The lands of silence

The history of the Polar Regions, of those vast areas, difficult of access, which include millions of square miles of land and ocean at either extreme of our planet, is of surpassing interest and importance. It is not only that we here meet with examples of heroism and devotion which must entrance mankind for all time. It is not only that there are dangers to be encountered and difficulties to be overcome which call forth the best qualities of our race. These, no doubt, are the main reasons for the deep interest which polar exploration has always excited. But there are others of almost equal importance. These regions offer great scientific problems. They present wide fields of research in almost all departments of knowledge. They have in the past yielded vast wealth, and have been the sources of commercial prosperity to many communities, and they may be so again. Their history is a history of noble and persevering effort; extending over a thousand years in the Arctic where the work is well-nigh finished, but only just beginning in the Antarctic regions, where it will have to be completed by our descendants.