join until the ship reached New Zealand.

In addition there were two officers who did not serve throughout
the whole term. Owing to ill-health Ernest H. Shackleton was obliged
to return from the Antarctic in 1903, and his place was taken by
George F. A. Mulock, who was a sub-lieutenant in the Navy when
he joined.

Apart from Koettlitz, who was forty, and Hodgson,
[Page 28]
who was thirty-seven, the average age of the remaining members
of the wardroom mess was just over twenty-four years, and at that
time Scott had little doubt as to the value of youth for Polar
service. Very naturally, however, this opinion was less pronounced
as the years went by, and on August 6, 1911, he wrote during his
last expedition: 'We (Wilson and I) both conclude that it is the
younger people who have the worst time... Wilson (39) says he never
felt cold less than he does now; I suppose that between 30 and
40 is the best all-round age. Bower is a wonder of course. He is
29. When past the forties it is encouraging to remember that Peary
was 52!'

The fact that these officers lived in complete harmony for three
years was proof enough that they were well and wisely chosen, and
Scott was equally happy in his selection of warrant officers, petty
officers and men, who brought with them the sense of naval discipline
that is very necessary for such conditions as exist in Polar service.
The _Discovery_, it must be remembered, was not in Government
employment, and so had no more stringent regulations to enforce
discipline than those contained in the Merchant Shipping Act. But
everyone on board lived exactly as though the ship was under the
Naval Discipline Act; and as the men must have known that this
state of affairs was a fiction, they deserved as much credit as
the officers, if not more, for continuing rigorously to observe
it.

[Page 29]
Something remains to be said about the _Discovery's_ prospective
course, and of the instructions given to Captain Scott.

For purposes of reference Sir Clements Markham had suggested that
the Antarctic area should be divided into four quadrants, to be
named respectively the Victoria, the Ross, the Weddell, and the
Enderby, and when he also proposed that the Ross quadrant should
be the one chosen for this expedition, his proposal was received
with such unanimous approval that long before the _Discovery_ was
built her prospective course had been finally decided. In fact
every branch of science saw a greater