Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 65.djvu/91

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE.
87

one, under present conditions, the universal forage consisting of grass cut fresh every day and sold to supply the need from day to day. Among the forage plants tested by the bureau, teosinte has given great promise, yielding enormous crops of green fodder and giving many cuttings. Nowhere in the Philippines is any attempt made to produce hay, although this is thought to be entirely practicable.

These are only a few of the more prominent lines which the bureau has already entered upon, in addition to its explorations and the publication of technical and popular bulletins, frequently in both English and Spanish. While its work has of necessity been quite largely preliminary thus far, it has clearly indicated the great opportunities which are open to it, and the value which it may be in improving and developing the underlying industry of the archipelago.

ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.

The safe return of the British Antarctic expedition is announced by cable from New Zealand. It appears that the relief ships sent by the British government, the Morning and the Terranova, which left Hobart on December 5, reached the Discovery on January 5. The ice began to break at 1 he end of the month, assisted by systematic dynamiting. On February 12 a general break-up brought the relief ships to Hut Point, and on February 14 two heavy charges of dynamite placed the Discovery in open water. In the succeeding days the heavy gales drove the vessels apart and the Discovery was driven ashore, where she remained for eight hours in a critical position before she freed herself. During the antarctic summer Captain Scott and his party made two excursions westward over a glacier. They gained the summit on October 11 and crossed the magnetic meridian on October 20 in longitude 15512 east. Proceeding still westward, the party reached a point 270 miles from the ship in latitude 78, south longitude 14612 east. The interior of South Victoria is evidently a vast continental plateau stretching continuously upward for 9,000 feet. In November another party reached a point 160 geographical miles southeast of the

The Scotia in Scotia Bay.