49 



seems to me, be fitted out for a whole commission, so as to 

 extend over three summers and two winters. Early in the 

 first season a wintering party of about ten men should be 

 landed somewhere to the south of Cape Horn, probably about 

 Bismarck Strait, at G-raham's Land. The expedition should 

 then proceed to Victoria Land, where a second similar party 

 should winter, probably in Macmurdo Bay, near Mount 

 Erebus. The ships should not become frozen in, nor attempt 

 to winter in the far south, but should return towards the 

 north, conducting observations of various kinds along the 

 outer margins of the ice. After the needful rest and outfit 

 at the Falklands, or Australia, the position of the ice and the 

 temperature of the ocean should be observed in the early 

 spring, and later the wintering parties should be com- 

 municated with, and, if necessary, reinforced with men and 

 supplies for another winter. During the second winter the 

 deep-sea observations should be continued northwards, and 

 in the third sea son the wintering parties should be picked up 

 and the expedition return to England. The wintering parties 

 might largely be composed of civilians, and one or two 

 civilians might be attached to each ship ; this plan worked 

 admirably during the Challenger expedition. 



In the discussion which followed the reading of Dr. 

 Murray's paper, and in which Sir Joseph Hooker, the Duke 

 of Argyll, Sir George Nares, Sir B. Vesey Hamilton, Captain 

 Wharton, Lord Charles Beresford, Sir Wm, Flower, and 

 others took part, general agreement was expressed with Dr. 

 Murray's plan of campaign, and much enthusiasm was shown. 

 If any doubts were expressed about the commercial utility of 

 such an expedition, none were possible as to the priceless 

 advantages that would accrue to science from it. Its 

 popularity would be immense both in the Navy and in the 

 scientific world, and the difficulty of manning the expedition 

 would only be the embarrassment of choice. 



At the Boyal Scottish Geographical Society's meeting in 

 January, after papers by Mr. Bruce and Dr. Donald on the 

 scientific results of last year's whaling trips to the South 

 Shetlands, a resolution was passed to send a memorial to 

 Government in favour of a national expedition. 



I have purposely avoided saying anything directly bearing 

 on the commercial aspect of the question as to the desira- 

 bility of sending such an expedition, because I think that is 

 not our business. Commerce can and ought to take care of 

 itself. And if we as a nation only sent out expeditions where 

 we were sure beforehand of success from a commercial point 

 of view, no interest would have suffered so much as the 

 commercial interest of the Empire. Thorough scientific 

 exploration has usually been followed as a natural consequence 

 by commercial development. In this case the scientific 



