“Pack-ice”.  A more restricted use than the above, to include hummocky floes or close areas of young ice and light floes.  Pack-ice is “close” or “tight” if the floes constituting it are in contact; “open” if, for the most part, they do not touch.  In both cases it hinders, but does not necessarily check, navigation; the contrary holds for

“Drift-ice”.  Loose open ice, where the area of water exceeds that of ice.  Generally drift-ice is within reach of the swell, and is a stage in the breaking down of pack-ice, the size of the floes being much smaller than in the latter. (Scoresby’s use of the term drift-ice for pieces of ice intermediate in size between floes and brash has, however, quite died out).  The Antarctic or Arctic pack usually has a girdle or fringe of drift-ice.

“Brash”.  Small fragments and roundish nodules; the wreck of other kinds of ice.

“Bergy Bits”.  Pieces, about the size of a cottage, of glacier-ice or of hummocky pack washed clear of snow.

“Growlers”.  Still smaller pieces of sea-ice than the above, greenish in colour, and barely showing above water-level.

“Crack”.  Any sort of fracture or rift in the sea-ice covering.

“Lead” or “Lane”.  Where a crack opens out to such a width as to be navigable.  In the Antarctic it is customary to speak of these as leads, even when frozen over to constitute areas of young ice.

“Pools”.  Any enclosed water areas in the pack, where length and breadth are about equal.

METEOROLOGY By L. D. A. HUSSEY, B.Sc., (Lond.), Capt.  R.G.A.

The meteorological results of the Expedition, when properly worked out and correlated with those from other stations in the southern hemisphere, will be extremely valuable, both for their bearing on the science of meteorology in general, and for their practical and economic applications.

South America is, perhaps, more intimately concerned than any other country, but Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa are all affected by the weather conditions of the Antarctic.  Researches are now being carried on which tend to show that the meteorology of the two hemispheres is more interdependent than was hitherto believed, so that a meteorological disturbance in one part of the world makes its presence felt, more or less remotely perhaps, all over the world.

It is evident, therefore, that a complete knowledge of the weather conditions in any part of the world, which it is understood carries with it the ability to make correct forecasts, can never be obtained unless the weather conditions in every other part are known.  This makes the need for purely scientific Polar Expeditions so imperative, since our present knowledge of Arctic and Antarctic meteorology is very meagre, and to a certain extent unsystematic.  What is wanted is a chain of observing stations well equipped with instruments and trained observers stretching across the Antarctic Continent.  A series of exploring ships could supplement these observations with others made by them while cruising in the Antarctic Seas.  It would pay to do this, even for the benefit accruing to farmers, sailors, and others who are so dependent on the weather.