1902] LATER DEVELOPMENTS 303 



again, the effort was not sufficiently sustained to add greatly to 

 our knowledge. 



Since 1853 whatever improvement has been made in 

 sledging methods has been developed abroad, and it is abroad 

 therefore that the modern traveller must look for all that is 

 latest and best in this respect. But here also he is met by a 

 want of continuity and system ; and whilst he pauses to admire 

 the splendid efforts of individual travellers he cannot but 

 deplore the absence of a more systematic correlation of their 

 experiences, enabling each to benefit more fully by the diffi- 

 culties which his predecessor conquered. Notwithstanding 

 this drawback, however, there is much to be learnt from these 

 experiences : the inquirer will at least have embarked on a 

 history of absorbing interest, and he cannot but emerge a 

 wiser man if he follows it through the wild and sometimes 

 tragic expeditions of the latter half of the nineteenth century 

 and studies the historic journeys of such great explorers as 

 Peary and Fridtjof Nansen. 



The sledge equipment which we took to the South was the 

 result of much consultation ; in arranging it, I had to depend 

 largely on the experience of others, and especially on the 

 experience of one, Mr. Armitage, whose interests were identi- 

 fied with the expedition. From the commencement of that 

 busy year of preparation which preceded the departure of the 

 expedition, when on my own inexperienced shoulders alone 

 rested the responsibility of every department of an undertaking 

 of such considerable magnitude, I realised the primary im- 

 portance of an efficient sledging outfit, and I strove to glean 

 from every source such information as should serve to see us 

 properly provided in this respect. 



The difficulties were great. In England a quarter of a 

 century had elapsed since sledging expeditions of magnitude 

 had been accomplished, and during that time not a single sledge, 

 and very few portions of a sledge equipment, had been made 

 in this country. The popular accounts of former expeditions 

 were not written with a view to supply the minute detail that 

 was required, and no memory could be expected to retain 



