XIV. 



being the one they had the honour of having as a guest that 

 evening, Captain Amundsen. Hobart was eminently a British 

 city, and wherever there was a British city there was a lot of 

 pluck, endurance and sportsmanship, and he was sure that 

 all these qualities were jxissessed in an eminent degree by 

 Captain Amundsen. (Applause.) Hobart had received no 

 small share of the labours of Sir John Franklin, and he ventur- 

 ed to hope also that it shared the honour which his name car- 

 ried with it. He trusted that a very large amount of that 

 honour would fall on Captain Amundsen, for following up so 

 nobly the work which Sir John Franklin had so magnificently 

 begun. (Applause.) In regard to the other expeditions, he 

 was sure they would honour Captain Scott's and the Japanese 

 none the less if they got to the Pole. The same hardships would 

 have had to be endured, and the same grit had to be shown, 

 and they could admire all three expeditions equalh'. He, for 

 one, ventured to think that all three would get to the Pole. 

 Ihat night, however, they re-nembered that Captain Amund- 

 sen and his brave comrades had cari'ied off the palm of vdctory, 

 and got to the Pole first, and he was sure that in no city of the 

 Fmpire would Captain Amundsen meet with greater admiration 

 for his pluck, or warmer recognition of the personal qualities 

 he had revealed, than in Hobart. (Applause.) 



Mr. Beattie then showed a number of fine views of Tas- 

 manian scenery, and also some photographs taken by Dr. 

 Mawson's party during the trip of the Aurora to the Antarctic 

 legions. 



Admiral King-Hall returned thanks, on behalf of the visi- 

 tors, for the enjoyatle evening that the Royal Society had en- 

 abled them to spend, and he also thanked J^Ir. Beattie for the 

 beautiful views he had shown of a most beautiful country. One 

 could learn more through the eye in half an hour than he could 

 learn in ten hours from books, and he had learnt more about 

 Tasmania that evening than he had learnt from all the books 

 lie had read. Tlie beautiful views he had seen showed that 

 Mr. Beattie also was an explorer, and must have shown great 

 energy and vigour in getting them. One of the views, that 

 of the Montezuma Falls on the West Coast, reminded him of 

 the Fall of the Seven Rivers in Norway, and he was sure Cai> 

 tain Amundsen must have been struck bj^ the resemblance. 



Captain Amundsen, who was received with loud applause, 

 said that he would also like to return thanks for the recep> 

 tion which had been given him that night, which he certainly 

 appreciated highly. His limited knowledge of English would 

 prevent him expressing fully all that he felt, and they must there- 

 fore excuse him on that aocount. The name of Sir John 

 Franklin had been mentioned as the greatest explorer who ever 

 lived, but he thought it was difficult to tell who was the great- 

 est amongst so many great exploiers that there Avere in the 

 British Empire. In his \iev,\ Sir" James Clark Ross was the 

 ^greatest, and he had certainly done more in the Arctic than 

 anyone else had done. As far as he (the speaker) was person- 

 ally concerned, he did not know if he was worthy of the praise 

 which they had given him. He did not think he was. He was 

 just following in the footsteps of the British explorers, Ross 

 and Franklin. They went to the North, and he followed them 



