48 THE ANTAECTIC VOYAGE : PEELBIINAEIES 
empty pickle bottles were all we had, and rum as a pre- 
servative from the sliip's stores. 
The epic days of scientific exploration began when Banks 
and his men joined Cook on his first voyage. To this epoch 
still belong the voyages of Darwin in the Beagle and of 
Hooker in the Erebus. But the expedition to the Antarctic, 
which was to give Hooker his first great opportunity, was not 
intended simply to be a search for new lands nor a mere ' dash 
to the Pole.' Geographical discovery was subsidiary to its 
main scientific purpose — that of filling up the wide blanks 
in the knowledge of terrestrial magnetism in the Southern 
hemisphere, especially in the higher latitudes. 
Much had already been done in the Northern hemisphere 
since Halley in 1701 drew up the first chart of the variations 
of the compass, based upon the observations made during a 
voyage of discovery sent out by the English Government. 
Finally, thanks to Humboldt,^ a chain of magnetic obser- 
vatories had been established in Germany and the Eussian 
Empire in 1827, and extended by the famous physicist Gauss,^ 
in 1834, all over Europe, where simultaneous observations were 
constantly made. It was needful to perfect the charts not only 
of variation, but of dip and magnetic intensity, elements which 
were already kno^n to be in a constant state of fluctua- 
^ Baron Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was the leading naturalist 
and traveller of his day. His books inspired Darwin with the desire to 
travel. He spent five years in Spanish America from 1799 to 1804 ; the 
arrangement and publication of his collections and notes took twenty years, 
which he spent in Paris, where he had the assistance of Cuvier, Gay-Lussac, 
and others. Then in 1829 he undertook an expedition through Russian Asia 
for the Emperor Nicholas, which lasted nine months. 
His most famous work was Cosmos, a survey of the physical sciences and 
their interrelation (1845-58). His great interest in geography and exploration 
of the still unlaio\sn tracts of the \Aorld, the configuration of the country, 
climate, the distribution of life, was an interest in which Hooker shared, and 
which drew them together in Paris in 1845 ; for though he was then settled 
at Berlin, he was frequently sent to Paris on political missions. 
2 J. K. F. Gauss (1777-1855), Professor of Mathematics and Director of 
the Observatory at Gottingen, was a mathematician of singular brilliance, 
equally distinguished in astronomical research, geodesy, and the problems 
arising out of the earth's magnetic properties, inventing, among other instru- 
ments, the declination needle. He Mas responsible for the foundation of the 
Magnetic Association, in connection with whose work Ross's expedition was 
sent out. 
