SCIENTISTS AT WORK 



quarters at a spot so fruitful for their labours. Murray- 

 was equally pleased at the prospect of the biological 

 work which lay before him, for hardly a day passed 

 without some one bringing in a report of the existence 

 of another lake or tarn, and soon we realised that 

 around us lay more than a dozen of these lakelets, 

 which might possibly prove a fruitful field for biological 

 study. To Mawson the many varied forms of ice 

 and snow, both in the lakes and on the surrounding 

 hills, gave promise of encouraging results in that branch 

 of physics in which he was particularly interested. 

 The lengthening nights also gave us indications that the 

 mysterious Aurora Australis would soon be waving its 

 curtains and beams over our winter quarters, and as 

 information on this phenomenon was greatly needed, 

 Mawson made preparations for recording the displays. 



I have already stated that the meteorological screen 

 had been set up and observations begun before the 

 Erebus party left. Now that all hands were back at the 

 hut, a regular system of recording the observations 

 was arranged. Adams, who was the meteorologist 

 of the expedition, took all the observations from 8 a.m. 

 to 8 p.m. The night-watchman took them from 10 p.m. 

 til 6 a.m. These observations were taken every two 

 hours, and it may interest the reader to learn what 

 was done in this way, though I do not wish to enter 

 here into a lengthy dissertation on meteorology. The 

 observations on air temperature, wind and direction 

 of cloud have an important bearing on similar observa- 

 tions taken in more temperate climes, and in a place 

 like the Antarctic, where up till now our knowledge 

 has been so meagre, it was most essential that every 

 bit of information bearing on meteorological phenom- 

 ena should be noted. We were in a peculiarly favour- 

 able position for observing not only the changes that 



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