JOYOUS ADVENTURE IN THE ARCTIC
With Sea Plane and Sledge in the Arctic : the Account of the 1924 Oxford University ArctiE Expedition. By George Binney. Illustrated. (Hutchinson. 218.) How deep the War has left its mark perhaps only those know who are in charge of University teaching. In 1919 and 1920 both Oxford and Cambridge were crowded with youth of a sort new to them. English young men had been a byword in Europe for prolonged immaturity of mind and character : but after the Armistice,back came to academic life this flood of young company commanders and platoon officers, familiar with responsibility in issues of life and death : men used to handling men, and not in playing fields. In contact with them was the first generation that the War missed ; and it was- natural that these juniors should grow up with a standard of virile achievement; very unlike that of pre-War times. There is no war for them, and probably war does not tempt them ; but plainly they are looking for adventure which has a serious purpose to it-; and, as one result,-we have Mr. Binney organiz- ing his third Arctic Expedition before he is four-and-twenty: The men he led were mostly his contemporaries. Eight Oxonians and four Cambridge men (many will regret that their colleges are not named) made roughly half the personnel of 'the expedition and, among them, raised the funds. Others who were with Mr. Binney in 1921 and 1923 would have been of his party but they had been picked already for the attempt on Mount Everest; and in Spitsbergen Mr. Irvine's former comrades learnt that their friend had died with Mallory on the great climb.
What may be the precise value to science of the results achieved, within the limits of an Oxford long vacation, at a total cost of 15,300; onli scientists can' estimate. Professor Sollas in his prefatory pages zpirta them high:: geology,
meteorology, entomology, zoology--all gain something from this exploration of North-East Land, away and beyond Spits- bergen: the shape of this outlying piece of earth, the set of the winds and tides there, its, insect life, its birds and beasts are all made more familiar. But the ordinary reader will be concerned rather with the results of what Professor Sofas rightly calls "a school for explorers." They are illustrated in the maturity of Mr. Binney's writing : it recalls the grave competence with which men of his age went about their business in the trenches. Youth is there and the zest of , youth, but there is no flashy cleverness. As a piece of description it would be hard to better his story of the sea- plane's first flight, which, after a brilliant start, brought him - and his pilot nearer death than most men go in a lifetime : it gives, quietly and by implication, the growing sense in strong, courageous men that effort is useless ; it gives no less (and this perhaps unconsciously) the extraordinary re- silience of young fibre. These two had been for many hours striving uselessly with improvised paddles to fight the drift Of wind and tide which carried their wrecked plane into the Arctic Ocean. They had abandoned the struggle and were merely waiting for the end when help appeared ; and when it came, the process of towing them and the 'plane, which they' 'would not abandon, was another long strain on the nerves,' But, once ashore, they ate, drank and were merry with their rescuers (Norwegians from a meteorological station) and then slept like logs.
All the rest is in the same key : the various diaries of the three sledging parties which painfully traversed those grim wastes are records of endurance, and of jubilation the moment the strain was off. They lived laborious days with a ven- geance, but certainly they did not spurn delights. More power to them, and more joyous adventure.
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