78 Master Minds of Modern Science 



Hemisphere, and who hoped that a British subject might 

 complete the work which he began. 



The return journey was begun, and after hard travelling 

 for fifteen hours a day the scientists reached the point 

 at which it had been arranged for the ship to pick them 

 up. They were days beyond their time, which worried 

 both them and the party aboard, for if they missed the 

 ship they would be compelled at tremendous risk to 

 sledge over the sea-ice to Cape Royds. 



They arrived in time, and were taken on board after 

 covering a distance of over 1260 miles without any 

 assistance from dog-teams or supporting parties. And, 

 we may add, the Professor was as fit at the end of the 

 hard journey across the great snow desert as he had been 

 when setting out — a remarkable achievement. 



This account of the journeys made by Sir Edgeworth 

 David during that expedition by no means completes 

 the scientific work w T hich he accomplished while in the 

 South. Some of his other discoveries were referred to 

 by the Professor himself in a lecture which he after- 

 ward delivered at the Royal Institution in London. 



He referred then to the existence of a vast coalfield, 

 probably at least 1000 miles in length and from fifty to 

 eighty miles in width — perhaps the largest unworked 

 coalfield in the world — which was discovered in what is 

 known as the Australian sector of the Antarctic. The 

 expedition of which he was a member discovered seven 

 seams of coal at the head of the Beardmore Glacier, of 

 which at least one seam was of workable quality. 



Later discoveries, the Professor pointed out, prove that 

 when the numerous coalfields in this region were formed 

 there was probably little if any ice at the South Pole, the 

 whole continent being covered with a growth of dwarf 

 trees, probably of conifers and low shrubs. The evidence 

 on the American side of Antarctica indicates that at 

 three or more subsequent epochs what is now a land of 



