RETURN OF THE ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 117 



lieard sufficient to justify us in greeting our guests to-night 

 as the first explorers who have penetrated that mysterious 

 land of whose limits we as yet know so little, but which we 

 assuredly may speak of as a continent, since, on a very 

 moderate estimate, its size exceeds that of Australia. Mr, 

 Borchgrevink is also the first to have reached the Southern 

 Magnetic Pole; and it gratifies our just pride as citizens 

 of Greater Britain that our flag has now been raised over 

 this end of the great earth magnet, as it was raised nearlv 

 seventy years ago over the northern end hv Mr. Borchgre- 

 vink's great predecessor in Antarctic work. Sir James Clark 

 Ross.* In the situation of the two magnetic poles there 

 is a wide difference. The Northern Magnetic Pole is on the 

 mainland of America, in a region more or less inhabited, or 

 at least which is further south than districts permanently 

 occupied by the Esquimaux, forming, indeed, a part of the 

 Doir.inion of Canada. On the other hand, the South Mag- 

 netic Pole lies beyond many hundreds of miles of ice-covered 

 ocean and land, and fully two thousand miles from the 

 nearest dwelling of man. But I do not invite you to welcome 

 our guests to-night as mere adventurous explorers — as men 

 who have suffered hardships and overcome difficulties in 

 going where no one has been before, and who by- and -bye 

 will excite in us an arm-chair interest through the narration 

 of those hardships and difficulties. They have a far more 

 important, a far more serious claim to our regard; for they 

 have carried with them into those unknown regions of the 

 earth scientific training and skill, and they have brought 

 back results which will in due time be built up into that 

 ever- glowing fabric of co-ordinated knowledge which is one 

 of the chief glories and delights of the human mind. It is 

 especially approj«riate to us, as members of a Society whose 

 aim is the promotion of Science, to bear this in mind; but I 

 will proceed upon a broader basis than the fact that I am 

 addressing the Royal Society of Tasmania. It is the birth- 

 right of every civilised man or woman to take joy in the 

 l^rogress of knowledge, even of knowledge which in all its 

 details we individually do not, perhaps cannot, understand. 

 And this is the true answer to that irritating cpestion which 

 shallow minds sometimes put when they hear of some new 

 scientific discovery, "But is it of any use?" One wants to 

 ask such people iu return, " What do you mean by use? Do 

 you mean something that will help some one to get richer?" 

 For we can hardly help suspecting that this is the idea in 

 most cases underlying the question. When we say a 

 thing is of use, we understand by this that it satisfies or helps 

 to satisfy some human want. And is not the desire to 



* Sir John Ross was in command of this Arctic expedition, but it was his 

 jiephew, Lieut. J. C. Ross who first reached the Magnetic Pole, 1831. 



