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TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION BE, 801 
after events, for, a few weels after it appeared in type, a young Notwegian walked 
into the Challenger office in Edinburgh to ask when the proposed expedition 
would probably start, and if there were any chance of his services being accepted. 
His name was Nansen, 
When at the request of the President I addressed the Royal Geographical 
Society on the same subject in the year 1893, I made the following statement as 
to what it seemed to me should be the general character of the proposed explora- 
tion: ‘A dash at the South Pole is not, however, what I advocate, nor do I 
believe that is what British Science at the present time desires. It demands 
rather a steady, continuous, laborious, and systematic exploration of the whole 
southern region with all the appliances of the modern investigator.’ At the same 
time I urged further, that these explorations should be undertaken by the Royal 
Navy in two ships, and that the work should extend over two winters and three 
summers. 
This scheme must now be abandoned, so far at least as the Royal Navy is 
concerned, for the Government has intimated that it can spare neither ships nor 
officers, men nor money, for an undertaking of such magnitude. The example of 
Foreign Powers—rather than the representations from our own scientific men— 
appears to have been chiefly instrumental in at last inducing the Government to 
promise a sum of 45,000/., provided that an equal amount be forthcoming from 
other sources. - This resolve throws the responsibility for the financial administra- 
tion, for the equipment, and for the management of this exploration, on the repre- 
sentative scientific societies, which have no organisation ready for carrying out 
important executive work on such an extensive scale. 1 am doubtful whether this 
state of matters should be regarded as a sign of increasing lukewarmness on the 
part of the Government towards marine research, or should rather be looked on as 
a most unexpected and welcome recognition of the growing importance of science 
and scientific men to the affairs of the nation. Let us adopt the latter view, and 
accept the heavy responsibility attached thereto. 
Any one who will take the trouble to read, in the ‘ Proceedings’ of the Royal 
Society of London, the account of the discussion which recently took place on 
‘The Scientific Advantages of an Antarctic Expedition, will gather some idea of 
the number and wide range of the subjects which it is urged should be investigated 
within the Antarctic area ; the proposed researches have to do with almost every 
branch of science. Unless an earnest attempt be made to approach very near to 
the ideal there sketched out, widespread and lasting disappointment will certainly 
be felt among the scientific men of this country. The proposed expedition should 
not be one of adventure. Not a rapid invasion and a sudden retreat, with tales of 
hardships and risks, but a scientific occupation of the unknown area by observation 
and experiment, should be aimed at in these days. 
I have all along estimated the cost of a well-equipped Antarctic Expedition at 
about 150,000/. I see no reason for changing my views on this point at the present 
time, nor on the general scope of the work to be undertaken by the proposed 
expedition, as set forth in the papers I have published on the subject. ‘There is 
now a sum of at most 90,000/. in hand, or in view. If one ship should be specially 
built for penetrating the icy region, and be sent south with one naturalist on board, 
then such an expedition may, it will be granted, bring back interesting and impor- 
tant results. But it must be distinctly understood that this isnot the kind of 
exploration scientific men have been urging on the British public for the past 
fifteen or twenty years. We must, if possible, have two ships, with landing parties 
“for stations on shore, and with a recognised scientific leader and staff on board 
of each ship. Although we cannot have the Royal Navy, these ships can be most 
efficiently officered and manned from the Mercantile Marine. With only one ship 
many of the proposed observations would have to be cut out of the programme. 
In anticipation of this being the case, there are at the present moment irrecon- 
cilable differences of opinion among those most interested in these explorations, as 
to which sciences must be sacrificed, 
The difficulties which at present surround this undertaking are fundamentally 
those of money. These difficulties would at once disappear, and cthers would 
1899, oF 
