INTRODUCTION XXXili 
geographical miles south of Nansen’s farthest north. But 
the sledge journey and the winter spent by the two men 
has many points in common with the experience of our 
own Northern Party, and often and often during the 
long winter of 1912 our thoughts turned with hope to 
Nansen’s winter, for we said if it had been done once why 
should it not be done again, and Campbell and his men 
survive. 
Before Nansen started, the spirit of adventure, which 
has always led men into the unknown, combined with 
the increased interest in knowledge for its own sake to 
turn the thoughts of the civilized world southwards. It 
was becoming plain that a continent of the extent and 
climate which this polar land probably possessed might 
have an overwhelming influence upon the weather condi- 
tions of the whole Southern Hemisphere. The importance 
of magnetism was only rivalled by the mystery in which the 
whole subject was shrouded: and the region which sur- 
rounded the Southern Magnetic Pole of the earth offered 
a promising field of experiment and observation. The past 
history, through the ages, of this land was of obvious im- 
portance to the geological story of the earth, whilst the 
survey of land formations and ice action in the Antarctic 
was more useful perhaps to the physiographer than that of 
any other country in the world, seeing that he found here 
in daily and even hourly operation the conditions which 
he knew had existed in the ice ages of the past over the 
whole world, but which he could only infer from vestigial 
remains. The biological importance of the Antarctic 
might be of the first magnitude in view of the significance 
which attaches to the life of the sea in the evolutionary 
problem. 
And it was with these objects and ideals that Scott’s 
first expedition, known officially as the British Antarctic 
Expedition of 1901-1904, but more familiarly as ‘The 
Discovery Expedition,’ from the name of the ship which 
carried it, was organized by the Royal Society and the 
Royal Geographical Society, backed by the active support 
of the British Government. The executive officers and 
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