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 chance of success in the
Ross quadrant than in any other region. Concerning instructions
on such a voyage as the _Discovery's_ it may be thought that, when
once the direction is settled, the fewer there are the better.
Provided, however, that they leave the greatest possible freedom
to the commander, they may be very useful in giving him a general
view of the situation, and in stating the order in which the various
objects are held. If scientific interests clash, it is clearly to
the commander's advantage to know in what light these interests
are regarded by those responsible for the enterprise. Of such a
nature were the instructions Scott received before sailing for