MAWSON EXPEDITION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1492, 15 July 1912, Page 5

MAWSON EXPEDITION.

. SOME STRA.V ANECDOTESDISCOVERS Hop WHALES. f AVIIAT TIIP.VIO'n,M WILL SHOW. Mr. Conrad 0. Kilel, sonu'time of tho stull of (Ik- Syc'.ney "Daily 'JV'lej!ra])hr but now weret; .ry o f Uiu Austialusian .Antarctic lixpcuiUon, is in "WvJHnstou «l , Mr. Jiitel ://. not an exploring member of the vxpt-AMk,,,, urn! ho has not been lurthw soiiUi W ith Cγ. Miiwr-un and his party than the Maciiuuvio Islands which arc the rei /dezvous of tiio expedition, lie went witl, the party in the diarUrod slciuner I toroa, which took sonic 17 of the \Z'!!ZT fi ml a an «ty of stores lo MipII einci I, those carried by the. expedition Ifl'ace Aui ' v - a - to tl>» fl' meeting\\Mr A inm «l''afe bushiew on hand in f'mn at Present is (he developing 'H WOO icel; O f Uiucinatogi-aph lilui tukeil '>.f.uwi expedition kinematograplier, Mr. I iimujwr,, who has already something of ■i lfCKi-u as nn jutrepjj pjctuTO man. 110 : ln?i' Kl - 1 , 1 . BirtlM > the Australasian overMim eye ist, on one of his crops-continent nn T.' , wllon lhe P aH - v wcr<! attacked- by ?hi, *■ ,''■ , worked his inaciinae, until tho natives were within 20 3/» vs ot him, and n serious spear wound ~; 'T' 1 ">' Olle of the party was pood <■" fmgh "(ividciico that, the blacks were in <jf miest In tho present ease it has turn--1 k out that the development of tho Ant- • fretic film was about as trying a piece of i woi-k as the capturing of it. .Mr. Eitel l< Mid. a Dominion reporter last evening f tuat .Afr. Primuieir arrived with tho un-

. dorelopeU film yesterday morning, and ■ -i\ ?< ,T,,,1 ,10 Bol ' il,to tflU « l1 a* <*"«<> with Mr. J.-JL'Donald, Government photographer. The UovermiieiitVi developins J oiitlit was placed at tlio disposal of Mr ■I I nmmer, and Mr. M'Donald lent his ns- ■ sistance m the preparation of a huno tank of Si gallons of developer, it was mixed with hot water to ensure that work could be commenced quickly, and the result was that the mctol mines pervaded the whole, j-ooni and very awarly overcanio all three. They put tho unit lnstalmentof the iilin, 700 foot of it into the bath, and when it was thrwh they stajfgerwl out to the i\iv like drunken nun, in an almost fainting condition.. hey had intended'to go to work again, but they wcro not fit to face a further

ihis film will be shown at a private exhibition, at which his Excellency tho Governor will i )B invito(l to bc > ( Vn\t f° ]X latel ; hl ,he weh °n this trip Air. Primmer has done somo remarkably clever.work. Some of the pictures of rough seas m the Southern Ocean at this season pf tho year should be excoptwnally! striking At an exhibition of a, said Mr. Lite!, ono of the guests, a lady in tiio dress circle, became quite distress* tjilly sea sack. On this later trip on tiia Aurora the seas wero very iu\ieh rougher -Mr. ]?rinimer has also got some excellent Pictures of sea elephants, gazing at short lange into tho camera, and snappiii" their cavernous mouths in savage tli6 strange intruders. These'monsters will appear, in the picture about 20 or 25 feet Jong. A very fiu,e specimen of this species" , 9f. seal, 17 icot long, was secured by Mr. ■ sav i K: W{ut °. curator of the C'hristclinrch Museum, and a member of the expedition, for his institution. •Unfortunately," said Mr. Eitel, <Vo could not do nntch drodging on this trip, it will l-e necessary to mako another cruise. AVheu the Aurora iw Inst buck iu Hobart Captain JJavis, who navigated Slmcklcton's ste.inier, had a curious experience, which j-shows tho difficulties and dangers tho party liavo already inet with. The harbourmaster who had' come, to pilot the vessel up the river proposed to anchor Mβ steamer out in .the-stream until ho Jearncd that both anchors had been lost at the Macquarie Islands. The ship had come 4000 miles, skirting 2000 miles of coastline, without an anchor. She had onp small ieo anchor, which of course was "sriess except in ice. You can imagine the difficulties encountered in landing two parties under thoso conditions. I he furthest south the. expeditiotfhopes to get is the Magnetic I'oli, which is 230 nnles from Mawson's main base. This distance, must be traversed with sleighs. The objects of tho expedition oro scientific and economic. We hope that one result of the expedition will bc the starting of a very profitable whaling industry. The Aurora camo across a very large number of what are behoved to have been'right whales m a lonely part of the Antarctic, Tho Commonwealth Government has arrnnged for us to tako out a whaling equipment' with us on next trip, in order that we may bring back tho head of one of these supposed right whales. Ono of these iini- ™« worth anything-from £M to AIOOO for whalebone alone, the current price of'which is ,£1250 a ton. If we can get a head our evidence-that they are right whales will bo complete. " One of the Norwegian whaling expeditions wanted to know from our captain whc.ro tlieso whales wero to be found, but the cantata refused to tell, saying that his knowledge belonged to tho .Commonwealth Government."