480 Transactions. — MmeUaneous. 



request. The average yield of oil from our black wbale is about 

 7 tons, and of baleen about 7 c-svt., so that the value of the 

 baleen from each wbale would be about £500 sterling. 



The advantages of steam-power for either whaling or 

 exploring are so many that it would be tedious to enumerate 

 them ; but many of them are obvious. Good smart men will 

 naturally ship in a steam-whaler in preference to another, 

 because there is such constant life and stir ; while in the ordi- 

 nary South Sea whaler there is so much idle time that men are 

 apt to fall into lazy habits. I may mention here one considera- 

 tion in favour of our undertaking exploration in only some such 

 economical way as that I am advocating. Were an expensive 

 expedition to start now they would go out in utter ignorance of 

 the present state of the ice. Now, we know that the position of 

 the Antarctic pack varies in different years to a surprising 

 extent. As an instance of this, Koss penetrated the pack for 

 about 800 miles in about the 156th meridian of West longi- 

 tude, and then found himself only about half a degree beyond 

 Cook, who had found open water there. From this it seems not 

 improbable that a succession of severe seasons may bring about 

 conditions so unfavourable to exploration that any attempt 

 would be likely to end in failure, if not in disaster ; while 

 several mild seasons in succession might open a road and make 

 success comparatively easy. Steam-whalers belonging to the 

 Colony might work the grounds near home during the colder 

 months ; but it would be short-sighted policy to work these 

 grounds all the year round if the black whale abounds in higher 

 latitudes. 



If found necessary, some special encouragement might be 

 held out to induce the men to push to the southward during the 

 summer months in quest of the black whale, and from their 

 reports on the state of the ice some judgment might be formed 

 as to whether the time were favourable for exploration and for 

 a scientific staff to go out. A yearly reconnaissance of the ice 

 to the southward might prove very valuable to the farmers of 

 Southland, encouraging them to lay down a good breadth of 

 land in wheat when the ice was at a distance, and warning them 

 to be content with chiefly the hardier sorts of grain when the 

 ice had made any considerable approach to us. 



Any scientific staff ought to be accompanied, if possible, by 

 a really good photographer, for good photographs from the weird 

 Antarctic regions would possess an interest for the civilized 

 world. After some experience gained of the ice to the south- 

 ward, an excursion trip might be attractive to many, and, if 

 advertised beforehand in Europe and America, it seems not 

 unlikely that scientific men there would eagerly embrace such 

 an opportunity of studying glacial phenomena. 



li" such a field as we possess to the southward for the display . 



