For the victory is not due to the great inventions of the present day and the many new appliances of every kind.  The means used are of immense antiquity, the same as were known to the nomad thousands of years ago, when he pushed forward across the snow-covered plains of Siberia and Northern Europe.  But everything, great and small, was thoroughly thought out, and the plan was splendidly executed.  It is the man that matters, here as everywhere.

Like everything great, it all looks so plain and simple.  Of course, that is just as it had to be, we think.

Apart from the discoveries and experiences of earlier explorers —­ which, of course, were a necessary condition of success —­ both the plan and its execution are the ripe fruit of Norwegian life and experience in ancient and modern times.  The Norwegians’ daily winter life in snow and frost, our peasants’ constant use of ski and ski-sledge in forest and mountain, our sailors’ yearly whaling and sealing life in the Polar Sea, our explorers’ journeys in the Arctic regions —­ it was all this, with the dog as a draught animal borrowed from the primitive races, that formed the foundation of the plan and rendered its execution possible —­ when the man appeared.

Therefore, when the man is there, it carries him through all difficulties as if they did not exist; every one of them has been foreseen and encountered in advance.  Let no one come and prate about luck and chance.  Amundsen’s luck is that of the strong man who looks ahead.

How like him and the whole expedition is his telegram home —­ as simple and straightforward as if it concerned a holiday tour in the mountains.  It speaks of what is achieved, not of their hardships.  Every word a manly one.  That is the mark of the right man, quiet and strong.

It is still too early to measure the extent of the new discoveries, but the cablegram has already dispersed the mists so far that the outlines are beginning to shape themselves.  That fairyland of ice, so different from all other lands, is gradually rising out of the clouds.

In this wonderful world of ice Amundsen has found his own way.  From first to last he and his companions have traversed entirely unknown regions on their ski, and there are not many expeditions in history that have brought under the foot of man so long a range of country hitherto unseen by human eye.  People thought it a matter of course that he would make for Beardmore Glacier, which Shackleton had discovered, and by that route come out on to the high snow plateau near the Pole, since there he would be sure of getting forward.  We who knew Amundsen thought it would be more like him to avoid a place for the very reason that it had been trodden by others.  Happily we were right.  Not at any point does his route touch that of the Englishmen —­ except by the Pole itself.