Anyhow, his route will be entirely different from Scott's, at least during the greater part of the journey; and thus important discoveries may be expected from both of them. There is great reason to be glad that those expeditions are undertaken at the same time, as the value of the observations of the one will be greaty increased by the simultaneous observations of the other; and it is only to be regretted that the German and Japanese expeditions which are now on their way south, as well as the great Australian expedition, could not have started in the same year. For the more simultaneous observations we can obtain from these still unknown or little known regions, the better. The physical conditions there are so entirely different from those of all known regions of the earth.

We will look forward to hearing what wonderful news the spring will bring us from the south.

Whatever that news may be, the task of polar explorers will be far from ended. It will only have entered on a new stage. I shall be glad to hear that the South Pole has been reached, whoever gets there. The farthest south and the farthest north points on the earth's surface will then both have been attained. There will be no more temptation to make other objects subservient to record-breaking. I do not disparage the sentiment which has led men to try to reach the Poles. It is a natural sentiment. It is inevitable that it should have played a large part in polar exploration. But now the time has come to give first place to the needs of science. Much remains to be discovered geographically in the polar regions, especially in the south; and geographical discovery-the actual unveiling of the geographical conditions as opposed to more or less ingenious speculation-must be the basis of all sound knowledge of the polar regions as of every other part of the world. It is not the completed structure. It is the foundation on which to erect careful investigations into phenomena that play an important part in determining the life of the outside world. Problems in meteorology, in terrestrial magnetism, in the flow of ocean currents, in the physical history of the earth, problems of practical moment as well as of scientific interest, depend for their solution on a fuller and more accurate knowledge of the

conditions which are still the secret of polar lands and seas. No-the conquest of the Poles does not mark the end of polar exploration; we are only on the fringe of the work which has to be accomplished.

In looking to the future, we find a valuable subject for consideration in the equipment of polar expeditions and the possibilities of improving on past experience. If it be true of warfare that the battle is half won before it begins, it is no less true of polar expeditions that their success is determined very largely by the preparations made before they start. The preparations are dependent upon the commodities and contrivances available, but also, and chiefly, on the man. So it always was and still is. If we go back to early medieval times, or even to antiquity, we find very much the same difficulties and the same dangers met with in the travels toward the north as we find quite lately, and it is remarkable how very little things have changed and how the chief features in the methods and equipment of northern journeys have been very much the same at all ages until quite recently. It is also wonderful how the men themselves seem to have been made of very much the same stuff..

He

I may mention, as an example, the discovery and exploration of Greenland, by Eric the Red, the description of which was put into writing in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and which probably took place at the end of the tenth century. We see how Eric equipped his ship in Iceland and made ready for the voyage, after having been declared an outlaw for three years on account of quarrels and slaughter. said that he would go out to seek the land toward the west, of which there had been rumors in Iceland. He came to the east coast of Greenland, saw its great glaciers, sailed along the coast round Cape Farewell, discovered the south coast, spent the first winter there, explored the west coast during the two following years, went into the fjords, and finally returned to Iceland after three years' absence.

Concise as it is, this wonderful story seems to me to show many striking similarities to the narratives of modern voyages of exploration, and I feel tempted sometimes to doubt whether the world is actually developing as much as we generally believe. This happened five hundred years before

the rediscovery of America by Columbus and Cabot. I think that this Norse exploration of Greenland a thousand years ago equals any modern polar exploration both as regards importance and as regards the way in which it was carried out.

It is, however, indisputable that the exploration of the polar regions has made unusually rapid strides forward during the last few decades. The goals of explorers of centuries have been attained-the Northwest Passage has been accomplished by one little ship, the North Pole has been reached, the Arctic coasts have been explored all round the North Polar Sea, so there is now hardly any outline of known land left undiscovered. In Antarctic regions, almost unknown until quite recently, energetic explorers have made wonderful journeys revealing to us the secrets of the interior parts of this region, and the South Pole itself, as we have seen, may even now be the newly won prize of one if not of two expeditions. What is the cause of these great achievements of late years? Are they due to new inventions which have proved of great help? I do not think that this can be said to be the case to any great extent. The success of an expedition depends now, as it did before, chiefly on the man, but, at the same time, I think it must be admitted that the methods of equipping and leading polar expeditions have become more systematic than they used to be in earlier days. If I compare the contrivances and experiences which were at my disposal when I began exploring work with the equipment and methods of modern expeditions, I find undoubtedly some great differences.

When I made ready for the expedition across Greenland in 1888, and was trying to make use of the experiences of earlier explorers, it struck me how little the principles for fitting out Arctic expeditions had been systematically worked out in detail. I found, for instance, no discussion of what the rational allowance of food for each man of a sledge party ought to be, or how the food ought to be composed in order to give the most favorable nourishment of the body in those surroundings. I could learn of no experiments as to which kind of sledges was preferable, what kind of runners ought to be used, whether wood or metal, what shape they ought to be in order to run most easily across the snow and ice fields, what the

preferable load on each sledge would be, etc., etc.

In all these matters great improvements have since been effected, and the advance of mechanical science has suggested other and novel aids to progress. The utility of the motor-car for the penetration of the polar regions I have already discussed in connection with the race for the South Pole. When it is better developed for the purpose, it may become useful. It still remains to mention the possibility of airships and aeroplanes being used for polar work. As is well known, both the balloon and the airship have been tried for the crossing of the North Polar regions, but, unfortunately, with very sad results. Andrée, with his two comrades who tried the balloon, never returned. The Wellman attempt with an airship could not, of course, be expected to be successful, as he had very little experience in travelling by this means before he started from Spitzbergen. I do. not see why it should not be possible to use an airship with advantage in the polar regions when they have been sufficiently well developed so that it can be said with confidence that they are perfectly under the leader's control.

As is known, the Germans propose to make an expedition of this nature from Spitzbergen as soon as they think that their airship is sufficiently improved for the purpose, and I feel convinced that very important exploration work may be carried out in this way. There is, however, one disadvantage with an airship, namely, that it is very big and bulky and if exposed to unfavorable weather it is somewhat difficult to deal with. It has also another drawback-that the gas of the balloon will leak out and the ship cannot easily be kept floating for any length of time. In this respect the aeroplane may have advantages when it gets more developed than it is at present and when its carrying power is much increased. It will then be possible to stop where you like for some time, in order to make your observations, etc., and I believe that the aeroplane, of some kind or another, will prove of great value for the future exploration of inaccessible regions.

It has been suggested that the polar bear might possibly be turned to account as a draught animal for polar expeditions. Captain Amundsen at one time considered the

advisability of trying to break in polar bears for the purpose, and mentioned it to the well-known Herr Hagenbeck, of Hamburg. Hagenbeck considered it very possible, and actually started to break in some bears, and, according to what I have heard, really to some extent succeeded. Anyhow, this experiment has not been made in the polar regions, but if it really were possible to train the polar bear for the purpose, he would naturally be an ideal draught animal for these regions: his strength and endurance are wonderful; like the dog, he can live on concentrated food; and, better than the dog, he has remarkable reserve powers, enabling him to live for a long time without any food. I am, however, afraid that the polar bear would be a somewhat risky and troublesome draught animal to use, as he might not always be very easy to manage.

For travelling across the ice-covered North Polar Sea it may be of importance to carry boats. In 1827 Parry tried to reach the North Pole by dragging boats across the drifting ice, but with little success; the boats were much too heavy. During the British expedition in 1875-6, when Albert Markham and his brave men travelled northward from Grinnell Land, they also pulled a much too heavy boat across the uneven ice. I myself have tried the pulling of heavy boats across the drifting ice in order to reach the east coast of Greenland in 1888, and many other expeditions have had similar experiences. In this respect I believe that Johansen's and my sledge-journey from the Fram to Franz-Josef Land in 1895-6 marks an improvement, as we carried light canvas boats, or kayaks, one for each man, weighing little more than thirtyfive pounds, and capable of holding an equipment for several months, besides carrying us and our sledges and dogs across the water-lanes in the ice. But here again the improvement was not due to any new invention; it was simply based upon the very old experiences of the Eskimos, their hide canoes, the kayaks, being used as models. They had, however, to be given a special shape and construction for the purpose. By carrying such boats a sledge expedition is made independent of open water which may be met with in the drifting ice. In fact, open water may be an advantage, as it should there be possible

to advance more easily and more rapidly than across the surface of the ice.

A method for the exploration of the polar regions which has been tried several times, sometimes involuntarily, sometimes voluntarily, is the drifting in a ship with the ice. This method was especially used with success during the Fram expedition of 1893-6 across the North Polar Basin. The Fram was specially designed and built for the purpose, on lines suited to stand the icepressures, so that she would be lifted by the squeezing ice and not crushed by it. I think this method may be considered a very good one, especially whenever thorough scientific investigations are required, because on board the drifting ship all kinds of scientific observations and researches, even of the most delicate and difficult kind, may be carried on. A specially constructed and very strong ship is, however, required, and also much patience, as the drifting takes a very long time. Captain Roald Amundsen, after having returned from the South Pole, and after having made the necessary supplementary equipment, which may take a year, intends to continue on his way with the Fram to Bering Strait, go into the ice in that region somewhere north or northwest of Alaska, and then drift with the ice straight across the North Polar Basin to the sea between Greenland and Spitzbergen. This drift may take five years at least, probably more. It will, however, give a splendid opportunity of exploring the still unknown regions, and promises to bring results of very great importance.

The gallant Russian Admiral Makaroff hoped to be able to reach the North Pole and to navigate the still unknown parts of the North Polar Basin by means of a very strong ice-breaker sufficiently powerful to force its way through the heavy polar ice. Supported by the Russian Government, he had the Yermak built by Armstrong in Newcastle. This ship, built of steel, was unusually strong and the engines could develop ten thousand horse-power, which seems a great deal, considering that the engine of the Fram, for example, only developed about two hundred and twenty indicated horse-power. The Yermak was certainly a very good ice-breaker and really did remarkable things in the Arctic Sea in the summers of 1899 and 1901; but the heavy polar ice proved too much even for

her, and she had to return after having begun to leak in consequence of the plates giving way in the bow.

Several schemes based upon the use of submarines for the exploration of the sea surrounding the North Pole have been propounded, but none of them has ever got much beyond the paper stage. The idea would naturally be that the submarines could dive under the ice, thus saving all the trouble connected with breaking your way through it or with traversing its rough surface. In the water-lanes between the floes of the drifting ice, covering the extensive area of sea, the submarine could come to the surface. Judging from my experience, I think it would always be possible, especially in the summer, to find, even in the interior of the North Polar Basin, waterlanes big enough for a submarine to rise to the surface; but the chief difficulty would probably be the great depths to which some parts of the polar ice descends, especially under the ridges and hummocks piled up by the pressures. The "foot" of these ice masses quite commonly goes down to one hundred and fifty feet, or even much more, below sea surface. In order to be certain

of avoiding very unpleasant collisions with these deep ice blocks, it would consequently be necessary for a submarine to keep at depths of two hundred feet or more while moving along. Apart from the difficulty of constructing submarines sufficiently strong to stand pressures at such depths, it seems to me very doubtful whether it would be possible to see the difference between the ice and the water-lanes at two hundred feet below the surface. Although it is not possible to say how much submarine navigation may still be developed, I do not consider it probable that it will ever prove of much advantage to polar exploration.

We thus see that after all modern inventions have not yet been of very much importance for polar exploration, especially not for sledge work, and it is a remarkable fact that Peary's great achievements were chiefly attained by employing Eskimos, with Eskimo methods, Eskimo dogs, and Eskimo sledges. These are the methods of transit which were used by these earliest of polar travellers, thousands of years ago.

It is still, as it always was, chiefly the man on which the results of an expedition depend! LONDON, 26th November, 1911.

VO DELAVOYE had developed a theory to match his name for the Estate. The baleful spirit of the notorious Lord Mulcaster still brooded over Witching Hill, and the innocent occupiers of the Queen Anne houses were one and all liable to the malign influence. Such was the modest proposition, put as fairly as can be expected of one who resisted it from the first; for both by temperament and training I was perhaps unusually proof against this kind of thing. But then I always held that Delavoye himself did not begin by believing in his own

idea, that he never thought of it before our subterranean adventure, and would have forgotten all about it but for the house with red blinds.

That vermilion house with the brave blinds of quite another red! I can still see them bleaching in the glare of those few August days.

It was so hot that the prematurely bronze leaves of the horse-chestnuts, behind the odd numbers in Mulcaster Park, were as crisp as tinfoil, while a tawny stubble defied the garden rollers of those tenants who had not been driven to the real country or the sea-side. Half our inhabited houses were