PREFACE. 



THE present volume completes the publication of all the Physical results of the National Antarctic 

 Expedition of which the supervision was undertaken by the Eoyal Society. It comprises Part II. of the 

 Meteorology, of which Part I. was issued in 1008. The delay in the appearance of the volume has arisen 

 chiefly from the labour attending the preparation of the Charts, a task which has been carried through 

 under the superintendence of Commander HEPWOKTH, C.B., Marine Superintendent on the staff of the 

 Meteorological Office, who has supplied the Introductory Text. It will be seen that the volume presents 

 not only the detailed results of the daily observations of the Expedition, but combines also a large number 

 of contemporary observations obtained by other Antarctic explorers, by observatories in various parts of 

 the Southern Hemisphere, and by the Captains of vessels traversing the Antarctic seas. It thus offers a 

 continuous daily picture of the changing meteorological conditions in the whole Antarctic region south of 

 the 30th parallel of latitude. 



An opportunity is afforded here to refer to certain objections made by Captain SCOTT to some of the 

 statements contained in Part I. of the Meteorology, which was issued in the summer of the year 1908. 

 Shortly before this distinguished polar explorer was about to sail on the Antarctic Expedition which he is 

 now conducting, in letters addressed to me, he called attention to these statements containing criticisms of 

 the work of his Expedition of 1901-1904. Some of these criticisms, in his opinion, showed a want of 

 appreciation of the practical difficulties of observation in high latitudes, while others involved errors 

 of statement which he wished to correct. 



As regards the latter, he maintained, in the first place, that the observations of the directions of wind 

 taken on the land were "true" and not, as was suggested, "magnetic." lie pointed out that in a region 

 like that around the Magnetic Pole, where the horizontal magnetic force is very slight and magnetic 

 directions are constantly changing, and where, therefore, it is impracticable to travel by compass, it was 

 necessary that constant attention should be given to keep the course true, and that this necessity was fully 

 realised by himself and his staff. He therefore dissented from the suggestion (text, pp. 489, 490; 

 Preface, p. xii.) that the observations recorded in Lieutenant ROYDS* important traverse across the ice- 

 barrier in the months of November and December, 1903, were probably made by compass. That 

 suggestion occurs in connection with the contention that if a mean correction of 145 E., which is the 

 deviation at the Winter Quarters, be applied to these observations, the winds recorded as coming from the 

 S.W. to the extent of G8 per cent, are found to be from E. by N. and are thus brought into harmony with 

 those registered at the Winter Quarters. While protesting against this introduction of a magnetic 

 correction, Captain SCOTT pointed out that the correction will not give the desired result, for it has been 

 put in the wrong direction, viz., westerly instead of easterly, and that even when it is correctly applied, 

 the direction of the 68 per cent, of wind would be N. by E. and not E. by N., as stated in the Table 

 on p. 490. 



Captain SCOTT maintained that, apart from all explanatory theory, the wind observations taken on the 

 sledge-journey in question were perfectly trustworthy, and were in harmony with those made during 

 other sledge-journeys of the Expedition, which combine to indicate a preponderance of southerly and 

 westerly winds in the region under observation, and as he conceives, lend no support to the generalisation 

 that the dominant direction of the surface winds is there from the east. 



Another complaint of Captain SCOTT had reference to the insertion of a column (No. 3, pp. 284-363) 

 purporting to give the positions of the sledge-parties at noon each day of their journeys. He remarked 

 that it is difficult to sec how the figures in this column were obtained, and that they are constantly in 

 error. Citing in illustration his own sledge-journey of October to December, 1903, he pointed out thai 



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