242 THE SOUTH POLE WILL BE FOUND 



they will find — a waste, and nothing more. The Antarctic cannot be populated, 

 unless with increasing knowledge mankind can devise some now undreamed-of 

 method of making life possible in the lands of perpetual ice. 



There is at the South Pole no race of Eskimos who have learned by years 

 of slow and dearly-bought experiences how to exist in the face of nature's 

 sternest obstacles. And yet it is conceivable that, in the far-distant future, as 

 civilization expands, and the wildernesses are inhabited, bands of pioneers will 

 penetrate the Antarctic and force their livelihood from its rocks and its frozen 

 seas. By such time, it may be believed, the Arctic region will already have 

 been seized upon by men of the skill and hardihood needful for those who blaze 

 the way. 



Then will the names of Franklin, Greely and Nansen, of Peary and 

 Cook, of Scott and Shackleton, have a luster far different from that which 

 shines about the heads of men who achieve great but empty feats. To men 

 like those will accrue the glory of heroes who extended the boundaries of the 

 earth and discovered a foundation-place for the homes of the world's future 

 millions. 



Admiral Schley, the man who rescued Greely, has discussed most force- 

 fully the question: "Does Arctic exploration pay?" Says he: 



"There are two sides to this Arctic problem. There is a material side and 

 there is a scientific side. ... It has been asked. What is the use of all 

 this loss of life? What is the use of all these expeditions? It may be said 

 from the material side that millions of square miles of discovered territory 

 have been added to our geography; that the gospel of Christ has been sent 

 into this north land ; that the domain of civilization has been extended ; that 

 the empire of commerce has been made to penetrate into this polar ocean, 

 which has resulted in adding millions of money to our material possession 

 and circulation. That being the case, it does seem to me that there is some 

 compensation, certainly, for the small loss of life which has attended these 

 expeditions." 



