British Expedition To Test Weather-Source Theory

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 142, 3 July 1937, Page 18

British Expedition To Test Weather--Source Theory

LONDOIST— An expedition is to leave here next June for the South Polar regions. One of the main objects of the expedition5 wiU be meteorologicai study in order to test the theory ' that Antaretic conditions a're an infallible guide to /weather , in ' the rest of the world. The leader, Mr Ernest W. Walker, a member of the James Bay geological ex: pedition to. the Arietic in 1930, explaiii-' ed recently that the expedition -would comprise 32 members, including the ship7s erew and the natural scientific staff. ' No women would be taken, though .1300 appli'cations from women were received. . V The" expedition, Mr Walker .says,. .will: be away for twp years. It should reaeh. the. last port of call, Lyttleton,- N.Z., at: at the beginning of JSfovember, : 1937. After spending about a month there, the ship will pro ceed to the polar regions, droppirig one party at^ WoOd Bay and another at Ross Island. A xeturn will be made to Lyttleton for the winter. -Mr Walker said that he had pro-. visionally selected . a three-masted schooner of 470 tons at present trading in Arctic • waters. It was to be renamed the Shackleton, after the I famous British Antaretic explorer. I An airplane is being taken, to be j used to survey and chart the coast ot Oates Land. The expedition 7s original intontion to use light tanks instead ot: dog tcams has becn found impracticablc, and thcy are going to use huskics named after the scKools ■ and collegcs which present thom. | The parties on Wood Bay and Ross Island hope to keep in constant communication with the outside world by means of portable transmittor-receiver radio sets. A hook-up with the National Broadcasting Company of America is contemplated with a view to impromptu concerts and reports being radiocast to the United States at regular intervals by members of the expedition. . A novel feature of the expedition is that it will carry no furs, the members wearing wind-proof outfits which have been found less cumbersome. Their boots will (f nsist of reindeer skin stuffed with dried grass, a tjrpe of footwear used by the Eskimos.