xxvi WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
that was all, not an instrument, nor a book, nor a bottle, 
and rum from the ship’s stores was the only preservative. 
And when they returned, the rich collections which they 
brought back were never fully worked out. Ross’s special 
branch of science was terrestrial magnetism, but he was 
greatly interested in Natural History, and gave up part of 
his cabin for Hooker to work in. ‘‘ Almost every day I 
draw, sometimes all day long and till two and three in the 
morning, the Captain directing me; he sits on one side of 
the table, writing and figuring at night, and I on the other, 
drawing. Every now and then he breaks off and comes to 
my side, to see what I am after...’ and, “‘as you may 
suppose, we have had one or two little tiffs, neither of us 
perhaps being helped by the best of tempers; but nothing 
can exceed the liberality with which he has thrown open 
his cabin to me and made it my workroom at no little in- 
convenience to himself.” 
Another extract from Hooker’s letters after the first 
voyage runs as follows: 
“The success of the Expedition in Geographical dis- 
covery is really wonderful, and only shows what a little 
perseverance will do, for we have been in no dangerous 
predicaments, and have suffered no hardships whatever : 
there has been a sort of freemasonry among Polar voyagers 
to keep up the credit they have acquired as having done 
wonders, and accordingly, such of us as were new to the 
ice made up our minds for frost-bites, and attached a most 
undue importance to the simple operation of boring packs, 
etc., which have now vanished, though I am not going to 
tell everybody so; I do not here refer to travellers, who do 
indeed undergo unheard-of hardships, but to voyagers who 
have a snug ship, a little knowledge of the Ice, and due 
caution is all that is required.” 
Inthe light of Scott’s leading of the expedition of which 
I am about to tell, and the extraordinary scientific activity 
of Pennell in command of the Terra Nova after Scott was 
landed, Hooker would have to qualify a later extract, ‘ nor 
is it probable that any future collector will have a Captain 
so devoted to the cause of Marine Zoology, and so con- 
