lie 



DISCOVERY 



ill height to tlio Himalayas still to be discovered in 

 the heart of the great continent. 



So much for the geographical secrets of the An- 

 tarctic ; we turn now to consider its possible commercial 

 future. The one industry which it can boast at present 

 is that of whaling, and already the greater part of 

 the world's supply of whale oil comes from the Antarctic 

 and sub- Antarctic seas. Those seas are not yet fully 

 exploited, and the Ross Sea, for instance, is quite 

 untouched, although it is famous for its large schools 

 of whales. If the need for animal oil continues, as 

 seems probable, other centres for whaling will be 

 opened up, and as long as the hunting is carefully 

 regulated by law, the supply should be kept up peren- 

 nially. Incidentally, much more information about the 

 life-history of whales is required before such regulations 

 can be properly planned. 



On the continent itself there are no industries nor 

 even the beginnings of one. WTiere there are no land 

 animals there can be no fur industry, which is the 

 great stand-by in the North Polar regions. There 

 remains the prospect of finding payable minerals, and 

 a great deal has been claimed for the future of such 

 a vast continent in this respect. From what we know 

 of the structure of the continent, we can say with 

 assurance that there must be gold and other precious 

 metals there. But whether they will ever be discovered 

 in payable amount is very doubtful indeed. So far 

 nothing but indications of copper have been found, 

 though geologists have been on the lookout for ores 

 in the few parts of the coast which have been visited. 



The reason why there is very little chance of the 

 probable wealth of minerals in the Antarctic ever 

 becoming of use to man is that it is for the most part 

 buried by a thick ice sheet which prevents it from 

 being found, as well as providing difficulties if it 

 ever were found. For the Ross Sea quadrant of the 

 continent the proportion of bare to icc-covcred land 

 is about the same as the area of London to that of 

 all England. Also the bare land where it occurs is 

 often in the form of inaccessible cliffs. The search 

 for gold will continue as a side-line for the prospecting 

 geologists, but only the most unusual coincidence will 

 unveil a deposit which would pay to work. The 

 existence of coal of moderate quality has been estab- 

 lished in two or three places, including the Beardmore 

 glacier, only 300 miles from the pole, but naturally it 

 is not likely to be profitably worked for a very long 

 time to come. 



The economic resources of the land itself, therefore, 

 appear to be negligible judged by our present standards, 

 though there is always the possibility of lucky finds 

 which may give rise to small industries similar to 

 the cryolite mines of West Greenland, a key industry 

 to the production of aluminium. 



There remains to us the third aim of p<jlar explora- 

 tion, the more strictly scientific one of completing our 

 knowledge of world phenomena by observations in the 

 Antarctic. Unfortunately, this is an aim which cannot 

 appeal very greatly to the lay mind, for the value 

 of such observations is not direct and may be long 

 delayed. 



In some of the brine wells of Southern China a new 

 bore may take as long as sixty years to put down 

 by the slow and laborious methods in use by the 

 inhabitants. Yet a Chinaman will cheerfully com- 

 mence such a bore, knowing that only his grandson 

 can reap the profit from the work of two generations. 

 Something of this patience and foresight is required 

 in the prosecution of Antarctic research. 



We can but briefly outline the necessity for such 

 work, the final results of which it is almost impossible 

 to forecast. 



It is obvious that the weather, and particularly the 

 rainfall, is of vital importance to mankind. If in 

 some distant age it becomes possible for the weather 

 prophet to forecast with assurance the next season's 

 weather, the value to the agriculture of the world will 

 be immense. At first sight that appears an impossible 

 dream, but so was the conquest of the air less than 

 a century ago. But if it is to be done, it can only be 

 through the careful study of all the factors that go to 

 produce our weather, and amongst these are the 

 atmospheric conditions at the polar regions. Every 

 schoolboy knows the importance of the equatorial 

 belt as influencing the seasons and the weather, but 

 few know that the polar regions act as a complement 

 to that belt, and have an almost equal value in deter- 

 mining the weather. Until there is a vast amount of 

 meteorological data from the polar regions, the problem 

 cannot be properly set before the people concerned 

 with it, and obviously such data can only be obtained 

 by going and living there for long periods. 



There are other branches of science which depend 

 for a great part of their data on conditions at the poles, 

 branches which must remain incomplete until someone 

 goes and takes them on the spot. Terrestrial magnetism, 

 for instance, is a property that we use in all navigation, 

 and the world spends vast sums every year in following 

 the vagaries of the magnetic needle and keeping its 

 charts up-to-date. The earth as a magnet can be best 

 studied at the poles of the magnet, and both of those 

 are in the polar regions. 



It would be possible but tedious to follow out the 

 influence of those regions in half a dozen of the better- 

 known branches of science, all of which are useful in 

 a more or less direct way to mankind in general. 



We may sum up the future of Antarctic exploration 

 somewhat as follows : The first duty is to discover 

 the limits of the continent and its main features, which 



