Travebs. — Presidential Address. 117 



researches which will doubtless be shortly attempted in this 

 direction. 



There appears also to be ground for supposing that the 

 greater portion of the interior of the antarctic continent will 

 be found to be free from snow, at all events during the 

 summer, or, in other words, that the area of precipitation 

 of the snow which gives rise to the coastal ice cannot extend 

 very far inland. There are, unquestionably, lueteorological 

 grounds for this assumption, which, however, can only be 

 verified or disproved by actual exploration. 



In connection with this branch of my address, I may be 

 permitted to quote the following passages from a paper written 

 by that veteran in the advocacy of north polar explorations, 

 Mr. Clements Markham, in the year 1885, which may, with 

 equal appropriateness, be used with reference to the proposed 

 expeditions to the south polar regions : — 



"Voyages of discovery have been, since the dawn of 

 modern times, one of the chief causes of England's power 

 and greatness. The material wealth which they have been 

 the means of pouring into her lap is incalculable. For this 

 alone they will ever be a leading feature in the history of a 

 mighty commercial nation ; for this alone they have been 

 fitted out by many a merchant adventurer ; and for this they 

 have been incessantly urged upon the attention of many 

 successive Governments. But it is not on account of the 

 commercial advantages that have been derived from the 

 labours of the explorer that those labours are to be most 

 prized, seeing that it is not to wealth alone that England 

 owes her greatness. Exploring adventures by sea and land 

 have done as much to increase the store of knowledge as any 

 other kind of research. They have led the way to the 

 creation of that colonial empire which has spread the Anglo- 

 Saxon dominion far and wide over the earth They have 

 fostered the spirit of enterprise, and formed the nursery for 

 the best of our seamen. They have been a school for our best 

 officers, educating them in that calm self-reliance which the 

 presence of danger alone can give. They have been most 

 important agents of civilisation, creating a brotherly feeling 

 of sympathy between the nations in time of peace, and giving 

 one bright side even to the horrors of war, for, by the courtesy 

 of international law, a scientific expedition is respected by all 

 civilised nations. Let it once be known that an expedition of 

 discovery will add to the sum of human knowledge, that it 

 will lead to valuable scientific results, and that there is no 

 chance of the men who compose it being overtaken by a 

 catastrophe such as that which befel Sir John Franklin's 

 people, and it ought to receive cordial support from public 

 opinion. All men may not fully appreciate the value of 



