WEALTH OF ANTARCTICA

Hokitika Guardian, 23 October 1929, Page 7

WEALTH OF ANTARCTICA

HOPES OF DISCOVERY EXPEDITION. The Discovery sailed recently from Cardiff under the command of Captain John King Davis, Shackletoii’s chief officer of the Nimrod, and master of tiie Aurora in Sir Douglas Mawson s expedition lof fi9ll. Sir Douglas Mawson joined the shii> at Capetown and sailed last week. The expedition has been made possible by financial grants irom the British, Australian, and New Zealand Governments, together with a generous gift of £iU,vil<’J (from a. piom.nenlb Australian chocolate manufacturer, Mr Macßobertscn. It has ibeen estimated that the total charges for the expedition will be £10,0(a). Although there is ,at present a little doubt as to whether the full programme will be carried out, the plans aie for a two years’ voyage. This means that the Discovery, leaving Capetown in October, and calling at Kergueien Island, will reach Antarctic shores in November, and then for the summer months of December and January will carry out the investigations of the first year, at the end of which the' vessel will proceed to either Melbourne or Hobart. If a second season’s work is carried out, the vessel will probably return for the same periods, and the destination of the vessel after the season U Ivvoyk is at 'jpresdnt uncertain.

The objects of tho expedition are, various. In the first place, there is a largo section of Antarctica still unexplored and unmapped, Tho portion around which it is expected the Discovery will proceed has, in fact, nut been observed since the voyage fo Biscoe, over 100 years ago. Sir Edgeworth David—the first man to reach the South Magnetic Pole (in 1909) —has stated that from the scientific standpoint the outstanding problem is geographical. It is to determine w'hrithqr jthe great range known as - the Antarctic "Horst continues until it reaches the highlands of the eastern shore of the Weddell Sea, or diverges. to the left so as to leave Weddell Sea on its right, and pass into the Antarctic. Andes on the west of Graham’s Land;... The Antarctic Ancles are recognised to be a continuation of .the South American Andes, 'but the rocks characteristic of. the. Antarctic Horst are not of' volcanic lavas and other indigenous material , like the South American Andes, but consist mainly

of sandstones, shales,,.limestones, and

coal seaiui. A fact,, not generally recognised is that the Antarctic Horst which at Mount Nilson rises at 15,5C0 feet, forms the rim of the great island plateau which, even at the South Pole itself, is 10,000 feet high. Second to the geographical problem is the question of meteorology. The actual relation between the state of sea ice in the Antarctic—“tho greatest refrigerator in {ho world’’ —and Australian weather, remams to be determined, but it is interesting to note that a member of the Bruce Expedition concluded that from the late or early melting of ice in the Weddell Sea it was possible to say whether winter rains would be heavy or light in the southern part of Chile. The importance to an agricultural country i.ke Australia of being able to provide a long-range forecast from meteorological observations in the Antarctic is obvious. One great advantage would lie in being able to say whether or not fodder conservation should be practised in respect of stock. It is probable, too, that these observations may throw

light on the incidence of hurricanes in the dangerous Australian Bight. The economic possibilities of Antarctica have never yet been tested.

The nature and quantities of fish and other marine life still remain to he determined, A British firm, Messrs Irvine and Johnston, are conducting whaling and sealing from south from Kerguelen Island, and various Norwegian firms have in recent years made immense profits from their winding expeditions, There ay.'c, however, many gaps to be filled in our knowledge of the marine Kfe of Aniarctica. Apart from the harvest of the sea, ;4ir Douglas Mawson, the leader of the jprcsenjt expedition, considers that there are real grounds for believing that mineral deposits may be jodated in payable quantiff.es. Sir Douglas Mawson \ likens the pnl cut attitude of peoftle to the Antarctic to that of former generations reward Alaska—a frozen waste.

eiter the United States geological survey party had visited iAjlaska, and gold was found, the land proved an, unexpected source of enormous wealth. The question !is whether this will happen in Antarctica, and the only way to answer the question is 'to search, Apart from the above-mentioned objectives, there is a mass of less papular features which form the n.«ces»;iry ground-work or basis of scientific development. Among these are the preliminary survey of coastline and altitudes, which can be expedited so wonderfully by aerial photography; the study of temperature and salinity of sea water at different depths; of the nature of the ooze at the sea bottom; of the types of marine life of the smallest siao— Hankton, which are the food supply of fishes. For a,ll itheso objectives The Discovery ha? been equipped. For the geographican work, all surveying and sounding gear has been included in the ship’s equipment. The wonderful echo sounder from

the time taken for a detonation pr< duced .electrically at the ship’s kci to travel to the sea bottom and but* to a (diaphragm,i also on the jshi ilxiffoin, automatically recordsi th depth of tiro ocean. This instiumem in case of accident or breakdown, i supplemented by the Lucas soundin gear, with its thousand-ton weight and five miles of piano wire. Meteorology 1 demands, not only t know the speed of the hurricane b, tJjij (hand anemometer, buit by bn.l loon observation and puffs of smoke the veriest zephyr can be noted hot! in direction and velocity. The photo meter will give data regarding th nature of the sun’s radiation, whiL a dust mole counter yvUl record tin at f mess ■of Antarctic atmosphere Those more familiar instruments—the recording barometer and ibaro graph, and recording thermometer o; thermograph—will ye rite their record: of Antarctica as the Discovery sail.omvards. The eeonormo possibilities of tin seas will bo determined directly by the huge Otter and Monagasque trawls which are to be yvorked from the great new trayvl yvinch carried by the Discovery. This will be the direct test of fishing. The indirect test will be by the observation made With the varied sizes of smaller nets, some as fragile and delicate as a

hair net, and others almost as thick as the iieay'y trayvls. So from the tiniest plankton to the largest elephant, 'the Discovery should collect them all. Then will Ibe tho task of sorting out into those thousands of battles and jars—of all sizes ana shapes, For logger specimens thenare specially enamelled lined tanks and barrels, so that specimens of all kinds can be returned for examination in British and Australian marine Ihologkal laboratories, The results of such an expedition are not completed until many month 1 ' after the vessel has returned to civilisation. Complete as tho chemical and biological laboratory is ion board the Discovery, the scientists cannot carryout in the rough conditions of sea life the intricate examinations that are,- required, And in the matter of mineral possibilities the land parties, yvhich maybe absent from the ship for a day m so at a time, have their sledges, tlieii geological gear, and cameras. Ami in the laboratory there are the fluxes, the acids, the microscopes, which ean JJroilitate tl(o idoiitifioa'tion of minerals and metals.

In the work of charting the aerial photography is made possible by the De Havil md Moth aeroplane carried ajnVidships, land lotted yvith yvheals, or skis, for the ice, or floats to land on the surface of the water. In fact, should it be necessary, the Discovery is so fitted as to > alloyv the Moth to be catapulted from the side of the vessel. Should the Moth be forced down, the small and poyverful wireless set she carries is not put out of order, for the yvlnd drive can be removdd, and a layman, by turning a handle, can churn out messages yvhioh are determined by small discs. This automatic generator is, in fact, one of the latest things of its kind. The large and powerful Marconi yvireless set on the Discovery, together with its direction finder, enables the vessel to keop in touch not only with the aeroplane, (but yvith the whole outside yvorld—a great advance from the old days, when a vessel went out into tho darkness of the Antarctic one knew not whither.

Of the ship’s stores, it is unneeess* ary to talk, except to say that, ns with all experienced explorers, enough has been taken to last, if need be, through the rigours of an Antarctic “freeze-in.” Most of the ship’s proylsions have been presented by English firms.—A. S. Fitzpatrick, in the Observer.