When Shackleton in 1914 determined to make an attempt (gallant,
though in the-end unsuccessful) to cross the Antarctic. Ciintinent, he took with him as 'one of the members 'of the expedition Petty-Officer Erneat Mills Joyce. A wise selection, for Joyce had already twice proved his worth as' a Polar adventurer, and to him accordingly was assigned the vital task of laying a chairi'of depOts ficim the Rcias 'Sea, which was tb meet Shackleton coming from the other side. - The-South Polar' Trail (Duckworth, 10s. 6d.), which 'Petty-Officer Joyce' has- compiled from his logs, tells the story Of he* the food-relays were established during the years-191547: • •No literary graces are here. The nature of the tale is its own sufficient adorn- ment and justification, and it adds one more great page to the book of golden.. deeds which the stubborn grit of our Polar explorers has written on the dreary ice-deserts of the Antarctic. " Strung out on the Barrier" (as Dr. Mill, who writes an introduction to the book, remarks) " the chain of depots Still stretches for three hundred miles to Mount Hope, holding their imperishable food rations perhaps to save : the lives of future explorers, perhaps only as, a memorial unseen by man,
to-the faithfulness of the men who did not fail." - -
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