422 SCIENTIFIC ADVANTAGES OF AN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 



ologists, and without such information it is impossible to discuss with 

 success the i)reseut distribution of organisms over the surface of the 

 globe, or to form a true conception of the antecedent conditions by 

 which that distribution has been brought about. 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



There are many directions in which an Antarctic expedition would 

 carry out important observations besides those already touched on in 

 the foregoing statement. From the purely exploratory point of view 

 much might be urged in favor of an Antarctic expedition at an early 

 date; for the further progress of scientific geography it is essential to 

 have a more exact knowledge of the topography of the Antarctic 

 regions. This would enable a more just conception of the volume rela- 

 tions of land and sea to be formed, and in connection with pendulum 

 observations some hints as to the density of the suboceanic crust and 

 the depth of the Antarctic ice cap might be obtained. In case the 

 above sketch may possibly have created the impression that we really 

 know a great deal about the Antarctic regions, it is necessary to restate 

 that all the general conclusions that have been indicated are largely 

 hypothetical, and to again urge the necessity for a wider and more 

 solid base for generalizations. The results of a successful Antarctic 

 expedition would mark a great advance in the i^hilosophy — apart from 

 the mere facts — of terrestrial science. 



No thinking person doubts that the Antarctic will be explored. The 

 only questions are. When? and by whom? I should like to see the 

 work undertaken at once, and by the British I^avy. I should like to 

 see a sum of £150,000 inserted in the estimates for the purpose. The 

 Government may have sufficient grounds for declining to send forth 

 such an expedition at the present time, but that is no reason why the 

 scientific men of the country should not urge that the exploration of 

 the Antarctic would lead to important additions to knowledge, and that, 

 in the interests of science among English-speaking peoples, the United 

 Kingdom should take not only a large but a leading part in any such 

 exploration. «> 



THE ANTARCTIC ICE SHEET: DUKE OF ARGYLL. 



Scientific men generally feel, I think, that they do not need to give 

 detailed reasons in connection with particular subjects of inquiry to 

 justify their unanimous desire for an Antarctic expedition. It is enough, 

 surely, for them to i)oint out the fact that a very large area of the sur- 

 face of our small planet is still almost unknown to us. That it should 

 be so seems almost a reproach to our civilization. As to detailed 

 reasons, it may almost be said with truth that there is hardly one of the 

 physical sciences on which important light may not be cast by Antarctic 

 exploration. Oceanic circulation, meteorology, magnetism, distribu- 

 tion of animal and vegetable life — not only in the present, but in the 



