DR. MAWSON’S EXPEDITION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 88, 21 April 1913, Page 2

DR. MAWSON’S EXPEDITION.

i. i : . j, if I I - . iI; I. .i' 'li : j :..>m : c I lit. : ’■ WITH THE MAG/XETICTANS< - •i‘. «i j.i>> ; ( . | ( H.‘(" .NEAR TO DISASTER. J ;)i.» [Per Press Association.] , Chris.tcJwrc'h, April.2Q. ... Mr E. N. Webb, a son of Mr S. R. Webb, of Lyttelton, who was magnetician with Mawson Antarctic expedition, in the course of ,un intqiwjqiyi, stated that; with J, jjiifiey, phqW-, grapher, he formed one the| p£^y. ; in _■ charge of Lieutenant; B,age, which was detailed to penetrate A delie Land in the direction of the South Magnetic Pole area. The party travelled about 300 miles from the expedition’s base, and at liiat point, which a;,as some •50 or 00 miles from the Magnetic Pole, found that the magnetic dip obtained by a series of mathematically rigid observations was 89 degrees 43.3 minutes, or 16.7 minutes from the vertical. They obtained a chain of observations which were almost unique in respect to the South Magnetic Polar regions. They reached the extreme southerly point of latitude 70.36, longitude 148.14 east, and left on their return on December 21, 1912. They met with overcast weather, and spent several days in a fruitless endeavour to locate a depot 68 miles from the base. A dash was decided upon, and was undertaken on onethird rations. Ultimately they reached a depot five miles from the base, and their base hut. Webb said this* was the nearest thing to an out-and-out disaster similar to Captain Scott’s and it was largely by pure luck that the party reached safety. The scientific results of the expedition. exclusive of the magnetic observations, are being continued by Lieutenant Bage, who, witlr nine others, remained at the base to search for Mawson, who, however, arrived shortly after the Aurora loft the base. The magnetic field results obtained by Webb have been prepared for working up, and will bo sent to the Carnegie Institute, which has undertaken to work them up. The observatory results are waiting to be takeh over, to be worked, probably by Lord onree, of the Kew Observatory. Webb is not now a member of the expedition, and intends taking up civil engineering.