There are many reasons which send men to the Poles, and the Intellectual Force uses them all.  But the desire for knowledge for its own sake is the one which really counts and there is no field for the collection of knowledge which at the present time can be compared to the Antarctic.

Exploration is the physical expression of the Intellectual Passion.

And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to give it physical expression, go out and explore.  If you are a brave man you will do nothing:  if you are fearful you may do much, for none but cowards have need to prove their bravery.  Some will tell you that you are mad, and nearly all will say, “What is the use?” For we are a nation of shopkeepers, and no shopkeeper will look at research which does not promise him a financial return within a year.  And so you will sledge nearly alone, but those with whom you sledge will not be shopkeepers:  that is worth a good deal.  If you march your Winter Journeys you will have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin’s egg.

FOOTNOTES: 

[349] Scott, Voyage of the Discovery, vol. i. p. 449.

[350] Amundsen, The South Pole, vol. ii. p. 19.

[351] Lashly’s diary records that the Second Return Party found a
shortage of oil at the Middle Barrier Depot (see p. 395).

[352] Scott, “Message to the Public.”

[353] A full discussion of these and other Antarctic temperatures
is to be found in the scientific reports of the British
Antarctic Expedition, 1910-13, “Meteorology,” vol. i. chap.
ii., by G. C. Simpson.

[354] Modern research suggests that the presence or absence of
certain vitamines makes a difference, and it may be a very
great difference, in the ability of any individual to profit
by the food supplied to him.  If this be so this factor must
have had great influence upon the fate of the Polar Party,
whose diet was seriously deficient in, if not absolutely
free from, vitamines.  The importance of this deficiency to
the future explorer can hardly be exaggerated, and I suggest
that no future Antarctic sledge party can ever set out to
travel inland again without food which contains these
vitamines.  It is to be noticed that, although the Medical
Research Council’s authoritative publication on the true
value of these accessory substances was not available when
we went South in 1910, yet Atkinson insisted that fresh
onions, which had been brought down by the ship, be added to
our ration for the Search Journey.  Compare recent work of
Professor Leonard Hill on the value of ultra-violet rays in
compensating for lack of vitamines.—­A.  C.-G.

[355] Scott’s Last Expedition, vol. ii. p. 356.

[356] My own diary.

[357] See p. 234.

[358] Wilson, Nat.  Ant.  Exp., 1901-1904, “Zoology,” Part ii. pp.
44-45.