ANTARCTIC RESULTS.

Evening Star, Issue 21934, 22 January 1935, Page 8

ANTARCTIC RESULTS.

Tbk general public will not leant much from Admiral 13yrd’s specially written article giving the results of his scientific work in the Far South. It would not learn much from all the chapters on scientific results of all the works on Antarctic expeditions that have been published. The admiral's list of twentytwo departments of science in which investigations w r erc conducted is impressive, no doubt, but “ wdiat good came of it at last,” or may be expected to come of it, is still left far from dear. A vast unknown area has been identified with the Pacific Ocean, a land mass has been confirmed ns being a land mass, not a collection of ice-joined islands; it is hard to sec how that knowledge can a fleet anyone very materially, and the picture in our minds of the Antarctic continent would not have been altered if the conclusions had been otherwise. For the rest the adventurous flight which was made ” did not so much settle familial' problems ns raise new ones,” winch is satisfactory to adventurers, since it means that there will still be south polar expeditions

in the future. Admiral Byrd docs nob mention the coal deposits. They will nob be worked at any assignable future. “To wrest from Nature her jealous secrets —what greater aim in life than this;-'” it has been said, but in the last score of years the secrets thqt have been wrested from the Antarctic do not bo the plain man seem to mean very much. They would mean more, possibly, if he knew more of them, but even to ill. scientist their importance seems to disappear in no small measure once thev have been wrested. That has been so since the first discoveries. Scott’s ‘ Voyage of the Discovery,’ in two large volumes, contains a final chapter on * General Survey of Our Observations,’ and two appendices on the geology and fauna studied. In regard to “ invertebrate zoology ” wo arc told that collections made had been deposited at the British Museum, but “ this is only a commencement of the work which has to be done in this connection, and it will he many months, and perhaps years, before the full results of this important department are published.” Similarly as regards the magnetic work, “ the reduction of all these data requires much patience and skill, and it must he a long while before the full results are made known.” When such results eventually have been worked out they arc not considered generally to be of sufficient interest to be worth a cable message. But presumably they are all stored up for the benefit of future explorers in the Research institute now established at Cambridge, and the right scientist may get value from them. Captain Scott and his companions on his last journey might have preserved their lives if they had not dragged with them, and carried to the last, thirty-five pounds of rocks and fossils to delay their staggering march. It'would bo interesting to have learned since what those rocks wore worth. Possibly because the tragedy was so painful, without adding to it, that docs not seem ever to have been revealed. Admiral Byrd is a brave man; lie can be enthusiastic still about the “ magnificent sweep of territory ” explored by him in the Far South, and so, we have no doubt, can his companions. We shall hope the best for his scientific results, and, so far as they are meteorological, they may have practical value.