THE ANTARCTIC.

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 11 March 1908, Page 88

THE ANTARCTIC.

LIEUT. SHACKLETON'S EXPEDITION

A PERILOUS VOYAGE.

WINTER QUARTERS ESTABLISHED.

EXCITING EXPERIENCES.

Per United Press Association. — Copyright.

WELLINGTON, March 7. 'A report has been received from Lieutenant Shackleton of the progress of the 'Antarctic expedition. The first part details the discomforts of the Nimrod's journey down in tow of the Koonya. " Our great anxiety," he esiys, "was the care of . the ponies. Hardy as they were, the rolling of the ship (46deg on each side) gave great trouble, so I was compelled to place two of the scientific 6taff on watch two hours each to attend them and help them whenever some extra large sea filled us with water forward to aft. We were considerably helped in this struggle to cave the ponies by Mr George Buckley, ;who came with us at an hour's notice, and ■who left a life of ease for the sheer love of adventure. To him we owe at least the life of one pony when it fell ; otherwise 'it surely would have gone. Day after day we hammered through the white-bitten waves. Our gallant tow-boat could hardly >be seen at times as she lurched into the trough of the eeas. Standing with Captain England, whose superb seamanship throughout the /trying time I cannot express admiration enough for, I would watch the Koonya disappear from view, and the next minute my gaze would be directed to some great wave, green-based and capped -with white, ramping strenuously, moving towards us. Inevitably it must strike us, I would think; but as the 40-year-old sealer rose to the crash, it would go foaming beneath, with bared lips of hate, as if disappointed of its prey. Day after day this struggle against" Nature in her sternest mood went on. "One night, in the midst of a hurricane squall, a pony turned right over in its stall and fell on its back. All efforts to gel it on its feet proved unavailing. It wa» knocking itself about terribly, and next morning we hid to shoot it, thus reducing th© number to nine. On Saturday one of the sledge doge strangled itself, but to make up for this a few days afterwards six fine puppies were born. "To tell the tale separately of each succeeding day would be a repetition, for during the first 12 days it did little else but blow gale after gale. One fine day we had sodden blankets and wet clothes put to dry on our poop, which looked like a veritable Petticoat lane. We washed our faces and hands, scraped bits of soup, etc., that had, during meals, found a resting-place on our clothes, and generally squared things up. "After thie day's fine weather it began. to blow. The anxiety of Captain England and myself was heightened by the fact that the strain of towing was telling on our ship. She was badly strained, and began to leak. I put the scientific staff on to the pumpe in spells day and night rntil we got past the 'shrieking fifties,' and the weather became better. The heavy sea washed away our bulwarks forward arid on the port and' starboard sides, one particularly large sea one morning dislodging the starboard whaleboat and filling the pony stalls with water. But all bad times have an end, and on January 14 we got a day. "On January 15 the Koonya left us. At this stage I wish to put on record the ever-ready help, continuous courtesy, and splendid seamanship of Captain Evans, of that ship. He had a most difficult task, and carried it out splendidly. Captain England managed the Nimrod as though she were one of ni 8 own hands, so cogmsant was he of her every movement; and the morale of the whole, staff, from the oldest to the youngest, was excellent. Many of them had never been to eea foefore, and the change from the luxuries v termt e nnn c tO the of a little ship of 227 tons must have been great from 1? to d 1 " 0 ] 1 has been "greased *rom 1Z to 36 by Professor David (a great f£ Io ? 6t A ) ;,} I -,¥ arßOn (cheHlist «nd P w cist^of Adelaide), an army cage-hunter, and a traveller from Melbourne. 'Mr Macintosh until now has been navigating officer of the Nimrod, so our party on the Nimrod consists of 38, not Including Mr Bucklev, whom we were l» sorry to part with when the Koonya left The departure of the Koonya marks the fi f»t stage of our journey. After a tow of 1503 miles through a stormy sea. we, on the 15th January, saw ice ahead and signalled her to stop. After towing through rough water come 10 sheep for cur winter stores and putting Mr Buckley en board, she left us for home, being the first steel steamer to cross the Antarctic Circle. "We then set our faces to the south. Captain England decided, in view of the smajl amount of ooal available and the strained condition of the ship, that we would try a new way south, and so avoio ■"ihe pack ice, which every vessel had to force her way timmjfb. After carefully considering the matted, we decided that if JP4 vent down on Vtv&eg meridian weer

we might be more fortunate than the Discovery in 1901. So that was the meridian we steamed for, and on the morning of January 16 ottered c city white and marvellous. Thence south, mile upon mile, we encountered great icebergs, though never a sign of the pack ice. But from the orow'e-nesfc on the mainmast stretched out east and west, as far as the eye could see them, wonderful heralds of the Frozen South — great giants weaned from the bosom of Mother Antarctica. Through broad paths, through narrow alleys, and between towering walls of snow the little Nimrod threaded her way, surrounded by flocks of Antarctica and beautiful little enow-white ice petrels, now and then greeted by the astonished squawk of the penguin, which saw for the first time in :ts life a ship or the screw wash from a propeller. " We passed and stirred some giant icewalls, which fell in our wake with a mighty crash and roar. Sad would have been our lot had we been in that spot just then. After passing for hours through these narrow lanes of ice, often thinking we were in a cul-de-sac, but ever finding our way through them, on towards the south, we at length emerged into the open ! sea. To the south-east and wes* was ice, and on the free ocean behind ue lay a line of berge. We eluded for the first time in the history of Polar navigation the pack ice, and to greet our entry to the Ross Sea, to remind us that it was not all plain sailiny, came a gale from the south which made our rigging shine with frost and the ropes slippery with frozen > sea water, whilst the Nimrod began again to pitch, \i hieh latter wo did not mind, as the swell causing this told us there was a free 6ea southward. When the wind was over we Were soon on our way, and though next day we had to steer westward for a few hours to avoid some heavy land ice, we made a good distance on our way south. Thus we went along until the morning of the 22nd January, when we saw a low line on the horizon, and knew that we were in sight of the great ice barrier at last. "By noon we were close to the wonderful rampart of, so far, guarded secrets of the South from the attacks of ships, rising sheer up from the water to a height of 150 ft, and stretching east and west as far as the eye could see it. At once we turned" to the eastward, and steamed along the ice wall. Passing a deep inlet towards midnight, we turned a sharp corner, opening up a wide bay filled with fast ice, on which were numbers of seals and emperor penguins. The whole bay was alive with huge finned-backed whales. To the south, about seven miles across the backed ice, rose a steep cliff of ice, beyond which, to the eastward, were high undulations, terminating in very eteep hills rising to heights of 1000 ft approximately. No bare rock -was visible. Pack ice lay thick to the eastward and northward, interspersed with huge bergs of land ice, but an open lead cave us a passage north. Passing this section of the pack, we steamed down close to the barrier. Again, at 8 p.m., we turned another sharp corner, round which we went. The barrier trended north-east-ward." We now passed the position of the inlet where we hoped to have wintered, but we found it broken away, and thus met our first serious check. Everything wae ready for discharging, but our prospect* of a port disappeared. We steamed on eastward to try to reach the actual land— King Edward VII Land,— but were soon barred on this route by ice, which pressed up close against the barrier, io add to my anxiety the pack was rapidly closing in' behind üb. We turned round, just clearing the corner of the barrier by a bare five yards. What we escaped can be realised if one imagines oneself in a little boat close under the white cliffs ol Dover, and one seea great solid masses— some as large and high as the Royal Exchange, Bank of England, or the new War Office, some as long as Fleet street, Northumberland avenue— all moving down to crush the little veasel, and then one can gather the seriousness of our pceition. Un clearing the point we steamed back along the barrier in the afternoon, entering the bay again, and then finding that the barrier had broken away, taking some 15 miles of ice, and leaving a sheer ice face 150 ft in height. It wae not until 8 p.m. that we found an opening to the north through heavy ice. Again we turned east to try to reach the eastern land. All night we pursued a zig-zag course, sometimes steaming into an apparently open sea, only to be brought up by close-screwed, hum-mocked-up packs and huge bergs. At o p.m. next day we were further west than the day before and well to north. In the evening a wind sprang up from the north-west, with squalls of driving hail and snow, so thick that we had to go slow, our horizon being limited to a few yards. Once the weather cleared up I saw the ice rapidly closing round us; so reluctantly 1 gave orders to turn back. It was not until 1 o'clock next morning that we cleared the ice to the north. The only thing I could do was to seek winter quarter* in Maemur c . bound. Our very limited and rapidly decreasing supply of coal would not allow further time to go anywhere else, and the strained condition of the ship caused grave anxiety to me. There eeomed absolutely no prospect of reaching King Edward Land, which was barred by impenetrable ice. The only expedition which was fortunate, enough to find clear water was the Discovery in 100?. Thus foiled of attaining . either of these places we, slowly battling against a stronjr west wind, made our way to Macmur's Sound, which lay under tne shadow of a mighty active volcano — Mount Erebus. Hope ran high as we ©teamed down the sound on the morning of January 29. that we might reach

the winter quarters of the Discovery," but at 10 a.m. wo found ourselves held up 20 miles from our goal. When the Discovery entered in 1901 she had an absolutely ice-free eea to her winter quarters. We tried ramming the ice, but in a few minutes we realised that we might as well have tried to ram through a great pyramid, so I tried to ship up to ihe ice face, and prayed for a northerly s»vell to break up the ice. We lay at the edge of the ice till February 3, ma'ung only one trip west to see if there possibly waa a place to winter in on the western shore, but I found the ice extending all round. During this time about one mile of ice broke away. On tho return of the party which I sent to our old quarters, which party reported that the ice was solid all the way in, I felt that I must not delay longer, but must seek new winter quarter* on the eastern shore of the north ice. Whilst we were getting some stores on deck an unfortunate accident occurred to one of the landing party, Mr Mackintosh, who was struck in the right eye by a hook, necessitating- the removal of his eye. He is now doing >welL and has returned in the Nimrod. I aYn deeply grieved about him, and I appreciate fully the great loss he is to ue, as he was a valuable member of my staff. I eventually decided to make our winter quarters on Cape Royds, and the work of discharging 6toree, building the hut. etc., began. It was done under great difficulties^ for a great proportion had to bu done in boats under exceptionally trying conditions. The weather was- very unsettled and boisterous, and the temperature was low and falling daily. " On February 19 the Nimrod was blown away by a terrific blizaifrd. For three days thick driving 3now continued, and the temperature was 16deg below zero, while a very high, short sea was continually breaking over her, freezing on all the ropes and sides, and accumulating in great masses of ice fore and aft of the ship. We had to cut away part of the bulwarks to allow the ship to free herself. The water, which wae frequently up to the men's wa^ts, wae frozen solid, and the rudder was frozen fast in the trunk. The men were continually working with axes and crowbars to keep the vessel clear. ' All hands were wearing the 6hip about every four or cix hours, avoiding the great bergs and heavy floes of land ice with much difficulty. The ship was blown over 40 miles N.N.W., in 6pite of our trying to work to windward under full steam. " The men, ponies, and dogs are all fit and well. Two ponies were nearly lost, one falling between two huge floes of land ice when the ice broke up in the bay. It v;as saved with difficulty, and had to be literally lifted out with ropes. " The hut is built in a sheltered valley at the foot of Mount Eiebus, on Cape Royds, about 20 miles north c£_ the Discovery's winty quarters. It is well sheltered from southerly winds. "The Nimrod will return in January, 191€. " (Signed) SHACKLETON." NIMROD'S ARRIVAL AT LYTTELTON. CHRISTCHURCH, March 8. Throughout Saturday Lyttelton simmered . with pleasurable anticipation in prospect ' of the return of the British Antarctic Expedition's staunch little Nimrod. As the day wore on and the north-east wind freshened portentous deliverances of ancient salts, grizzled longshoremen, and miscellaneous quidnuncs pronounred unanimously against the possibility of the vessel's making port that night, and some, more boldly prophetio than their fellows, declared that Monday would come round ere the famous craft and her gallant company reached the enug haven. Speculations were stilled and doubt set at rest, however, at 8.30 this morning, when the Nimrod was sighted" from the Heads. The tug Canterbury steamed away down the harbour to meet and greet the hardy voyagers. The Nimrod was to be perceived dimly at first, plodding bravely along from the eastward. As the moments passed the Nimrod took definite shape, rolling prodigiously in a confused , tumble of murky water, but coming home nearer and nearer as the seconds raced along the storehouse of time. Presently j the little vessel came within hailing dis- : tance of the tug. The timeball tower ' fluttered " Welcome " with billows of flags, and those on board the Canterbury rent « the morning air with cheerß of hearty greeting. The Nimrod was then seen to be bearing many scars of battle, telling of fierce contentions with blizzards and drifting ice. Here and there portions of her bulwarks had been torn out bodily, while the rigging and other outstanding furnishing also bore mute testimony to the ferocity of the onslaughts. Officers and crew scrambled into points of vantage — all of them weatherbeaten, but hale and hearty — and shouted the inconsequential inquiries characteristic of men who have wandered far and have now come within sight of friends, of rest, and of home. Approaching the Moles the tug ranged affectionately alongside, as a mother sheltering her offspring, and at 10.30 the Nimrod was comfortably berthed. For a time a delectable confusion reigned supreme. The wanderers demanded an epitome of the world's news from the stay-at-homes, and the latter bombarded the wanderers with questions touching the true imvardness of Antarctic^ exploration. STATEMENTS BY THE CREW. THREE ANTARCIC RECORDS. SPLENDID PONIES. CHRISTCHURCH, March 8. Mr H. L. Dunlop, the chief engineer of the Nimrod, spoke highly of the manner in which his staff and the machinery had behaved during the rough and exacting times experienced. "We arrive just in the same condition as we left," he taid, "and nothing will be iieces3ary except the customary overhaul. We have not had a hitch with the machinery between the time we left Lyttelton and our return." i On the voyage New -Zealand coal was used, and gave every satisfaction. Th© Welsh coal, with which the Nimrod was loaded before she left England, though not the best possible sample, had the advantage over the N.Z. coal in that it burned slowly. In view of this quality posseesed by it the Welsh coal was landed for the use of the expedition. The Nimrod entered port with 50 tons of coal In her bunkers. Her average ageed was 37 miles

per ton of coal, but it must be remembered that this was with the aid of the vessel's sails. There was only one occasion when she depended on her sails alone, and that was only for a period of about six hours, during which Mr Dunlop made some adjustments. On the pasage to Antarctica after the Koonya cast off and on the return to Lyttelton the Nimrod averaged 6£ knots per hour. - Her be6t run was 198 miles in one day, under sail and steam. "We reckon that the Nimrod has put up three Antarctic records," continued Mr Dunlop. " Firstly, she is the first ship to enter those seas with one bailer and a threeblade propeller; secondly, she is the first ship to reach the most southerly pomt — 78.42deg; and, thirdly, she made the fastest return passage from Antarctica, having been 12£ days from Cape Royds to Otago Heads. We could have made Lyttelton earlier but for calling at Otago Heads, as, in order to reach the Heads, we had to battle against a head wind. I am very pleased with all my staff. They ' played the game.' While I was ashore assisting in the erection of the hut Messrs Craft and M'Gowan had charge \'m the engine-room, and discharged their dutioa well. If they had not been reliable men who knew their work thoroughly I could not have left so much to them." Of the Manehunan ponies Mr Dunlop spoke in enthusiastic terms. "They are marvels," he remarked, " and a few days after they were landed they were eager and willing for work. If it be possible for anyone or anything to reach the Pole the ponies will do lit. As coon as they landed they began to nibble the ice, and gave not the slightest trouble. There is po doubt that thay have been perfectly broken in." Mr C. Craft, the second engineer of the Nimrod has now had experience of both the Arctic and Antarctic regions, and the conclusion he ha 6 arrived at is that tlu> Arctic 13 the more interesting portion, of the globe. He has been as far north as latitude 78 whilst on a deep sea trawling cruise, and hie belief is that the cold at the Antarctic is more intense than it is' in the Arctic. Another feature that impressed itself upon him was the comparative absence- of life in the Antarctic. THE STEWAJRD'S ACCOUNT. Mr J. Hancock (first steward on the vessel) had an interesting story to tell. "This is not my first trip to the Antarctic." he remarked to a reporter. " I was cook on the relieving ship Morning, and the experience has not been altogether novel to me."' Asked for some account of the Nimrod's experiences, Mr Hancook said that on the voyage down the vessel started to take heavy seas the day after leaving Lyttelton, and continued taking them for several days. January 9 was the worst d<ay of the lot, and the crew had orders to keep off the deck as much as possible. " I have never seen anything worse," he said. "The ship was taking seas bodily over fore and aft. One came right over the motor oar, and as I was hanging on to the lathings at the time I got the full force of it. The same day we had to shoot one of the ponies, and we expected some of them to suocumn at any time. Up till thftn the scientists had been looking after them,_but they had to stay in their cabins, as it was dangertfus to be on deck. They could see the Koonya, hcve-to just ahead, and she seemed to be having a bad time, takincr a lot of water aboard. Lieutenant Shackleton told them it was the worst, place in the world for bad weather. On January 9 a eea struck the Nimrod on the starboard side forward and smashed in the bulwarks, carried away part of the deckhouse, smashed in the port bulwarks on the other side, and simply made one clean sweep. For several days I had to change my clothes three times a day. and for a whole week my clothes were never dry below my knees. If we got no more than our sea boots full we were ail right, but half the time we were standing up to our waists in water Everyone had to get his food the best way he could, as it was impossible to sit down to the table. In the galley and pantry the water was up to out knees. On January 10 the weather moderated, and the Nimrod got under weigh. About 4 o'clock in the morninor we were, however, n i. alu PP ln £ heavy seas. We had all been seasick, including Lieutenant Shaekleton. the captain, and the scientists. On January 11 and 12 a heavy sea was still running, and we were still taking big seas aboard. The following day the weather moderated. A CHAT WITH THE BO'S'N". # Mr A. Cheetljam (the ship's bo's'n. who is also acting third officer) has hail previous experience of the polar regions, having journeyed to the frozen south in the Morning, the relieving ship to the Discovery "This is my second trip," he remarked, "and we have had «uch a rough time that 1 wouldn't mind if it were my last. Of course 1 will see rhe iob through, and will go back on the Nimrod when she leaves again. After that I don't think I'll trouble it again. On the voyage down we had a. terribly rough time, but it was a record passage back, :<nd left nothing to complain of. When ■we erot to tho base we had a heap of trouble in landing the stores. Sometimes they were taken ashore in the boats, and sometimes they were lowered direct from l he Nimrod. when the conditions allowed the vessel to get rierht aloneside the ice." Questioned as to the possibilities of the niotor ear, Mr Cheetham '■aid ho was not altogether favourably impressed with them "Of course it is only an experiment, and may him out all rifl;ht," he continued. " Bill for mveelf I »rould prefer the jyjnies every time." DR MICHELL INTERVIEWED. AN INTERESTING ACCOUNT. CHRISTCHURCH, March 7. An interesting narrative of the Nim'■od's voyage and the landing- of tl<e stores ■was told +o a Prcs3 reporter by the genial doctor of the Nimrod. Dr J. A. R. Michell. " Once clear of the Heads." he said, " the Nimrod started to roll frightfully, and all suffered the inconvenience of seasickness. The Nimrod through being so heavily 'laden, went through all the combinations of motions one could conceive. When the heavy weather struck us things wefe as wet and disagreeable as they could be-^-a vast change from the comfortable mail steamers we had known. The Koonya left us iust over the Antarctic Circle, and I believe the steamer gained the distinction ol bsdnj the first

iion ship to cross the Circle. We had very fine weather in the Circle, and wo jvet steamed along without bothering to sail much. We encountered no pack ica, but there were countless numbers of ictf* bergs of a flat, tubular variety — tho typical Antarctic bergs. Their sides were white with the action of the sea, deeply fissured, and in places the beautiful dark blue ice could be seen. After passing through the bergs we oame into perfectly open sea. The only ice visible wae on tho horizon. At this time we were getting 24 hours' daylight, and you could only tel* what time it was by your meal times, and everybody lost a lot of sleep. If we woke up at midnight the sun would be shinkifir brightly. "The ice barrier when we sighted it was just like one huge iceberg. The big* cliffs of white reminds you of the chalk cliffs of England at a distance. An exploration of the Barrier showed that Borchgrevinok's balloon bight had disappeared." Dr Michell described the easterly and westerly yoyagings of the Nimrod and the final landing at Ross Island at the foot of Mount Erebus— an active wlcano 13,000 ft high. " The volcano is a marvellous sight," said Dr Michell. "It, stands ad the sentinel of Antarctica. It has the true volcano cone, and is covered waiib snow and ice from the base to the summit. The enow-clad sides are deeply fissured right from the sea level to the top. *t is .wonderful to see the steam issuing ceaselessly from the icy top. The mountain ie a splendid weather gauge, as yoa can tell by the clouds round it what th* " weather is going to be. Altogether, Mount Erebus /was as magnificent and grand a sight as one could wish to see. The companion mountain— Mount Terror, about 11,000ft— is an extinct volcano, but its attractions are completely overshadowed by the more active ami scenic beauty of Erebus." "The ponies," Dr Michell stated, were delighted to get on shore, and the first thing they did was to enjoy an uproarious carnival on the snow, rolling and prancing about and giving every sign of equine delight. They very soon got into condition, and were utilised in the landing of the stores. The building of the hut and the landing of the stores occupied the energies of everybody. Work was carried on day and night, and no one knew any^difference until soft sleep put his tarn the eyelids. The sun was very bwlban*. but no one suffered from ■^■""g^that scourge of some Arctic exploration was built near a penguin irookery, and the party got no end of amuseaM^l tew tt*JSL*& to replenish the larder, and the^ epjeur^n verdict was "they <*n *» ««* *£?, **** llow would come on in M •«"»!" ™ short .p*» of 10 ■»*«** * ll S r £E3 r JS descent of a*snow bH«ard. They had landed some coal from • AipJ boat, and were makin« for the Nimrod when the snow commenced to fall,, completely, blotting the ship out of their vision. ~ ttJ snow cleared off temporarily, and the party was able to pick her up and ? et on board. The snow then came on again so thiolcrjr , that it was physically impossible to » see over the side of the 5hi P The storm developed into a very severe blizzard, an£ the Nimrod bad to steam out to sea, where she was hove-to for about three days. "The ship," Dr Michell continued, became practically an iceberg. She was coated with ice from stem to stern, and each sea that came over seemed to be firocen in tne process. Some members of the landing party were on board, and they spent most of their time, in making up for the sleep they had lost and sitting about the engine Toom getting warm. The cold was very intense— about 16deg. below lero. The officers on the bridge had a terrible experience, being nearly frozen." WONDERFUL SUNSET EiFFECTS. Dr Michell gave a picturesque description of sunset effects in the Antarctic. **Th« sun," he said, "began to dip about tho 10th of February, and a kind of twilight, aot darkness, prevailed for several hours of the daj. The colours on the anow-covered and ice-tipped mountains during these few hours were something wonderful. You had •veryconceivable shade and tint on the mountain peaks, and the glow of the declining su» was marvellously beautiful. The °°^d> o| course, became- much greater when the sun disappeared. We found our heavy pilofc cloth suits and sea boots very satisfactory, wearing apparel when these conditions prevailed, and we never suffered much. Of course," he added, humorously, "you don t get time to get cold when you are working hard. The temperature on the average would be about freezing, with occasional drops to 16 or 17 degrees below, but unless a severe wind was blowing the cold was quite bearable. Tho prevailing wind was from the south-east, and it can be very disagreeable indeed. To keep warm the mam thing was to have everything big and looae. Ifle hands can be kept very warm by wearing the ordinary wool mits. You have to look out particularly for your extremities, but in a great deal of the time you could work in your shirt sleeves. Personally, I did not find the Antarctic summer anywhere in, the same street as the Canadian winter tor severity. It was just like the end of the Canadian' winter, with more sunshine, but, of course, you have to face the cold under less comfortable conditions down in the Antarctic. Everybody suffered more or less from frostbite, but that was only to be expected. The frostbite affected the finger tips mainly, as they lost sensation, and the painful" time came with returning sensitiveness. ANTARCTICA IS THE REALM OF SILENCE. "The silence is.rno3t remarkable, almost painful," said Dr Michell, "especially if you observe it in the middle of the night. Looking over the vast illimitable expanse of ice, your eyes encounter nothing save, perhaps, a lonesome penguin, and there is not the slightest breath of sound or motion to strike on your ear. The continual daylight also gets on your nerves as well as the silence, and the only antidote is plenty of work. After experiencing the Antarctic, it is easy to understand how melancholia gets hold of a man. If the daylight has this effect, how much more so would the darkness?" SCIENTIFIC WORK. There was aot much tbn* to dascientifitf

' work, every man being required for pressing duties. Dr Michell said that there was ' no plant life visible, and the animal life was chiefly- seals ana penguins. As much meteorological work as possible was done, and a number of soundings were taken, with what result he did not know. Professor I)avid was th« most enthusiastic over this work the doctor had ever seen. " I think a great many of us would rather liked to have wintered in. tne Antarotic," said the doctor, " but, as it is, we are looking forward to the return trip to see what success our comrades have had. The landing party were in fine fettle and confident of success. The last sight we had of them was their dark figures on the top of the ice oliff outlined against the sky-line when we dipped our ensign in farewell." The Nimrod was signalled from Cape Saunders on the morning of the 6th, The Koputaa went out and met her at the Heads. when Dr Mitchell, Mr Mackintosh, and Mr Cotton were transferred to her. These gentlemen were later on transferred to ihe Monowai. and proceeded together to Lyttelton. A* mentioned in the above narrative Mr Mackintosh met with a painful accident •to his eye. The Nimrod was not expected to return until the middle or end of April.