ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1643, 9 January 1913, Page 7

ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.

GERMAN EXPEDITION RETURNS. Bj Telegraph—Pros:. Association—Copyright ■*• , Berln, January 7. , The German expedition iin'der Lioutcnl ant Filchner, .which has been exploring i Antarctica, has reached Buenos Ayres. i He discovered now land, which ho cliri- ' tened'Prince Regent Luitpold Land, and r a new ice barrier, which he called Wili helm 11. . v 5 THE 1 XPnDITION'S AIMS. Tho German Antarctic expedition, un- - der tho command 'of the Bavarian dx T r plorer, Lieutenant Filchner, left Gerl many early'in 1911 for Buenos Ayres, b and proceeded-from there at tho begin--1 ning of October via South Georgia' and - the Sandwich Isl»nd9 to the Wcddell y Sea. Tho routo was chosen 60 as to allow l of ocpanographical research on tho way. j- On arrival in the Weddell Sea It was proir '.posed'to. establish' a base station on tho - -eastern coast as far south as possible, 1 with .the necessary equipment for a year's i. research. A party of ten men was to bo f landed, of whom six—a geologist, a me--1 1 teorologist,' an astronomer, ji doctor who 0 is also a biologist, a cook, and n sailor— . wcro i;o stay in the station, while tlm , .remaining four would undertake a long r slcdgo expedition into , the interior of tho r South Polar continent. Meanwhile the 1 ship was to return to the Atlantic Ocean y to ciirry out coastal observations .'and i ocmriograiihical work. ' , The. main geographical objects of the i. expedition wtoo to determine the distribuX ti.on of land and water, to establish the e coast lino of tho Antarctic continent, ond ii to;; study tho conformation and direction 0 of tho.ice. On tho oceanographical side 1 it was proposed to make systematic ob- . servalions of : the temperature, tho wilt--1 Vncss,. .and, the oxygenation of tho deep • .levels along certain lines in tho Sargasso Sen, in tlio Brazilian curfent, and in the high' latitudes. Soundings wero to 1» taken, on tho Atlantic swell between latitudes zero and 10 N.,. Where nono such 1 arc at present available. Further soundings wcro to l» made in tho Argentine j bnsin and, further south. Observations 1 With ' regard to ocean currents were to bo carried out from nil anchored. boat. Tlio meteorological section of the eipedi- •. f.ion was fully equipped with apparatus •, for registcripg, air pressure, temperature, ■ > moisture, and wind, and magnetic obser--9 rations were to .'no made both at tho • .bass-station and on the sledging expeditioai