30 THE FRIENDLY ARCTIC 



had to stop anyhow, we might as well use the opportunity to teach 

 our "bunch of scientific tenderfeet" that fresh water could be got 

 from sea ice. 



This remark recalled a series of episodes beginning in an im- 

 pressive suite in a London hotel where I had gone to call on Sir 

 John Murray, who at that time divided with the Prince of Monaco 

 the honor of being considered by scientific men the leading living 

 authority on oceanography. I was in Europe for the purpose of 

 securing special scientific equipment and a few experts for our 

 technical staff, for, the expedition being British, we desired to get 

 in other parts of the Empire, so far as possible, such men as were 

 not available in Canada. On the advice of my friend, Dr. W. S. 

 Bruce, Director of the Scottish Oceanographical Laboratory, and, 

 so far as polar waters were concerned, a more trustworthy adviser 

 than any one else in the world, I had already selected as the 

 oceanographer for the expedition James Murray, who had been 

 biologist with Shackleton on his first Antarctic expedition. Before 

 serving with Shackleton James Murray had been associated with 

 Sir John Murray in the Scottish Lochs Survey. We had now gone 

 to call on Sir John for advice as to the proper equipment to carry 

 and what problems to stress in our work. After a technical discus- 

 sion of two or three hours as to various forms of sounding-machines, 

 dredges, nets and other paraphernalia for ocean investigation. Sir 

 John ordered refreshments and we spent a pleasant hour listening 

 to his reminiscences of the Challenger Expedition "which discovered 

 a new world at the bottom of the sea," and his later ocean ad- 

 ventures. 



Among the stories told by Sir John was one of a cruise in north- 

 ern waters, I think north of Norway or perhaps farther east. On 

 this occasion they ran short of fresh water and something was 

 wrong with the distilling apparatus, so that the ship's company 

 were in difficulties. The sea where they were was mainly open, but 

 here and there were small scattered floes, and off on the horizon 

 they could see ice blink, indicating that more extensive ice was 

 lying just beyond range of vision. It occurred to Sir John, he told 

 us, that possibly this more extensive ice might have been formed 

 in the mouth of one of the great Siberian rivers, for from his knowl- 

 edge of ocean currents he thought it not at all improbable that 

 ice which had lain in the mouth of one of these rivers the previous 

 spring might now be floating somewhere in their vicinity, although 

 the distance was considerable. He spoke of this possibility to the 

 captain, and the ship steered towards the ice blink and presently 



