348 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
magnitude of the work, and certainly could not have fore- 
seen the immense prestige which that decision was to 
secure to the British name amongst the intellectual of 
all countries ; but the work once undertaken was carried 
out in the most generous and ample spirit. 
The field of the expedition was so enormous that the 
chief difficulty in planning it lay in finding parts of the 
world to exclude, rather than parts to include within its 
scope. It was felt from the beginning that whatever 
might be left out the border of the Antarctic regions 
must not be neglected, though a vessel adapted for explo- 
ration in the ice would have been totally unsuited for the 
long sojourns that w'ere contemplated in tropical w’aters. 
The promoters of the deep-sea expedition kept a double 
end in view. They wished to secure a physical as well as 
a biological survey of all the oceans. The objects of 
special study were to be the depth and configuration of 
the bed of the oceans, the nature, origin and distribu- 
tion of the deposits resting upon it, the chemical compo- 
sition, salinity, temperature and movements of the water 
from the surface to the bottom, and finally the distribu- 
tion of organic life throughout all depths and in every 
accessible latitude and longitude. As to latitude the 
Arctic regions were left out of account for the time, but 
the Southern Ocean was to be explored “ as far as the 
neighbourhood of the great Ice Barrier.” 
The Admiralty assigned to the service H. M. S. Chal- 
lenger a roomy wooden corvette of 2306 tons, provided 
with auxiliary steam power. She was not fortified for 
ice navigation, but was thoroughly sound, and even 
without steam she was, except for her size, probably 
better fitted for an Antarctic voyage than any of the 
ships of Bellingshausen, Wilkes or D’Urville. The 
