DRAMATIC ANNOUNCEMENTS OF COOK AND PEARY 25 



for an entire year frozen in the ice. Three expeditions, German, 

 Swedish and British, were sent south in 1901, of which the Swedish 

 had a very severe experience, while the British, under Captain 

 Robert E. Scott, made a sledge trip over the ice to latitude 82 

 degrees 17 minutes south, 250 miles nearer the Pole than had before 

 been reached. 



With Scott's party was Lieutenant Shackleton, of the British 

 Navy, who went again in 1907 and had the remarkable good for- 

 tune of reaching, in January, 1909, a point in miles from the South 

 Pole. Instead of a sea as in the north, he found here a continental 

 extent of land, the Pole being situated on a plateau 10,000 to 11,000 

 feet high. His signal success gave such impetus to the spirit of 

 south polar research in England that Captain Scott began prepara- 

 tions for a second venture, proposing to take with him Manchurian 

 ponies, Arctic dogs and a motor car, as Shackleton had done, with 

 a fixed determination of planting the British flag on the Pole, if 

 possible. He is now actively engaged in preparations for this 

 expedition. 



Such is a preliminary statement of the leading events in polar 

 research. As may be seen, the year 1909 ranks high in the record, 

 the triumph of Peary and Shackleton being made in that year, and 

 also the announcement of Cook's prior success. It is of great 

 interest to be able to state that man's conquest of the air made its 

 greatest progress in the same year, since it saw Count Zeppelin's 

 phenomenal voyage in an air-ship of over eight hundred miles, and 

 Bleriot's striking feat of crossing the English Channel in an 

 aeroplane, which latter flying machine broke all previous records 

 in the same year. 



With this brief digest of the progress of polar discovery, as 

 preliminary to the full treatment that follows, we may return to the 

 question already asked: What does it all signify? Of what use or 

 utility is it? Shall we answer this insistent question again, using 

 Dr. Franklin's reply to a somewhat similar question : "Of what use 

 is a baby?" 



