;o 



NATURE 



[May 29, 191 s 



Aldebarian and Antarian types to helium stars. This, 

 he states, conforms to the thermal classification which 

 Sir Norman Lockyer deduced from his qualitative 

 study of the stellar spectra. 



The Work of Sir William Huggins. — Under this 

 heading, in The Astrophyical journal for April 

 (vol. xxxvii., No. 3) Prof. G. E. Hale takes 

 the opportunity of again cheering up those 

 astronomical observers who possess only a small 

 and limited instrumental equipment, and may con- 

 ceive the idea that the multiplication of large instru- 

 ments renders any attempt at research on their part 

 useless. Being the director of an observatory which 

 may be considered the best equipped, contains the 

 largest instruments, and is situated on a nearly ideal 

 mountain site, it may appear that he is only trying 

 to console workers with modest means. But this is 

 not so. Prof. Hale knows the value of both large 

 and small instruments, and there is abundant work 

 for both classes. The reader should look through 

 this article and he will find depicted there the mag- 

 nificent work of amateurs, in spite of the fact that 

 large instruments were in active employment at the 

 time the work was done. Sir William Huggins he 

 takes as an example of one of "that great English 

 group of amateurs," and he directs attention to the 

 fact that while in 1856 he acquired his first telescope, 

 a 5-in. refractor, in 1S58 an 8-in., and in 1870 an 

 18-in. reflector, such powerful instruments as 15-in. 

 refractors at Pulkowa and Harvard, Lord Rosse's 

 6-ft. reflector, Lassell's 4-ft. reflector, the Melbourne 

 4-ft. reflector, &c, did not deter him from securing 

 results of the highest importance. 



Prof. Hale concludes in the following terms : — 

 " Every investigator may find useful and inspiring 

 suggestions in the life and example of Sir William 

 Huggins. Their surest message and strongest appeal 

 will be to the amateur with limited instrumental 

 means, and to the man, however situated, who would 

 break new ground." 



THE SCOTT EXPEDITION TO THE 

 ANTARCTIC. 



THE huge audience which filled the Albert Hall on 

 Wednesday evening, May 21, on the occasion of 

 the Royal Geographical Society's meeting to hear 

 Commander Evans's account of the Scott expedition 

 to the Antarctic, showed no less by its eager plaudits 

 than by its suppression of them at the fitting moments 

 that the public sense of the tragedy of the expedition 

 is not dulled by familiarity. Yet throughout the pro- 

 ceedings there was no false note of sentiment ; the 

 president. Lord Curzon, stated, without risk of mis- 

 understanding, that the tribute of the society to the dead 

 had been paid already, and begged any (and there 

 were some) who felt that " this great reception is 

 inconsistent with the feelings of sorrow which affect 

 us all ".' to "abandon such a reflection," for that he was 

 sure that Scott himself would not have had his com- 

 panions forgo the reward of their labour. And the 

 story of the expedition was told by Commander Evans 

 very simply ; he exhibited the sense of loss which all 

 his collaborators share in a few words only, and by 

 implication rather than by direct statement. Finally, 

 the tribute paid by both president and lecturer to the 

 generosity of the public and to the Government for 

 the provisions made for the dependants of those who 

 are lost showed that any criticism which has been 

 directed against the allowances made from the public 

 funds is without official concurrence. 



It was satisfactory to learn that the funds subscribed 

 will admit of the proper publication of the scientific 

 results of the expedition. As regards these results, 



NO. 2274, VOL. 91] 



not a great deal emerged from the lecture which was 

 not already realised by those who have taken interest 

 in this aspect of the work accomplished. Nor was 

 it to be expected that any detail should be given within 

 the compass of a single lecture, though long ; for it 

 was long, and a tribute is due to Commander Evans, 

 who so ably sustained the strain of delivering it, and 

 never for a moment allowed the intense interest of 

 the audience to wane. And here a word, though per- 

 haps scarcely appropriate in this place, may be per- 

 mitted in commendation of the singularly well-chosen 

 organ music which was given before the opening of 

 the proceedings. 



But if it is scarcely possible, after hearing the lec- 

 ture, to add materially to what is already known as to 

 the scientific results of the expedition, it is right at 

 the outset to record the full measure in which the 

 value of those results has clearly been enhanced bv 

 photography. Obviously no photographer to any ex- 

 pedition has laboured with a more thorough sense of 

 his duty, or more successfully, than Mr. Ponting. 

 The lecture was delivered with lowered lights and 

 with an accompaniment of lantern slides throughout, 

 and was followed by a few kinematograph films of 

 extraordinary interest. It is impossible to over-pr.:i-< 

 the beauty of the photographs, nor is it easy to select 

 those of chief scientific interest, though an exquisite 

 series showing new ice at successive stages of forma- 

 tion may be specially mentioned. Of the moving pic- 

 tures, those of the killer whales were singularly clear, 

 though the motion of creatures of their kind is fami- 

 liar to many ; those which showed seals leaving and 

 entering the water through ice-holes were of even 

 greater interest and value. 



Some wonder has been expressed, with the vast 

 area unexplored in the Antarctic region and the many 

 problems awaiting solution in mind, that Scott elected 

 to follow Shackleton's route, or even (and this criti- 

 cism dates from early Arctic days) that he or anyone 

 else should desire to reach the geographical pole at 

 all. Against this there should be recalled the desire 

 once expressed by a high Antarctic authority, that the 

 south pole should be reached as quickly as possible 

 since, until it should be, explorers would not rest 

 content with work in other directions merely. On this 

 count criticism is scarcely to be directed against Scott's 

 expedition, for it included the largest scientific staff 

 ever taken to the Antarctic, and scientific research 

 certainly played no subordinate part in relation to the 

 journey to the pole. We know already of the devotion 

 with which Scott himself and his lost companions 

 carried their geological specimens to the end of those 

 last dreadful marches. Commander Evans showed 

 how the three weeks during which the ship was held 

 in the pack on the outward voyage were " not wasted," 

 for magnetic observations, soundings, and serial sea 

 temperatures were obtained, while marine biological 

 work of importance was also done. Only the impos- 

 sibility of finding a suitable base at Cape Crozier pre- 

 vented the expedition from landing there in order that 

 the embryology of the emperor penguins during winter 

 might be studied. Wilson afterwards made his 

 famous winter expedition thither, and one heard how 

 he recorded the unimaginable temperature of 109 of 

 frost. 



Mr. Griffith-Taylor's party, which traversed the 

 Ferrar Glacier, broke new ground, reaching a valley 

 free of snow, containing a fresh-water lak£ only 

 surface-frozen and full of algae. Gravels in this lime- 

 stone region, rich in garnets, "were washed for gold, 

 but only magnetite was found." Commander Evans 

 also paid tribute to Dr. Simpson's work as physicist 

 and meteorologist, which was carried on after his 

 departure by Mr. Wright, who also " made a special 



