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VII. CLIMATOLOGY OF SOUTH VICTORIA LAND AND THE 



NEIGHBOURING SEAS. 



BY 



M. W. CAMPBELL HEPWORTH, C.B., COMMANDER R.N.R. 

 [SEE TABLES, Pp. 408-415.] 



IN the following memoir nil barometrical observations utilized have been corrected for instrumental error 

 and reduced to sea-level and to 32 F. When a maximum or minimum pressure, or temperature, is 

 mentioned, it is in all cases the absolute maximum, or the absolute minimum, that is referred to. The 

 range of pressure, or temperature, given is the extreme range. Observations for temperature on the sledge 

 journeys usually relate to readings of a thermometer exposed to the free air ; occasionally to those of a 

 sling thermometer. All wind directions are referred to the true meridian, and the wind force is estimated 

 by the Beaufort scale. 



Among the Expeditions taking part in International Antarctic Exploration during the years 1901-04, the 

 British, in the " Discovery," under the command of Commander (now Captain) E. F. SCOTT, E.N., M.V.O., 

 was the only one to reach high latitudes early in the year of 1902. The inquiry relating to the general 

 meteorology of the Antarctic, so far as concerns the months of January and February of that year, is 

 confined, therefore, to the comparatively limited regions visited by the "Discovery," and, from the 

 9th of February, to the locality chosen by Captain SCOTT for Winter Quarters. 



But, although the inquiry is thus limited, as regards the area to be investigated in those months, the 

 information available for discussion is nevertheless considerable, for not only are there at our disposal the 

 meteorological observations referred to, made by Lieutenant C. W. R. ROYDS, R.N., and his assistants, 

 during the first two months of 1902, but there are also, for comparison with them, a large number of data 

 obtained, for the most part in the same localities as those visited by the " Discovery," by two former 

 Expeditions. 



The first of these Expeditions was made in H.M.S.'s "Erebus" and "Terror" in the years 1841-2, under 

 the command of Captain Sir JAMES Ross, R.N., F.R.S. ; the second in the steam yacht "Southern Cross," 

 in 1898-1900, led by Mr. C. E. BORCHGREVINK. 



For a discussion relating to the general meteorology of the Antarctic, the information obtained by the 

 National Antarctic Expedition may, perhaps, be considered the most important of any contributed in 

 recent years, even if the data obtained by the Expeditions undertaken by other countries taking part in 

 the International Antarctic Exploration of the years 1901-4 covered the same period, for, with the 

 exception of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition, under Mr. W. S. BRUCE, those of other countries 

 were confined to latitudes merely on the fringe of Antarctica. 



Mr. BRUCE, in the " Scotia," made two bold dashes to the southward, in the Weddell Sea, attaining 

 during his second cruise the 74th parallel of south latitude, where uncharted land was discovered. 



From the date on which the " Discovery " crossed the Antarctic Circle to the time of her arrival in 

 McMurdo Sound the results of her observations dealt with in this memoir relate to areas over which she 

 travelled during successive periodr, in the month of January and part of February, 1902. Results of 

 observations obtained in former years (1) by the Expedition under Sir JAMES Ross in 1841-2, (2) by the 

 "Southern Cross" Expedition, under Mr. C. E. BORCHGREVINK, in 1899-1900, relating to the same areas, 

 in the months of January and February, are then given consecutively for comparison. 



The observations recorded by the "Discovery" Expedition, during the remainder of February, in 

 McMurdo Sound, are afterwards discussed. 



In the treatment of the records of the various Expeditions which took part in recent Antarctic 



3 H 



