DECEMBER 1, 1899.] 
our own people the excellent work carried 
on by the Marine Biological Association, 
the Irish Fisheries Department, the Scot- 
tish Fishery Board, the Lancashire Fish- 
eries Committee, the Cape and Canadian 
Fisheries Department, is well worthy of 
recognition and continued support. Mr. 
George Murray, Mr. H. N. Dickson, Pro- 
fessor Cleve, Professor Otto Pettersson, Mr. 
Robert Irvine, and others have, with the 
assistance of the officers of the Mercantile 
Marine, accumulated in recent years a vast 
amount of information regarding the distri- 
bution of temperature and salinity, as well 
as of the planktonic organisms at the sur- 
face of the ocean. The papers by Mr. H. 
C. Russell on the icebergs and currents of 
the Great Southern Ocean, and of Mr. F. 
W. Walker on the density of the water in 
the Southern Hemisphere, show that the 
Australian colonies are taking a practical 
interest in oceanographical problems. 
Proposed Antarctic Explorations. 
The great event of the year, from a geo- 
graphical point of view, is the progress that 
has been made towards the realization of a 
~ scheme for the thorough scientific explora- 
tion in the near future of the whole South > 
Polar region. The British and German 
Governments have voted or guaranteed 
large sums of money to assist in promoting 
this object, and princely donations have 
likewise been received from private indi- 
viduals, in this connection the action of 
Mr. L. W. Longstaff in making a gift of 
25,000/., and of Mr. A. C. Harmsworth in 
promising 5,000/., being beyond all praise. 
There is an earnest desire among the 
scientific men of Britain and Germany that 
there should be some sort of cooperation with 
regard to the scientific work of the two ex- 
peditions, and that these should both sail in 
1901, so that the invaluable gain attaching to 
simultaneous observations may be secured. 
Beyond this nothing has, as yet, been defi- 
SCIENCE. 
801 
nitely settled. The members of the Asso- 
ciation will presently have an opportunity 
of expressing their opinions as to what 
should be attempted by the British Expe- 
dition, how the work in connection with it 
should be arranged, and how the various 
researches in view can best be carried to a 
successful issue. 
I have long taken a deep interest in Ant- 
arctic exploration, because such exploration 
must necessarily deal largely with oceano- 
graphical problems, and also because I have 
had the privilege of studying the conditions 
of the ocean within both the Arctic and 
Antartic circles. In the year 1886 I pub- 
lished an article on the subject of Antarctic. 
Exploration in the ‘Scottish Geographical 
Magazine.’ This article led to an interest- 
ing interview, especially when viewed in 
the light of after events, for a few weeks 
after it appeared in type, a young Nor- 
wegian walked into the Challenger office in 
Edinburgh to ask when the proposed expe- 
dition would probably start, and if there 
were any chance of his services being ac- 
cepted. 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 exploration: ‘‘ 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 syste- 
matic exploration of the whole southern re- 
gion with all the appliances of the modern 
investigator.”” At thesame 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 
