MlSfAKi:i.\(!K OF 



Care was taken to draw up special instructions for working the self-recording instruments in order to 

 secure correct timing and accurate records, and opportunity was also provided for members of the ship's 

 staff to practise the working of the instruments beforehand. Unfortunately, in consequence of changes in 

 the staff, these well-intentioned efforts failed altogether, and the meteorological observers under Lieutenant 

 C. W. R. KOYDS, R.N., had to do the best they could with the instruments which they found at their 

 disposal. 



This failure of communication between those responsible for supplying the instruments and those using 

 them accounts for some of the peculiarities in the procedure with regard to instruments. The presence of 

 an " index " in the low-temperature thermometers led the observers to set them apart for reading the 

 minimum and to use almost exclusively, for ordinary temperature readings, the mercury thermometers 

 which were included in the equipment as auxiliaries. It was never contemplated that the station barometers 

 would, as a rule, be so exposed as to fail because the attached thermometers were not graduated below F. 

 The Dines self-recording anemograph was sent out with the idea that the recording part would be 

 kept in the living room and that the conducting pipes would be lashed to the stove-pipe. It seems 

 doubtful, from what Lieutenant ROYDS says, whether even that provision would have got over the 

 difficulty of the pipes filling up with ice needles. The difficulties experienced with the sunshine recorder, 

 of which the records, sometimes practically continuous for 72 hours, are so interesting a feature of the 

 results, would not have occurred if the observer had had any previous experience with the instruments, 

 and a number of questions arise as to temperature differences, indicated by adjacent thermometers, which 

 cannot be answered by the information at our disposal. They must be left for an observer in some future 

 expedition who may be on the look-out for such differences when they occur. 



In spite of the disadvantages at which they were placed by the want of rehearsal, Lieutenant ROYDS 

 and his staff of observers must be congratulated upon their success in devising and carrying out 

 arrangements for the exposure of the instruments, and their devotion in maintaining the readings in such 

 inhospitable conditions. Many of the instruments used were of a new type, as applied in regions of 

 intense cold, and the notes which Lieutenant ROYDS has made will serve as a valuable guide to the 

 equipment of future expeditions. 



ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE DISCUSSION AND PUBLICATION OF THE OBSERVATIONS. MATERIAL 



AVAILABLE. 



When the Expedition left England no provision had been made for the discussion of the observations 

 which they were expected to bring back. Some preliminary observations, taken on the voyage to New 

 Zealand, which were sent home from Lyttelton, were forwarded to the Meteorological Office by the 

 Committee of the Expedition (26th March, 1902), with a request from the Presidents of the Royal and 

 Royal Geographical Societies for reports upon them. 



Later on (21st October, 1903) documents began to be received in response to a request for international 

 co-operation in the collection of daily observations at noon G.M.T. on land and sea beyond 30 S. latitude 

 during the period of the Expedition's stay in the Antarctic. The marine observations for which special 

 forms had been prepared and sent out to the ships of the Navy and the Mercantile Marine came to the 

 Meteorological Office, while records from certain observatories were sent to the Royal Society and were 

 forwarded thence to the Office. 



This led to correspondence as to the means of dealing with the data which were in process of collection 

 and which were ultimately summarised as follows : 



I. Observations of the " /'wr/rcn/ " Expedition. 



The METEOROLOGICAL REGISTER of the "Discovery" comprising two-hourly readings from November 29, 

 1901, to December 10, 1903, and thereafter daily observations only, with supplementary 

 observations, remarks, and also daily observations of temperature at Cape Armitage. 



The ROUGH BOOKS from which the registers had been compiled. 



MKTKOKUI.UCICAL REGISTERS (with ROUGH BOOKS) for the sledge journeys. 



