ears of possible castaways. In Smith Sound the water was of a dull red colour; and tho biologists lost no time in getting buckets full of- it on deck for microscopical examination. Tho colour was found to'' be duo to the presence of minute organisms moving rapidly by means of tiny, lash-liko processes kiiown'as cilia. ' Leaving Smith Sound 'and steaming northwards, a couple of ©fin-back whales wero seen. .They passed about 400 yards from the steamer moving slowly and without concern. ■ ■

; SEA LIONS. In' the afternoon Port Ross was again .readied) and anchor was dropped off Enderby Island'. All made for tho beach to interview the sea-lions,. of which four wore, by special permission froni the Government, to be killed—two to furnish stuffed skins for 'tho Newtown Museum, two to furnish a skeleton,,a brain, and other preparations for the'incipient comparative anatomy museum at Victoria College. When the four, animals had been selected and killed —an incident not without special excitement—a start was made with skinning and other necessary. work. . For the rest of the afternoon a certain Professor might bo seen, surrounded by countless blow-flies, engaged in removing the flosh from .the bones of one of tho seals, aided in his task by one of the boatmen. Tho operators were in their shirt sleeves and worked "with arms to tho elbow red." When in tho evening thoy came down to the boat bringing the skeleton and dissections they dropped in for a good deal of chaff.

. . A FUNERAL. . Tho ship; moved .up to Erebus Cove as darkness fell, and anchored off the depot. Early jicxt day the trip to Disappointment Island'was begun, and that ovening was held the solemn funeral of Mr. Peters, the Dundoniild's mate, whose body we brought back to the Cove. A party, of four had landed at tho. depot that morning- to walk to-the Western coast... Among these were two tall Wollingtonians. In that thoy had plenty of walking - they had no cause for disappointment; in that the walking was hard and the weather wet th'ey had only what they had become accustomed to; but the real cause of lay in the fact that the thick, weather prevented their reaching the coast, as all view 1 was cut off by rain and mist,', and the loading spurs could not be recognised. The next day was Friday, and in the. aftornooiv the vessel would sail for tho Bluff. , A SEAL'S BRAIN. Early in the morning a start was made for the 'shore by all except the North Island Professor, who had set himself the task of getting out a seal's brain. This he accomplished amid the strangest surroundings in which dissection was ever made, boats being hoisted up and lowered again, water dripping ovor his work and instruments, mon scraping the ship's side and climbing over his improvised dissecting table, and all and sundry. making thoir edifying comments on tho proceedings. On shore, as usual, hard work was tlie order of the day, and all retired at two. o'clock eager for lunch, the more eager as it would probably be the last meal that.,several members of the party would dare to face before reaching tho Bluff.

ANCHOR WEIGHED. The castaways came aboard, tlie anchor was .weighed, the ship loft the harbour and headed for New, Zealand. The going was lively, and the fears of many that the lunch partaken of in Erebus Covo was the best they would make on tlio voyage were abundantly roalisod. The Bluff was reached next afternoon, and at once the port began to hum with news of tile castaways. Throughout the voyage Captain Bollons and his officers were most earnest collaborators in the work of the expedition.' It is certain that the scientific results 1 of the voyage are in large measure due to the unfailing and ready help that Captain Hollons gave at all times. On the.'voyage to the Bluff a collection was made for the bonefit of the castaways, with the result that £15 was placed in the care of the manager of the Sailors' Rest at the Bluff on their behalf,