ILLUSTRATION]

Antarctic Land discoveries preceding the year 1910

The polar regions, like any other part of the globe, may be said to be
paved with facts, the essence of which it is necessary to acquire before
knowledge of this special zone can be brought to even a provisional
exactitude. On the face of it, polar research may seem to be specific
and discriminating, but it must be remembered that an advance in any one
of the departments into which, for convenience, science is artificially
divided, conduces to the advantage of all. Science is a homogeneous
whole. If we ignore the facts contained in one part of the world, surely
we are hampering scientific advance. It is obvious to every one that,
given only a fraction of the pieces, it is a much more difficult task to
put together a jig-saw puzzle and obtain an idea of the finished pattern
than were all the pieces at hand. The pieces of the jig-saw puzzle are
the data of science.

Though it is not sufficiently recognized, the advance of science is
attended by a corresponding increase in the creature comforts of
man. Again, from an economic aspect, the frozen South may not attract
immediate attention. But who can say what a train of enterprise the
future may bring?

Captain James Cook, on his return to London after the circumnavigation
of Antarctica, held that the far-southern lands had no future. Yet, a
few years later, great profits were being returned to Great Britain
and the United States from sealing-stations established as a result of
Cook's own observations. At the present day, several whaling companies
have flourishing industries in the Antarctic waters within the American
Quadrant.

Even now much can be said in regard to the possibilities offered by
the Antarctic regions for economic development, but, year by year, the
outlook will widen, since man is constantly resorting to subtler and
more ingenious artifice in applying Nature's resources. It will be
remembered that Charles Darwin, when in Australia, predicted a very
limited commercial future for New South Wales. But the mastery of man
overcame the difficulties which Darwin's too penetrating mind foresaw.

What will be the role of the South in the progress of civilization and
in the development of the arts and sciences, is not now obvious. As
sure as there is here a vast mass of land with potentialities, strictly
limited at present, so surely will it be cemented some day within the
universal plinth of