DAWSON'S EXPEDITION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 323, 12 July 1912, Page 5

DAWSON'S EXPEDITION.

RETURN OF THE AURORA. , * By Telegraph—Press Association. Christchurch, Last Night. ' The steam yacht Aurora returned from her winter cruise all well. The Aurora is sailing in the interests of Dr. Mawson's Australasian Antarctic expedition, and will return to bring the. leader and his party back- to Australia, in November. Jn the meantime they are conducting scientilic investigations in the sub-Antarctic seas. She left Sydney on May 17. When in the latitude qf the reported Royal Islands no trace, of land was discovered. Captain Davia says definitely that the islands do not exist where laid down on the charts, though owing to the nature of the weather experienced it was possible that land exists in the vicinity. They reached Macquarie Islands on June 8, when five men, constituting the Mawson Macquarie Jsland party, were found all well and doing good work. The wireless sta- ' tion was working admirably, daily wea-" ther reports being sent to Melbourne, Hobart and Wellington, and messages caught as far as Fiji and Western Australia. The operator believes that messages from the Macquarie Islands were received at Mawson's base at the Antarctic, but owing to damage to a part of the apparatus no messages were received from the base. Sea elephants were found in abundance and sea v

leopards were also seen. The Maori hens imported from New Zealand some yeaJß ago have multiplied exceedingly; The Aurora next -visited the Auckland and Enderby Islands. Professor F. C. Waite, of Canterbury Museum, has secured a valuable collection for the museum. One sea elephant secured is nearly 17 feet in length, and when alive weighed over a ton.