CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY. 
a pair of socks if he would teach him some 
geology. 
There were lectures by Wilson on the flying 
birds of the Antarctic and the penguins ; on 
winds and weather in general and in these 
high latitudes by Simpson, with a theory of 
blizzards, besides descriptions of the magnetic 
and other instruments at work ; the problems 
of biology and parasitism by Nelson and 
Atkinson ; the physiography and geology of 
the neighbourhood and volcanoes by Taylor 
and Debenham ; ice structure by Wright ; 
the Barrier and the Ice Cap, by Scott ; an 
account by Taylor of the great glacier to be 
ascended on the Southern trip and the things 
to look out. for. And with ever closer applica- 
tion to immediate needs, the management 
and training of the ponies, by Oates ; survey- 
ing, by Evans ; motor sledges, by Day ; 
sledging diets and Polar clothing, by Bowers ; 
scurvy, by Atkinson ; a general discussion of 
the plans for the Southern trip, set forth by 
Scott himself, so that all might understand 
the why and the wherefore of the arrange- 
ments ; the whole lightened and beautified 
with as many slides as could be made, and 
further by Wilson’s lecture on sketching and 
the artistic principles involved ; Meares’s 
travels in Central Asia, and Ponting’s four 
* 3 * 
picture-shows and graphic descriptions of his 
wide-ranging travels. 
Thoroughness was the keynote of the work, 
alike in art and in science. It is recorded 
how Ponting rarely counted his first picture 
good enough, and sometimes five or six plates 
would be exposed before the critical artist was 
satisfied. “ This way of going to work 
would perhaps,” notes Scott, “ be more strik- 
ing if it were not common to all our workers 
here. A very demon of unrest seems to stir 
them to effort, and there is not a single man 
who is not striving his utmost to get good 
results in his own particular department.” 
“ The fact is,” he writes elsewhere, “ science 
cannot be served by dilettante methods, but 
demands a mind spurred by ambition or the 
satisfaction of ideals.” It was well, there- 
fore, with the large scientific interests which 
gave the solid justification for the expedition : 
“If the Southern journey comes off, nothing, 
not even priority at the Pole, can prevent the 
expedition ranking as one of the most import- 
ant that ever entered the Polar regions.” 
Scott’s Keen Appreciation of His 
Comrades. 
Never, it may be believed, has a party 
combined so much of intellectual power 
WINTER PASTIMES. 
EVENING LECTURES WERE GIVEN THREE TIMES A WEEK. PONTING IS HERE SEEN DESCRIBING HIS 
TRAVELS IN JAPAN. 
