Page:Polar Exploration - Bruce - 1911.djvu/244

240 Now, as far as the ship is concerned, she must be made snug for the winter, and she becomes to all intents and purposes a house for the next three, or may be four, years. She will drift right across the North Polar Basin, and will emerge from the Polar pack somewhere between Greenland and Spitsbergen. The probability is that she will pass almost if not right through the position of the North Pole. But all this may be counted worthless if there is not complete and thorough equipment of men, instruments, and other material for scientific investigation. The expedition must be for the thorough examination of the Polar Basin—that is, it must be an expedition fitted out primarily for oceanographical research. The leader of the expedition should be a scientific man, and should certainly be one who has gained knowledge by having carried on scientific research in one or more departments in the service of some previous expedition. He must also be practically acquainted with the handling of an oceanographical ship. Without such experience, be he landsman or seaman, failure must be the result.

The scientific staff must include well-trained men able to organise the work of their various departments under the co-ordination of the leader. Astronomy; meteorology, including an investigation of the higher atmosphere by means