modation for
carpenters', shipwrights' and other stores. Below it, a capacious
fo'c'sle served as quarters for a crew of sixteen men.

Aft, the chart-room, captain's cabin and photographic dark-room formed
a block leading up to the bridge, situated immediately in front of the
funnel. Farther aft, behind the engine-room and below the poop deck, was
the ward-room(,) a central space sixteen feet by eight feet, filled by
the dining-table and surrounded by cabins with bunks for twenty persons.

From the time the 'Aurora' arrived in London to her departure from
Australia, she was a scene of busy activity, as alterations and
replacements were necessary to fit her for future work.

In the meantime, stores and gear were being assembled. Purchases were
made and valuable donations received both in Europe and Australia.
Many and varied were the requirements, and some idea of their great
multiplicity will be gained by referring to the appendices dealing with
stores, clothing and instruments.

Finally, reference may be made in this chapter to the staff. In no
department can a leader spend time more profitably than in the selection
of the men who are to accomplish the work. Even when the expedition has
a scientific basis, academic distinction becomes secondary in the choice
of men. Fiala, as a result of his Arctic experience, truly says, "Many
a man who is a jolly good fellow in congenial surroundings will become
impatient, selfish and mean when obliged to sacrifice his comfort,
curb his desires and work hard in what seems a losing fight. The first
consideration in the choice of men for a polar campaign should be the
moral quality. Next should come mental and physical powers."

For polar work the great desideratum is tempered youth. Although one man
at the age of fifty may be as strong physically as another at the age
of twenty, it is certain that the exceptional man of fifty was also an
exceptional man at twenty. On the average, after about thirty years
of age, the elasticity of the body to rise to the strain of emergency
diminishes, and, when forty years is reached, a man, medically speaking,
reaches his acme. After that, degeneration of the fabric of the
body slowly and maybe imperceptibly sets in. As the difficulties of
exploration in cold regions approximate to the limit of human endurance
and often enough exceed it, it is obvious that the above generalizations
must receive due weight.

But though age and with it the whole