4 o8 SIEGE OF THE SOUTH POLE 
already known as a student of Arctic ice in Greenland. 
Steps were taken to collect funds, and plans were elabo- 
rated for an attack on the totally unknown region south 
of Kerguelen. Through much talk and endless delays the 
various Committees in both countries made progress 
slowly. The scheme for a British National Expedition 
was referred to a joint Committee of the Royal Society 
and the Royal Geographical Society; but the moving 
spirit was always Sir Clements Markham. Government 
was approached and declined to help; even the loan of 
officers was declared to be impossible in the opinion of 
those best acquainted with the resources of the navy. 
The scheme might have dropped once more in England 
had not two wealthy Fellows of the Royal Geographical 
Society come forward with magnificent donations, Mr. 
L. W. Longstaff giving £25,000 (more than double the 
whole cost of the Belgica expedition) and Sir Alfred 
Harmsworth giving £5,000. Fortified with this promise 
of success an influential deputation waited on the First 
Lord of the Treasury and urged that the Government 
should participate in -the work. In July, 1899, the reply 
came; it was entirely favourable and a sum of £45,000 
was promised in aid of the expedition, and shortly after- 
wards the Admiralty agreed to allow leave to such officers 
and men as might be selected from the Royal Navy. 
Committees and sub-committees continued to meet con- 
tinually, plans were proposed, rejected and modified, 
appointments were made and cancelled, differences of 
opinion arose and were silenced; but at length in 1901 
the British and German national expeditions were com- 
plete and ready for sea. For each a special vessel had 
been built, and though the constitutions of the expeditions 
were radically dissimilar, a basis for co-operation in sim- 
