THE TWENTIETH CENTURY 427 
men. The ship had been caught in the ice in Erebus and 
Terror Gulf in January and, after the struggle of a 
month to get her free, she was found so much damaged 
that there was nothing for it but to take to the land. 
The Swedish flag was left flying and the good ship Ant- 
arctic, sorely wounded, sank in the waters she had done 
so much to explore. The crew had wintered on Paulet 
Island, the third of the isolated parties into which the 
expedition had been broken up. At last on November 
10th, 1903, all were reunited on the Uruguay, and a 
week later Captain Irizar had the pride and satisfaction 
of completing in Tierra del Fuego one of the shortest 
and most brilliantly successful relief expeditions in polar 
history. 
From the day of Cook's Highlander who roused the 
bergs to echo the skirl of the bagpipes, the bond between 
Scotland and the Antarctic had been unbroken. The 
news of the discovery of the South Shetlands was first 
published in Scotland ; Weddell and Ross, although born 
in London, were of Scottish parentage and influenced by 
Scottish traditions; Thomson, Murray, Buchanan and 
several of the officers of the Challenger were Scotsmen, 
and the Dundee fleet led the way in reopening those seas 
in 1892. Mr. W. S. Bruce after the return of the 
Balaina took part in the Jackson-Harmsworth Arctic 
expedition, but he always cherished the hope of returning 
with a scientific ship to Weddell Sea. In 1898, Mr. 
Andrew Coats of Paisley, planned a summer expedition 
to Spitsbergen, and invited a scientific man much inter- 
ested in polar research to accompany him, but the latter 
being unable to obtain leave of absence from routine 
duties was reluctantly obliged to decline, and recom- 
mended Mr. Bruce in his place. The friendship thus 
