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Challenger , there are no posts to visit, where stores can be taken 
or surplus baggage left. All must be at once taken from England ; 
on this they will have to draw for the whole term of the expedition. 
The land and seas they are to explore are dreary enough, and an 
idea obtains that there is really nothing to be done in these far 
northern lands ; that no interest attaches to them from a 
scientific point of view; and that the naturalists of the Arctic 
expedition, after they have surveyed their home in the far 
North, may sit down on its frozen shores and weep, if they are 
so inclined, because there is there no world for them to conquer. 
Around the Pole there are about 2,500,000 square miles of 
sea and land yet unknown, and lying virgin for exploration. 
It must not be supposed that the mere vainglory of reach- 
ing the spot known as the North Pole is the object of the 
equipment of this expedition. “ The North Pole,” writes Mr. 
Clements Markham (I quote the ipsissima verba of this 
eminent geographer because I can find none of my own which 
more fully expresses the meaning which I wish to convey), “ is 
merely a spot where the sun’s altitude is equal to its declination, 
and where bearings must be obtained by reference to time and 
not to the magnet. It will doubtless be reached in the course 
of exploration, and there is something which takes the imagina- 
tion of ignorant and uncultivated persons in the idea of standing 
upon it. But this will not be the main, or even a principal 
result, of the expedition. The objects in view are the discovery 
of the conditions of land and sea within the unknown area, and 
the investigation of all the phenomena in that region, in the 
various branches of science. These results can only be obtained 
by facing difficulties, perils, and hardships of no ordinary cha- 
racter ; but their vast importance, owing to the additions they 
will make to the sum of human knowledge, will be an ample 
recompense.” * I mention this, because in some circles the mere 
vainglory of reaching the North Pole seems to be considered 
the acme of the labours of the brave and accomplished men 
who are so soon to leave England, just as among the same 
people to march up a steep mountain, and then like the King 
of France, in the nursery rhyme, come down again (if possible 
with greater celerity than they went up), is the aim and end of 
all alpine research. In all likelihood the “ North Pole ” will 
be found to be situated in the midst of some icy sea, or if on 
land, in the midst of some dreary waste, its position only ascer- 
tainable by a long series of observations by the scientific 
officers, and differing certainly in no degree from the region 
immediately surrounding it. It is impossible to say what 
branches of science will be most advanced by the researches of 
“ The Threshold of the Unknown Region,” 3rd edition, p. 325. 
