Part 72 (1/2)

In Adelie Land, McLean carried out many months of steady work in Bacteriology, Haematology and Physiology.

Tides

Self-recording instruments were run at Macquarie Island by Ainsworth and at Adelie Land by Bage.

Wireless and Auroral Observations

A very close watch was kept upon auroral phenomena with interesting results, especially in their relation to the ”permeability” of the ether to wireless waves.

Geographical Results

1. The successful navigation by the 'Aurora' of the Antarctic pack ice in a fresh sphere of action, where the conditions were practically unknown, resulting in the discovery of new lands and islands.

2. Journeys were made over the sea-ice and on the coastal and upland plateau in regions. .h.i.therto unsurveyed. At the Main Base (Adelie Land) the journeys aggregated two thousand four hundred miles, and at the Western Base (Queen Mary Land) the aggregate was eight hundred miles. These figures do not include depot journeys, the journeys of supporting parties, or the many miles of relay work. The land was mapped in through 33 degrees of longitude, 27 degrees of which were covered by sledging parties.

3. The employment of wireless telegraphy in the fixation of a fundamental meridian in Adelie Land.

4. The mapping of Macquarie Island.

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A Section of the Antarctic Plateau from the Coast to a Point Three Hundred Miles Inland, along the Route followed by the Southern Sledging Party (Adelie Land)

A Section across the Antarctic Continent through the South Magnetic Pole from the D'Urville Sea to the Ross Sea; Compiled from Observations made by the British Antarctic Expedition (1907-1909) and by the Australian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914)

Oceanography

1. By soundings the fringe of the Antarctic Continent as well as the Continental Shelf has been indicated through 55 degrees of longitude.

2. The configuration of the floor of the ocean southward of Australia and between Macquarie Island and the Auckland Islands has been broadly ascertained.

3. Much has been done in the matter of sea-water temperatures and salinities.

[TEXT ILl.u.s.tRATIONS]

A Section of the Floor of the Southern Ocean between Tasmania and King George V Land

A Section of the Floor of the Southern Ocean between Western Australia and Queen Mary Land

APPENDIX Ill

An Historical Summary**

** For this compilation reference has been largely made to Dr. H. R.

Mill's ”The Siege of the South Pole.” Several doubtful voyages during the early part of the nineteenth century have been omitted.