‘Marcu 24, 1923] 
NATURE 
387 

juice,” nor would he have quoted a longitude as 
“2° East ” without adding Cook’s essential words “ of 
the Cape of Good Hope.” On the other hand, he 
omitted to consult the Challenger “‘ Narrative,” but 
took from some uncited source the surprising statement 
that the Challenger “spent three weeks within the 
Antarctic Circle,” the actual time having been more 
nearly three hours. Later history as summarised by 
Mr. Cherry-Garrard also requires revision. Borch- 
grevink should have been mentioned as the first man 
to land on the Ice Barrier and travel over its surface, and 
Armitage might have been named as the leader of the 
first party to ascend to and travel over the great polar 
Plateau. 
Incidentally, the paging of the book reveals the fact 
that it was designed as one volume, for vol. 2 begins 
with p. jor, and as the exigencies of printing made it 
difficult to end vol. 1 on p. 300 four unnumbered pages 
had to be introduced, and so a singularly clear descrip- 
tion of the embryology of the Emperor penguin by 
Prof. Cossar Ewart, which occupies those pages, has 
necessarily escaped the index. 
As a general account of Scott’s last expedition Mr. 
Cherry-Garrard’s book surpasses all the others. Mr. 
Priestley’s book on the northern party, Dr. Griffith 
Taylor’s and Mr. Ponting’s on the main wintering party, 
and Capt. Evans’s account of his personal experiences 
are fine books, each in its way dealing admirably with 
special aspects but leaving the expedition as a whole 
unchronicled. The two great volumes of Scott’s Last 
Journey giving the official account omit the pre- 
liminary arrangements for the expedition, of which 
Mr. Cherry-Garrard gives a racy account, and enter 
too fully into the fears and anxieties of the leader on 
the great southern journey to leave a clear impression 
on the mind. Again, the exquisite reproductions of 
Dr. Wilson’s beautiful water-colours and the panoramic 
sketches of scenery give to the volumes before us a 
charm that in large part compensates for the very high 
price which their inclusion necessitates. 
If poetry be indeed definable as “‘ emotion recollected 
in tranquillity,” Mr. Cherry-Garrard has given us a true 
epic of exploration. His emotion was strong and his 
recollection is sardonically calm. The description of 
the “ worst journey in the world ” from Cape Evans to 
Cape Crozier in winter darkness to obtain eggs of the 
Emperor penguin is the most vivid and moving we have 
met with in polar annals. The mellow nobility of 
Wilson’s character and the dauntless cheeriness and 
resourcefulness of Bowers made them ideal companions 
in a desperate adventure, and despite the deprecatory 
references to himself we can see that Mr. Cherry-Garrard 
was not unworthy of his associates. To be sure, 
Bowers would not have worried if all the penguin eggs 
NO. 2786, VOL. I11] 
had been broken, nor would Wilson have taken offence 
at the superior aloofness (real or imaginary) of a 
museum official, which hurt the author severely. All 
the same, we think the Gilbertian humour and grotesque 
exaggeration of Mr. Cherry-Garrard’s efforts to extort 
from the ‘‘ Chief Custodian ” an expression of the value 
of the objects for which three men had put their lives 
to the touch may well be passed by as a piece of 
friendly banter, for to the general reader it serves 
as an artistic relief to the grim horror of the quest. 
The description of the main southern journey and of 
the ascent and descent of the Beardmore Glacier is a 
most valuable piece of first-hand narrative. Still more 
must one appreciate the story of the return of the last 
supporting party under Capt. Evans, which is told 
in large part in the very words of Lashley, one of the 
two “ naval ratings ’’ who saved the life of their leader 
by heroism as fine as ever was. The diary, given in its 
original lower-deck language, is a masterpiece of rugged 
prose that defies all rules of grammar and is incapable 
of imitation. 
Mr. Cherry-Garrard conveys a good impression of 
the scientific aims of the expedition in untechnical 
words ; but in our opinion the real value of the book is 
as a contribution to polar psychology. Priestley has 
treated of this aspect of the expedition more formally ; 
but here we have a quarry of the raw material with 
which psychologists will know how to deal. Asarule, 
official reports fail in a candid treatment of the human 
element in an expedition, while the unauthorised 
records of subordinates usually fail in trustworthiness. 
Yet we know more of the mental state of Cook’s com- 
panions in 1773-75 from Forster’s ill-natured volumes 
than from the great navigator’s own calm narrative, 
and we get delightful sidelights on Sir James Ross from 
M‘Cormick’s ‘‘ Polar Voyages ” in spite of the conceit 
and short-sightedness of the writer. We cannot view 
Mr. Cherry-Garrard’s analyses of the character of his 
leader or his, comrades as ill-natured, while he is 
certainly totally free from any suggestion of claiming 
superiority for himself, and, save in the case of the 
“Chief Custodian” referred to above, he is obviously 
sincere. 
To future students of polar travelling this book will 
prove invaluable whether all the opinions put forward 
in it are accepted or not. We are reluctant to raise 
controversies that would no longer serve a practical 
purpose ; but no future explorer can afford to pass by 
the criticism of the rations used for sledge-travelling 
or the inquiry into the real cause of the collapse of 
Scott’s party. While the immediate cause was, as 
Scott stated, the shortage of paraffin for heating and 
the totally unexpected low temperature of the air on 
the Barrier surface in March, Mr. Cherry-Garrard 
