its own sake to turn the thoughts of the civilized world southwards. It
was becoming plain that a continent of the extent and climate which this
polar land probably possessed might have an overwhelming influence upon
the weather conditions of the whole Southern Hemisphere. The importance
of magnetism was only rivalled by the mystery in which the whole subject
was shrouded: and the region which surrounded the Southern Magnetic Pole
of the earth offered a promising field of experiment and observation. The
past history, through the ages, of this land was of obvious importance to
the geological story of the earth, whilst the survey of land formations
and ice action in the Antarctic was more useful perhaps to the
physiographer than that of any other country in the world, seeing that he
found here in daily and even hourly operation the conditions which he
knew had existed in the ice ages of the past over the whole world, but
which he could only infer from vestigial remains. The biological
importance of the Antarctic might be of the first magnitude in view of
the significance which attaches to the life of the sea in the
evolutionary problem.

And it was with these objects and ideals that Scott's first expedition,
known officially as the British Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904, but
more familiarly as 'The Discovery Expedition,' from the name of the ship
which carried it, was organized by the Royal Society and the Royal
Geographical Society, backed by the active support of the British
Government. The executive officers and crew were Royal Navy almost
without exception, whilst the scientific purposes of the expedition were
served in addition by five scientists. These latter were not naval
officers.

The Discovery left New Zealand on Christmas Eve 1901, and entered the
belt of pack ice which always has to be penetrated in order to reach the