antarctic glaciology 34 1 



Conclusion 



The time has come when new technique or better equipment 

 will have to be evolved. Further progress may take place in any one 

 of several ways. The use of the seaplane as the eyes of the polar 

 navigator or as an instrument of extended survey may open up new 

 tracts. The calm pools and leads of the outer pack will lend them- 

 selves well as taking-off or landing places for such work, while the 

 seaplane carrier may lie safely and easily within the same natural 

 breakwater, secure from damage by storm or pressure. The value of 

 the airplane working from a land base has already been demonstrated 

 in the Arctic. Dirigibles may be used from bases in south temperate 

 lands so far as the Antarctic blizzards will permit. Advances by more 

 orthodox and old-fashioned polar methods may follow upon the im- 

 provement of the technique of living off the produce of polar lands 

 and seas, which Stefansson has done so much to elevate into a science 

 in the north. Ice breakers of improved construction may well make 

 navigation amidst pack of the Antarctic type a less hazardous and 

 less dilatory affair. Bound up with the extension of the polar ex- 

 plorer's radius of action which the exploitation of new methods will 

 assure will be a thousand fresh responsibilities and possibilities for 

 attack on the problems of polar science. 



