xl INTRODUCTION. 



Doubtless no Arctic expedition can ever depart 

 without a full equipment of sledges, any more than an 

 ordinary ship can sail on a voyage without her proper 

 complement of boats, for the reason that sledges are the 

 only means of locomotion in these regions ; but whether 

 it is justifiable to equip another essentially sledging 

 expedition with any lesser objects than these — that is, 

 to trace the barren outline of desolate coasts probably 

 wrapped in eternal ice, and never again to be visitedi, 

 and this at the cost of so much suffering and so much 

 treasure — is more questionable. Let the nation decide. 

 Geography has little to gain by it, science perhaps less, 

 for whatever science has gained by such voyages — 

 and the gain has been considerable — has been by ex- 

 ploration in the neighbourhood of the ships' winter- 

 quarters, and not through the efforts of extended 

 travelling parties, who have neither the time nor the 

 means to devote to it. There are wide fields for 

 geographical and scientific research in other regions, 

 by which the whole human race would be gainers ; and 

 though England, as she is bound to do, does more than 

 any other nation in such work, she is very far in these 

 respects from fulfilling her mission. Hundreds of her 

 national ships plough the ocean in time of peace, their 

 almost sole occupation the training and preparation for 

 war, and in the very nature of things, so far as scien- 

 tific research is concerned, they leave no deeper mark 

 than the track which the sea obliterates behind them, 

 while the few — too few — grudgingly appropriated from 

 the largest navy in the world place their ineffaceable 

 stamp on works of usefulness which last for ever. 



George Henry Etchards. 



