INTRODUCTION 



IT is necessary to explain shortly the purpose and the limitations which have 

 been held in view during the making of this Album of Antarctic pictures. 

 Although it includes nothing which was not produced by members of the Expedition 

 working on the spot, the volume is not a complete collection of their photographic 

 efforts, but is, so far as possible, a representative series of pictures which are 

 likely to have a permanent value in their bearing upon scientific or semi-scientific 

 problems. As records of geographical and topographical facts their use is evident, 

 and the same may be said of the biological series of mammals and birds. 



But a greater value attaches to pictures which represent ice-conditions of to-day 

 with sufficient exactness for comparison with similar pictures which may be taken 

 in years to come. It is evident that the recession of ice in the Antarctic region, 

 one of the more interesting facts which have recently come to light, may be watched 

 from one generation to another by such means as are here suggested and supplied. 



In arranging the volume, it has seemed best to group the pictures under subject 

 headings, while keeping a sort of chronological sequence from one end to the other, 

 very roughly indicating the ship's movements, and the main events which took place 

 during her stay in M'Murdo Sound. 



For the sake of attaining greater completeness in this pictorial representation 

 of high southern latitudes, photographs which have already appeared in other 

 publications have been repeated here, though a large proportion of the illustrations 

 now published appear for the first time. 



Since it has been in almost every case impossible to deal satisfactorily with 

 the subject illustrated in half a dozen lines, frequent references have been given 

 to Captain Scott's Voyage of the 'Discovery,' to the already published Scientific 

 Reports of the Expedition, to A Voyage to the Antarctic Regions, by Sir James 

 Eoss, the discoverer of South Victoria Land, and to other works on Antarctic 

 travel. 



The Key Maps, it is hoped, will increase the usefulness of the book, for 

 in the majority of cases it will be possible, by reference to them, to see more 

 or less exactly the spot from which a picture was taken and the direction in 

 which the photographer was looking, as well as the angle included by his picture. 

 The same remarks apply to the pencil panoramas. 



In the photographic department the Expedition owed most of all to Lieut. - 

 Engr. Skelton, R.N., who was responsible not only for the general photographic 

 outfit of the ship, but for a large majority of the best pictures that were pro- 



