February 20, 19 13] 



NATURE 



67; 



In addition to the above connections in wliich 

 •money is needed, a specilied object of the Mansion 

 House Fund and of some others is the provision 

 •of a national memorial to the dead. From such 

 an object none can conceivably dissent ; a genera- 

 tion which has recently criticised those preceding 

 it for neglecting- to set up a proper memorial to 

 ■Captain James Cook could scarcely face the chance 

 of incurring similar criticism in the case of Captain 

 Scott ; but the question of the form which should 

 be taken by a national memorial is wide, and 

 -always involves much discussion and invokes m^any 

 opinions. In all the present circumstances, how- 

 •ever, much respect and consideration are due to 

 a suggestion which emanates from Lord Curzon, 

 who, as president of the Royal Geographical 

 Society, addressed a letter to the Press on Satur- 

 day last, summarising the whole position as, but 

 more fully than, it has been summarised above. 

 In his concluding paragraphs he discusses the 

 •question of the form of a national memorial to 

 Scott and his companions. " A national monument 

 in a public place," "a memorial in our great 

 metropolitan cathedral," are the suggestions which 

 would come first to the minds of most men, but 

 Lord Curzon qualifies them with the counter-sug- 

 g-estion that " the available sites for public monu- 

 ments in London are few ; nor does our artistic 

 genius invariably find ils best expression in masses 

 of marble or bronze." Many would agree with 

 this view, and might feel that some measure of 

 more practical utility, such as the endowment of 

 future scientific research in the Antarctic or .■\rctic 

 region, would be a more fitting memorial to those 

 who gave their lives in the advancement of that 

 particular department of research. 



Lord Curzon's suggestion, however, made on 

 behalf of the Royal Geographical Society, is for 

 the erection of a Scott Memorial Hall on a portion 

 of the ground Ijelonging to Lowther Lodge, which 

 has recently been acquired by the society as the 

 headquarters where it will very shortly be estab- 

 lished. The societ)' has hitherto held its large 

 meetings in the theatre at Burlington Gardens ; 

 but since the Lowther property was acquired the 

 ultimate provision of a hall of its own has been in 

 mind. The disaster to Scott is an incident not 

 only in national history, not only in the history of 

 exploration, but in the history of the society itself ; 

 it befalls to synchronise with two other important 

 incidents, the establishment of the society in new 

 quarters and the broadening of the basis of its 

 membership ; on such grounds there is reason for 

 a hope that the proposal for a hall specially de- 

 voted to lectures on geographical science and 

 •exploration should be fulfilled more speedily than 

 in the normal course it would probably be, and 

 should be identified with Scott's name; and it may 

 well be suggested that the establishment of such 

 a hall would be a most fitting form of national 

 memorial, combining at once the public function 

 fulfilled by statuary and the scientific function of a 

 foundation for the advancement of geographical 

 research. .'V national memorial of such form could 



XO. 2260, VOL. 90] 



be entrusted to no more fitting keeping than that 

 of the society which is the representative of the 

 nation in the promulgation of geographical dis- 

 covery, and has been so closely associated with 

 the British Antarctic Expedition itself. 



The scientific importance of the expedition, to 

 which brief reference was made last week on the 

 basis of the information which had been brought 

 from the expedition last year, is immensely en- 

 hanced by the further results which Commander 

 E. R. G. Evans has now summarised. First, it 

 is a duty to pay one further tribute to the personal 

 devotion'to their scientific duties of Scott and his 

 dead companions, for not only does it appear that 

 through all the dreadful stress of the return march 

 from the pole, down to March 12 (191 2), when 

 the thermometer was broken, they maintained 

 meteorological observations, but it is reported also 

 that they carried with them to the end a collection 

 of geological specimens, a dead weight which they 

 must often have been tempted to jettison ; many 

 would have done so, and none would have blamed 

 the act. Commander Evans lays stress on the 

 geological results of the expedition at large ; and 

 the main points of these results are referred 

 to below. Investigations of the physical condi- 

 tions of the ice were continued ; these, together 

 with meteorological, magnetic, gravity, and atmo- 

 spheric electrical observations occupied Mr. C. S. 

 Wright, while Mr. E. W. Nelson carried on 

 hydrographic work ; Mr. Cherry Garrard dealt 

 with the preparation of skins of zoological speci- 

 mens, and Mr. Lillie with marine biological col- 

 lections. A new line of soundings is mentioned, 

 extending from Banks Peninsula to 60° S., 

 170° W. , and thence to 73° S., and an abrupt 

 shoal, with only 1 58 fathoms' depth above it, is 

 recorded in the middle of Ross Sea. 



(2) Geological Results. 

 The dispatch from Commander Evans pub- 

 lished on February 15 deals especially with 

 the geological results of the expedition ; they 

 were collected by the southern party under 

 Captain Scott, by the northern party under 

 Lieutenant Campbell — who was accompanied by Mr. 

 Raymond Priestly as geologist — by the western 

 party under Mr. Griffith Taylor, and by Mr. Priestly 

 during the ascent of Mount Erebus in December, 

 1912. It is clear that each party secured most 

 interesting and valuable information. K\\ the 

 parties have been working in areas that had been 

 previously traversed by members of the National 

 Antarctic Expedition, or by that under Sir Ernest 

 Shackleton. It had been hoped that one party 

 would have visited King Edward VH. Land, and 

 have discovered the structure of the lands to the 

 east of the Ross .Sea, which were quite unknown 

 until reached by Nansen's companion Johansen, 

 who was serving with .Vmundsen. The abandon- 

 ment of this project enabled the energies of the 

 whole of Captain Scott's staff to be devoted to the 

 further study of South Victoria Land. 



