PREFACE. 



TIIK prrnMit volume complete* the publication of all the Physical remits of the Nation*] Antarctic 

 ii. Hi of which the xiipvrvuion was undertaken by the Royal Society. It comprises Pan II. <>f the 

 Meteorology, of which Part I. wa* issued in 1908. 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 HKPWORTII, C.B., Marine Superintendent on the staff of the 

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

 not only the detailed resulu of the daily observations of the Expedition, )>ut combines also a large numU-r 

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

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

 (MI unions daily picture of the changing meteorological conditions in the whole Antarctic region south of 

 the 30th parallel of latitude. 



An opportunity u afforded here to refer to certain objections made by Captain SOOTT 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 statement* 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." He 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 ROTDS' 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 1 45* 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 68 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 mugMtte 

 correction, Captain SOOTT 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. 284-563) 

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

 that it is difficult to see 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 oat that 



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