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If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: The Worst Journey in the World, Volumes 1 and 2 + Antarctic 1910-1913 + +Author: Apsley Cherry-Garrard + +Release Date: December 15, 2004 [eBook #14363] +[Most recently updated: May 23, 2022] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Ted Garvin and the PG Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORST JOURNEY *** + + + + +[Illustration: Frontispiece] + + + + +THE WORST JOURNEY + +IN THE WORLD + +ANTARCTIC + +1910-1913 + +BY + +APSLEY CHERRY-GARRARD + +WITH PANORAMAS, MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE LATE + +DOCTOR EDWARD A. WILSON AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION + +IN TWO VOLUMES + + +VOLUME ONE + +CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED + +LONDON BOMBAY SYDNEY + +_First published 1922_ + +PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN + + +This volume is a narrative of Scott's Last Expedition from its departure +from England in 1910 to its return to New Zealand in 1913. + +It does not, however, include the story of subsidiary parties except +where their adventures touch the history of the Main Party. + +It is hoped later to publish an appendix volume with an account of the +two Geological Journeys, and such other information concerning the +equipment of, and lessons learned by, this Expedition as may be of use to +the future explorer. + +APSLEY CHERRY-GARRARD. + + + + +PREFACE + + +This post-war business is inartistic, for it is seldom that any one does +anything well for the sake of doing it well; and it is un-Christian, if +you value Christianity, for men are out to hurt and not to help--can you +wonder, when the Ten Commandments were hurled straight from the pulpit +through good stained glass. It is all very interesting and uncomfortable, +and it has been a great relief to wander back in one's thoughts and +correspondence and personal dealings to an age in geological time, so +many hundred years ago, when we were artistic Christians, doing our jobs +as well as we were able just because we wished to do them well, helping +one another with all our strength, and (I speak with personal humility) +living a life of co-operation, in the face of hardships and dangers, +which has seldom been surpassed. + +The mutual conquest of difficulties is the cement of friendship, as it is +the only lasting cement of matrimony. We had plenty of difficulties; we +sometimes failed, we sometimes won; we always faced them--we had to. +Consequently we have some friends who are better than all the wives in +Mahomet's paradise, and when I have asked for help in the making of this +book I have never never asked in vain. Talk of ex-soldiers: give me +ex-antarcticists, unsoured and with their ideals intact: they could sweep +the world. + +The trouble is that they are inclined to lose their ideals in this +complicated atmosphere of civilization. They run one another down like +the deuce, and it is quite time that stopped. What is the use of A +running down Scott because he served with Shackleton, or B going for +Amundsen because he served with Scott? They have all done good work; +within their limits, the best work to date. There are jobs for which, if +I had to do them, I would like to serve under Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton +and Wilson--each to his part. For a joint scientific and geographical +piece of organization, give me Scott; for a Winter Journey, Wilson; for a +dash to the Pole and nothing else, Amundsen: and if I am in the devil of +a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time. They +will all go down in polar history as leaders, these men. I believe Bowers +would also have made a great name for himself if he had lived, and few +polar ships have been commanded as capably as was the Terra Nova, by +Pennell. + +In a way this book is a sequel to the friendship which there was between +Wilson, Bowers and myself, which, having stood the strain of the Winter +Journey, could never have been broken. Between the three of us we had a +share in all the big journeys and bad times which came to Scott's main +landing party, and what follows is, particularly, our unpublished +diaries, letters and illustrations. I, we, have tried to show how good +the whole thing was--and how bad. I have had a freer hand than many in +this, because much of the dull routine has been recorded already and can +be found if wanted: also because, not being the leader of the expedition, +I had no duty to fulfil in cataloguing my followers' achievements. But +there was plenty of work left for me. It has been no mere gleaning of the +polar field. Not half the story had been told, nor even all the most +interesting documents. Among these, I have had from Mrs. Bowers her son's +letters home, and from Lashly his diary of the Last Return Party on the +Polar Journey. Mrs. Wilson has given her husband's diary of the Polar +Journey: this is especially valuable because it is the only detailed +account in existence from 87° 32´ to the Pole and after, with the +exception of Scott's Diary already published. Lady Scott has given with +both hands any records I wanted and could find. No one of my companions +in the South has failed to help. They include Atkinson, Wright, +Priestley, Simpson, Lillie and Debenham. + +To all these good friends I can do no more than express my very sincere +thanks. + +I determined that the first object of the illustrations should be +descriptive of the text: Wright and Debenham have photographs, sledging +and otherwise, which do this admirably. Mrs. Wilson has allowed me to +have any of her husband's sketches and drawings reproduced that I wished, +and there are many hundreds from which to make a selection. In addition +to the six water-colours, which I have chosen for their beauty, I have +taken a number of sketches because they illustrate typical incidents in +our lives. They are just unfinished sketches, no more: and had Bill been +alive he would have finished them before he allowed them to be published. +Then I have had reproduced nearly all the sketches and panoramas drawn by +him on the Polar Journey and found with him where he died. The half-tone +process does not do them justice: I wish I could have had them reproduced +in photogravure, but the cost is prohibitive. + +As to production, after a good deal of experience, I was convinced that I +could trust a commercial firm to do its worst save when it gave them less +trouble to do better. I acknowledge my mistake. In a wilderness of firms +in whom nothing was first class except their names and their prices, I +have dealt with R. & R. Clark, who have printed this book, and Emery +Walker, who has illustrated it. The fact that Emery Walker is not only +alive, but full of vitality, indicates why most of the other firms are +millionaires. + +When I went South I never meant to write a book: I rather despised those +who did so as being of an inferior brand to those who did things and said +nothing about them. But that they say nothing is too often due to the +fact that they have nothing to say, or are too idle or too busy to learn +how to say it. Every one who has been through such an extraordinary +experience has much to say, and ought to say it if he has any faculty +that way. There is after the event a good deal of criticism, of +stock-taking, of checking of supplies and distances and so forth that +cannot really be done without first-hand experience. Out there we knew +what was happening to us too well; but we did not and could not measure +its full significance. When I was asked to write a book by the Antarctic +Committee I discovered that, without knowing it, I had intended to write +one ever since I had realized my own experiences. Once started, I enjoyed +the process. My own writing is my own despair, but it is better than it +was, and this is directly due to Mr. and Mrs. Bernard Shaw. At the age of +thirty-five I am delighted to acknowledge that my education has at last +begun. + +APSLEY CHERRY-GARRARD. + +Lamer, Wheathampstead, + +1921. + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE + INTRODUCTION xvii +CHAPTER I FROM ENGLAND TO SOUTH AFRICA 1 +CHAPTER II MAKING OUR EASTING DOWN 24 +CHAPTER III SOUTHWARD 48 +CHAPTER IV LAND 79 +CHAPTER V THE DEPÔT JOURNEY 104 +CHAPTER VI THE FIRST WINTER 178 +CHAPTER VII THE WINTER JOURNEY 230 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +McMurdo Sound from Arrival Heights in Autumn. The sun + is sinking below the Western Mountains. _Frontispiece_ + _From a water-colour drawing by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + + FACING PAGE + +The Last of the Dogs. Scott's Southern Journey 1903. xxxvi + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +The Rookery of Emperor Penguins under the Cliffs of the + Great Ice Barrier: looking east from Cape Crozier. xlii + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Raymond Priestley and Victor Campbell. liv + _From a photograph by F. Debenham._ + +Sunrise behind South Trinidad Island. July 26, 1910. 12 + _From a water-colour drawing by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +The Roaring Forties. 32 + _From a water-colour drawing by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Pack-ice in the Ross Sea. Midnight, January 1911. 62 + _From a water-colour drawing by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +A Sea Leopard. 66 + +A Weddell Seal. 66 + _From a photograph by F. Debenham._ + +The Terra Nova in the pack. Men watering Ship. 74 + _From a photograph by F. Debenham._ + +Taking a Sounding. 84 + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Krisravitza. 84 + _From a photograph by F. Debenham._ + +Mount Erebus showing Steam Cloud, the Ramp, and the + Hut at Cape Evans. 96 + _From a photograph by F. Debenham._ + +Dog-skin outer Mitts showing lampwick Lashings for slinging + over the Shoulders. 114 + +Sledging Spoon, Pannikin and Cup, which pack into the inner + Cooker. 114 + _From sketches by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Hut Point from the bottom of Observation Hill, showing the + Bay in which the Discovery lay, the Discovery Hut, + Vince's Cross, the frozen sea and the Western Mountains. 158 + _From a photograph by F. Debenham._ + +Seals. 162 + +From the Sea. 162 + _From sketches by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Winter Quarters at Cape Evans. Notice the Whale-back clouds + on Erebus, the débris cones on the Ramp, and the anemometer + pipes which had to be cleared during blizzard by way + of the ladder at the end of the Hut. 172 + _From a photograph by F. Debenham._ + +A Cornice of Snow formed upon a Cliff by wind and drift. 176 + _From a photograph by F. Debenham._ + +PLATE I. A panoramic view over Cape Evans, and McMurdo + Sound from the Ramp. 184 + _From photographs by F. Debenham._ + +The sea's fringe of Ice growing outwards from the Land. 198 + _From a photograph by F. Debenham._ + +Leading Ponies on the Barrier. November 20, 1911. 206 + _From a sketch for a water-colour drawing by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Frozen sea and cliffs of Ice: the snout of the Barne Glacier in + North Bay. 212 + _From a photograph by C. S. Wright._ + +Erebus and Land's End from the Sea-ice. 224 + _From a photograph by C. S. Wright._ + +Erebus from Great Razorback Island. 224 + _From a photograph by F. Debenham._ + +Two Emperor Penguins. 234 + _From a photograph by C. S. Wright._ + +PLATE II. A panoramic view of Ross Island from Crater Hill, + looking along the Hut Point Peninsula, showing some of + the topography of the Winter Journey. 236 + _From photographs by F. Debenham._ + +Camping after Dark. 246 + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Camp work in a Blizzard: passing the cooker into the tent. 256 + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +A procession of Emperor Penguins. 264 + _From a photograph by C. S. Wright._ + +The Knoll behind the Cliffs of Cape Crozier. 264 + _From a photograph by F. Debenham._ + +The Barrier pressure at Cape Crozier, with the Knoll. Part of + the bay in which the Emperor Penguins lay their eggs is + visible. 266 + _From a photograph by C. S. Wright._ + +The Emperor Penguins nursing their Chicks on the Sea-ice, + with the cliffs of the Barrier behind. 268 + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Mount Erebus and detail of Ice-pressure. 280 + _From photographs by C. S. Wright._ + +Down a Crevasse. 290 + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + + +MAPS + +From New Zealand to the South Pole. lxiv +Hut Point. From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson. 128 +Cape Evans and McMurdo Sound. 194 +The Winter Journey. 294 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having +a bad time which has been devised. It is the only form of adventure in +which you put on your clothes at Michaelmas and keep them on until +Christmas, and, save for a layer of the natural grease of the body, find +them as clean as though they were new. It is more lonely than London, +more secluded than any monastery, and the post comes but once a year. As +men will compare the hardships of France, Palestine, or Mesopotamia, so +it would be interesting to contrast the rival claims of the Antarctic as +a medium of discomfort. A member of Campbell's party tells me that the +trenches at Ypres were a comparative picnic. But until somebody can +evolve a standard of endurance I am unable to see how it can be done. +Take it all in all, I do not believe anybody on earth has a worse time +than an Emperor penguin. + +Even now the Antarctic is to the rest of the earth as the Abode of the +Gods was to the ancient Chaldees, a precipitous and mammoth land lying +far beyond the seas which encircled man's habitation, and nothing is more +striking about the exploration of the Southern Polar regions than its +absence, for when King Alfred reigned in England the Vikings were +navigating the ice-fields of the North; yet when Wellington fought the +battle of Waterloo there was still an undiscovered continent in the +South. + +For those who wish to read an account of the history of Antarctic +exploration there is an excellent chapter in Scott's Voyage of the +Discovery and elsewhere. I do not propose to give any general survey of +this kind here, but complaints have been made to me that Scott's Last +Expedition plunges the general reader into a neighbourhood which he is +supposed to know all about, while actually he is lost, having no idea +what the Discovery was, or where Castle Rock or Hut Point stand. For the +better understanding of the references to particular expeditions, to the +lands discovered by them and the traces left by them, which must occur in +this book I give the following brief introduction. + +From the earliest days of the making of maps of the Southern Hemisphere +it was supposed that there was a great continent called Terra Australis. +As explorers penetrated round the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, and +found nothing but stormy oceans beyond, and as, later, they discovered +Australia and New Zealand, the belief in this continent weakened, but was +not abandoned. During the latter half of the eighteenth century eagerness +for scientific knowledge was added to the former striving after +individual or State aggrandizement. + +Cook, Ross and Scott: these are the aristocrats of the South. + +It was the great English navigator James Cook who laid the foundations of +our knowledge. In 1772 he sailed from Deptford in the Resolution, 462 +tons, and the Adventure, 336 tons, ships which had been built at Whitby +for the coal trade. He was, like Nansen, a believer in a varied diet as +one of the preventives of scurvy, and mentions that he had among his +provisions "besides Saur Krout, Portable Broth, Marmalade of Carrots and +Suspissated juice of Wort and Beer." Medals were struck "to be given to +the natives of new discovered countries, and left there as testimonies of +our being the first discoverers."[1] It would be interesting to know +whether any exist now. + +After calling at the Cape of Good Hope Cook started to make his Easting +down to New Zealand, purposing to sail as far south as possible in search +of a southern continent. He sighted his first 'ice island' or iceberg in +lat. 50° 40´ S., long. 2° 0´ E., on December 10, 1772. The next day he +"saw some white birds about the size of pigeons, with blackish bills and +feet. I never saw any such before."[2] These must have been Snowy Petrel. +Passing through many bergs, where he notices how the albatross left them +and penguins appeared, he was brought up by thick pack ice along which he +coasted. Under the supposition that this ice was formed in bays and +rivers Cook was led to believe that land was not far distant. +Incidentally he remarks that in order to enable his men to support the +colder weather he "caused the sleeves of their jackets (which were so +short as to expose their arms) to be lengthened with baize; and had a cap +made for each man of the same stuff, together with canvas; which proved +of great service to them."[3] + +For more than a month Cook sailed the Southern Ocean, always among bergs +and often among pack. The weather was consistently bad and generally +thick; he mentions that he had only seen the moon once since leaving the +Cape. + +It was on Sunday, January 17, 1773, that the Antarctic Circle was crossed +for the first time, in longitude 39° 35´ E. After proceeding to latitude +67° 15´ S. he was stopped by an immense field of pack. From this point he +turned back and made his way to New Zealand. + +Leaving New Zealand at the end of 1773 without his second ship, the +Adventure, from which he had been parted, he judged from the great swell +that "there can be no land to the southward, under the meridian of New +Zealand, but what must lie very far to the south." In latitude 62° 10´ S. +he sighted the first ice island on December 12, and was stopped by thick +pack ice three days later. On the 20th he again crossed the Antarctic +Circle in longitude 147° 46´ W. and penetrated in this neighbourhood to a +latitude of 67° 31´ S. Here he found a drift towards the north-east. + +On January 26, 1774, in longitude 109° 31´ W., he crossed the Antarctic +Circle for the third time, after meeting no pack and only a few icebergs. +In latitude 71° 10´ S. he was finally turned back by an immense field of +pack, and wrote: + +"I will not say it was impossible anywhere to get farther to the south; +but the attempting it would have been a dangerous and rash enterprise, +and what, I believe, no man in my situation would have thought of. It +was, indeed, my opinion, as well as the opinion of most on board, that +this ice extended quite to the Pole, or perhaps joined to some land, to +which it had been fixed from the earliest time; and that it is here, that +is to the south of this parallel, where all the ice we find scattered up +and down to the north is first formed, and afterwards broken off by gales +of wind, or other causes, and brought to the north by the currents, which +are always found to set in that direction in the high latitudes. As we +drew near this ice some penguins were heard, but none seen; and but few +other birds, or any other thing that could induce us to think any land +was near. And yet I think there must be some to the south beyond this +ice; but if there is it can afford no better retreat for birds, or any +other animals, than the ice itself, with which it must be wholly covered. +I, who had ambition not only to go farther than any one had been before, +but as far as it was possible for man to go, was not sorry at meeting +with this interruption; as it, in some measure, relieved us; at least, +shortened the dangers and hardships inseparable from the navigation of +the Southern Polar regions."[4] + +And so he turned northwards, when, being "taken ill of the bilious +colic," a favourite dog belonging to one of the officers (Mr. Forster, +after whom Aptenodytes forsteri, the Emperor penguin, is named) "fell a +sacrifice to my tender stomach.... Thus I received nourishment and +strength, from food which would have made most people in Europe sick: so +true it is that necessity is governed by no law."[5] + +"Once and for all the idea of a populous fertile southern continent was +proved to be a myth, and it was clearly shown that whatever land might +exist to the South must be a region of desolation hidden beneath a mantle +of ice and snow. The vast extent of the tempestuous southern seas was +revealed, and the limits of the habitable globe were made known. +Incidentally it may be remarked that Cook was the first to describe the +peculiarities of the Antarctic icebergs and floe-ice."[6] + +A Russian expedition under Bellingshausen discovered the first certain +land in the Antarctic in 1819, and called it Alexander Land, which lies +nearly due south of Cape Horn. + +Whatever may have been the rule in other parts of the world, the flag +followed trade in the southern seas during the first part of the +nineteenth century. The discovery of large numbers of seals and whales +attracted many hundreds of ships, and it is to the enlightened +instructions of such firms as Messrs. Enderby, and to the pluck and +enterprise of such commanders as Weddell, Biscoe and Balleny, that we owe +much of our small knowledge of the outline of the Antarctic continent. + +"In the smallest and craziest ships they plunged boldly into stormy +ice-strewn seas; again and again they narrowly missed disaster; their +vessels were racked and strained and leaked badly, their crews were worn +out with unceasing toil and decimated with scurvy. Yet in spite of +inconceivable discomforts they struggled on, and it does not appear that +any one of them ever turned his course until he was driven to do so by +hard necessity. One cannot read the simple, unaffected narratives of +these voyages without being assured of their veracity, and without being +struck by the wonderful pertinacity and courage which they display."[7] + +The position in 1840 was that the Antarctic land had been sighted at a +few points all round its coasts. On the whole the boundaries which had +been seen lay on or close to the Antarctic Circle, and it appeared +probable that the continent, if continent it was, consisted of a great +circular mass of land with the South Pole at its centre, and its coasts +more or less equidistant from this point. + +Two exceptions only to this had been found. Cook and Bellingshausen had +indicated a dip towards the Pole south of the Pacific; Weddell a still +more pronounced dip to the south of the Atlantic, having sailed to a +latitude of 74° 15´ S. in longitude 34° 16´ W. + +Had there been a Tetrahedronal Theory in those days, some one might have +suggested the probability of a third indentation beneath the Indian +Ocean, probably to be laughed at for his pains. When James Clark Ross +started from England in 1839 there was no particular reason for him to +suppose that the Antarctic coast-line in the region of the magnetic Pole, +which he was to try to reach, did not continue to follow the Antarctic +Circle. + +Ross left England in September 1839 under instructions from the +Admiralty. He had under his command two of Her Majesty's sailing ships, +the Erebus, 370 tons, and the Terror, 340 tons. Arriving in Hobart, +Tasmania, in August 1840, he was met by news of discoveries made during +the previous summer by the French Expedition under Dumont D'Urville and +the United States Expedition under Charles Wilkes. The former had coasted +along Adélie Land, and for sixty miles of ice cliff to the west of it. He +brought back an egg now at Drayton which Scott's Discovery Expedition +definitely proved to be that of an Emperor penguin. + +All these discoveries were somewhere about the latitude of the Antarctic +Circle (66° 32´ S.) and roughly in that part of the world which lies to +the south of Australia. Ross, "impressed with the feeling that England +had ever _led_ the way of discovery in the southern as well as in the +northern region, ... resolved at once to avoid all interference with +their discoveries, and selected a much more easterly meridian (170° E.), +on which to penetrate to the southward, and if possible reach the +magnetic Pole."[8] + +The outlines of the expedition in which an unknown and unexpected sea was +found, stretching 500 miles southwards towards the Pole, are well known +to students of Antarctic history. After passing through the pack he stood +towards the supposed position of the magnetic Pole, "steering as nearly +south by the compass as the wind admitted," and on January 11, 1841, in +latitude 71° 15´ S., he sighted, the white peaks of Mount Sabine and +shortly afterwards Cape Adare. Foiled by the presence of land from +gaining the magnetic Pole, he turned southwards (true) into what is now +called the Ross Sea, and, after spending many days in travelling down +this coast-line with the mountains on his right hand, the Ross Sea on his +left, he discovered and named the great line of mountains which here for +some five hundred miles divides the sea from the Antarctic plateau. On +January 27, "with a favourable breeze and very clear weather, we stood to +the southward, close to some land which had been in sight since the +preceding noon, and which we then called the High Island; it proved to be +a mountain twelve thousand four hundred feet of elevation above the level +of the sea, emitting flame and smoke in great profusion; at first the +smoke appeared like snowdrift, but as we drew nearer its true character +became manifest.... I named it Mount Erebus, and an extinct volcano to +the eastward, little inferior in height, being by measurement ten +thousand nine hundred feet high, was called Mount Terror." That is the +first we hear of our two old friends, and Ross Island is the land upon +which they stand. + +"As we approached the land under all studding-sails we perceived a low +white line extending from its eastern extreme point as far as the eye +could discern to the eastward. It presented an extraordinary appearance, +gradually increasing in height as we got nearer to it, and proving at +length to be a perpendicular cliff of ice, between one hundred and fifty +and two hundred feet above the level of the sea, perfectly flat and level +at the top, and without any fissures or promontories on its even seaward +face."[9] + +Ross coasted along the Barrier for some 250 miles from Cape Crozier, as +he called the eastern extremity of Ross Island, after the commander of +the Terror. This point where land, sea and moving Barrier meet will be +constantly mentioned in this narrative. Returning, he looked into the +Sound which divides Ross Island from the western mountains. On February +16 "Mount Erebus was seen at 2.30 A.M., and, the weather becoming very +clear, we had a splendid view of the whole line of coast, to all +appearance connecting it with the main land, which we had not before +suspected to be the case." The reader will understand that Ross makes a +mistake here, since Mounts Erebus and Terror are upon an island connected +to the mainland only by a sheet of ice. He continues: "A very deep bight +was observed to extend far to the south-west from Cape Bird [Bird was the +senior lieutenant of the Erebus], in which a line of low land might be +seen; but its determination was too uncertain to be left unexplored; and +as the wind blowing feebly from the west prevented our making any way in +that direction through the young ice that now covered the surface of the +ocean in every part, as far as we could see from the mast-head, I +determined to steer towards the bight to give it a closer examination, +and to learn with more certainty its continuity or otherwise. At noon we +were in latitude 76° 32´ S., longitude 166° 12´ E., dip 88° 24´ and +variation 107° 18´ E. + +"During the afternoon we were nearly becalmed, and witnessed some +magnificent eruptions of Mount Erebus, the flame and smoke being +projected to a great height; but we could not, as on a former occasion, +discover any lava issuing from the crater; although the exhibitions of +to-day were upon a much grander scale.... + +"Soon after midnight (February 16-17) a breeze sprang up from the +eastward and we made all sail to the southward until 4 A.M., although we +had an hour before distinctly traced the land entirely round the bay +connecting Mount Erebus with the mainland. I named it McMurdo Bay, after +the senior lieutenant of the Terror, a compliment that his zeal and skill +well merited."[10] It is now called McMurdo Sound. + +In making the mistake of connecting Erebus with the mainland Ross was +looking at a distance upon the Hut Point Peninsula running out from the +S.W. corner of Erebus towards the west. He probably saw Minna Bluff, +which juts out from the mainland towards the east. Between them, and in +front of the Bluff, lie White Island, Black Island and Brown Island. To +suppose them to be part of a line of continuous land was a very natural +mistake. + +Ross broke through the pack ice into an unknown sea: he laid down many +hundreds of miles of mountainous coast-line, and (with further work +completed in 1842) some 400 miles of the Great Ice Barrier: he penetrated +in his ships to the extraordinarily high latitude of 78° 11´ S., four +degrees farther than Weddell. The scientific work of his expedition was +no less worthy of praise. The South Magnetic Pole was fixed with +comparative accuracy, though Ross was disappointed in his natural but +"perhaps too ambitious hope I had so long cherished of being permitted to +plant the flag of my country on both the magnetic Poles of our globe." + +Before all things he was at great pains to be accurate, both in his +geographical and scientific observations, and his records of meteorology, +water temperatures, soundings, as also those concerning the life in the +oceans through which he passed, were not only frequent but trustworthy. + +When Ross returned to England in 1843 it was impossible not to believe +that the case of those who advocated the existence of a South Polar +continent was considerably strengthened. At the same time there was no +proof that the various blocks of land which had been discovered were +connected with one another. Even now in 1921, after twenty years of +determined exploration aided by the most modern appliances, the interior +of this supposed continent is entirely unknown and uncharted except in +the Ross Sea area, while the fringes of the land are only discovered in +perhaps a dozen places on a circumference of about eleven thousand miles. + +In his Life of Sir Joseph Hooker, Dr. Leonard Huxley has given us some +interesting sidelights on this expedition under Ross. Hooker was the +botanist of the expedition and assistant surgeon to the Erebus, being 22 +years old when he left England in 1839. Natural history came off very +badly in the matter of equipment from the Government, who provided +twenty-five reams of paper, two botanizing vascula and two cases for +bringing home live plants: that was all, not an instrument, nor a book, +nor a bottle, and rum from the ship's stores was the only preservative. +And when they returned, the rich collections which they brought back were +never fully worked out. Ross's special branch of science was terrestrial +magnetism, but he was greatly interested in Natural History, and gave up +part of his cabin for Hooker to work in. "Almost every day I draw, +sometimes all day long and till two and three in the morning, the Captain +directing me; he sits on one side of the table, writing and figuring at +night, and I on the other, drawing. Every now and then he breaks off and +comes to my side, to see what I am after ..." and, "as you may suppose, +we have had one or two little tiffs, neither of us perhaps being helped +by the best of tempers; but nothing can exceed the liberality with which +he has thrown open his cabin to me and made it my workroom at no little +inconvenience to himself." + +Another extract from Hooker's letters after the first voyage runs as +follows: + +"The success of the Expedition in Geographical discovery is really +wonderful, and only shows what a little perseverance will do, for we have +been in no dangerous predicaments, and have suffered no hardships +whatever: there has been a sort of freemasonry among Polar voyagers to +keep up the credit they have acquired as having done wonders, and +accordingly, such of us as were new to the ice made up our minds for +frost-bites, and attached a most undue importance to the simple operation +of boring packs, etc., which have now vanished, though I am not going to +tell everybody so; I do not here refer to travellers, who do indeed +undergo unheard-of hardships, but to voyagers who have a snug ship, a +little knowledge of the Ice, and due caution is all that is required." + +In the light of Scott's leading of the expedition of which I am about to +tell, and the extraordinary scientific activity of Pennell in command of +the Terra Nova after Scott was landed, Hooker would have to qualify a +later extract, "nor is it probable that any future collector will have a +Captain so devoted to the cause of Marine Zoology, and so constantly on +the alert to snatch the most trifling opportunities of adding to the +collection...." + +Finally, we have a picture of the secrecy which was imposed upon all with +regard to the news they should write home and the precautions against any +leakage of scientific results. And we see Hooker jumping down the main +hatch with a penguin skin in his hand which he was preparing for himself, +when Ross came up the after hatch unexpectedly. That _has_ happened on +the Terra Nova! + +Ross had a cold reception on his return, and Scott wrote to Hooker in +1905: + +"At first it seems inexplicable when one considers how highly his work is +now appreciated. From the point of view of the general public, however, I +have always thought that Ross was neglected, and as you once said he is +very far from doing himself justice in his book. I did not know that +Barrow was the bête noire who did so much to discount Ross's results. It +is an interesting sidelight on such a venture."[11] + +In discussing and urging the importance of the Antarctic Expedition which +was finally sent under Scott in the Discovery, Hooker urged the +importance of work in the South Polar Ocean, which swarms with animal and +vegetable life. Commenting upon the fact that the large collections made +chiefly by himself had never been worked out, except the diatoms, he +writes: + +"A better fate, I trust, awaits the treasures that the hoped-for +Expedition will bring back, for so prolific is the ocean that the +naturalist need never be idle, no, not even for one of the twenty-four +hours of daylight during a whole Antarctic summer, and I look to the +results of a comparison of the oceanic life of the Arctic and Antarctic +regions as the heralding of an epoch in the history of biology."[12] + +When Ross went to the Antarctic it was generally thought that there was +neither food nor oxygen nor light in the depths of the ocean, and that +therefore there was no life. Among other things the investigations of +Ross gave ground for thinking this was not the case. Later still, in +1873, the possibility of laying submarine cables made it necessary to +investigate the nature of the abyssal depths, and the Challenger proved +that not only does life, and in quite high forms, exist there, but that +there are fish which can see. It is now almost certain that there is a +great oxidized northward-creeping current which flows out of the +Antarctic Ocean and under the waters of the other great oceans of the +world. + +It was the good fortune of Ross, at a time when the fringes of the great +Antarctic continent were being discovered in comparatively low latitudes +of 66° and thereabouts, sometimes not even within the Antarctic Circle, +to find to the south of New Zealand a deep inlet in which he could sail +to the high latitude of 78°. This inlet, which is now known as the Ross +Sea, has formed the starting-place of all sledging parties which have +approached the South Pole. I have dwelt upon this description of the +lands he discovered because they will come very intimately into this +history. I have also emphasized his importance in the history of +Antarctic exploration because Ross having done what it was possible to do +by sea, penetrating so far south and making such memorable discoveries, +the next necessary step in Antarctic exploration was that another +traveller should follow up his work on land. It is an amazing thing that +sixty years were allowed to elapse before that traveller appeared. When +he appeared he was Scott. In the sixty years which elapsed between Ross +and Scott the map of the Antarctic remained practically unaltered. Scott +tackled the land, and Scott is the Father of Antarctic sledge travelling. + +This period of time saw a great increase in the interest taken in science +both pure and applied, and it had been pointed out in 1893 that "we knew +more about the planet Mars than about a large area of our own globe." The +Challenger Expedition of 1874 had spent three weeks within the Antarctic +Circle, and the specimens brought home by her from the depths of these +cold seas had aroused curiosity. Meanwhile Borchgrevink (1897) landed at +Cape Adare, and built a hut which still stands and which afforded our +Cape Adare party valuable assistance. Here he lived during the first +winter which men spent in the Antarctic. + +Meanwhile, in the Arctic, brave work was being done. The names of Parry, +M'Clintock, Franklin, Markham, Nares, Greely and De Long are but a few of +the many which suggest themselves of those who have fought their way mile +by mile over rough ice and open leads with appliances which now seem to +be primitive and with an addition to knowledge which often seemed hardly +commensurate with the hardships suffered and the disasters which +sometimes overtook them. To those whose fortune it has been to serve +under Scott the Franklin Expedition has more than ordinary interest, for +it was the same ships, the Erebus and Terror, which discovered Ross +Island, that were crushed in the northern ice after Franklin himself had +died, and it was Captain Crozier (the same Crozier who was Ross's captain +in the South and after whom Cape Crozier is named) who then took command +and led that most ghastly journey in all the history of exploration: more +we shall never know, for none survived to tell the tale. Now, with the +noise and racket of London all round them, a statue of Scott looks across +to one of Franklin and his men of the Erebus and Terror, and surely they +have some thoughts in common. + +Englishmen had led the way in the North, but it must be admitted that the +finest journey of all was made by the Norwegian Nansen in 1893-1896. +Believing in a drift from the neighbourhood of the New Siberian Islands +westwards over the Pole, a theory which obtained confirmation by the +discovery off the coast of Greenland of certain remains of a ship called +the Jeannette which had been crushed in the ice off these islands, his +bold project was to be frozen in with his ship and allow the current to +take him over, or as near as possible to, the Pole. For this purpose the +most famous of Arctic ships was built, called the Fram. She was designed +by Colin Archer, and was saucer-shaped, with a breadth one-third of her +total length. With most of the expert Arctic opinion against him, Nansen +believed that this ship would rise and sit on the top of the ice when +pressed, instead of being crushed. Of her wonderful voyage with her +thirteen men, of how she was frozen into the ice in September 1893 in the +north of Siberia (79° N.) and of the heaving and trembling of the ship +amidst the roar of the ice pressure, of how the Fram rose to the occasion +as she was built to do, the story has still, after twenty-eight years, +the thrill of novelty. She drifted over the eightieth degree on February +2, 1894. During the first winter Nansen was already getting restive: the +drift was so slow, and sometimes it was backwards: it was not until the +second autumn that the eighty-second degree arrived. So he decided that +he would make an attempt to penetrate northwards by sledging during the +following spring. As Nansen has told me, he felt that the ship would do +her job in any case. Could not something more be done also? + +This was one of the bravest decisions a polar explorer has ever taken. It +meant leaving a drifting ship which could not be regained: it meant a +return journey over drifting ice to land; the nearest known land was +nearly five hundred miles south of the point from which he started +northwards; and the journey would include travelling both by sea and by +ice. + +Undoubtedly there was more risk in leaving the Fram than in remaining in +her. It is a laughable absurdity to say, as Greely did after Nansen's +almost miraculous return, that he had deserted his men in an ice-beset +ship, and deserved to be censured for doing so.[13] The ship was left in +the command of Sverdrup. Johansen was chosen to be Nansen's one +companion, and we shall hear of him again in the Fram, this time with +Amundsen in his voyage to the South. + +The polar traveller is so interested in the adventure and hardships of +Nansen's sledge journey that his equipment, which is the most important +side of his expedition to us who have gone South, is liable to be +overlooked. The modern side of polar travel begins with Nansen. It was +Nansen who first used a light sledge based upon the ski sledge of Norway, +in place of the old English heavy sledge which was based upon the Eskimo +type. Cooking apparatus, food, tents, clothing and the thousand and one +details of equipment without which no journey nowadays stands much chance +of success, all date back to Nansen in the immediate past, though beyond +him of course is the experience of centuries of travellers. As Nansen +himself wrote of the English polar men: "How well was their equipment +thought out and arranged with the means they had at their disposal! +Truly, there is nothing new under the sun. Most of what I prided myself +upon, and what I thought to be new, I find they had anticipated. +M'Clintock used the same things forty years ago. It was not their fault +that they were born in a country where the use of snowshoes is +unknown...."[14] + +All the more honour to the men who dared so much and travelled so far +with the limited equipment of the past. The real point for us is that, +just as Scott is the Father of Antarctic sledge travelling, so Nansen may +be considered the modern Father of it all. + +Nansen and Johansen started on March 14 when the Fram was in latitude 84° +4´ N., and the sun had only returned a few days before, with three +sledges (two of which carried kayaks) and 28 dogs. They reached their +northern-most camp on April 8, which Nansen has given in his book as +being in latitude 86° 13.6´ N. But Nansen tells me that Professor +Geelmuyden, who had his astronomical results and his diary, reckoned that +owing to refraction the horizon was lifted, and if so the observation had +to be reduced accordingly. Nansen therefore gave the reduced latitude in +his book, but he considers that his horizon was very clear when he took +that observation, and believes that his latitude was higher than that +given. He used a sextant and the natural horizon. + +They turned, and travelling back round pressed-up ice and open leads they +failed to find the land they had been led to expect in latitude 83°, +which indeed was proved to be non-existent. At the end of June they +started using the kayaks, which needed many repairs after their rough +passage, to cross the open leads. They waited long in camp, that the +travelling conditions might improve, and all the time Nansen saw a white +spot he thought was cloud. At last, on July 24, land was in sight, which +proved to be that white spot. Fourteen days later they reached it to find +that it consisted of a series of islands. These they left behind them +and, unable to say what land they had reached, for their watches had run +down, they coasted on westwards and southwards until winter approached. +They built a hut of moss and stones and snow, and roofed it with walrus +skins cut from the animals while they lay in the sea, for they were too +heavy for two men to drag on to the ice. When I met Nansen he had +forgotten all about this, and would not believe that it had happened +until he saw it in his own book. They lay in their old clothes that +winter, so soaked with blubber that the only way to clean their shirts +was to scrape them. They made themselves new clothes from blankets, and +sleeping-bags from the skins of the bears which they ate, and started +again in May of the following year to make Spitzbergen. They had been +travelling a long month, during which time they had at least two very +narrow escapes--the first due to their kayaks floating away, when Nansen +swam out into the icy sea and reached them just before he sank, and +Johansen passed the worst moments of his life watching from the shore; +the second caused by the attack of a walrus which went for Nansen's kayak +with tusks and flippers. And then one morning, as he looked round at the +cold glaciers and naked cliffs, not knowing where he was, he heard a dog +bark. Intensely excited, he started towards the sound, to be met by the +leader of the English Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition whose party was +wintering there, and who first gave him the definite news that he was on +Franz Josef Land. Nansen and Johansen were finally landed at Vardo in the +north of Norway, to learn that no tidings had yet been heard of the Fram. +That very day she cleared the ice which had imprisoned her for nearly +three years. + +I cannot go into the Fram's journey save to say that she had drifted as +far north as 85° 55´ N., only eighteen geographical miles south of +Nansen's farthest north. But the sledge journey and the winter spent by +the two men has many points in common with the experience of our own +Northern Party, and often and often during the long winter of 1912 our +thoughts turned with hope to Nansen's winter, for we said if it had been +done once why should it not be done again, and Campbell and his men +survive. + +Before Nansen started, the spirit of adventure, which has always led men +into the unknown, combined with the increased interest in knowledge for +its own sake to turn the thoughts of the civilized world southwards. It +was becoming plain that a continent of the extent and climate which this +polar land probably possessed might have an overwhelming influence upon +the weather conditions of the whole Southern Hemisphere. The importance +of magnetism was only rivalled by the mystery in which the whole subject +was shrouded: and the region which surrounded the Southern Magnetic Pole +of the earth offered a promising field of experiment and observation. The +past history, through the ages, of this land was of obvious importance to +the geological story of the earth, whilst the survey of land formations +and ice action in the Antarctic was more useful perhaps to the +physiographer than that of any other country in the world, seeing that he +found here in daily and even hourly operation the conditions which he +knew had existed in the ice ages of the past over the whole world, but +which he could only infer from vestigial remains. The biological +importance of the Antarctic might be of the first magnitude in view of +the significance which attaches to the life of the sea in the +evolutionary problem. + +And it was with these objects and ideals that Scott's first expedition, +known officially as the British Antarctic Expedition of 1901-1904, but +more familiarly as 'The Discovery Expedition,' from the name of the ship +which carried it, was organized by the Royal Society and the Royal +Geographical Society, backed by the active support of the British +Government. The executive officers and crew were Royal Navy almost +without exception, whilst the scientific purposes of the expedition were +served in addition by five scientists. These latter were not naval +officers. + +The Discovery left New Zealand on Christmas Eve 1901, and entered the +belt of pack ice which always has to be penetrated in order to reach the +comparatively open sea beyond, when just past the Antarctic Circle. But a +little more than four days saw her through, in which she was lucky, as we +now know. Scott landed at Cape Adare and then coasted down the western +coast of Victoria Land just as Ross had done sixty years before. As he +voyaged south he began to look for safe winter quarters for the ship, and +when he pushed into McMurdo Sound on January 21, 1902, it seemed that +here he might find both a sheltered bay into which the ship could be +frozen, and a road to the southland beyond. + +The open season which still remained before the freezing of the sea made +progress impossible was spent in surveying the 500 miles of cliff which +marks the northern limit of the Great Ice Barrier. Passing the extreme +eastward position reached by Ross in 1842, they sailed on into an unknown +world, and discovered a deep bay, called Balloon Bight, where the rounded +snow-covered slopes undoubtedly were land and not, as heretofore, +floating ice. Farther east, as they sailed, shallow soundings and gentle +snow slopes gave place to steeper and more broken ridges, until at last +small black patches in the snow gave undoubted evidence of rock; and an +undiscovered land, now known as King Edward VII.'s Land, rose to a height +of several thousand feet. The presence of thick pack ahead, and the +advance of the season, led Scott to return to McMurdo Sound, where he +anchored the Discovery in a little bay at the end of the tongue of land +now known as the Hut Point Peninsula, and built the hut which, though +little used in the Discovery days, was to figure so largely in the story +of this his last expedition. + +The first autumn was spent in various short journeys of +discovery--discovery not only of the surrounding land but of many +mistakes in sledging equipment and routine. It is amazing to one who +looks back upon these first efforts of the Discovery Expedition that the +results were not more disastrous than was actually the case. When one +reads of dog-teams which refused to start, of pemmican which was +considered to be too rich to eat, of two officers discussing the ascent +of Erebus and back in one day, and of sledging parties which knew neither +how to use their cookers or lamp, nor how to put up their tents, nor even +how to put on their clothes, then one begins to wonder that the process +of education was gained at so small a price. "Not a single article of the +outfit had been tested; and amid the general ignorance that prevailed the +lack of system was painfully apparent in everything."[15] + +This led to a tragedy. A returning sledge party of men was overtaken by a +blizzard on the top of the Peninsula near Castle Rock. They quite +properly camped, and should have been perfectly comfortable lying in +their sleeping-bags after a hot meal. But the primus lamps could not be +lighted, and as they sat in leather boots and inadequate clothing being +continually frost-bitten they decided to leave the tent and make their +way to the ship--sheer madness as we now know. As they groped their way +in the howling snow-drift the majority of the party either slipped or +rolled down a steep slippery snow slope some thousand feet high ending in +a precipitous ice-cliff, below which lay the open sea. It is a nasty +place on a calm summer day: in a blizzard it must be ghastly. Yet only +one man, named Vince, shot down the slope and over the precipice into the +sea below. How the others got back heaven knows. One seaman called Hare, +who separated from the others and lay down under a rock, awoke after +thirty-six hours, covered with snow but in full possession of his +faculties and free from frost-bites. The little cross at Hut Point +commemorates the death of Vince. One of this party was a seaman called +Wild, who came to the front and took the lead of five of the survivors +after the death of Vince. He was to take the lead often in future +expeditions under Shackleton and Mawson, and there are few men living +who have so proved themselves as polar travellers. + +I have dwelt upon this side of the early sledging deficiencies of the +Discovery to show the importance of experience in Antarctic land +travelling, whether it be at first or second hand. Scott and his men in +1902 were pioneers. They bought their experience at a price which might +easily have been higher; and each expedition which has followed has added +to the fund. The really important thing is that nothing of what is gained +should be lost. It is one of the main objects of this book to hand on as +complete a record as possible of the methods, equipment, food and weights +used by Scott's Last Expedition for the use of future explorers. "The +first object of writing an account of a Polar voyage is the guidance of +future voyagers: the first duty of the writer is to his successors."[16] + +The adaptability, invention and resource of the men of the Discovery when +they set to work after the failures of the autumn to prepare for the +successes of the two following summers showed that they could rise to +their difficulties. Scott admitted that "food, clothing, everything was +wrong, the whole system was bad."[17] In determining to profit by his +mistakes, and working out a complete system of Antarctic travel, he was +at his best; and it was after a winter of drastic reorganization that he +started on November 2, 1902, on his first southern journey with two +companions, Wilson and Shackleton. + +It is no part of my job to give an account of this journey. The dogs +failed badly: probably the Norwegian stock-fish which had been brought +through the tropics to feed them was tainted: at any rate they sickened; +and before the journey was done all the dogs had to be killed or had +died. A fortnight after starting, the party was relaying--that is, taking +on part of their load and returning for the rest; and this had to be +continued for thirty-one days. + +[Illustration: THE LAST OF THE DOGS--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +The ration of food was inadequate and they became very hungry as time +went on; but it was not until December 21 that Wilson disclosed to +Scott that Shackleton had signs of scurvy which had been present for some +time. On December 30, in latitude 82° 16´ S., they decided to return. By +the middle of January the scurvy signs were largely increased and +Shackleton was seriously ill and spitting blood. His condition became +more and more alarming, and he collapsed on January 18, but revived +afterwards. Sometimes walking by the sledge, sometimes being carried upon +it, Shackleton survived: Scott and Wilson saved his life. The three men +reached the ship on February 3, after covering 960 statute miles in 93 +days. Scott and Wilson were both extremely exhausted and seriously +affected by scurvy. It was a fine journey, the geographical results of +which comprised the survey of some three hundred miles of new coast-line, +and a further knowledge of the Barrier upon which they travelled. + +While Scott was away southwards an organized attempt was made to discover +the nature of the mountains and glaciers which lay across the Sound to +the west. This party actually reached the plateau which lay beyond, and +attained a height of 8900 feet, when "as far as they could see in every +direction to the westward of them there extended a level plateau, to the +south and north could be seen isolated nunataks, and behind them showed +the high mountains which they had passed": a practicable road to the west +had been found. + +I need note no more than these two most important of the many journeys +carried out this season: nor is it necessary for me to give any account +of the continuous and fertile scientific work which was accomplished in +this virgin land. In the meantime a relief ship, the Morning, had +arrived. It was intended that the Discovery should return this year as +soon as the sea-ice in which she was imprisoned should break up and set +her free. As February passed, however, it became increasingly plain that +the ice conditions were altogether different from those of the previous +year. On the 8th the Morning was still separated from the Discovery by +eight miles of fast ice. March 2 was fully late for a low-powered ship to +remain in the Sound, and on this date the Morning left. By March 13 all +hope of the Discovery being freed that year was abandoned. + +The second winter passed much as the first, and as soon as spring arrived +sledging was continued. These spring journeys on the Barrier, with +sunlight only by day and low temperatures at all times, entailed great +discomfort and, perhaps worse, want of sleep, frost-bites, and a fast +accumulation of moisture in all one's clothing and in the sleeping-bags, +which resulted in masses of ice which had to be thawed out by the heat of +one's body before any degree of comfort could be gained. A fortnight was +considered about the extreme limit of time for such a journey, and +generally parties were not absent so long; for at this time a spring +journey was considered a dreadful experience. "Wait till you've had a +spring journey" was the threat of the old stagers to us. A winter journey +lasting nearly three times as long as a spring journey was not imagined. +I advise explorers to be content with imagining it in the future. + +The hardest journey of this year was carried out by Scott with two seamen +of whom much will be written in this history. Their names are Edgar Evans +and Lashly. The object of the journey was to explore westwards into the +interior of the plateau. By way of the Ferrar Glacier they reached the +ice-cap after considerable troubles, not the least of which was the loss +of the data necessary for navigation contained in an excellent +publication called Hints to Travellers, which was blown away. Then for +the first time it was seen what additional difficulties are created by +the climate and position of this lofty plateau, which we now know extends +over the Pole and probably reaches over the greater part of the Antarctic +continent. It was the beginning of November: that is, the beginning of +summer; but the conditions of work were much the same as those found +during the spring journeys on the Barrier. The temperature dropped into +the minus forties; but the worst feature of all was a continuous +head-wind blowing from west to east which combined with the low +temperature and rarefied air to make the conditions of sledging +extremely laborious. The supporting party returned, and the three men +continued alone, pulling out westwards into an unknown waste of snow with +no landmarks to vary the rough monotony. They turned homewards on +December 1, but found the pulling very heavy; and their difficulties were +increased by their ignorance of their exact position. The few glimpses of +the land which they obtained as they approached it in the thick weather +which prevailed only left them in horrible uncertainty as to their +whereabouts. Owing to want of food it was impossible to wait for the +weather to clear: there was nothing to be done but to continue their +eastward march. Threading their way amidst the ice disturbances which +mark the head of the glaciers, the party pushed blindly forward in air +which was becoming thick with snow-drift. Suddenly Lashly slipped: in a +moment the whole party was flying downwards with increasing speed. They +ceased to slide smoothly; they were hurled into the air and descended +with great force on to a gradual snow incline. Rising they looked round +them to find above them an ice-fall 300 feet high down which they had +fallen: above it the snow was still drifting, but where they stood there +was peace and blue sky. They recognized now for the first time their own +glacier and the well-remembered landmark, and far away in the distance +was the smoking summit of Mount Erebus. It was a miracle. + +Excellent subsidiary journeys were also made of which space allows no +mention here: nor do they bear directly upon this last expedition. But in +view of the Winter Journey undertaken by us, if not for the interest of +the subject itself, some account must be given of those most aristocratic +inhabitants of the Antarctic, the Emperor penguins, with whom Wilson and +his companions in the Discovery now became familiar. + +There are two kinds of Antarctic penguins--the little Adélie with his +blue-black coat and his white shirt-front, weighing 16 lbs., an object of +endless pleasure and amusement, and the great dignified Emperor with long +curved beak, bright orange head-wear and powerful flippers, a +personality of 6½ stones. Science singles out the Emperor as being the +more interesting bird because he is more primitive, possibly the most +primitive of all birds. Previous to the Discovery Expedition nothing was +known of him save that he existed in the pack and on the fringes of the +continent. + +We have heard of Cape Crozier as being the eastern extremity of Ross +Island, discovered by Ross and named after the captain of the Terror. It +is here that with immense pressures and rendings the moving sheet of the +Barrier piles itself up against the mountain. It is here also that the +great ice-cliff which runs for hundreds of miles to the east, with the +Barrier behind it and the Ross Sea beating into its crevasses and caves, +joins the basalt precipice which bounds the Knoll, as the two-knobbed +saddle which forms Cape Crozier is called. Altogether it is the kind of +place where giants have had a good time in their childhood, playing with +ice instead of mud--so much cleaner too! + +But the slopes of Mount Terror do not all end in precipices. Farther to +the west they slope quietly into the sea, and the Adélie penguins have +taken advantage of this to found here one of their largest and most +smelly rookeries. When the Discovery arrived off this rookery she sent a +boat ashore and set up a post with a record upon it to guide the relief +ship in the following year. The post still stands. Later it became +desirable to bring the record left here more up to date, and so one of +the first sledging parties went to try and find a way by the Barrier to +this spot. + +They were prevented from reaching the record by a series of most violent +blizzards, and indeed Cape Crozier is one of the windiest places on +earth, but they proved beyond doubt that a back-door to the Adélie +penguins' rookery existed by way of the slopes of Mount Terror behind the +Knoll. Early the next year another party reached the record all right, +and while exploring the neighbourhood looked down over the 800-feet +precipice which forms the snout of Cape Crozier. The sea was frozen over, +and in a small bay of ice formed by the cliffs of the Barrier below were +numerous little dots which resolved themselves into Emperor penguins. +Could this be the breeding-place of these wonderful birds? If so, they +must nurse their eggs in mid-winter, in unimagined cold and darkness. + +Five days more elapsed before further investigation could be made, for a +violent blizzard kept the party in their tents. On October 18 they set +out to climb the high pressure ridges which lie between the level barrier +and the sea. They found that their conjectures were right: there was the +colony of Emperors. Several were nursing chicks, but all the ice in the +Ross Sea was gone; only the small bay of ice remained. The number of +adult birds was estimated at four hundred, the number of living chicks +was thirty, and there were some eighty dead ones. No eggs were found.[18] + +Several more journeys were made to this spot while the Discovery was in +the south, generally in the spring; and the sum total of the information +gained came to something like this. The Emperor is a bird which cannot +fly, lives on fish which it catches in the sea, and never steps on land +even to breed. For a reason which was not then understood it lays its +eggs upon the bare ice some time during the winter and carries out the +whole process of incubation on the sea ice, resting the egg upon its feet +pressed closely to a patch of bare skin in the lower abdomen, and +protected from the intense cold by a loose falling lappet of skin and +feathers. By September 12, the earliest date upon which a party arrived, +all the eggs which were not broken or addled were hatched, and there were +then about a thousand adult Emperors in the rookery. Arriving again on +October 19, a party experienced a ten days' blizzard which confined them +during seven days to their tents, but during their windy visit they saw +one of the most interesting scenes in natural history. The story must be +told by Wilson, who was there: + +"The day before the storm broke we were on an old outlying cone of Mount +Terror, about 1300 feet above the sea. Below us lay the Emperor penguin +rookery on the bay ice, and Ross Sea, completely frozen over, was a +plain of firm white ice to the horizon. There was not even the lane of +open water which usually runs along the Barrier cliff stretching away as +it does like a winding thread to the east and out of sight. No space or +crack could be seen with open water. Nevertheless the Emperors were +unsettled owing, there can be no doubt, to the knowledge that bad weather +was impending. The mere fact that the usual canal of open water was not +to be seen along the face of the Barrier meant that the ice in Ross Sea +had a southerly drift. This in itself was unusual, and was caused by a +northerly wind with snow, the precursor here of a storm from the +south-west. The sky looked black and threatening, the barometer began to +fall, and before long down came snowflakes on the upper heights of Mount +Terror. + +"All these warnings were an open book to the Emperor penguins, and if one +knew the truth there probably were many others too. They were in +consequence unsettled, and although the ice had not yet started moving +the Emperor penguins had; a long file was moving out from the bay to the +open ice, where a pack of some one or two hundred had already collected +about two miles out at the edge of a refrozen crack. For an hour or more +that afternoon we watched this exodus proceeding, and returned to camp, +more than ever convinced that bad weather might be expected. Nor were we +disappointed, for on the next day we woke to a southerly gale and smother +of snow and drift, which effectually prevented any one of us from leaving +our camp at all. This continued without intermission all day and night +till the following morning, when the weather cleared sufficiently to +allow us to reach the edge of the cliff which overlooked the rookery. + +[Illustration: THE EMPERORS ROOKERY] + +"The change here was immense. Ross Sea was open water for nearly thirty +miles; a long line of white pack ice was just visible on the horizon from +where we stood, some 800 to 900 feet above the sea. Large sheets of ice +were still going out and drifting to the north, and the migration of the +Emperors was in full swing. There were again two companies waiting on +the ice at the actual water's edge, with some hundred more tailing out in +single file to join them. The birds were waiting far out at the edge of +the open water, as far as it was possible for them to walk, on a +projecting piece of ice, the very next piece that would break away and +drift to the north. The line of tracks in the snow along which the birds +had gone the day before was now cut off short at the edge of the open +water, showing that they had gone, and under the ice-cliffs there was an +appreciable diminution in the number of Emperors left, hardly more than +half remaining of all that we had seen there six days before."[19] + +Two days later the emigration was still in full swing, but only the +unemployed seemed to have gone as yet. Those who were nursing chicks were +still huddled under the ice-cliffs, sheltered as much as possible from +the storm. Three days later (October 28) no ice was to be seen in the +Ross Sea: the little bay of ice was gradually being eaten away: the same +exodus was in progress and only a remnant of penguins was still left. + +Of the conditions under which the Emperor lays her eggs, the darkness and +cold and blighting winds, of the excessive mothering instinct implanted +in the heart of every bird, male and female, of the mortality and gallant +struggles against almost inconceivable odds, and the final survival of +some 26 per cent of the eggs, I hope to tell in the account of our Winter +Journey, the object of which was to throw light upon the development of +the embryo of this remarkable bird, and through it upon the history of +their ancestors. As Wilson wrote: + +"The possibility that we have in the Emperor penguin the nearest approach +to a primitive form not only of a penguin but of a bird makes the future +working out of its embryology a matter of the greatest possible +importance. It was a great disappointment to us that although we +discovered their breeding-ground, and although we were able to bring home +a number of deserted eggs and chicks, we were not able to procure a +series of early embryos by which alone the points of particular interest +can be worked out. To have done this in a proper manner from the spot at +which the Discovery wintered in McMurdo Sound would have involved us in +endless difficulties, for it would have entailed the risks of sledge +travelling in mid-winter with an almost total absence of light. It would +at any time require that a party of three at least, with full camp +equipment, should traverse about a hundred miles of the Barrier surface +in the dark and should, by moonlight, cross over with rope and axe the +immense pressure ridges which form a chaos of crevasses at Cape Crozier. +These ridges, moreover, which have taken a party as much as two hours of +careful work to cross by daylight, must be crossed and re-crossed at +every visit to the breeding site in the bay. There is no possibility even +by daylight of conveying over them the sledge or camping kit, and in the +darkness of mid-winter the impracticability is still more obvious. Cape +Crozier is a focus for wind and storm, where every breath is converted, +by the configuration of Mounts Erebus and Terror, into a regular drifting +blizzard full of snow. It is here, as I have already stated, that on one +journey or another we have had to lie patiently in sodden sleeping-bags +for as many as five and seven days on end, waiting for the weather to +change and make it possible for us to leave our tents at all. If, +however, these dangers were overcome there would still be the difficulty +of making the needful preparations from the eggs. The party would have to +be on the scene at any rate early in July. Supposing that no eggs were +found upon arrival, it would be well to spend the time in labelling the +most likely birds, those for example that have taken up their stations +close underneath the ice-cliffs. And if this were done it would be easier +then to examine them daily by moonlight, if it and the weather generally +were suitable: conditions, I must confess, not always easily obtained at +Cape Crozier. But if by good luck things happened to go well, it would by +this time be useful to have a shelter built of snow blocks on the sea-ice +in which to work with the cooking lamp to prevent the freezing of the egg +before the embryo was cut out, and in order that fluid solutions might +be handy for the various stages of its preparation; for it must be borne +in mind that the temperature all the while may be anything between zero +and -50° F. The whole work no doubt would be full of difficulty, but it +would not be quite impossible, and it is with a view to helping those to +whom the opportunity may occur in future that this outline has been added +of the difficulties that would surely beset their path."[20] + +We shall meet the Emperor penguins again, but now we must go back to the +Discovery, lying off Hut Point, with the season advancing and twenty +miles of ice between her and the open sea. The prospects of getting out +this year seeming almost less promising than those of the last year, an +abortive attempt was made to saw a channel from a half-way point. Still, +life to Scott and Wilson in a tent at Cape Royds was very pleasant after +sledging, and the view of the blue sea framed in the tent door was very +beautiful on a morning in January when two ships sailed into the frame. +Why two? One was of course the Morning; the second proved to be the Terra +Nova. + +It seemed that the authorities at home had been alarmed at the reports +brought back the previous year by the relief ship of the detention of the +Discovery and certain outbreaks of scurvy which had occurred both on the +ship and on sledge journeys. To make sure of relief two ships had been +sent. That was nothing to worry about, but the orders they brought were +staggering to sailors who had come to love their ship "with a depth of +sentiment which cannot be surprising when it is remembered what we had +been through in her and what a comfortable home she had proved."[21] +Scott was ordered to abandon the Discovery if she could not be freed in +time to accompany the relief ships to the north. For weeks there was +little or no daily change. They started to transport the specimens and +make the other necessary preparations. They almost despaired of freedom. +Explosions in the ice were started in the beginning of February with +little effect. But suddenly there came a change, and on the 11th, amidst +intense excitement, the ice was breaking up fast. The next day the relief +ships were but four miles away. On the 14th a shout of "The ships are +coming, sir!" brought out all the men racing to the slopes above Arrival +Bay. Scott wrote: + +"The ice was breaking up right across the Strait, and with a rapidity +which we had not thought possible. No sooner was one great floe borne +away than a dark streak cut its way into the solid sheet that remained, +and carved out another, to feed the broad stream of pack which was +hurrying away to the north-west. + +"I have never witnessed a more impressive sight; the sun was low behind +us, the surface of the ice-sheet in front was intensely white, and in +contrast the distant sea and its leads looked almost black. The wind had +fallen to a calm, and not a sound disturbed the stillness about us. + +"Yet in the midst of this peaceful silence was an awful unseen agency +rending that great ice-sheet as though it had been naught but the +thinnest paper. We knew well by this time the nature of our prison bars; +we had not plodded again and again over those long dreary miles of snow +without realizing the formidable strength of the great barrier which held +us bound; we knew that the heaviest battle-ship would have shattered +itself ineffectually against it, and we had seen a million-ton iceberg +brought to rest at its edge. For weeks we had been struggling with this +mighty obstacle ... but now without a word, without an effort on our +part, it was all melting away, and we knew that in an hour or two not a +vestige of it would be left, and that the open sea would be lapping on +the black rocks of Hut Point."[22] + +Almost more dramatic was the grounding of the Discovery off the shoal at +Hut Point owing to the rise of a blizzard immediately after her release +from the ice. Hour after hour she lay pounding on the shore, and when it +seemed most certain that she had been freed only to be destroyed, and +when all hope was nearly gone, the wind lulled, and the waters of the +Sound, driven out by the force of the wind, returned and the Discovery +floated off with little damage. The whole story of the release from the +ice and subsequent grounding of the Discovery is wonderfully told by +Scott in his book. + +Some years after this I met Wilson in a shooting lodge in Scotland. He +was working upon grouse disease for the Royal Commission which had been +appointed, and I saw then for the first time something of his magnetic +personality and glimpses also of his methods of work. He and Scott both +meant to go back and finish the job, and I then settled that when they +went I would go too if wishing could do anything. Meanwhile Shackleton +was either in the South or making his preparations to go there. + +He left England in 1908, and in the following Antarctic summer two +wonderful journeys were made. The first, led by Shackleton himself, +consisted of four men and four ponies. Leaving Cape Royds, where the +expedition wintered in a hut, in November, they marched due south on the +Barrier outside Scott's track until they were stopped by the eastward +trend of the range of mountains, and by the chaotic pressure caused by +the discharge of a Brobdingnagian glacier. + +But away from the main stream of the glacier, and separated from it by +land now known as Hope Island, was a narrow and steep snow slope forming +a gateway which opened on to the main glacier stream. Boldly plunging +through this, the party made its way up the Beardmore Glacier, a giant of +its kind, being more than twice as large as any other known. The history +of their adventures will make anybody's flesh creep. From the top they +travelled due south toward the Pole under the trying conditions of the +plateau and reached the high latitude of 88° 23´ S. before they were +forced to turn by lack of food. + +While Shackleton was essaying the geographical Pole another party of +three men under Professor David reached the magnetic Pole, travelling a +distance of 1260 miles, of which 740 miles were relay work, relying +entirely on man-haulage, and with no additional help. This was a very +wonderful journey, and when Shackleton returned in 1909 he and his +expedition had made good. During the same year the North Pole was reached +by Peary after some twelve years of travelling in Arctic regions. + +Scott published the plans of his second expedition in 1909. This +expedition is the subject of the present history. + +The Terra Nova sailed from the West India Dock, London, on June 1, 1910, +and from Cardiff on June 15. She made her way to New Zealand, refitted +and restowed her cargo, took on board ponies, dogs, motor sledges, +certain further provisions and equipment, as well as such members of her +executive officers and scientists as had not travelled out in her, and +left finally for the South on November 29, 1910. She arrived in McMurdo +Sound on January 4, 1911, and our hut had been built on Cape Evans and +all stores landed in less than a fortnight. Shortly afterwards the ship +sailed. The party which was left at Cape Evans under Scott is known as +the Main Party. + +But the scientific objects of the expedition included the landing of a +second but much smaller party under Campbell on King Edward VII.'s Land. +While returning from an abortive attempt to land here they found a +Norwegian expedition under Captain Roald Amundsen in Nansen's old ship +the Fram in the Bay of Whales: reference to this expedition will be found +elsewhere.[23] One member of Amundsen's party was Johansen, the only +companion of Nansen on his famous Arctic sledge journey, of which a brief +outline has been given above.[24] Campbell and his five companions were +finally landed at Cape Adare, and built their hut close to +Borchgrevinck's old winter quarters.[25] The ship returned to New Zealand +under Pennell: came back to the Antarctic a year later with further +equipment and provisions, and again two years later to bring back to +civilization the survivors of the expedition. + +The adventures and journeyings of the various members of the Main Party +are so numerous and simultaneous that I believe it will help the reader +who approaches this book without previous knowledge of the history of +the expedition to give here a brief summary of the course of events. +Those who are familiar already with these facts can easily skip a page or +two. + +Two parties were sent out during the first autumn: the one under Scott to +lay a large depôt on the Barrier for the Polar Journey, and this is +called the Depôt Journey; the other to carry out geological work among +the Western Mountains, so called because they form the western side of +McMurdo Sound: this is called the First Geological Journey, and another +similar journey during the following summer is called the Second +Geological Journey. + +Both parties joined up at the old Discovery Hut at Hut Point in March +1911, and here waited for the sea to freeze a passage northwards to Cape +Evans. Meanwhile the men left at Cape Evans were continuing the complex +scientific work of the station. All the members of the Main Party were +not gathered together at Cape Evans for the winter until May 12. During +the latter half of the winter a journey was made by three men led by +Wilson to Cape Crozier to investigate the embryology of the Emperor +penguin: this is called the Winter Journey. + +The journey to the South Pole absorbed the energies of most of the +sledging members during the following summer of 1911-12. The motor party +turned back on the Barrier; the dog party at the bottom of the Beardmore +Glacier. From this point twelve men went forward. Four of these men under +Atkinson returned from the top of the glacier in latitude 85° 3´ S.: they +are known as the First Return Party. A fortnight later in latitude 87° +32´ S. three more men returned under Lieutenant Evans: these are the +Second Return Party. Five men went forward, Scott, Wilson, Bowers, Oates +and Seaman Evans. They reached the Pole on January 17 to find that +Amundsen had reached it thirty-four days earlier. They returned 721 +statute miles and perished 177 miles from their winter quarters. + +The supporting parties got back safely, but Lieutenant Evans was very +seriously ill with scurvy. The food necessary for the return of the Polar +Party from One Ton Camp had not been taken out at the end of February +1912. Evans' illness caused a hurried reorganization of plans, and I was +ordered to take out this food with one lad and two dog-teams. This was +done, and the journey may be called the Dog Journey to One Ton Camp. + +We must now go back to the six men led by Campbell who were landed at +Cape Adare in the beginning of 1911. They were much disappointed by the +small amount of sledge work which they were able to do in the summer of +1911-1912, for the sea-ice in front of them was blown out early in the +year, and they were unable to find a way up through the mountains behind +them on to the plateau. Therefore, when the Terra Nova appeared on +January 4, it was decided that she should land them with six weeks' +sledging rations and some extra biscuits, pemmican and general food near +Mount Melbourne at Evans Coves, some 250 geographical miles south of Cape +Adare, and some 200 geographical miles from our Winter Quarters at Cape +Evans. Late on the night of January 8, 1912, they were camped in this +spot and saw the last of the ship steaming out of the bay. They had +arranged to be picked up again on February 18. + +Let us return to McMurdo Sound. My two dog-teams arrived at Hut Point +from One Ton Depôt on March 16 exhausted. The sea-ice was still in from +the Barrier to Hut Point, but from there onwards was open water, and +therefore no communication was possible with Cape Evans. Atkinson, with +one seaman, was at Hut Point and the situation which he outlined to me on +arrival was something as follows: + +The ship had left and there was now no possibility of her returning owing +to the lateness of the season, and she carried in her Lieut. Evans, sick +with scurvy, and five other officers and three men who were returning +home this year. This left only four officers and four men at Cape Evans, +in addition to the four of us at Hut Point. + +The serious part of the news was that owing to a heavy pack the ship had +been absolutely unable to reach Campbell's party at Evans Coves. Attempt +after attempt had made without success. Would Campbell winter where he +was? Would he try to sledge down the coast? + +In the absence of Scott the command of the expedition under the +extraordinarily difficult circumstances which arose, both now and during +the coming year, would naturally have devolved upon Lieutenant Evans. But +Evans, very sick, was on his way to England. The task fell to Atkinson, +and I hope that these pages will show how difficult it was, and how well +he tackled it. + +There were now, that is since the arrival of the dog-teams four of us at +Hut Point; and no help could be got from Cape Evans owing to the open +water which intervened. Two of us were useless for further sledging and +the dogs were absolutely done. As time went on anxiety concerning the +non-arrival of the Polar Party was added to the alarm we already felt +about Campbell and his men; winter was fast closing down, and the weather +was bad. So little could be done by two men. What was to be done? When +was it to be done with the greatest possible chance of success? Added to +all his greater anxieties Atkinson had me on his hands--and I was pretty +ill. + +In the end he made two attempts. + +The first with one seaman, Keohane, to sledge out on to the Barrier, +leaving on March 26. They found the conditions very bad, but reached a +point a few miles south of Corner Camp and returned. Soon after we knew +the Southern Party must be dead. + +Nothing more could be done until communication was effected with Winter +Quarters at Cape Evans. This was done by a sledge journey over the newly +frozen ice in the bays on April 10. Help arrived at Hut Point on April +14. + +The second attempt was then made, and this consisted of a party of four +men who tried to sledge up the Western Coast in order to meet and help +Campbell if he was trying to sledge to us. This plucky attempt failed, as +indeed it was practically certain it would. + +The story of the winter that followed will be told, and of the decision +which had to be taken to abandon either the search for the Polar Party +(who must be dead) and their records, or Campbell and his men (who might +be alive). There were not enough men left to do both. We believed that +the Polar Party had come to grief through scurvy, or through falling into +a crevasse--the true solution never occurred to us, for we felt sure that +except for accident or disease they could find their way home without +difficulty. We decided to leave Campbell to find his way unaided down the +coast, and to try and find the Polar Party's records. To our amazement we +found their snowed-up tent some 140 geographical miles from Hut Point, +only 11 geographical miles from One Ton Camp. They had arrived there on +March 19. Inside the tent were the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers. +Oates had willingly walked out to his death some eighteen miles before in +a blizzard. Seaman Evans lay dead at the bottom of the Beardmore Glacier. + + * * * * * + +Having found the bodies and the records the Search Party returned, +proposing to make their way up the Western Coast in search of Campbell. +On arrival at Hut Point with the dog-teams, I must have gone to open the +hut door and found pinned on to it a note in Campbell's handwriting; but +my recollection of this apparently memorable incident is extraordinarily +vague. It was many long months since we had had good news. This was their +story. + +When Campbell originally landed at Evans Coves he brought with him +sledging provisions for six weeks, in addition to two weeks' provisions +for six men, 56 lbs. sugar, 24 lbs. cocoa, 36 lbs. chocolate and 210 lbs. +of biscuit, some Oxo and spare clothing. In short, after the sledge work +which they proposed, and actually carried out, the men were left with +skeleton rations for four weeks. They had also a spare tent and an extra +sleeping-bag. It was not seriously anticipated that the ship would have +great difficulty in picking them up in the latter half of February. + +Campbell's party had carried out successful sledging and useful +geological work in the region of Evans Coves. They had then camped on the +beach and looked for the ship to relieve them. There was open water +lashed to fury by the wind so far as they could see, and yet she did not +come. They concluded that she must have been wrecked. The actual fact was +that thick pack ice lay beyond their vision through which Pennell was +trying to drive his ship time after time, until he had either to go or to +be frozen in. He never succeeded in approaching nearer than 27 miles. + +It was now that a blizzard wind started to blow down from the plateau +behind them out into the continually open sea in front. The situation was +bad enough already, but of course such weather conditions made it +infinitely worse. Evans Coves is paved with boulders over which all +journeys had to be fought leaning against the wind as it blew: when a +lull came the luckless traveller fell forward on to his face. Under these +circumstances it was decided that preparations must be made to winter +where they were, and to sledge down the coast to Cape Evans in the +following spring. The alternative of sledging down the coast in March and +April never seems to have been seriously considered. At Hut Point, of +course, we were entirely in the dark as to what the party would do, hence +Atkinson's journey over to the western side in April 1912. + +Meanwhile the stranded men divided into two parties of three men each. +The first under Campbell sank a shaft six feet down into a large +snow-drift and thence, with pick and shovel, excavated a passage and at +the end of it a cave, twelve feet by nine feet, and five feet six inches +high. The second under Levick sought out and killed all the seal and +penguin they could find, but their supply was pitifully small, and the +men never had a full meal until mid-winter night. One man always had to +be left to look after the tents, which were already so worn and damaged +that it was unsafe to leave them in the wind. + +By March 17 the cave was sufficiently advanced for three men to move in. +Priestley must tell how this was done, but it should not be supposed that +the weather conditions were in any way abnormal on what they afterwards +called Inexpressible Island: + +"March 17. 7 P.M. Strong south-west breeze all day, freshening to a full +gale at night. We have had an awful day, but have managed to shift +enough gear into the cave to live there temporarily. Our tempers have +never been so tried during the whole of our life together, but they have +stood the strain pretty successfully.... May I never have such another +three trips as were those to-day. Every time the wind lulled a little I +fell over to windward, and at every gust I was pitched to leeward, while +a dozen times or more I was taken off my feet and dashed against the +ground or against unfriendly boulders. The other two had equally bad +times. Dickason hurt his knee and ankle and lost his sheath knife, and +Campbell lost a compass and some revolver cartridges in the two trips +they made. Altogether it was lucky we got across at all."[26] + +It was a fortunate thing that this wind often blew quite clear without +snowfall or drift. Two days later in the same gale the tent of the other +three men collapsed on top of them at 8 A.M. At 4 P.M. the sun was going +down and they settled to make their way across to their comrades. Levick +tells the story as follows: + +"Having done this [securing the remains of the tent, etc.], we started on +our journey. This lay, first of all, across half a mile of clear blue +ice, swept by the unbroken wind, which met us almost straight in the +face. We could never stand up, so had to scramble the whole distance on +'all fours,' lying flat on our bellies in the gusts. By the time we had +reached the other side we had had enough. Our faces had been rather badly +bitten, and I have a very strong recollection of the men's countenances, +which were a leaden blue, streaked with white patches of frost-bite. Once +across, however, we reached the shelter of some large boulders on the +shore of the island, and waited here long enough to thaw out our noses, +ears, and cheeks. A scramble of another six hundred yards brought us to +the half-finished igloo, into which we found that the rest of the party +had barricaded themselves, and, after a little shouting, they came and +let us in, giving us a warm welcome, and about the most welcome hot meal +that I think any of us had ever eaten." + +[Illustration: PRIESTLEY AND CAMPBELL] + +Priestley continues: + +"After the arrival of the evicted party we made hoosh, and as we warmed +up from the meal, we cheered up and had one of the most successful +sing-songs we had ever had forgetting all our troubles for an hour or +two. It is a pleasing picture to look back upon now, and, if I close my +eyes, I can see again the little cave cut out in snow and ice with the +tent flapping in the doorway, barely secured by ice-axe and shovel +arranged crosswise against the side of the shaft. The cave is lighted up +with three or four small blubber lamps, which give a soft yellow light. +At one end lie Campbell, Dickason and myself in our sleeping-bags, +resting after the day's work, and, opposite to us, on a raised dais +formed by a portion of the floor not yet levelled, Levick, Browning and +Abbott sit discussing their seal hoosh, while the primus hums cheerily +under the cooker containing the coloured water which served with us +instead of cocoa. As the diners warm up jests begin to fly between the +rival tents and the interchange is brisk, though we have the upper hand +to-day, having an inexhaustible subject in the recent disaster to their +tent, and their forced abandonment of their household gods. Suddenly some +one starts a song with a chorus, and the noise from the primus is dwarfed +immediately. One by one we go through our favourites, and the concert +lasts for a couple of hours. By this time the lamps are getting low, and +gradually the cold begins to overcome the effects of the hoosh and the +cocoa. One after another the singers begin to shiver, and all thoughts of +song disappear as we realize what we are in for. A night with one one-man +bag between two men! There is a whole world of discomfort in the very +thought, and no one feels inclined to jest about that for the moment. +Those jests will come all right to-morrow when the night is safely past, +but this evening it is anything but a cheery subject of contemplation. +There is no help for it, however, and each of us prepares to take another +man in so far as he can."[27] + +In such spirit and under very similar conditions this dauntless party +set about passing through one of the most horrible winters which God has +invented. They were very hungry, for the wind which kept the sea open +also made the shore almost impossible for seals. There were red-letter +days, however, such as when Browning found and killed a seal, and in its +stomach, "not too far digested to be still eatable," were thirty-six +fish. And what visions of joy for the future. "We never again found a +seal with an eatable meal inside him, but we were always hoping to do so, +and a kill was, therefore, always a gamble. Whenever a seal was sighted +in future, some one said, 'Fish!' and there was always a scramble to +search the beast first."[28] + +They ate blubber, cooked with blubber, had blubber lamps. Their clothes +and gear were soaked with blubber, and the soot blackened them, their +sleeping-bags, cookers, walls and roof, choked their throats and inflamed +their eyes. Blubbery clothes are cold, and theirs were soon so torn as to +afford little protection against the wind, and so stiff with blubber that +they would stand up by themselves, in spite of frequent scrapings with +knives and rubbings with penguin skins, and always there were underfoot +the great granite boulders which made walking difficult even in daylight +and calm weather. As Levick said, "the road to hell might be paved with +good intentions, but it seemed probable that hell itself would be paved +something after the style of Inexpressible Island." + +But there were consolations; the long-waited-for lump of sugar: the +sing-songs--and about these there hangs a story. When Campbell's Party +and the remains of the Main Party forgathered at Cape Evans in November +1912, Campbell would give out the hymns for Church. The first Sunday we +had 'Praise the Lord, ye heavens adore Him,' and the second, and the +third. We suggested a change, to which Campbell asked, "Why?" We said it +got a bit monotonous. "Oh no," said Campbell, "we always sang it on +Inexpressible Island." It was also about the only one he knew. Apart from +this I do not know whether 'Old King Cole' or the Te Deum was more +popular. For reading they had David Copperfield, the Decameron, the Life +of Stevenson and a New Testament. And they did Swedish drill, and they +gave lectures. + +Their worst difficulties were scurvy[29] and ptomaine poisoning, for +which the enforced diet was responsible. From the first they decided to +keep nearly all their unused rations for sledging down the coast in the +following spring, and this meant that they must live till then on the +seal and penguin which they could kill. The first dysentery was early in +the winter, and was caused by using the salt from the sea-water. They had +some Cerebos salt, however, in their sledging rations, and used it for a +week, which stopped the disorder and they gradually got used to the +sea-ice salt. Browning, however, who had had enteric fever in the past, +had dysentery almost continually right through the winter. Had he not +been the plucky, cheerful man he is, he would have died. + +In June again there was another bad attack of dysentery. Another thing +which worried them somewhat was the 'igloo back,' a semi-permanent kink +caused by seldom being able to stand upright. + +Then, in the beginning of September, they had ptomaine poisoning from +meat which had been too long in what they called the oven, which was a +biscuit box, hung over the blubber stove, into which they placed the +frozen meat to thaw it out. This oven was found to be not quite level, +and in a corner a pool of old blood, water and scraps of meat had +collected. This and a tainted hoosh which they did not have the strength +of mind to throw away in their hungry condition, seems to have caused the +outbreak, which was severe. Browning and Dickason were especially bad. + +They had their bad days: those first days of realization that they would +not be relieved: days of depression, disease and hunger, all at once: +when the seal seemed as if they would give out and they were thinking +they would have to travel down the coast in the winter--but Abbott killed +two seals with a greasy knife, losing the use of three fingers in the +process, and saved the situation. + +But they also had their good, or less-bad, days: such was mid-winter +night when they held food in their hands and did not want to eat it, for +they were full: or when they got through the Te Deum without a hitch: or +when they killed some penguins; or got a ration of mustard plaster from +the medical stores. + +Never was a more cheerful or good-tempered party. They set out to see the +humorous side of everything, and, if they could not do so one day, at any +rate they determined to see to it the next. What is more they succeeded, +and I have never seen a company of better welded men than that which +joined us for those last two months in McMurdo Sound. + +On September 30 they started home--so they called it. This meant a sledge +journey of some two hundred miles along the coast, and its possibility +depended upon the presence of sea-ice, which we have seen to have been +absent at Evans Coves. It also meant crossing the Drygalski Ice Tongue, +an obstacle which bulked very formidably in their imaginations during the +winter. They reached the last rise of this glacier in the evening of +October 10, and then saw Erebus, one hundred and fifty miles off. The +igloo and the past were behind: Cape Evans and the future were in +front--and the sea-ice was in as far as they could see. + +Dickason was half crippled with dysentery when they started, but +improved. Browning, however, was still very ill, but now they were able +to eat a ration of four biscuits a day and a small amount of pemmican and +cocoa which gave him a better chance than the continual meat. As they +neared Granite Harbour, a month after starting, his condition was so +serious that they discussed leaving him there with Levick until they +could get medicine and suitable food from Cape Evans. + +But their troubles were nearly over, for on reaching Cape Roberts they +suddenly sighted the depôt left by Taylor in the previous year. They +searched round, like dogs, scratching in the drifts, and found--a whole +case of biscuits: and there were butter and raisins and lard. Day and +night merged into one long lingering feast, and when they started on +again their mouths were sore[30] with eating biscuits. More, there is +little doubt that the change of diet saved Browning's life. As they moved +down the coast they found another depôt, and yet another. They reached +Hut Point on November 5. + +The story of this, our Northern Party, has been told in full by the two +men most able to tell it: by Campbell in the second volume of Scott's +book, by Priestley in a separate volume called Antarctic Adventure.[31] I +have added only these few pages because, save in so far as their +adventures touch the Main Party or the Ship, it is better that I should +refer the reader to these two accounts than that I should try and write +again at second hand what has been already twice told. I will only say +here that the history of what these men did and suffered has been +overshadowed by the more tragic tale of the Polar Party. They are not men +who wish for public applause, but that is no reason why the story of a +great adventure should not be known; indeed, it is all the more reason +why it should be known. To those who have not read it I recommend +Priestley's book mentioned above, or Campbell's equally modest account in +Scott's Last Expedition.[32] + +The Terra Nova arrived at Cape Evans on January 18, 1913, just as we had +started to prepare for another year. And so the remains of the expedition +came home that spring. Scott's book was published in the autumn. + +The story of Scott's Last Expedition of 1910-13 is a book of two volumes, +the first volume of which is Scott's personal diary of the expedition, +written from day to day before he turned into his sleeping-bag for the +night when sledging, or in the intervals of the many details of +organization and preparation in the hut, when at Winter Quarters. The +readers of this book will probably have read that diary and the accounts +of the Winter Journey, the last year, the adventures of Campbell's Party +and the travels of the Terra Nova which follow. With an object which I +will explain presently I quote a review of Scott's book from the pen of +one of Mr. Punch's staff:[33] + +"There is courage and strength and loyalty and love shining out of the +second volume no less than out of the first; there were gallant gentlemen +who lived as well as gallant gentlemen who died; but it is the story of +Scott, told by himself, which will give the book a place among the great +books of the world. That story begins in November 1910, and ends on March +29, 1912, and it is because when you come to the end, you will have lived +with Scott for sixteen months, that you will not be able to read the last +pages without tears. That message to the public was heartrending enough +when it first came to us, but it was as the story of how a great hero +fell that we read it; now it is just the tale of how a dear friend died. +To have read this book is to have known Scott; and if I were asked to +describe him, I think I should use some such words as those which, six +months before he died, he used of the gallant gentleman who went with +him, 'Bill' Wilson. 'Words must always fail when I talk of him,' he +wrote; 'I believe he is the finest character I ever met--the closer one +gets to him the more there is to admire. Every quality is so solid and +dependable. Whatever the matter, one knows Bill will be sound, shrewdly +practical, intensely loyal, and quite unselfish.' That is true of Wilson, +if Scott says so, for he knew men; but most of it is also true of Scott +himself. I have never met a more beautiful character than that which is +revealed unconsciously in these journals. His humanity, his courage, his +faith, his steadfastness, above all, his simplicity, mark him as a man +among men. It is because of his simplicity that his last message, the +last entries in his diary, his last letters, are of such undying beauty. +The letter of consolation (and almost of apology) which, on the verge of +death, he wrote to Mrs. Wilson, wife of the man dying at his side, may +well be Scott's monument. He could have no finer. And he has raised a +monument for those other gallant gentlemen who died--Wilson, Oates, +Bowers, Evans. They are all drawn for us clearly by him in these pages; +they stand out unmistakably. They, too, come to be friends of ours, their +death is as noble and as heartbreaking. And there were gallant gentlemen, +I said, who lived--you may read amazing stories of them. Indeed, it is a +wonderful tale of manliness that these two volumes tell us. I put them +down now; but I have been for a few days in the company of the brave ... +and every hour with them has made me more proud for those that died and +more humble for myself." + +I have quoted this review at length, because it gives the atmosphere of +hero-worship into which we were plunged on our return. That atmosphere +was very agreeable; but it was a refracting medium through which the +expedition could not be seen with scientific accuracy--and the expedition +was nothing if not scientific. Whilst we knew what we had suffered and +risked better than any one else, we also knew that science takes no +account of such things; that a man is no better for having made the worst +journey in the world; and that whether he returns alive or drops by the +way will be all the same a hundred years hence if his records and +specimens come safely to hand. + +In addition to Scott's Last Expedition and Priestley's Antarctic +Adventures, Griffith Taylor, who was physiographer to the Main Party, has +written an account of the two geological journeys of which he was the +leader, and of the domestic life of the expedition at Hut Point and at +Cape Evans, up to February 1912, in a book called With Scott: The Silver +Lining. This book gives a true glimpse into the more boisterous side of +our life, with much useful information about the scientific part. + +Though it bears little upon this book I cannot refrain from drawing the +reader's attention to, and earning some of his thanks for, a little book +called Antarctic Penguins, written by Levick, the Surgeon of Campbell's +Party. It is almost entirely about Adélie penguins. The author spent the +greater part of a summer living, as it were, upon sufferance, in the +middle of one of the largest penguin rookeries in the world. He has +described the story of their crowded life with a humour with which, +perhaps, we hardly credited him, and with a simplicity which many writers +of children's stories might envy. If you think your own life hard, and +would like to leave it for a short hour I recommend you to beg, borrow or +steal this tale, and read and see how the penguins live. It is all quite +true. + +So there is already a considerable literature about the expedition, but +no connected account of it as a whole. Scott's diary, had he lived, would +merely have formed the basis of the book he would have written. As his +personal diary it has an interest which no other book could have had. But +a diary in this life is one of the only ways in which a man can blow off +steam, and so it is that Scott's book accentuates the depression which +used to come over him sometimes. + +We have seen the importance which must attach to the proper record of +improvements, weights and methods of each and every expedition. We have +seen how Scott took the system developed by the Arctic Explorers at the +point of development to which it had been brought by Nansen, and applied +it for the first time to Antarctic sledge travelling. Scott's Voyage of +the Discovery gives a vivid picture of mistakes rectified, and of +improvements of every kind. Shackleton applied the knowledge they gained +in his first expedition, Scott in this, his second and last. On the whole +I believe this expedition was the best equipped there has ever been, when +the double purpose, exploratory and scientific, for which it was +organized, is taken into consideration. It is comparatively easy to put +all your eggs into one basket, to organize your material and to equip and +choose your men entirely for one object, whether it be the attainment of +the Pole, or the running of a perfect series of scientific observations. +Your difficulties increase many-fold directly you combine the one with +the other, as was done in this case. Neither Scott nor the men with him +would have gone for the Pole alone. Yet they considered the Pole to be an +achievement worthy of a great attempt, and "We took risks, we knew we +took them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no +cause for complaint...." + +It is, it must be, of the first importance that a system, I will not say +perfected, but developed, to a pitch of high excellence at such a cost +should be handed down as completely as possible to those who are to +follow. I want to so tell this story that the leader of some future +Antarctic expedition, perhaps more than one, will be able to take it up +and say: "I have here the material from which I can order the articles +and quantities which will be wanted for so many men for such and such a +time; I have also a record of how this material was used by Scott, of the +plans of his journeys and how his plans worked out, and of the +improvements which his parties were able to make on the spot or suggest +for the future. I don't agree with such and such, but this is a +foundation and will save me many months of work in preparation, and give +me useful knowledge for the actual work of my expedition." If this book +can guide the future explorer by the light of the past, it will not have +been written in vain. + +But this was not my main object in writing this book. When I undertook in +1913 to write, for the Antarctic Committee, an Official Narrative on +condition that I was given a free hand, what I wanted to do above all +things was to show what work was done; who did it; to whom the credit of +the work was due; who took the responsibility; who did the hard sledging; +and who pulled us through that last and most ghastly year when two +parties were adrift, and God only knew what was best to be done; when, +had things gone on much longer, men would undoubtedly have gone mad. +There is no record of these things, though perhaps the world thinks there +is. Generally as a mere follower, without much responsibility, and often +scared out of my wits, I was in the thick of it all, and I know. + +Unfortunately I could not reconcile a sincere personal confession with +the decorous obliquity of an Official Narrative; and I found that I had +put the Antarctic Committee in a difficulty from which I could rescue +them only by taking the book off their hands; for it was clear that what +I had written was not what is expected from a Committee, even though no +member may disapprove of a word of it. A proper Official Narrative +presented itself to our imaginations and sense of propriety as a quarto +volume, uniform with the scientific reports, dustily invisible on Museum +shelves, and replete with--in the words of my Commission--"times of +starting, hours of march, ground and weather conditions," not very useful +as material for future Antarcticists, and in no wise effecting any +catharsis of the writer's conscience. I could not pretend that I had +fulfilled these conditions; and so I decided to take the undivided +responsibility on my own shoulders. None the less the Committee, having +given me access to its information, is entitled to all the credit of a +formal Official Narrative, without the least responsibility for the +passages which I have studied to make as personal in style as possible, +so that no greater authority may be attached to them than I deserve. + +I need hardly add that the nine years' delay in the appearance of my book +was caused by the war. Before I had recovered from the heavy overdraft +made on my strength by the expedition I found myself in Flanders looking +after a fleet of armoured cars. A war is like the Antarctic in one +respect. There is no getting out of it with honour as long as you can put +one foot before the other. I came back badly invalided; and the book had +to wait accordingly. + +[Illustration: FROM NEW ZEALAND TO THE SOUTH POLE--Apsley Cherry-Garrard, +del.--Emery Walker Ltd., Collotypers.] + +FOOTNOTES: + + [1] Cook, _A Voyage towards the South Pole_, Introduction. + + [2] Cook, _A Voyage towards the South Pole_, vol. i. p. 23. + + [3] Ibid. p. 28. + + [4] Cook, _A Voyage towards the South Pole_, vol. i. p. 268. + + [5] Ibid. p. 275. + + [6] Scott, _Voyage of the Discovery_, vol. i. p. 9. + + [7] Ibid. p. 14. + + [8] Ross, _Voyage to the Southern Seas_, vol. i. p. 117. + + [9] Ross, _Voyage to the Southern Seas_, vol. i. pp. 216-218. + + [10] Ross, _Voyage to the Southern Seas_, vol. i. pp. 244-245. + + [11] Leonard Huxley, _Life of Sir J. D. Hooker_, vol. ii. p. 443. + + [12] Ibid. p. 441. + + [13] Nansen, _Farthest North_, vol. i. p. 52. + + [14] Nansen, _Farthest North_, vol. ii. pp. 19-20. + + [15] Scott, _Voyage of the Discovery_, vol. i. p. 229. + + [16] Scott, _Voyage of the Discovery_, vol. i. p. vii. + + [17] Ibid. p. 273. + + [18] See Scott, _Voyage of the Discovery_, vol. ii. pp. 5, 6, 490. + + [19] Wilson, _Nat. Ant. Exp., 1901-1904_, "Zoology," Part ii. pp. + 8-9. + + [20] Wilson, _Nat. Ant. Exp., 1901-1904_, "Zoology," Part ii. p. + 31. + + [21] Scott, _Voyage of the Discovery_, vol. ii. p. 327. + + [22] Scott, _The Voyage of the Discovery_, vol. ii. pp. 347-348. + + [23] See pp. 128-134. + + [24] See pp. xxxi-xxxii. + + [25] See p. xxviii. + + [26] Priestley, _Antarctic Adventure_, pp. 232-233. + + [27] Priestley, _Antarctic Adventure_, pp. 236-237. + + [28] Priestley, _Antarctic Adventure_, p. 243. + + [29] Atkinson has no doubt that the symptoms of the Northern Party + were those of early scurvy. Conditions of temperature in the + igloo allowed of decomposition occurring in seal meat. Fresh + seal meat brought in from outside reduced the scurvy + symptoms. + + [30] This tenderness of gums and tongue is additional evidence of + scurvy. + + [31] Published by Fisher Unwin, 1914. + + [32] Vol. ii., Narrative of the Northern Party. + + [33] A. A. Milne. + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FROM ENGLAND TO SOUTH AFRICA + + Take a bowsy short leave of your nymphs on the shore, + And silence their mourning with vows of returning, + Though never intending to visit them more. + _Dido and Aeneas._ + + +Scott used to say that the worst part of an expedition was over when the +preparation was finished. So no doubt it was with a sigh of relief that +he saw the Terra Nova out from Cardiff into the Atlantic on June 15, +1910. Cardiff had given the expedition a most generous and enthusiastic +send-off, and Scott announced that it should be his first port on +returning to England. Just three years more and the Terra Nova, worked +back from New Zealand by Pennell, reached Cardiff again on June 14, 1913, +and paid off there. + +From the first everything was informal and most pleasant, and those who +had the good fortune to help in working the ship out to New Zealand, +under steam or sail, must, in spite of five months of considerable +discomfort and very hard work, look back upon the voyage as one of the +very happiest times of the expedition. To some of us perhaps the voyage +out, the three weeks in the pack ice going South, and the Robinson Crusoe +life at Hut Point are the pleasantest of many happy memories. + +Scott made a great point that so far as was possible the personnel of the +expedition must go out with the Terra Nova. Possibly he gave +instructions that they were to be worked hard, and no doubt it was a good +opportunity of testing our mettle. We had been chosen out of 8000 +volunteers, executive officers, scientific staff, crew, and all. + +We differed entirely from the crew of an ordinary merchant ship both in +our personnel and in our methods of working. The executive officers were +drawn from the Navy, as were also the crew. In addition there was the +scientific staff, including one doctor who was not a naval surgeon, but +who was also a scientist, and two others called by Scott 'adaptable +helpers,' namely Oates and myself. The scientific staff of the expedition +numbered twelve members all told, but only six were on board: the +remainder were to join the ship at Lyttelton, New Zealand, when we made +our final embarcation for the South. Of those on the ship Wilson was +chief of the scientific staff, and united in himself the various +functions of vertebral zoologist, doctor, artist, and, as this book will +soon show, the unfailing friend-in-need of all on board. Lieutenant Evans +was in command, with Campbell as first officer. Watches were of course +assigned immediately to the executive officers. The crew was divided into +a port and starboard watch, and the ordinary routine of a sailing ship +with auxiliary steam was followed. Beyond this no work was definitely +assigned to any individual on board. How the custom of the ship arose I +do not know, but in effect most things were done by volunteer labour. It +was recognized that every one whose work allowed turned to immediately on +any job which was wanted, but it was an absolutely voluntary +duty--Volunteers to shorten sail? To coal? To shift cargo? To pump? To +paint or wash down paintwork? They were constant calls--some of them +almost hourly calls, day and night--and there was never any failure to +respond fully. This applied not only to the scientific staff but also, +whenever their regular duties allowed, to the executive officers. There +wasn't an officer on the ship who did not shift coal till he was sick of +the sight of it, but I heard no complaints. Such a system soon singles +out the real willing workers, but it is apt to put an undue strain upon +them. Meanwhile most of the executive officers as well as the scientific +staff had their own work to do, which they were left to fit in as most +convenient. + +The first days out from England were spent in such hard and crowded work +that we shook down very quickly. I then noticed for the first time +Wilson's great gift of tact, and how quick he was to see the small things +which make so much difference. At the same time his passion for work set +a high standard. Pennell was another glutton. + +We dropped anchor in Funchal Harbour, Madeira, about 4 P.M. on June 23, +eight days out. The ship had already been running under sail and steam, +the decks were as clear as possible, there was some paintwork to show, +and with a good harbour stow she looked thoroughly workmanlike and neat. +Some scientific work, in particular tow netting and magnetic +observations, had already been done. But even as early as this we had +spent hours on the pumps, and it was evident that these pumps were going +to be a constant nightmare. + +In Madeira, as everywhere, we were given freely of such things as we +required. We left in the early morning of June 26, after Pennell had done +some hours' magnetic work with the Lloyd Creak and Barrow Dip Circle. + +On June 29 (noon position lat. 27° 10´ N., long. 20° 21´ W.) it was +possible to write: "A fortnight out to-day, and from the general +appearance of the wardroom we might have been out a year." + +We were to a great extent strangers to one another when we left England, +but officers and crew settled down to their jobs quickly, and when men +live as close as we did they settle down or quarrel before very long. Let +us walk into the cabins which surround the small wardroom aft. The first +on the left is that of Scott and Lieutenant Evans, but Scott is not on +board, and Wilson has taken his place. In the next cabin to them is +Drake, the secretary. On the starboard side of the screw are Oates, +Atkinson and Levick, the two latter being doctors, and on the port side +Campbell and Pennell, who is navigator. Then Rennick and Bowers, the +latter just home from the Persian Gulf--both of these are watchkeepers. +In the next cabin are Simpson, meteorologist, back from Simla, with +Nelson and Lillie, marine biologists. In the last cabin, the Nursery, are +the youngest, and necessarily the best behaved, of this community, +Wright, the physicist and chemist, Gran the Norwegian ski-expert, and +myself, Wilson's helper and assistant zoologist. It is difficult to put a +man down as performing any special job where each did so many, but that +is roughly what we were. + +Certain men already began to stand out. Wilson, with an apparently +inexhaustible stock of knowledge on little things and big; always ready +to give help, and always ready with sympathy and insight, a tremendous +worker, and as unselfish as possible; a universal adviser. Pennell, as +happy as the day was long, working out sights, taking his watch on the +bridge, or if not on watch full of energy aloft, trimming coal, or any +other job that came along; withal spending hours a day on magnetic work, +which he did as a hobby, and not in any way as his job. Bowers was +proving himself the best seaman on board, with an exact knowledge of the +whereabouts and contents of every case, box and bale, and with a supreme +contempt for heat or cold. Simpson was obviously a first-class scientist, +devoted to his work, in which Wright gave him very great and unselfish +help, while at the same time doing much of the ship's work. Oates and +Atkinson generally worked together in a solid, dependable and somewhat +humorous way. + +Evans, who will always be called Lieutenant Evans in this book to +distinguish him from Seaman Evans, was in charge of the ship, and did +much to cement together the rough material into a nucleus which was +capable of standing without any friction the strains of nearly three +years of crowded, isolated and difficult life, ably seconded by Victor +Campbell, first officer, commonly called The Mate, in whose hands the +routine and discipline of the ship was most efficiently maintained. I was +very frightened of Campbell. + +Scott himself was unable to travel all the way out to New Zealand in the +Terra Nova owing to the business affairs of the expedition, but he +joined the ship from Simon's Bay to Melbourne. + +The voyage itself on the sailing track from Madeira to the Cape was at +first uneventful. We soon got into hot weather, and at night every +available bit of deck space was used on which to sleep. The more +particular slung hammocks, but generally men used such deck space as they +could find, such as the top of the icehouse, where they were free from +the running tackle, and rolled themselves into their blankets. So long as +we had a wind we ran under sail alone, and on those days men would bathe +over the side in the morning, but when the engines were going we could +get the hose in the morning, which was preferred, especially after a +shark was seen making for Bowers' red breast as he swam. + +The scene on deck in the early morning was always interesting. All hands +were roused before six and turned on to the pumps, for the ship was +leaking considerably. Normally, the well showed about ten inches of water +when the ship was dry. Before pumping, the sinker would show anything +over two feet. The ship was generally dry after an hour to an hour and a +half's pumping, and by that time we had had quite enough of it. As soon +as the officer of the watch had given the order, "Vast pumping," the +first thing to do was to strip, and the deck was dotted with men trying +to get the maximum amount of water from the sea in a small bucket let +down on a line from the moving ship. First efforts in this direction +would have been amusing had it not been for the caustic eye of the 'Mate' +on the bridge. If the reader ever gets the chance to try the experiment, +especially in a swell, he will soon find himself with neither bucket nor +water. The poor Mate was annoyed by the loss of his buckets. + +Everybody was working very hard during these days; shifting coal, reefing +and furling sail aloft, hauling on the ropes on deck, together with +magnetic and meteorological observations, tow-netting, collecting and +making skins and so forth. During the first weeks there was more cargo +stowing and paintwork than at other times, otherwise the work ran in +very much the same lines all the way out--a period of nearly five months. +On July 1 we were overhauled by the only ship we ever saw, so far as I +can remember, during all that time, the Inverclyde, a barque out from +Glasgow to Buenos Ayres. It was an oily, calm day with a sea like glass, +and she looked, as Wilson quoted, "like a painted ship upon a painted +ocean," as she lay with all sail set. + +We picked up the N.E. Trade two days later, being then north of the Cape +Verde Islands (lat. 22° 28´ N., long. 23° 5´ W. at noon). It was a +Sunday, and there was a general 'make and mend' throughout the ship, the +first since we sailed. During the day we ran from deep clear blue water +into a darkish and thick green sea. This remarkable change of colour, +which was observed by the Discovery Expedition in much the same place, +was supposed to be due to a large mass of pelagic fauna called plankton. +The plankton, which drifts upon the surface of the sea, is distinct from +the nekton, which swims submerged. The Terra Nova was fitted with tow +nets with very fine meshes for collecting these inhabitants of the open +sea, together with the algae, or minute plant organisms, which afford +them an abundant food supply. + +The plankton nets can be lowered when the ship is running at full speed, +and a great many such hauls were made during the expedition. + +July 5 had an unpleasant surprise in store. At 10.30 A.M. the ship's bell +rang and there was a sudden cry of "Fire quarters." Two Minimax fire +extinguishers finished the fire, which was in the lazarette, and was +caused by a lighted lamp which was upset by the roll of the ship. The +result was a good deal of smoke, a certain amount of water below, and +some singed paper, but we realized that a fire on such an old wooden ship +would be a very serious matter, and greater care was taken after this. + +Such a voyage shows Nature in her most attractive form, and always there +was a man close by whose special knowledge was in the whales, porpoises, +dolphins, fish, birds, parasites, plankton, radium and other things which +we watched through microscopes or field-glasses. Nelson caught a +Portuguese man-of-war (Arethusa) as it sailed past us close under the +counter. These animals are common, but few can realize how beautiful they +are until they see them, fresh-coloured from the deep sea, floating and +sailing in a big glass bowl. It vainly tried to sail out, and vigorously +tried to sting all who touched it. Wilson painted it. + +From first to last the study of life of all kinds was of absorbing +interest to all on board, and, when we landed in the Antarctic, as well +as on the ship, everybody worked and was genuinely interested in all that +lived and had its being on the fringe of that great sterile continent. +Not only did officers who had no direct interest in anything but their +own particular work or scientific subject spend a large part of their +time in helping, making notes and keeping observations, but the seamen +also had a large share in the specimens and data of all descriptions +which have been brought back. Several of them became good pupils for +skinning birds. + +Meanwhile, perhaps the constant cries of "Whale, whale!" or "New bird!" +or "Dolphins!" sometimes found the biologist concerned less eager to +leave his meal than the observers were to call him forth. Good +opportunities of studying the life of sea birds, whales, dolphins and +other forms of life in the sea, even those comparatively few forms which +are visible from the surface, are not too common. A modern liner moves so +quickly that it does not attract life to it in the same way as a +slow-moving ship like the Terra Nova, and when specimens are seen they +are gone almost as soon as they are observed. Those who wish to study sea +life--and there is much to be done in this field--should travel by tramp +steamers, or, better still, sailing vessels. + +Dolphins were constantly playing under the bows of the ship, giving a +very good chance for identification, and whales were also frequently +sighted, and would sometimes follow the ship, as did also hundreds of sea +birds, petrels, shearwaters and albatross. It says much for the interest +and keenness of the officers on board that a complete hourly log was +kept from beginning to end of the numbers and species which were seen, +generally with the most complete notes as to any peculiarity or habit +which was noticed. It is to be hoped that full use will be made, by those +in charge of the working out of these results, of these logs which were +kept so thoroughly and sometimes under such difficult circumstances and +conditions of weather and sea. Though many helped, this log was largely +the work of Pennell, who was an untiring and exact observer. + +We lost the N.E. Trade about July 7, and ran into the Doldrums. On the +whole we could not complain of the weather. We never had a gale or big +sea until after leaving South Trinidad, and though an old ship with no +modern ventilation is bound to be stuffy in the tropics, we lived and +slept on deck so long as it was not raining. If it rained at night, as it +frequently does in this part of the world, a number of rolled-up forms +could be heard discussing as to whether it was best to stick it above or +face the heat below; and if the rain persisted, sleepy and somewhat +snappy individuals were to be seen trying to force themselves and a +maximum amount of damp bedding down the wardroom gangway. At the same +time a thick wooden ship will keep fairly cool in the not severe heat +through which we passed. + +One want which was unavoidable was the lack of fresh water. There was +none to wash in, though a glass of water was allowed for shaving! With an +unlimited amount of sea water this may not seem much of a hardship; nor +is it unless you have very dirty work to do. But inasmuch as some of the +officers were coaling almost daily, they found that any amount of cold +sea water, even with a euphemistically named 'sea-water soap,' had no +very great effect in removing the coal dust. The alternative was to make +friends with the engine-room authorities and draw some water from the +boilers. + +Perhaps therefore it was not with purely disinterested motives that some +of us undertook to do the stoking during the morning watch, and also +later in the day during our passage through the tropics, since the +engine-room staff was reduced by sickness. A very short time will +convince anybody that the ease with which men accustomed to this work get +through their watch is mainly due to custom and method. The ship had no +forced draught nor modern ventilating apparatus. Four hours in the +boiling fiery furnace which the Terra Nova's stokehold formed in the +tropics, unless there was a good wind to blow down the one canvas shaft, +was a real test of staying power, and the actual shovelling of the coal +into the furnaces, one after the other, was as child's play to handling +the 'devil,' as the weighty instrument used for breaking up the clinker +and shaping the fire was called. The boilers were cylindrical marine or +return tube boilers, the furnaces being six feet long by three feet wide, +slightly lower at the back than at the front. The fire on the bars was +kept wedge-shape, that is, some nine inches high at the back, tapering to +about six inches in front against the furnace doors. The furnaces were +corrugated for strength. We were supposed to keep the pressure on the +gauge between 70 and 80, but it wanted some doing. For the most part it +was done. + +We did, however, get uncomfortable days with the rain sluicing down and a +high temperature--everything wet on deck and below. But it had its +advantages in the fresh water it produced. Every bucket was on duty, and +the ship's company stripped naked and ran about the decks or sat in the +stream between the laboratories and wardroom skylight and washed their +very dirty clothes. The stream came through into our bunks, and no amount +of caulking ever stopped it. To sleep with a constant drip of water +falling upon you is a real trial. These hot, wet days were more trying to +the nerves than the months of wet, rough but cooler weather to come, and +it says much for the good spirit which prevailed that there was no +friction, though we were crowded together like sardines in a tin. + +July 12 was a typical day (lat. 4° 57´ N., long. 22° 4´ W.). A very hot, +rainy night, followed by a squall which struck us while we were having +breakfast, so we went up and set all sail, which took until about 9.30 +A.M. We then sat in the water on the deck and washed clothes until just +before mid-day, when the wind dropped, though the rain continued. So we +went up and furled all sail, a tedious business when the sails are wet +and heavy. Then work on cargo or coal till 7 P.M., supper, and glad to +get to sleep. + +On July 15 (lat. 0° 40´ N., long. 21° 56´ W.) we crossed the Line with +all pomp and ceremony. At 1.15 P.M. Neptune in the person of Seaman Evans +hailed and stopped the ship. He came on board with his motley company, +who solemnly paced aft to the break of the poop, where he was met by +Lieutenant Evans. His wife (Browning), a doctor (Paton), barber +(Cheetham), two policemen and four bears, of whom Atkinson and Oates were +two, grouped themselves round him while the barrister (Abbott) read an +address to the captain, and then the procession moved round to the bath, +a sail full of water slung in the break of the poop on the starboard +side. + +Nelson was the first victim. He was examined, then overhauled by the +doctor, given a pill and a dose, and handed over to the barber, who +lathered him with a black mixture consisting of soot, flour and water, +was shaved by Cheetham with a great wooden razor, and then the policemen +tipped him backwards into the bath where the bears were waiting. As he +was being pushed in he seized the barber and took him with him. + +Wright, Lillie, Simpson and Levick followed, with about six of the crew. +Finally Gran, the Norwegian, was caught as an extra--never having been +across the Line in a British ship. But he threw the pill-distributing +doctor over his head into the bath, after which he was lathered very +gingerly, and Cheetham having been in once, refused to shave him at all, +so they tipped him in and wished they had never caught him. + +The procession re-formed, and Neptune presented certificates to those who +had been initiated. The proceedings closed with a sing-song in the +evening. + +These sing-songs were of very frequent occurrence. The expedition was +very fond of singing, though there was hardly anybody in it who could +sing. The usual custom at this time was that every one had to contribute +a song in turn all round the table after supper. If he could not sing he +had to compose a limerick. If he could not compose a limerick he had to +contribute a fine towards the wine fund, which was to make some +much-discussed purchases when we reached Cape Town. At other times we +played the most childish games--there was one called 'The Priest of the +Parish has lost his Cap,' over which we laughed till we cried, and much +money was added to the wine fund. + +As always happens, certain songs became conspicuous for a time. One of +these I am sure that Campbell, who was always at work and upon whom the +routine of the ship depended, will never forget. I do not know who it was +that started singing + + "Everybody works but Father, + That poor old man," + +but Campbell, who was the only father on board and whose hair was +popularly supposed to be getting thin on the top of his head, may +remember. + +We began to make preparations for a run ashore--a real adventure on an +uninhabited and unknown island. The sailing track of ships from England +round the Cape of Good Hope lies out towards the coast of Brazil, and not +far from the mysterious island of South Trinidad, 680 miles east of +Brazil, in 20° 30´ S. and 29° 30´ W. + +This island is difficult of access, owing to its steep rocky coast and +the big Atlantic swell which seldom ceases. It has therefore been little +visited, and as it is infested with land crabs the stay of the few +parties which have been there has been short. But scientifically it is of +interest, not only for the number of new species which may be obtained +there, but also for the extraordinary attitude of wild sea birds towards +human beings whom they have never learnt to fear. Before we left England +it had been decided to attempt a landing and spend a day there if we +should pass sufficiently near to it. + +Those who have visited it in the past include the astronomer Halley, who +occupied it, in 1700. Sir James Ross, outward bound for the Antarctic in +1839, spent a day there, landing "in a small cove a short distance to +the northward of the Nine Pin Rock of Halley, the surf on all other parts +being too great to admit of it without hazarding the destruction of our +boats." Ross also writes that "Horsburgh mentions ... 'that the island +abounds with wild pig and goats; one of the latter was seen. With the +view to add somewhat to the stock of useful creatures, a cock and two +hens were put on shore; they seemed to enjoy the change, and, I have no +doubt, in so unfrequented a situation, and so delightful a climate, will +quickly increase in numbers.' I am afraid we did not find any of their +descendants, nor those of the pig and goats."[34] I doubt whether fowls +would survive the land crabs very long. There are many wild birds on the +island, however, which may feed the shipwrecked, and also a depôt left by +the Government for that purpose. Another visitor was Knight, who wrote a +book called The Cruise of the Falcon, concerning his efforts to discover +the treasure which is said to have been left there. Scott also visited it +in the Discovery in 1901, when a new petrel was found which was +afterwards called 'Oestrelata wilsoni,' after the same 'Uncle Bill' who +was zoologist of both Scott's Expeditions. + +And so it came about that on the evening of July 25 we furled sail and +lay five miles from South Trinidad with all our preparations made for a +very thorough search of this island of treasure. Everything was to be +captured, alive or dead, animal, vegetable or mineral. + +At half-past five the next morning we were steaming slowly towards what +looked like a quite impregnable face of rock, with bare cliffs standing +straight out of the water, which, luckily for us, was comparatively +smooth. As we coasted to try and find a landing-place the sun was rising +behind the island, which reaches to a height of two thousand feet, and +the jagged cliffs stood up finely against the rosy sky. + +[Illustration: SOUTH TRINIDAD--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +We dropped our anchor to the south of the island and a boat's crew left +to prospect for a landing-place, whilst Wilson seized the opportunity to +shoot some birds as specimens, including two species of frigate bird, +and the seamen caught some of the multitudinous fish. We also fired shots +at the sharks which soon thronged round the ship, and about which we were +to think more before the day was done. + +The boat came back with the news that a possible landing-place had been +found, and the landing parties got off about 8.30. The landing was very +bad--a ledge of rock weathered out of the cliff to our right formed, as +it were, a staging along which it was possible to pass on to a steeply +shelving talus slope in front of us. The sea being comparatively smooth, +everybody was landed dry, with their guns and collecting gear. + +The best account of South Trinidad is contained in a letter written by +Bowers to his mother, which is printed here. But some brief notes which I +jotted down at the time may also be of interest, since they give an +account of a different part of the island: + +"Having made a small depôt of cartridges, together with a little fluffy +tern and a tern's egg, which Wilson found on the rocks, we climbed +westward, round and up, to a point from which we could see into the East +Bay. This was our first stand, and we shot several white-breasted petrel +(Oestrelata trinitatis), and also black-breasted petrel (Oestrelata +arminjoniana). Later on we got over the brow of a cliff where the petrel +were nesting. We took two nests, on each of which a white-breasted and a +black-breasted petrel were paired. Wilson caught one in his hands and I +caught another on its nest; it really did not know whether it ought to +fly away or not. This gives rise to an interesting problem, since these +two birds have been classified as different species, and it now looks as +though they are the same. + +"The gannets and terns were quite extraordinary, like all the living +things there. If you stay still enough the terns perch on your head. In +any case they will not fly off the rocks till you are two or three feet +away. Several gannets were caught in the men's hands. All the fish which +the biologist collected to-day can travel quite fast on land. When the +Discovery was here Wilson saw a fish come out of the sea, seize a land +crab about eighteen inches away and take it back into the water. + +"The land crabs were all over the place in thousands; it seems probable +that their chief enemies are themselves. They are regular cannibals. + +"Then we did a real long climb northwards, over rocks and tufty grass +till 1.30 P.M. From the point we had reached we could see both sides of +the island, and the little Martin Vas islands in the distance. + +"We found lots of little tern and terns' eggs, lying out on the bare rock +with no nest at all. Hooper also brought us two little gannets--all +fluffy, but even at this age larger than a rook. As we got further up we +began to come across the fossilized trees for which the island is well +known. + +"Four or five Captain biscuits made an excellent lunch, and afterwards we +started to the real top of the island, a hill rising to the west of us. +It was covered with a high scrubby bush and rocks, and was quite thick; +in fact there was more vegetation here than on all the rest we had seen, +and in making our way through it we had to keep calling in order to keep +touch with one another. + +"The tree ferns were numerous, but stunted. The gannets were sleeping on +the tops of the bushes, and some of the crabs had climbed up the bushes +and were sunning themselves on the top. These crabs were round us in +thousands--I counted seven watching me out of one crack between two +rocks. + +"We sat down under the lee of the summit, and thought it would not be bad +to be thrown away on a desert island, little thinking how near we were to +being stranded, for a time at any rate. + +"The crabs gathered round us in a circle, with their eyes turning towards +us--as if they were waiting for us to die to come and eat us. One big +fellow left his place in the circle and waddled up to my feet and +examined my boots. First with one claw and then with the other he took a +taste of my boot. He went away obviously disgusted: one could almost see +him shake his head. + +"We collected, as well as our birds and eggs, some spiders, very large +grasshoppers, wood-lice, cockchafers, with big and small centipedes. In +fact, the place teemed with insect life. I should add that their names +are given rather from the general appearance of the animals than from +their true scientific classes. + +"We had a big and fast scramble down, and about half way, when we could +watch the sea breaking on the rocks far below, we saw that there was a +bigger swell running. It was getting late, and we made our way down as +fast as we could--denting our guns as we slipped on the rocks. + +"The lower we got the bigger the sea which had risen in our absence +appeared to be. No doubt it was the swell of a big disturbance far away, +and when we reached the débris slope where we had landed, flanked by big +cliffs, we found everybody gathered there and the boats lying off--it +being quite impossible for them to get near the shore. + +"They had just got a life-line ashore on a buoy. Bowers went out on to +the rocks and secured it. We put our guns and specimens into a pile, out +of reach, as we thought, of any possible sea. But just afterwards two +very large waves took us--we were hauling in the rope, and must have been +a good thirty feet above the base of the wave. It hit us hard and knocked +us all over the place, and wetted the guns and specimens above us through +and through. + +"We then stowed all gear and specimens well out of the reach of the seas, +and then went out through the surf one by one, passing ourselves out on +the line. It was ticklish work, but Hooper was the only one who really +had a bad time. He did not get far enough out among the rocks which +fringed the steep slope from which he started as a wave began to roll +back. The next wave caught him and crashed him back, and he let go of the +line. He was under quite a long time, and as the waves washed back all +that we could do was to try and get the line to him. Luckily he succeeded +in finding the slack of the line and got out. + +"When we first got down to the shore and things were looking nasty, +Wilson sat down on the top of a rock and ate a biscuit in the coolest +possible manner. It was an example to avoid all panicking, for he did +not want the biscuit. + +"He remarked afterwards to me, apropos to Hooper, that it was a curious +thing that a number of men, knowing that there was nothing they could do, +could quietly watch a man fighting for his life, and he did not think +that any but the British temperament could do so. I also found out later +that he and I had both had a touch of cramp while waiting for our turn to +swim out through the surf." + +The following is Bowers' letter: + + "_Sunday, 31st July._ + + "The past week has been so crowded with incident, really, that I + don't know where to start. Getting to land made me long for the + mails from you, which are such a feature of getting to port. + However, the strange uninhabited island which we visited will + have to make up for my disappointment till we get to Capetown--or + rather Simon's Town. Campbell and I sighted S. Trinidad from the + fore yardarm on 25th, and on 26th, at first thing in the morning, + we crept up to an anchorage in a sea of glass. The S.E. Trades, + making a considerable sea, were beating on the eastern sides, + while the western was like a mill-pond. The great rocks and hills + to over 2000 feet towered above us as we went in very close in + order to get our anchor down, as the water is very deep to quite + a short distance from the shore. West Bay was our selection, and + so clear was the water that we could see the anchor at the bottom + in 15 fathoms. A number of sharks and other fish appeared at once + and several birds. Evans wanted to explore, so Oates, Rennick, + Atkinson and myself went away with him--pulling the boat. We + examined the various landings and found them all rocky and + dangerous. There was a slight surf although the sea looked like a + mill-pond. We finally decided on a previously unused place, which + was a little inlet among the rocks. + + "There was nothing but rock, but there was a little nook where we + decided to try and land. We returned to breakfast and found that + Wilson and Cherry-Garrard had shot several Frigate and other + birds from the ship, the little Norwegian boat--called a + Pram--being used to pick them up. By way of explanation I may say + that Wilson is a specialist in birds and is making a collection + for the British Museum. + + "We all landed as soon as possible. Wilson and Garrard with their + guns for birds: Oates with the dogs, and Atkinson with a small + rifle: Lillie after plants and geological specimens: Nelson and + Simpson along the shore after sea beasts, etc.: and last but not + least came the entomological party, under yours truly, with + Wright and, later, Evans, as assistants. Pennell joined up with + Wilson, so altogether we were ready to 'do' the island. I have + taken over the collection of insects for the expedition, as the + other scientists all have so much to do that they were only too + glad to shove the small beasts on me. Atkinson is a specialist in + parasites: it is called 'Helminthology.' I never heard that name + before. He turns out the interior of every beast that is killed, + and being also a surgeon, I suppose the subject must be + interesting. White terns abounded on the island. They were + ghost-like and so tame that they would sit on one's hat. They + laid their eggs on pinnacles of rock without a vestige of nest, + and singly. They looked just like stones. I suppose this was a + protection from the land-crabs, about which you will have heard. + The land-crabs of Trinidad are a byword and they certainly + deserve the name, as they abound from sea-level to the top of the + island. The higher up the bigger they were. The surface of the + hills and valleys was covered with loose boulders, and the whole + island being of volcanic origin, coarse grass is everywhere, and + at about 1500 feet is an area of tree ferns and subtropical + vegetation, extending up to nearly the highest parts. The + withered trees of a former forest are everywhere and their + existence unexplained, though Lillie had many ingenious theories. + The island has been in our hands, the Germans', and is now + Brazilian. Nobody has been able to settle there permanently, + owing to the land-crabs. These also exclude mammal life. Captain + Kidd made a treasure depôt there, and some five years ago a chap + named Knight lived on the island for six months with a party of + Newcastle miners--trying to get at it. He had the place all + right, but a huge landslide has covered up three-quarters of a + million of the pirate's gold. The land-crabs are little short of + a nightmare. They peep out at you from every nook and boulder. + Their dead staring eyes follow your every step as if to say, 'If + only you will drop down we will do the rest.' To lie down and + sleep on any part of the island would be suicidal. Of course, + Knight had a specially cleared place with all sorts of + precautions, otherwise he would never have survived these beasts, + which even tried to nibble your boots as you stood--staring hard + at you the whole time. One feature that would soon send a lonely + man off his chump is that no matter how many are in sight they + are all looking at you, and they follow step by step with a + sickly deliberation. They are all yellow and pink, and next to + spiders seem the most loathsome creatures on God's earth. Talking + about spiders [Bowers always had the greatest horror of + spiders]--I have to collect them as well as insects. Needless to + say I caught them with a butterfly net, and never touched one. + Only five species were known before, and I found fifteen or + more--at any rate I have fifteen for certain. Others helped me to + catch them, of course. Another interesting item to science is the + fact that I caught a moth hitherto unknown to exist on the + island, also various flies, ants, etc. Altogether it was a most + successful day. Wilson got dozens of birds, and Lillie plants, + etc. On our return to the landing-place we found to our horror + that a southerly swell was rolling in, and great breakers were + bursting on the beach. About five P.M. we all collected and + looked at the whaler and pram on one side of the rollers and + ourselves on the other. First it was impossible to take off the + guns and specimens, so we made them all up to leave for the + morrow. Second, a sick man had come ashore for exercise, and he + could not be got off: finally, Atkinson stayed ashore with him. + The breakers made the most awe-inspiring cauldron in our little + nook, and it meant a tough swim for all of us. Three of us swam + out first and took a line to the pram, and finally we got a good + rope from the whaler, which had anchored well out, to the shore. + I then manoeuvred the pram, and everybody plunged into the surf + and hauled himself out with the rope. All well, but minus our + belongings, and got back to the ship; very wet and ravenous was a + mild way to put it. During my 12 to 4 watch that night the surf + roared like thunder, and the ship herself was rolling like + anything, and looked horribly close to the shore. Of course she + was quite safe really. It transpired that Atkinson and the seaman + had a horrible night with salt water soaked food, and the crabs + and white terns which sat and watched them all night, squawking + in chorus whenever they moved. It must have been horrible, though + I would like to have stayed, and had I known anybody was staying + would have volunteered. This with the noise of the surf and the + cold made it pretty rotten for them. In the morning, Evans, + Rennick, Oates and I, with two seamen and Gran, took the whaler + and pram in to rescue the maroons. At first we thought we would + do it by a rocket line to the end of the sheer cliff. The + impossibility of such an idea was at once evident, so Gran and I + went in close in the pram, and hove them lines to get off the + gear first. I found the spoon-shaped pram a wonderful boat to + handle. You could go in to the very edge of the breaking surf, + lifted like a cork on top of the waves, and as long as you kept + head to sea and kept your own head, you need never have got on + the rocks, as the tremendous back-swish took you out like a shot + every time. It was quite exciting, however, as we would slip in + close in a lull, and the chaps in the whaler would yell, 'Look + out!' if a big wave passed them, in which case you would pull out + for dear life. Our first lines carried away, and then, with + others, Rennick and I this time took the pram while Atkinson got + as near the edge as safe to throw us the gear. I was pulling, and + by watching our chances we rescued the cameras and glasses, once + being carried over 12 feet above the rocks and only escaping by + the back-swish. Then the luckiest incident of the day occurred, + when in a lull we got our sick man down, and I jumped out, and he + in, as I steadied the boat's stern. The next minute the boat + flew out on the back-wash with the seaman absolutely dry, and I + was of course enveloped in foam and blackness two seconds later + by a following wave. Twice the day before this had happened, but + this time for a moment I thought, 'Where will my head strike?' as + I was like a feather in a breeze in that swirl. When I banked it + was about 15 feet above, and, very scratched and winded, I clung + on with my nails and scrambled up higher. The next wave, a bigger + one, nearly had me, but I was just too high to be sucked back. + Atkinson and I then started getting the gear down, Evans having + taken my place in the pram. By running down between waves we hove + some items into the boat, including the guns and rifles, which I + went right down to throw. These were caught and put into the + boat, but Evans was too keen to save a bunch of boots that + Atkinson threw down, and the next minute the pram passed over my + head and landed high and dry, like a bridge, over the rocks + between which I was wedged. I then scrambled out as the next wave + washed her still higher, right over and over, with Evans and + Rennick just out in time. The next wave--a huge one--picked her + up, and out she bumped over the rocks and out to sea she went, + water-logged, with the guns, fortunately, jammed under the + thwarts. She was rescued by the whaler, baled out, and then Gran + and one of the seamen manned her battered remains again, and we, + unable to save the gear otherwise, lashed it to life-buoys, threw + it into the sea and let it drift out with the back-wash to be + picked up by the pram. + + "Clothes, watches and ancient guns, rifles, ammunition, birds + (dead) and all specimens were, with the basket of crockery and + food, soaked with salt water. However, the choice was between + that or leaving them altogether, as anybody would have said had + they seen the huge rollers breaking among the rocks and washing + 30 to 40 feet up with the spray; in fact, we were often knocked + over and submerged for a time, clinging hard to some rock or one + of the ropes for dear life. Evans swam off first. Then I was + about half an hour trying to rescue a hawser and some lines + entangled among the rocks. It was an amusing job. I would wait + for a lull, run down and haul away, staying under for smaller + waves and running up the rocks like a hare when the warning came + from the boat that a series of big ones were coming in. I finally + rescued most of it--had to cut off some and got it to the place + opposite the boat, and with Rennick secured it and sent it out to + sea to be picked up. My pair of brown tennis shoes (old ones) had + been washed off my feet in one of the scrambles, so I was wearing + a pair of sea-boots--Nelson's, I found--which, fortunately for + him, was one of the few pairs saved. The pram came in, and + waiting for a back-wash Rennick swam off. I ran down after the + following wave, and securing my green hat, which by the bye is a + most useful asset, struck out through the boiling, and grabbed + the pram safely as we were lifted on the crest of an immense + roller. However, we were just beyond its breaking-point, so all + was well, and we arrived aboard after eight hours' wash and + wetness, and none the worse, except for a few scratches, and + yours truly in high spirits. We stayed there that night, and the + following, Thursday, morning left. Winds are not too favourable + so far, as we dropped the S.E. Trades almost immediately, and + these are the variables between the Trades and the Westerlies. + Still 2500 miles off our destination. Evans has therefore decided + to steer straight for Simon's Town and miss out the other + islands. It is a pity, but as it is winter down here, and the + worst month of the year for storms at Tristan Da Cunha, it is + perhaps just as well. I am longing to get to the Cape to have + your letters and hear all about you. Except for the absence of + news, life aboard is much to be desired. I simply love it, and + enjoy every day of my existence here. Time flies like anything, + and though it must have been long to you, to us it goes like the + wind--so different to that fortnight on the passage home from + India."[35] + +After the return of the boat's crew we left South Trinidad, and the +zoologists had a busy time trying to save as many as possible of the bird +skins which had been procured. They skinned on all through the following +night, and, considering that the birds had been lying out in the tropics +for twenty-four hours soaked with sea-water and had been finally capsized +in the overturned boat, the result was not so disappointing as was +expected. But the eggs and many other articles were lost. Since the +black-breasted and white-breasted petrels were seen flying and nesting +paired together, it is reasonable to suppose that their former +classification as two separate species will have to be revised. + +Soon after leaving South Trinidad we picked up our first big long swell, +logged at 8, and began to learn that the Terra Nova can roll as few ships +can. This was followed by a stiff gale on our port beam, and we took over +our first green seas. Bowers wrote home as follows: + + _August 7th, Sunday._ + +"All chances of going to Tristan are over, and we are at last booming +along with strong Westerlies with the enormous Southern rollers lifting +us like a cork on their crests. We have had a stiff gale and a very high +sea, which is now over, though it is still blowing a moderate gale, and +the usual crowd of Albatross, Mollymawks, Cape Hens, Cape Pigeons, etc., +are following us. These will be our companions down to the South. +Wilson's idea is that, as the prevailing winds round the forties are +Westerlies, these birds simply fly round and round the world--via Cape +Horn, New Zealand and the Cape of Good Hope. We have had a really good +opportunity now of testing the ship's behaviour, having been becalmed +with a huge beam swell rolling 35° each way, and having stood out a heavy +gale with a high sea. In both she has turned up trumps, and really I +think a better little sea boat never floated. Compared to the Loch +Torridon--which was always awash in bad weather--we are as dry as a cork, +and never once shipped a really heavy sea. Of course a wooden ship has +some buoyancy of herself, and we are no exception. We are certainly an +exception for general seaworthiness--if not for speed--and a safer, +sounder ship there could not be. The weather is now cool too--cold, some +people call it. I am still comfortable in cotton shirts and whites, while +some are wearing Shetland gear. Nearly everybody is provided with +Shetland things. I am glad you have marked mine, as they are all so much +alike. I am certainly as well provided with private gear as anybody, and +far better than most, so, being as well a generator of heat in myself, I +should be O.K. in any temperature. By the bye Evans and Wilson are very +keen on my being in the Western Party, while Campbell wants me with him +in the Eastern Party. I have not asked to go ashore, but am keen on +anything and am ready to do anything. In fact there is so much going on +that I feel I should like to be in all three places at once--East, West +and Ship." + +FOOTNOTES: + + [34] Ross, _Voyage to the Southern Seas_, vol. i. pp. 22-24. + + [35] Bowers' letter. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +MAKING OUR EASTING DOWN + + +"Ten minutes to four, sir!" + +It is an oilskinned and dripping seaman, and the officer of the watch, or +his so-called snotty, as the case may be, wakes sufficiently to ask: + +"What's it like?" + +"Two hoops, sir!" answers the seaman, and makes his way out. + +The sleepy man who has been wakened wedges himself more securely into his +six foot by two--which is all his private room on the ship--and collects +his thoughts, amid the general hubbub of engines, screw and the roll of +articles which have worked loose, to consider how he will best prevent +being hurled out of his bunk in climbing down, and just where he left his +oilskins and sea-boots. + +If, as is possible, he sleeps in the Nursery, his task may not be so +simple as it may seem, for this cabin, which proclaims on one of the +beams that it is designed to accommodate four seamen, will house six +scientists or pseudo-scientists, in addition to a pianola. Since these +scientists are the youngest in the expedition their cabin is named the +Nursery. + +Incidentally it forms also the gangway from the wardroom to the +engine-room, from which it is divided only by a wooden door, which has a +bad habit of swinging open and shutting with the roll of the ship and the +weight of the oilskins hung upon it, and as it does so, wave upon wave, +the clatter of the engines advances and recedes. + +If, however, it is the officer of the watch he will be in a smaller +cabin farther aft which he shares with one other man only, and his +troubles are simplified. + +Owing to the fact that the seams in the deck above have travelled many +voyages, and have been strained in addition by the boat davits and +deck-houses built on the poop, a good deal of water from this part of the +deck, which is always awash in bad weather, finds its way below, that is +into the upper bunks of our cabins. In order that only a minimum of this +may find its way into our blankets a series of shoots, invented and +carefully tended by the occupants of these bunks, are arranged to catch +this water as it falls and carry it over our heads on to the deck of the +cabin. + +Thus it is that when this sleepy officer or scientist clambers down on to +the deck he will, if he is lucky, find the water there, instead of +leaving it in his bunk. He searches round for his sea-boots, gets into +his oilskins, curses if the strings of his sou'wester break as he tries +to tie them extra firmly round his neck, and pushes along to the open +door into the wardroom. It is still quite dark, for the sun does not rise +for another hour and a half, but the diminished light from the swinging +oil-lamp which hangs there shows him a desolate early morning scene which +he comes to hate--especially if he is inclined to be sick. + +As likely as not more than one sea has partially found its way down +during the night, and a small stream runs over the floor each time the +ship rolls. The white oilcloth has slipped off the table, and various +oddments, dirty cocoa cups, ash-trays, and other litter from the night +are rolling about too. The tin cups and plates and crockery in the pantry +forrard of the wardroom come together with a sickening crash. + +The screw keeps up a ceaseless chonk-chonk-chonk (pause), +chonk-chonk-chonk (pause), chonk-chonk-chonk. + +Watching his opportunity he slides down across the wet linoleum to the +starboard side, whence the gangway runs up to the chart-house and so out +on to the deck. Having glanced at the barograph slung up in the +chart-room, and using all his strength to force the door out enough to +squeeze through, he scrambles out into blackness. + +The wind is howling through the rigging, the decks are awash. It is hard +to say whether it is raining, for the spray cut off by the wind makes +rain a somewhat insignificant event. As he makes his way up on to the +bridge, not a very lofty climb, he looks to see what sail is set, and +judges so far as he can the force of the wind. + +Campbell, for he is the officer of the morning watch (4 A.M.-8 A.M.) has +a talk with the officer he is relieving, Bowers. He is given the course, +the last hour's reading on the Cherub patent log trailing out over the +stern, and the experiences of the middle watch of the wind, whether +rising or falling or squalling, and its effect on the sails and the ship. +"If you keep her on her present course, she's all right, but if you try +and bring her up any more she begins to shake. And, by the way, Penelope +wants to be called at 4.30." Bowers' 'snotty,' who is Oates, probably +makes some ribald remarks, such as no midshipman should to a full +lieutenant, and they both disappear below. Campbell's snotty, myself, +appears about five minutes afterwards trying to look as though some +important duty and not bed had kept him from making an earlier +appearance. Meanwhile the leading hand musters the watch on deck and +reports them all present. + +"How about that cocoa?" says Campbell. Cocoa is a useful thing in the +morning watch, and Gran, who used to be Campbell's snotty, and whose +English was not then perfect, said he was glad of a change because he +"did not like being turned into a drumstick" (he meant a domestic). + +So cocoa is the word and the snotty starts on an adventurous voyage over +the deck to the galley which is forrard; if he is unlucky he gets a sea +over him on the way. Here he finds the hands of the watch, smoking and +keeping warm, and he forages round for some hot water, which he gets +safely back to the pantry down in the wardroom. Here he mixes the cocoa +and collects sufficient clean mugs (if he can find them), spoons, sugar +and biscuits to go round. These he carefully "chocks off" while he goes +and calls Wilson and gives him his share--for Wilson gets up at 4.30 +every morning to sketch the sunrise, work at his scientific paintings +and watch the sea-birds flying round the ship. Then back to the bridge, +and woe betide him if he falls on the way, for then it all has to be done +over again. + +Pennell, who sleeps under the chart table on the bridge, is also fed and +inquires anxiously whether there are any stars showing. If there are he +is up immediately to get an observation, and then retires below to work +it out and to tabulate the endless masses of figures which go to make up +the results of his magnetic observations--dip, horizontal force and total +force of the magnetic needle. + +A squall strikes the ship. Two blasts of the whistle fetches the watch +out, and "Stand by topsail halyards," "In inner jib," sends one hand to +one halyard, the midshipman of the watch to the other, and the rest on to +foc'stle and to the jib downhaul. Down comes the jib and the man standing +by the fore topsail halyard, which is on the weather side of the galley, +is drenched by the crests of two big seas which come over the rail. + +But he has little time to worry about things like this, for the wind is +increasing and "Let go topsail halyards" comes through the megaphone from +the bridge, and he wants all his wits to let go the halyard from the +belaying-pins and jump clear of the rope tearing through the block as the +topsail yard comes sliding down the mast. + +"Clew up" is the next order, and then "All hands furl fore and main upper +topsails," and up we go out on to the yard. Luckily the dawn is just +turning the sea grey and the ratlines begin to show up in relief. It is +far harder for the first and middle watches, who have to go aloft in +complete darkness. Once on the yard you are flattened against it by the +wind. The order to take in sail always fetches Pennell out of his +chart-house to come and take a hand. + +The two sodden sails safely furled--luckily they are small ones--the men +reach the deck to find that the wind has shifted a little farther aft and +they are to brace round. This finished, it is broad daylight, and the men +set to work to coil up preparatory to washing decks--not that this would +seem very necessary. Certainly there is no hose wanted this morning, and +a general kind of tidying up and coiling down ropes is more what is done. + +The two stewards, Hooper, who is to land with the Main Party, and Neale, +who will remain with the Ship's Party, turn out at six and rouse the +afterguard for the pumps, a daily evolution, and soon an unholy din may +be heard coming up from the wardroom. "Rouse and shine, rouse and shine: +show a leg, show a leg" (a relic of the old days when seamen took their +wives to sea). "Come on, Mr. Nelson, it's seven o'clock. All hands on the +pumps!" + +From first to last these pumps were a source of much exercise and hearty +curses. A wooden ship always leaks a little, but the amount of water +taken in by the Terra Nova even in calm weather was extraordinary, and +could not be traced until the ship was dry-docked in Lyttelton, New +Zealand, and the forepart was flooded. + +In the meantime the ship had to be kept as dry as possible, a process +which was not facilitated by forty gallons of oil which got loose during +the rough weather after leaving South Trinidad, and found its way into +the bilges. As we found later, some never-to-be-sufficiently-cursed +stevedore had left one of the bottom boards only half-fitted into its +neighbours. In consequence the coal dust and small pieces of coal, which +was stowed in this hold, found their way into the bilges. Forty gallons +of oil completed the havoc and the pumps would gradually get more and +more blocked until it was necessary to send for Davies, the carpenter, to +take parts of them to pieces and clear out the oily coal balls which had +stopped them. This pumping would sometimes take till nearly eight, and +then would always have to be repeated again in the evening, and sometimes +every watch had to take a turn. At any rate it was good for our muscles. + +The pumps were placed amidships, just abaft the main mast, and ran down a +shaft adjoining the after hatch, which led into the holds which were +generally used for coal and patent fuel. The spout of the pump opened +about a foot above the deck, and the plungers were worked by means of +two horizontal handles, much as a bucket is wound up on the drum of a +cottage well. Unfortunately, this part of the main deck, which is just +forward of the break of the poop, is more subject to seas breaking +inboard than any other part of the ship, so when the ship was labouring +the task of those on the pump was not an enviable one. During the big +gale going South the water was up to the men's waists as they tried to +turn the handles, and the pumps themselves were feet under water. + +From England to Cape Town these small handles were a great inconvenience. +There was very much pumping to be done and there were plenty of men to do +it, but the handles were not long enough to allow more than four men to +each handle. Also they gave no secure purchase when the ship was rolling +heavily, and when a big roll came there was nothing to do but practically +stop pumping and hold on, or you found yourself in the scuppers. + +At Cape Town a great improvement was made by extending the crank handles +right across the decks, the outside end turning in a socket under the +rail. Fourteen men could then get a good purchase on the handles and +pumping became a more pleasant exercise and less of a nuisance. + +Periodically the well was sounded by an iron rod being lowered on the end +of a rope, by which the part that came up wet showed the depth of water +left in the bilge. When this had been reduced to about a foot in the +well, the ship was practically dry, and the afterguard free to bathe and +go to breakfast. + +Meanwhile the hands of the watch had been employed on ropes and sails as +the wind made necessary, and, when running under steam as well as sail, +hoisting ashes up the two shoots from the ash-pits of the furnaces to the +deck, whence they went into the ditch. + +It is eight bells (8 o'clock) and the two stewards are hurrying along the +decks, hoping to get the breakfast safely from galley to wardroom. A few +naked officers are pouring sea-water over their heads on deck, for we are +under sail alone and there is no steam to work the hose. The watch +keepers and their snotties of the night before are tumbling out of their +bunks, and a great noise of conversation is coming from the wardroom, +among which some such remarks as: "Give the jam a wind, Marie"; "After +you with the coffee"; "Push along the butter" are frequent. There are few +cobwebs that have not been blown away by breakfast-time. + +Rennick is busy breakfasting preparatory to relieving Campbell on the +bridge. Meanwhile, the hourly and four-hourly ship's log is being made +up--force of the wind, state of the sea, height of the barometer, and all +the details which a log has to carry--including a reading of the distance +run as shown by the patent log line--(many is the time I have forgotten +to take it just at the hour and have put down what I thought it ought to +be, and not what it was). + +The morning watch is finished. + +Suddenly there is a yell from somewhere amidships--"STEADY"--a stranger +might have thought there was something wrong, but it is a familiar sound, +answered by a "STEADY IT IS, Sir," from the man at the wheel, and an +anything but respectful, "One--two--three--STEADY," from everybody having +breakfast. It is Pennell who has caused this uproar. And the origin is as +follows: + +Pennell is the navigator, and the standard compass, owing to its +remoteness from iron in this position, is placed on the top of the +ice-house. The steersman, however, steers by a binnacle compass placed +aft in front of his wheel. But these two compasses for various reasons do +not read alike at a given moment, while the standard is the truer of the +two. + +At intervals, then, Pennell or the officer of the watch orders the +steersman to "Stand by for a steady," and goes up to the standard +compass, and watches the needle. Suppose the course laid down is S. 40 E. +A liner would steer almost true to this course unless there was a big +wind or sea. But not so the old Terra Nova. Even with a good steersman +the needle swings a good many degrees either side of the S. 40 E. But as +it steadies momentarily on the exact course Pennell shouts his "Steady," +the steersman reads just where the needle is pointing on the compass +card before him, say S. 47 E., and knows that this is the course which is +to be steered by the binnacle compass. + +Pennell's yells were so frequent and ear-piercing that he became famous +for them, and many times in working on the ropes in rough seas and big +winds, we have been cheered by this unmusical noise over our heads. + +We left Simon's Bay on Friday, September 2, 'to make our Easting down' +from the Cape of Good Hope to New Zealand, that famous passage in the +Roaring Forties which can give so much discomfort or worse to sailing +ships on their way. + +South Africa had been hospitable. The Admiral Commanding the Station, the +Naval Dockyard, and H.M.S. Mutine and H.M.S. Pandora, had been more than +kind. They had done many repairs and fittings for us and had sent fatigue +parties to do it, thus releasing men for a certain amount of freedom on +shore, which was appreciated after some nine weeks at sea. I can remember +my first long bath now. + +Scott, who was up country when we arrived, joined the ship here, and +Wilson travelled ahead of us to Melbourne to carry out some expedition +work, chiefly dealing with the Australian members who were to join us in +New Zealand. + +One or two of us went out to Wynberg, which Oates knew well, having been +invalided there in the South African War with a broken leg, the result of +a fight against big odds when, his whole party wounded, he refused to +surrender. He told me later how he had thought he would bleed to death, +and the man who lay next to him was convinced he had a bullet in the +middle of his brain--he could feel it wobbling about there! Just now his +recollections only went so far as to tell of a badly wounded Boer who lay +in the next bed to him when he was convalescent, and how the Boer +insisted on getting up to open the door for him every time he left the +ward, much to his own discomfort. + +Otherwise the recollections which survive of South Africa are an +excellent speech made on the expedition by John Xavier Merriman, and the +remark of a seaman who came out to dinner concerning one John, the +waiter, that "he moved about as quick as a piece of sticking-plaster!" + +Leaving Simon's Town at daybreak we did magnetic work all day, sailing +out from False Bay with a biggish swell in the evening. We ran southerly +in good weather until Sunday morning, when the swell was logged at 8 and +the glass was falling fast. By the middle watch it was blowing a full +gale and for some thirty hours we ran under reefed foresail, lower +topsails and occasionally reefed upper topsails, and many of us were +sick. + +Then after two days of comparative calm we had a most extraordinary gale +from the east, a thing almost unheard of in these latitudes (38° S. to +39° S.). All that we could do was to put the engines at dead slow and +sail northerly as close to the wind as possible. Friday night, September +9, it blew force 10 in the night, and the morning watch was very lively +with the lee rail under water. + +Directly after breakfast on Saturday, September 10, we wore ship, and +directly afterwards the gale broke and it was raining, with little wind, +during the day. + +The morning watch had a merry time on Tuesday, September 13, when a fresh +gale struck them while they were squaring yards. So unexpected was it +that the main yards were squared and the fore were still round, but it +did not last long and was followed by two splendid days--fine weather +with sun, a good fair wind and the swell astern. + +[Illustration: THE ROARING FORTIES--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +The big swell which so often prevails in these latitudes is a most +inspiring sight, and must be seen from a comparatively small ship like +the Terra Nova for its magnitude to be truly appreciated. As the ship +rose on the crest of one great hill of water the next big ridge was +nearly a mile away, with a sloping valley between. At times these seas +are rounded in giant slopes as smooth as glass; at others they curl over, +leaving a milk-white foam, and their slopes are marbled with a beautiful +spumy tracery. Very wonderful are these mottled waves: with a following +sea, at one moment it seems impossible that the great mountain which is +overtaking the ship will not overwhelm her, at another it appears +inevitable that the ship will fall into the space over which she seems to +be suspended and crash into the gulf which lies below. + +But the seas are so long that they are neither dangerous nor +uncomfortable--though the Terra Nova rolled to an extraordinary extent, +quite constantly over 50° each way, and sometimes 55°. + +The cooks, however, had a bad time trying to cook for some fifty hands in +the little galley on the open deck. Poor Archer's efforts to make bread +sometimes ended in the scuppers, and the occasional jangle of the ship's +bell gave rise to the saying that "a moderate roll rings the bell, and a +big roll brings out the cook." + +Noon on Sunday, September 18, found us in latitude 39° 20´ S. and +longitude 66° 9´ E., after a very good run, for the Terra Nova, of 200 +miles in the last twenty-four hours. This made us about two days' run +from St. Paul, an uninhabited island formed by the remains of an old +volcano, the crater of which, surrounded as it were by a horse-shoe of +land, forms an almost landlocked harbour. It was hoped to make a landing +here for scientific work, but it is a difficult harbour to make. We ran +another two hundred miles on Monday, and on Tuesday all preparations were +made for the landing, with suitable equipment, and we were not a little +excited at the opportunity. + +At 4.30 A.M. the next morning all hands were turned out to take in sail +preparatory to rounding St. Paul which was just visible. The weather was +squally, but not bad. By 5 A.M., however, it was blowing a moderate gale, +and by the time we had taken in all sail we had to give up hopes of a +landing. We were thoroughly sick of sails by the time we finally reefed +the foresail and ran before the wind under this and lower topsails. + +We passed quite close to the island and could see into the crater, and +the cliffs beyond which rose from it, covered with greenish grass. There +were no trees, and of birds we only saw those which frequent these seas. +We had hoped to find penguins and albatross nesting on the island at this +time of the year, and this failure to land was most disappointing. The +island is 860 feet high, and, for its size, precipitous. It extends some +two miles in length and one mile in breadth. + +The following day all the afterguard were turned on to shift coal. It +should be explained that up to this time the bunkers, which lay one on +the port and the other on the starboard side of the furnaces, had been +entirely filled as required by two or more officers who volunteered from +day to day. + +We took on board 450 tons of Crown Patent Fuel at Cardiff in June 1910. +This coal is in the form of bricks, and is most handy since it can be +thrown by hand from the holds through the bunker doors in the boiler-room +bulkhead which after a time was left higher than the sinking level of the +coal. The coal to be landed was this patent fuel, and it was now decided +to shift farther aft all the patent fuel which was left, and stack it +against the boiler-room bulkhead, the coal which was originally there +having been fed to the furnaces. Thus the dust which was finding its way +through the floorboards, and choking the pumps, could be swept up, and a +good stow could be made preparatory to the final fit-out in New Zealand, +while the coal which was to be taken on board at Lyttelton could be +loaded through the main hatch. + +In the meantime the gale which had sprung up six days before and +prevented us landing had died down. After leaving St. Paul we had let the +fires out and run under sail alone, and the following two days we ran 119 +and 141 miles respectively, being practically becalmed at times on the +following day, and only running 66 miles. + +By Tuesday night, September 27, we had finished the coaling, and we +celebrated the occasion by a champagne dinner. At the same time we raised +steam. Scott was anxious to push on, and so indeed was everybody else. +But the wind was not disposed to help us, and headed us a good deal +during the next few days, and it was not until October 2 that we were +able to set all plain sail in the morning watch. + +This absence of westerly winds in a region in which they are usually too +strong for comfort was explained by Pennell by a theory that we were +travelling in an anticyclone, which itself was travelling in front of a +cyclone behind us. We were probably moving under steam about the same +pace as the disturbance, which would average some 150 miles a day. + +From this may be explained many of the reports of continual bad weather +met by sailing ships and steamers in these latitudes. If we had been a +sailing ship without auxiliary steam the cyclone would have caught us up, +and we should have been travelling with it, and consequently in continual +bad weather. On the other hand, a steamer pure and simple would have +steamed through good and bad alike. But we, with our auxiliary steam, +only made much the same headway as the disturbance travelling in our +wake, and so remained in the anticyclone. + +Physical observations were made on the outward voyage by Simpson and +Wright[36] into the atmospheric electricity over the ocean, one set of +which consisted of an inquiry into the potential gradient, and +observations were undertaken at Melbourne for the determination of the +absolute value of the potential gradient over the sea.[37] Numerous +observations were also made on the radium content of the atmosphere over +the ocean, to be compared afterwards with observations in the Antarctic +air. The variations in radium content were not large. Results were also +obtained on the voyage of the Terra Nova to New Zealand upon the subject +of natural ionization in closed vessels. + +In addition to the work of the ship and the physical work above +mentioned, work in vertebrate zoology, marine biology and magnetism, +together with four-hourly observations of the salinity and temperature of +the sea, was carried out during the whole voyage. + +In vertebrate zoology Wilson kept an accurate record of birds, and he and +Lillie another record of whales and dolphins. All the birds which could +be caught, both at sea and on South Trinidad Island, were skinned and +made up into museum specimens. They were also examined for external and +internal parasites by Wilson, Atkinson and myself, as were also such fish +and other animals as could be caught, including flying fish, a shark, and +last but not least, whales in New Zealand. + +The method of catching these birds may be worth describing. A bent nail +was tied to a line, the other end of which was made fast to the halyards +over the stern. Sufficient length of line was allowed either to cause the +nail to just trail in the sea in the wake of the ship or for the line to +just clear the sea. Thus when the halyard was hoisted to some thirty or +forty feet above the deck, the line would be covering a considerable +distance of sea. + +The birds flying round the ship congregate for the main part in the wake, +for here they find the scraps thrown overboard on which they feed. I have +seen six albatross all together trying to eat up an empty treacle tin. + +As they fly to and fro their wings are liable to touch the line which is +spread out over the sea. Sometimes they will hit the line with the tips +of their wings, and then there is no resulting capture, but sooner or +later a bird will touch the line with the part of the wing above the +elbow-joint (humerus). It seems that on feeling the contact the bird +suddenly wheels in the air, thereby causing a loop in the line which +tightens round the bone. At any rate the next thing that happens is that +the bird is struggling on the line and may be hauled on board. + +The difficulty is to get a line which is light enough to fly in the air, +but yet strong enough to hold the large birds, such as albatross, without +breaking. We tried fishing line with no success, but eventually managed +to buy some 5-ply extra strong cobbler's thread, which is excellent for +the purpose. But we wanted not only specimens, but also observations of +the species, the numbers which appeared, and their habits, for little is +known as yet of these sea birds. And so we enlisted the help of all who +were interested, and it may be said that all the officers and many of the +seamen had a hand in producing the log of sea birds, to which additions +were made almost hourly throughout the daylight hours. Most officers and +men knew the more common sea birds in the open ocean, and certainly of +those in the pack and fringes of the Antarctic continent, which, with +rare exceptions, is the southern limit of bird life. + +A number of observations of whales, illustrated by Wilson, were made, but +the results so far as the seas from England to the Cape and New Zealand +are concerned, are not of great importance, partly because close views +were seldom obtained, and partly because the whales inhabiting these seas +are fairly well known. On October 3, 1910, in latitude 42° 17´ S. and +longitude 111° 18´ E., two adults of Balaenoptera borealis (Northern +Rorqual) were following the ship close under the counter, length 50 feet, +with a light-coloured calf some 18-20 feet long swimming with them. It +was established by this and by a later observation in New Zealand, when +Lillie helped to cut up a similar whale at the Norwegian Whaling Station +at the Bay of Islands, that this Rorqual which frequents the +sub-Antarctic seas is identical with our Northern Rorqual;[38] but this +was the only close observation of any whales obtained before we left New +Zealand. + +General information with regard to such animals is useful, however, as +showing the relative abundance of plankton on which the whales feed in +the ocean. There are, for instance, more whales in the Antarctic than in +warmer seas; and some whales at any rate (e.g. Humpback whales) probably +come north into warmer waters in the winter rather for breeding purposes +than to get food.[39] + +With regard to dolphins four species were observed beyond question. The +rarest dolphin seen was Tersio peronii, the peculiarity of which is that +it has no dorsal fin. This was seen on October 20, 1910, in latitude 42° +51´ S. and longitude 153° 56´ E. + +Reports of whales and dolphins which are not based upon carcases and +skeletons must be accepted with caution. It is most difficult to place +species with scientific accuracy which can only be observed swimming in +the water, and of which more often than not only blows and the dorsal +fins can be observed. The nomenclature of dolphins especially leaves much +to be desired, and it is to be hoped that some expedition in the future +will carry a Norwegian harpooner, who could do other work as well since +they are very good sailors. Wilson was strongly of this opinion and tried +hard to get a harpooner, but they are expensive people so long as the +present boom in whaling lasts, and perhaps it was on the score of expense +that the idea was regretfully abandoned. We carried whaling gear formerly +taken on the Discovery Expedition, and kindly lent for this expedition by +the Royal Geographical Society of London. A few shots were tried, but an +unskilled harpooner stands very little chance. If you go whaling you must +have had experience. + +The ship was not slowed down to enable marine biological observations to +be taken on this part of the expedition, but something like forty samples +of plankton were taken with a full-speed net. We were unable to trawl on +the bottom until we reached Melbourne, when a trawl was made in Port +Phillip Harbour to try the gear and accustom men to its use. It was not a +purpose of the expedition to spend time in deep-sea work until it reached +Antarctic seas. + +For four days the wind, such as there was of it, was dead ahead; it is +not very often in the Forties that a ship cannot make progress for want +of wind. But having set all plain sail on October 2 with a falling glass +we got a certain amount of wind on the port beam, and did 158 miles in +the next twenty-four hours. Sunday being quiet Scott read service while +the officers and men grouped round the wheel. We seldom had service on +deck; for Sundays became proverbial days for a blow on the way out, and +service, if held at all, was generally in the ward-room. On one famous +occasion we tried to play the pianola to accompany the hymns, but, since +the rolls were scored rather for musical effect than for church services, +the pianola was suddenly found to be playing something quite different +from what was being sung. All through the expedition the want of some one +who could play the piano was felt, and such a man is certainly a great +asset in a life so far removed from all the pleasures of civilization. +As Scott wrote in The Voyage of the Discovery, where one of the officers +used to play each evening: "This hour of music has become an institution +which none of us would willingly forgo. I don't know what thoughts it +brings to others, though I can readily guess; but of such things one does +not care to write. I can well believe, however, that our music smooths +over many a ruffle and brings us to dinner each night in that excellent +humour, where all seem good-tempered, though 'cleared for action' and +ready for fresh argument." + +The wind freshened to our joy; Scott was impatient; there was much to be +done and the time for doing it was not too long, for it had been decided +to leave New Zealand at an earlier date than had been attempted by any +previous expedition, in order to penetrate the pack sooner and make an +early start on the depôt journey. The faintest glow of the Aurora +Australis which was to become so familiar to us was seen at this time, +but what aroused still more interest was the capture of several albatross +on the lines flowing out over the stern. + +The first was a 'sooty' (cornicoides). We put him down on the deck, where +he strutted about in the proudest way, his feet going flop--flop--flop as +he walked. He was a most beautiful bird, sooty black body, a great black +head with a line of white over each eye and a gorgeous violet line +running along his black beak. He treated us with the greatest contempt, +which, from such a beautiful creature, we had every appearance of +deserving. Another day a little later we caught a wandering albatross, a +black-browed albatross, and a sooty albatross all together, and set them +on the deck tethered to the ventilators while their photographs were +taken. They were such beautiful birds that we were loath to kill them, +but their value as scientific specimens outweighed the wish to set them +free, and we gave them ether so that they did not suffer. + +The Southern Ocean is the home of these and many species of birds, but +among them the albatross is pre-eminent. It has been mentioned that +Wilson believed that the albatross, at any rate, fly round and round the +world over these stormy seas before the westerly winds, landing but once +a year on such islands as Kerguelen, St. Paul, the Auckland Islands and +others to breed. If so, the rest that they can obtain upon the big +breaking rollers which prevail in these latitudes must be unsatisfactory +judged by the standard of more civilized birds. I have watched sea birds +elsewhere of which the same individuals appeared to follow the ship day +after day for many thousands of miles, but on this voyage I came to the +conclusion that a different set of birds appeared each morning, and that +they were hungry when they arrived. Certainly they flew astern and nearer +to the ship in the morning, feeding on the scraps thrown overboard. As +the day went on and the birds' hunger was satisfied, they scattered, and +such of them as continued to fly astern of the ship were a long way off. +Hence we caught the birds in the early morning, and only one bird was +caught after mid-day. + +The wind continued favourable and was soon blowing quite hard. On Friday, +October 7, we were doing 7.8 knots under sail alone, which was very good +for the old Terra Push, as she was familiarly called: and we were then +just 1000 miles from Melbourne. By Saturday night we were standing by +topgallant halyards. Campbell took over the watch at 4 A.M. on Sunday +morning. It was blowing hard and squally, but the ship still carried +topgallants. There was a big following sea. + +At 6.30 A.M. there occurred one of those incidents of sea life which are +interesting though not important. Quite suddenly the first really big +squall we had experienced on the voyage struck us. Topgallant halyards +were let go, and the fore topgallant yard came down, but the main +topgallant yard jammed when only half down. It transpired afterwards that +a gasket which had been blown over the yard had fouled the block of the +sheet of the main upper topsail. The topgallant yard was all tilted to +starboard and swaying from side to side, the sail seemed as though it +might blow out at any moment, and was making a noise like big guns, and +the mast was shaking badly. + +It was expected that the topgallant mast would go, but nothing could be +done while the full fury of the wind lasted. Campbell paced quietly up +and down the bridge with a smile on his face. The watch was grouped round +the ratlines ready to go aloft, and Crean volunteered to go up alone and +try and free the yard, but permission was refused. It was touch and go +with the mast and there was nothing to be done. + +The squall passed, the sail was freed and furled, and the next big squall +found us ready to lower upper topsails and all was well. Finally the +damage was a split sail and a strained mast. + +The next morning a new topgallant sail was bent, but quite the biggest +hailstorm I have ever seen came on in the middle of the operation. Much +of the hail must have been inches in circumference, and hurt even through +thick clothes and oilskins. At the same time there were several +waterspouts formed. The men on the topgallant yard had a beastly time. +Below on deck men made hail-balls and pretended they were snow. + +From now onwards we ran on our course before a gale. By the early morning +of October 12 Cape Otway light was in sight. Working double tides in the +engine-room, and with every stitch of sail set, we just failed to reach +Port Phillip Heads by mid-day, when the tide turned, and it was +impossible to get through. We went up Melbourne Harbour that evening, +very dark and blowing hard. + +A telegram was waiting for Scott: + + "Madeira. Am going South. AMUNDSEN." + +This telegram was dramatically important, as will appear when we come to +the last act of the tragedy. Captain Roald Amundsen was one of the most +notable of living explorers, and was in the prime of life--forty-one, two +years younger than Scott. He had been in the Antarctic before Scott, with +the Belgica Expedition in 1897-99, and therefore did not consider the +South Pole in any sense our property. Since then he had realized the +dream of centuries of exploration by passing through the North-West +Passage, and actually doing so in a 60-ton schooner in 1905. The last we +had heard of him was that he had equipped Nansen's old ship, the Fram, +for further exploration in the Arctic. This was only a feint. Once at +sea, he had told his men that he was going south instead of north; and +when he reached Madeira he sent this brief telegram, which meant, "I +shall be at the South Pole before you." It also meant, though we did not +appreciate it at the time, that we were up against a very big man. + +The Admiral Commanding the Australian Station came on board. The event of +the inspection was Nigger, the black ship's cat, distinguished by a white +whisker on the port side of his face, who made one adventurous voyage to +the Antarctic and came to an untimely end during the second. The seamen +made a hammock for him with blanket and pillow, and slung it forward +among their own bedding. Nigger had turned in, not feeling very well, +owing to the number of moths he had eaten, the ship being full of them. +When awakened by the Admiral, Nigger had no idea of the importance of the +occasion, but stretched himself, yawned in the most natural manner, +turned over and went to sleep again. + +This cat became a well-known and much photographed member of the crew of +the Terra Nova. He is said to have imitated the Romans of old, being a +greedy beast, by having eaten as much seal blubber as he could hold, made +himself sick, and gone back and resumed his meal. He had most beautiful +fur. When the ship was returning from the Antarctic in 1911 Nigger was +frightened by something on deck and jumped into the sea, which was +running fairly rough. However, the ship was hove to, a boat lowered, and +Nigger was rescued. He spent another happy year on board, but disappeared +one dark night when the ship was returning from her second journey to the +South in 1912, during a big gale. He often went aloft with the men, of +his own accord. This night he was seen on the main lower topsail yard, +higher than which he never would go. He disappeared in a big squall, +probably because the yard was covered with ice. + +Wilson rejoined the ship at Melbourne; and Scott left her, to arrange +further business matters, and to rejoin in New Zealand. When he landed I +think he had seen enough of the personnel of the expedition to be able to +pass a fair judgment upon them. I cannot but think that he was pleased. +Such enthusiasm and comradeship as prevailed on board could bear only +good fruit. It would certainly have been possible to find a body of men +who could work a sailing ship with greater skill, but not men who were +more willing, and that in the midst of considerable discomfort, to work +hard at distasteful jobs and be always cheerful. And it must have been +clear that with all the energy which was being freely expended, the +expedition came first, and the individual nowhere. It is to the honour of +all concerned that from the time it left London to the time it returned +to New Zealand after three years, this spirit always prevailed. + +Among the executive officers Scott was putting more and more trust in +Campbell, who was to lead the Northern Party. He was showing those +characteristics which enabled him to bring his small party safely through +one of the hardest winters that men have ever survived. Bowers also had +shown seamanlike qualities which are an excellent test by which to judge +the Antarctic traveller; a good seaman in sail will probably make a +useful sledger: but at this time Scott can hardly have foreseen that +Bowers was to prove "the hardest traveller that ever undertook a Polar +journey, as well as one of the most undaunted." But he had already proved +himself a first-rate sailor. Among the junior scientific staff too, +several were showing qualities as seamen which were a good sign for the +future. Altogether I think it must have been with a cheerful mind that +Scott landed in Australia. + +When we left Melbourne for New Zealand we were all a bit stale, which was +not altogether surprising, and a run ashore was to do us a world of good +after five months of solid grind, crowded up in a ship which thought +nothing of rolling 50° each way. Also, though everything had been done +that could be done to provide them, the want of fresh meat and +vegetables was being felt, and it was an excellent thing that a body of +men, for whom every precaution against scurvy that modern science could +suggest was being taken, should have a good course of antiscorbutic food +and an equally beneficial change of life before leaving civilization. + +And so it was with some anticipation that on Monday morning, October 24, +we could smell the land--New Zealand, that home of so many Antarctic +expeditions, where we knew that we should be welcomed. Scott's Discovery, +Shackleton's Nimrod, and now again Scott's Terra Nova have all in turn +been berthed at the same quay in Lyttelton, for aught I know at the same +No. 5 Shed, into which they have spilled out their holds, and from which +they have been restowed with the addition of all that New Zealand, +scorning payment, could give. And from there they have sailed, and +thither their relief ships have returned year after year. Scott's words +of the Discovery apply just as much to the Terra Nova. Not only did New +Zealand do all in her power to help the expedition in an official +capacity, but the New Zealanders welcomed both officers and men with open +arms, and "gave them to understand that although already separated by +many thousands of miles from their native land, here in this new land +they would find a second home, and those who would equally think of them +in their absence, and welcome them on their return." + +But we had to sail round the southern coast of New Zealand and northwards +up the eastern coast before we could arrive at our last port of call. The +wind went ahead, and it was not until the morning of October 28 that we +sailed through Lyttelton Heads. The word had gone forth that we should +sail away on November 27, and there was much to be done in the brief +month that lay ahead. + +There followed four weeks of strenuous work into which was sandwiched a +considerable amount of play. The ship was unloaded, when, as usual, men +and officers acted alike as stevedores, and she was docked, that an +examination for the source of the leak might be made by Mr. H. J. Miller +of Lyttelton, who has performed a like service for more than one +Antarctic ship. But the different layers of sheathing protecting a ship +which is destined to fight against ice are so complicated that it is a +very difficult matter to find the origin of a leak. All that can be said +with any certainty is that the point where the water appears inside the +skin of the ship is almost certainly not the locality in which it has +penetrated the outside sheathing. "Our good friend Miller," wrote Scott, +"attacked the leak and traced it to the stern. We found the false stern +split, and in one case a hole bored for a long-stern through-bolt which +was much too large for the bolt.... The ship still leaks but the water +can now be kept under with the hand pump by two daily efforts of a +quarter of an hour to twenty minutes." This in Lyttelton; but in a not +far distant future every pump was choked, and we were baling with three +buckets, literally for our lives. + +Bowers' feat of sorting and restowing not only the stores we had but the +cheese, butter, tinned foods, bacon, hams and numerous other products +which are grown in New Zealand, and which any expedition leaving that +country should always buy there in preference to carrying them through +the tropics, was a masterstroke of clear-headedness and organization. +These stores were all relisted before stowing and the green-banded or +Northern Party and red-banded or Main Party stores were not only easily +distinguishable, but also stowed in such a way that they were forthcoming +without difficulty at the right time and in their due order. + +The two huts which were to form the homes of our two parties down South +had been brought out in the ship and were now erected on a piece of waste +ground near, by the same men who would be given the work to do in the +South. + +The gear peculiar to the various kinds of scientific work which it was +the object of the expedition to carry out was also stowed with great +care. The more bulky objects included a petrol engine and small dynamo, a +very delicate instrument for making pendulum observations to test the +gravity of the earth, meteorological screens, and a Dines anemometer. +There was also a special hut for magnetic observations, of which only the +framework was finally taken, with the necessary but bulky magnetic +instruments. The biological and photographic gear was also of +considerable size. + +For the interior of the huts there were beds with spring mattresses--a +real luxury but one well worth the space and money,--tables, chairs, +cooking ranges and piping, and a complete acetylene gas plant for both +parties. There were also extensive ventilators which were not a great +success. The problem of ventilation in polar regions still remains to be +solved. + +Food can be packed into a comparatively small space, but not so fuel, and +this is one of the greatest difficulties which confront the polar +traveller. It must be conceded that in this respect Norway, with her +wonderful petrol-driven Fram, is far ahead of us. The Terra Nova depended +on coal, and the length of the ship's stay in the South, and the amount +of exploration she could do after landing the shore parties, depended +almost entirely upon how much coal she could be persuaded to hold after +all the necessaries of modern scientific exploration had been wedged +tightly into her. + +The Terra Nova sailed from New Zealand with 425 tons of coal in her holds +and bunkers, and 30 tons on deck in sacks. We were to hear more of those +sacks. + +Meanwhile stalls were being built under the forecastle for fifteen +ponies, and, since room could not be found below for the remaining four, +stalls were built on the port side of the fore hatch; the decks were +caulked, and deck houses and other fittings which might carry away in the +stormy seas of the South were further secured. + +As the time of departure drew near, and each day of civilization appeared +to be more and more desirable, the scene in Lyttelton became animated and +congested. Here is a scientist trying to force just one more case into +his small laboratory, or decanting a mass of clothing, just issued, into +the bottom of his bunk, to be slept on since there was no room for it on +the deck of his cabin. On the main deck Bowers is trying to get one more +frozen sheep into the ice-house, in the rigging working parties are +overhauling the running gear. The engine-room staff are busy on the +engine, and though the ship is crowded there is order everywhere, and it +is clean. + +But the scene on the morning of Saturday, November 26, baffles +description. There is no deck visible: in addition to 30 tons of coal in +sacks on deck there are 2½ tons of petrol, stowed in drums which in turn +are cased in wood. On the top of sacks and cases, and on the roof of the +ice-house are thirty-three dogs, chained far enough apart to keep them +from following their first instinct--to fight the nearest animal they can +see: the ship is a hubbub of howls. In the forecastle and in the four +stalls on deck are the nineteen ponies, wedged tightly in their wooden +stalls, and dwarfing everything are the three motor sledges in their huge +crates, 16´ x 5´ x 4´, two of them on either side of the main hatch, the +third across the break of the poop. They are covered with tarpaulins and +secured in every possible way, but it is clear that in a big sea their +weight will throw a great strain upon the deck. It is not altogether a +cheerful sight. But all that care and skill can do has been done to +ensure that the deck cargo will not shift, and that the animals may be as +sheltered as possible from wind and seas. And it's no good worrying about +what can't be helped. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [36] Vide _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. ii. pp. 454-456. + + [37] "Atmospheric Electricity over Ocean," by G. C. Simpson and + C. S. Wright, _Pro. Roy. Soc._ A, vol. 85, 1911. + + [38] _See_ B.A.E., 1910, Nat. Hist. Report, vol. i. No. 3, p. 117. + + [39] Ibid. p. 111. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +SOUTHWARD + + + Open the bones, and you shall nothing find + In the best face but filth; when, Lord, in Thee + The beauty lies in the discovery. + GEORGE HERBERT. + + +Telegrams from all parts of the world, special trains, all ships dressed, +crowds and waving hands, steamers out to the Heads and a general +hullabaloo--these were the incidents of Saturday, November 26, 1910, when +we slipped from the wharf at Lyttelton at 3 P.M. We were to call at +Dunedin before leaving civilization, and arrived there on Sunday night. +Here we took on the remainder of our coal. On Monday night we danced, in +fantastic clothing for we had left our grand clothes behind, and sailed +finally for the South the following afternoon amidst the greatest +enthusiasm. The wives remained with us until we reached the open sea. + +Amongst those who only left us at the last minute was Mr. Kinsey of +Christchurch. He acted for Scott in New Zealand during the Discovery +days, and for Shackleton in 1907. We all owe him a deep debt of gratitude +for his help. "His interest in the expedition is wonderful, and such +interest on the part of a thoroughly shrewd business man is an asset of +which I have taken full advantage. Kinsey will act as my agent in +Christchurch during my absence; I have given him an ordinary power of +attorney, and I think have left him in possession of all the facts. His +kindness to us was beyond words."[40] + +"Evening.--Loom of land and Cape Saunders Light blinking."[41] + +The ponies and dogs were the first consideration. Even in quite ordinary +weather the dogs had a wretched time. "The seas continually break on the +weather bulwarks and scatter clouds of heavy spray over the backs of all +who must venture into the waist of the ship. The dogs sit with their +tails to this invading water, their coats wet and dripping. It is a +pathetic attitude deeply significant of cold and misery; occasionally +some poor beast emits a long pathetic whine. The group forms a picture of +wretched dejection; such a life is truly hard for these poor +creatures."[42] + +The ponies were better off. Four of them were on deck amidships and they +were well boarded round. It is significant that these ponies had a much +easier time in rough weather than those in the bows of the ship. "Under +the forecastle fifteen ponies close side by side, seven one side, eight +the other, heads together, and groom between--swaying, swaying +continually to the plunging, irregular motion." + +"One takes a look through a hole in the bulkhead and sees a row of heads +with sad, patient eyes come swinging up together from the starboard side, +whilst those on the port swing back; then up come the port heads, while +the starboard recede. It seems a terrible ordeal for these poor beasts to +stand this day after day for weeks together, and indeed though they +continue to feed well the strain quickly drags down their weight and +condition; but nevertheless the trial cannot be gauged from human +standards."[43] + +The seas through which we had to pass to reach the pack-ice must be the +most stormy in the world. Dante tells us that those who have committed +carnal sin are tossed about ceaselessly by the most furious winds in the +second circle of Hell. The corresponding hell on earth is found in the +southern oceans, which encircle the world without break, tempest-tossed +by the gales which follow one another round and round the world from West +to East. You will find albatross there--great Wanderers, and Sooties, +and Mollymawks--sailing as lightly before these furious winds as ever do +Paolo and Francesca. Round the world they go. I doubt whether they land +more than once a year, and then they come to the islands of these seas to +breed. + +There are many other beautiful sea-birds, but most beautiful of all are +the Snowy petrels, which approach nearer to the fairies than anything +else on earth. They are quite white, and seemingly transparent. They are +the familiar spirits of the pack, which, except to nest, they seldom if +ever leave, flying "here and there independently in a mazy fashion, +glittering against the blue sky like so many white moths, or shining +snowflakes."[44] And then there are the Giant petrels, whose coloration +is a puzzle. Some are nearly white, others brown, and they exhibit every +variation between the one and the other. And, on the whole, the white +forms become more general the farther south you go. But the usual theory +of protective coloration will not fit in, for there are no enemies +against which this bird must protect itself. Is it something to do with +radiation of heat from the body? + +A ship which sets out upon this journey generally has a bad time, and for +this reason the overladen state of the Terra Nova was a cause of anxiety. +The Australasian meteorologists had done their best to forecast the +weather we must expect. Everything which was not absolutely necessary had +been ruthlessly scrapped. Yet there was not a square inch of the hold and +between-decks which was not crammed almost to bursting, and there was as +much on the deck as could be expected to stay there. Officers and men +could hardly move in their living quarters when standing up, and +certainly they could not all sit down. To say that we were heavy laden is +a very moderate statement of the facts. + +Thursday, December 1, we ran into a gale. We shortened sail in the +afternoon to lower topsails, jib and stay-sail. Both wind and sea rose +with great rapidity, and before the night came our deck cargo had begun +to work loose. "You know how carefully everything had been lashed, but no +lashings could have withstood the onslaught of these coal sacks for +long. There was nothing for it but to grapple with the evil, and nearly +all hands were labouring for hours in the waist of the ship, heaving coal +sacks overboard and re-lashing the petrol cases, etc., in the best manner +possible under such difficult and dangerous circumstances. The seas were +continually breaking over these people and now and again they would be +completely submerged. At such times they had to cling for dear life to +some fixture to prevent themselves being washed overboard, and with coal +bags and loose cases washing about, there was every risk of such hold +being torn away. + +"No sooner was some semblance of order restored than some exceptionally +heavy wave would tear away the lashing, and the work had to be done all +over again."[45] + +The conditions became much worse during the night and things were +complicated for some of us by sea-sickness. I have lively recollections +of being aloft for two hours in the morning watch on Friday and being +sick at intervals all the time. For sheer downright misery give me a +hurricane, not too warm, the yard of a sailing ship, a wet sail and a +bout of sea-sickness. + +It must have been about this time that orders were given to clew up the +jib and then to furl it. Bowers and four others went out on the bowsprit, +being buried deep in the enormous seas every time the ship plunged her +nose into them with great force. It was an education to see him lead +those men out into that roaring inferno. He has left his own vivid +impression of this gale in a letter home. His tendency was always to +underestimate difficulties, whether the force of wind in a blizzard, or +the troubles of a polar traveller. This should be remembered when reading +the vivid accounts which his mother has so kindly given me permission to +use: + +"We got through the forties with splendid speed and were just over the +fifties when one of those tremendous gales got us. Our Lat. was about 52° +S., a part of the world absolutely unfrequented by shipping of any sort, +and as we had already been blown off Campbell Island we had nothing but +a clear sweep to Cape Horn to leeward. One realized then how in the +Nimrod--in spite of the weather--they always had the security of a big +steamer to look to if things came to the worst. We were indeed alone, by +many hundreds of miles, and never having felt anxious about a ship +before, the old whaler was to give me a new experience. + +"In the afternoon of the beginning of the gale I helped make fast the +T.G. sails, upper topsails and foresail, and was horrified on arrival on +deck to find that the heavy water we continued to ship, was starting the +coal bags floating in places. These, acting as battering-rams, tore +adrift some of my carefully stowed petrol cases and endangered the lot. I +had started to make sail fast at 3 P.M. and it was 9.30 P.M. when I had +finished putting on additional lashings to everything I could. So rapidly +did the sea get up that one was continually afloat and swimming about. I +turned in for 2 hours and lay awake hearing the crash of the seas and +thinking how long those cases would stand it, till my watch came at +midnight as a relief. We were under 2 lower topsails and hove to, the +engines going dead slow to assist keeping head to wind. At another time I +should have been easy in my mind; now the water that came aboard was +simply fearful, and the wrenching on the old ship was enough to worry any +sailor called upon to fill his decks with garbage fore and aft. Still +'Risk nothing and do nothing,' if funds could not supply another ship, we +simply had to overload the one we had, or suffer worse things down south. +The watch was eventful as the shaking up got the fine coal into the +bilges, and this mixing with the oil from the engines formed balls of +coal and grease which, ordinarily, went up the pumps easily; now however +with the great strains, and hundreds of tons on deck, as she continually +filled, the water started to come in too fast for the half-clogged pumps +to cope with. An alternative was offered to me in going faster so as to +shake up the big pump on the main engines, and this I did--in spite of +myself--and in defiance of the first principles of seamanship. Of course, +we shipped water more and more, and only to save a clean breach of the +decks did I slow down again and let the water gain. My next card was to +get the watch on the hand-pumps as well, and these were choked, too, or +nearly so. + +"Anyhow with every pump,--hand and steam,--going, the water continued to +rise in the stokehold. At 4 A.M. all hands took in the fore lower +topsail, leaving us under a minimum of sail. The gale increased to storm +force (force 11 out of 12) and such a sea got up as only the Southern +Fifties can produce. All the afterguard turned out and the pumps were +vigorously shaken up,--sickening work as only a dribble came out. We had +to throw some coal overboard to clear the after deck round the pumps, and +I set to work to rescue cases of petrol which were smashed adrift. I +broke away a plank or two of the lee bulwarks to give the seas some +outlet as they were right over the level of the rail, and one was +constantly on the verge of floating clean over the side with the cataract +force of the backwash. I had all the swimming I wanted that day. Every +case I rescued was put on the weather side of the poop to help get us on +a more even keel. She sagged horribly and the unfortunate ponies,--though +under cover,--were so jerked about that the weather ones could not keep +their feet in their stalls, so great was the slope and strain on their +forelegs. Oates and Atkinson worked among them like Trojans, but morning +saw the death of one, and the loss of one dog overboard. The dogs, made +fast on deck, were washed to and fro, chained by the neck, and often +submerged for a considerable time. Though we did everything in our power +to get them up as high as possible, the sea went everywhere. The wardroom +was a swamp and so were our bunks with all our nice clothing, books, etc. +However, of this we cared little, when the water had crept up to the +furnaces and put the fires out, and we realized for the first time that +the ship had met her match and was slowly filling. Without a pump to suck +we started the forlorn hope of buckets and began to bale her out. Had we +been able to open a hatch we could have cleared the main pump well at +once, but with those appalling seas literally covering her, it would +have meant less than 10 minutes to float, had we uncovered a hatch. + +"The Chief Engineer (Williams) and carpenter (Davies), after we had all +put our heads together, started cutting a hole in the engine room +bulkhead, to enable us to get into the pump-well from the engine room; it +was iron and, therefore, at least a 12 hours job. Captain Scott was +simply splendid, he might have been at Cowes, and to do him and Teddy +Evans credit, at our worst strait none of our landsmen who were working +so hard knew how serious things were. Capt. Scott said to me quietly--'I +am afraid it's a bad business for us--What do you think?' I said we were +by no means dead yet, though at that moment, Oates, at peril of his life, +got aft to report another horse dead; and more down. And then an awful +sea swept away our lee bulwarks clean, between the fore and main +riggings,--only our chain lashings saved the lee motor sledge then, and I +was soon diving after petrol cases. Captain Scott calmly told me that +they 'did not matter'--This was our great project for getting to the +Pole--the much advertised motors that 'did not matter'; our dogs looked +finished, and horses were finishing, and I went to bale with a strenuous +prayer in my heart, and 'Yip-i-addy' on my lips, and so we pulled through +that day. We sang and re-sang every silly song we ever knew, and then +everybody in the ship later on was put on 2-hour reliefs to bale, as it +was impossible for flesh to keep heart with no food or rest. Even the +fresh-water pump had gone wrong so we drank neat lime juice, or anything +that came along, and sat in our saturated state awaiting our next spell. +My dressing gown was my great comfort as it was not very wet, and it is a +lovely warm thing. + +"To make a long yarn short, we found later in the day that the storm was +easing a bit and that though there was a terrible lot of water in the +ship, which, try as we could, we could not reduce, it certainly had +ceased to rise to any great extent. We had reason to hope then that we +might keep her afloat till the pump wells could be cleared. Had the storm +lasted another day, God knows what our state would have been, if we had +been above water at all. You cannot imagine how utterly helpless we felt +in such a sea with a tiny ship,--the great expedition with all its hopes +thrown aside for its life. God had shown us the weakness of man's hand +and it was enough for the best of us,--the people who had been made such +a lot of lately--the whole scene was one of pathos really. However, at 11 +P.M. Evans and I with the carpenter were able to crawl through a tiny +hole in the bulkhead, burrow over the coal to the pump-well cofferdam, +where, another hole having been easily made in the wood, we got down +below with Davy lamps and set to work. The water was so deep that you had +to continually dive to get your hand on to the suction. After 2 hours or +so it was cleared for the time being and the pumps worked merrily. I went +in again at 4.30 A.M. and had another lap at clearing it. Not till the +afternoon of the following day, though, did we see the last of the water +and the last of the great gale. During the time the pumps were working, +we continued the baling till the water got below the furnaces. As soon as +we could light up, we did, and got the other pumps under weigh, and, once +the ship was empty, clearing away the suction was a simple matter. I was +pleased to find that after all I had only lost about 100 gallons of the +petrol and bad as things had been they might have been worse.... + +"You will ask where all the water came from seeing our forward leak had +been stopped. Thank God we did not have that to cope with as well. The +water came chiefly through the deck where the tremendous strain,--not +only of the deck load, but of the smashing seas,--was beyond conception. +She was caught at a tremendous disadvantage and we were dependent for our +lives on each plank standing its own strain. Had one gone we would all +have gone, and the great anxiety was not so much the existing water as +what was going to open up if the storm continued. We might have dumped +the deck cargo, a difficult job at best, but were too busy baling to do +anything else.... + +"That Captain Scott's account will be moderate you may be sure. Still, +take my word for it, he is one of the best, and behaved up to our best +traditions at a time when his own outlook must have been the blackness of +darkness...." + +Characteristically Bowers ends his account: + +"Under its worst conditions this earth is a good place to live in." + +Priestley wrote in his diary: + +"If Dante had seen our ship as she was at her worst, I fancy he would +have got a good idea for another Circle of Hell, though he would have +been at a loss to account for such a cheerful and ribald lot of Souls." + +The situation narrowed down to a fight between the incoming water and the +men who were trying to keep it in check by baling her out. The Terra Nova +will never be more full of water, nearly up to the furnaces, than she was +that Friday morning, when we were told to go and do our damndest with +three iron buckets. The constructors had not allowed for baling, only for +the passage of one man at a time up and down the two iron ladders which +connected the engine-room floor plates with the deck. If we used more +than three buckets the business of passing them rapidly up, emptying them +out of the hatchway, and returning them empty, became unprofitable. We +were divided into two gangs, and all Friday and Friday night we worked +two hours on and two hours off, like fiends. + +Wilson's Journal describes the scene: + +"It was a weird night's work with the howling gale and the darkness and +the immense seas running over the ship every few minutes and no engines +and no sail, and we all in the engine-room oil and bilge water, singing +chanties as we passed up slopping buckets full of bilge, each man above +slopping a little over the heads of all below him; wet through to the +skin, so much so that some of the party worked altogether naked like +Chinese coolies; and the rush of the wave backwards and forwards at the +bottom grew hourly less in the dim light of a couple of engine-room oil +lamps whose light just made the darkness visible, the ship all the time +rolling like a sodden lifeless log, her lee gunwale under water every +time." + +"There was one thrilling moment in the midst of the worst hour on Friday +when we were realizing that the fires must be drawn, and when every pump +had failed to act, and when the bulwarks began to go to pieces and the +petrol cases were all afloat and going overboard, and the word was +suddenly passed in a shout from the hands at work in the waist of the +ship trying to save petrol cases that smoke was coming up through the +seams in the afterhold. As this was full of coal and patent fuel and was +next the engine-room, and as it had not been opened for the airing it +required to get rid of gas, on account of the flood of water on deck +making it impossible to open the hatchway, the possibility of a fire +there was patent to every one, and it could not possibly have been dealt +with in any way short of opening the hatches and flooding the ship, when +she must have foundered. It was therefore a thrilling moment or two until +it was discovered that the smoke was really steam, arising from the bilge +at the bottom having risen to the heated coal."[46] + +Meanwhile men were working for all our lives to cut through two bulkheads +which cut off all communication with the suction of the hand-pumps. One +bulkhead was iron, the other wood. + +Scott wrote at this time: + +"We are not out of the wood, but hope dawns, as indeed it should for me, +when I find myself so wonderfully served. Officers and men are singing +chanties over their arduous work. Williams is working in sweltering heat +behind the boiler to get the door made in the bulkhead. Not a single one +has lost his good spirits. A dog was drowned last night, one pony is dead +and two others in a bad condition--probably they too will go. +Occasionally a heavy sea would bear one of them away, and he was only +saved by his chain. Meares with some helpers had constantly to be +rescuing these wretched creatures from hanging, and trying to find them +better shelter, an almost hopeless task. One poor beast was found hanging +when dead; one was washed away with such force that his chain broke and +he disappeared overboard; the next wave miraculously washed him on board +again and he is fit and well. [I believe the dog was Osman.] The gale has +exacted heavy toll, but I feel all will be well if we can only cope with +the water. Another dog has just been washed overboard--alas! Thank God +the gale is abating. The sea is still mountainously high but the ship is +not labouring so heavily as she was."[47] + +The highest waves of which I can find any record were 36 feet high. These +were observed by Sir James C. Ross in the North Atlantic.[48] + +On December 2 the waves were logged, probably by Pennell, who was +extremely careful in his measurements, as being 'thirty-five feet high +(estimated).' At one time I saw Scott, standing on the weather rail of +the poop, buried to his waist in green sea. The reader can then imagine +the condition of things in the waist of the ship, "over and over again +the rail, from the fore-rigging to the main, was covered by a solid sheet +of curling water which swept aft and high on the poop."[49] At another +time Bowers and Campbell were standing upon the bridge, and the ship +rolled sluggishly over until the lee combings of the main hatch were +under the sea. They watched anxiously, and slowly she righted herself, +but "she won't do that often," said Bowers. As a rule if a ship gets that +far over she goes down. + + * * * * * + +Our journey was uneventful for a time, but of course it was not by any +means smooth. "I was much disturbed last night by the motion; the ship +was pitching and twisting with short sharp movements on a confused sea, +and with every plunge my thoughts flew to our poor ponies. This afternoon +they are fairly well, but one knows that they must be getting weaker as +time goes on, and one longs to give them a good sound rest with a ship on +an even keel. Poor patient beasts! One wonders how far the memory of +such fearful discomfort will remain with them--animals so often remember +places and conditions where they have encountered difficulties or hurt. +Do they only recollect circumstances which are deeply impressed by some +shock of fear or sudden pain, and does the remembrance of prolonged +strain pass away? Who can tell? But it would seem strangely merciful if +nature should blot out these weeks of slow but inevitable torture."[50] + +On December 7, noon position 61° 22´ S., 179° 56´ W., one berg was +sighted far away to the west, as it gleamed every now and then in the +sun. Two more were seen the next day, and at 6.22 A.M. on December 9, +noon position 65° 8´ S., 177° 41´ W., the pack was sighted ahead by +Rennick. All that day we passed bergs and streams of ice. The air became +dry and bracing, the sea was calm, and the sun shining on the islands of +ice was more than beautiful. And then Bump! We had just charged the first +big floe, and we were in the pack. + +"The sky has been wonderful, with every form of cloud in every condition +of light and shade; the sun has continually appeared through breaks in +the cloudy heavens from time to time, brilliantly illuminating some field +of pack, some steep-walled berg, or some patch of bluest sea. So sunlight +and shadow have chased each other across our scene. To-night there is +little or no swell--the ship is on an even keel, steady, save for the +occasional shocks on striking ice. + +"It is difficult to express the sense of relief this steadiness gives +after our storm-tossed passage. One can only imagine the relief and +comfort afforded to the ponies, but the dogs are visibly cheered and the +human element is full of gaiety. The voyage seems full of promise in +spite of the imminence of delay."[51] + +We had met the pack farther north than any other ship. + +What is pack? Speaking very generally indeed, in this region it is the +sea-ice which forms over the Ross Sea area during the winter, and is +blown northwards by the southerly blizzards. But as we shall see, the +ice which forms over this area is of infinite variety. As a rule great +sheets spread over the seas which fringe the Antarctic continent in the +autumn, grow thicker and thicker during the winter and spring, and break +up when the temperatures of sea and air rise in summer. Such is the ice +which forms in normal seasons round the shores of McMurdo Sound, and up +the coast of the western mountains of Victoria Land. In sheltered bays +this ice will sometimes remain in for two years or even more, growing all +the time, until some phenomenal break-up releases it. We found an example +of this in the sea-ice which formed between Hut Point and the Barrier. +But there are great waters which can never freeze for very long. Cape +Crozier, for instance, where the Emperor penguins nest in winter, is one +of the windiest places in the world. In July it was completely frozen +over as far as we could see in the darkness from a height of 900 feet. +Within a few days a hurricane had blown it all away, and the sea was +black. + +I believe, and we had experiences to prove me right, that there is a +critical period early in the winter, and that if sea-ice has not frozen +thick enough to remain fast by that time, it is probable that the sea +will remain open for the rest of the year. But this does not mean that no +ice will form. So great is the wish of the sea to freeze, and so cold is +the air, that the wind has only to lull for one instant and the surface +is covered with a thin film of ice, as though by magic. But the next +blizzard tears it out by force or a spring tide coaxes it out by stealth, +whether it be a foot thick or only a fraction of an inch. Such an example +we had at our very doors during our last winter, and the untamed winds +which blew as a result were atrocious. + +Thus it is that floes from a few inches to twenty feet thick go voyaging +out to join the belt of ice which is known as the pack. Scott seems to +have thought that the whole Ross Sea freezes over.[52] I myself think +this doubtful, and I am, I believe, the only person living who has seen +the Ross Sea open in mid-winter. This was on the Winter Journey +undertaken by Wilson, Bowers and myself in pursuit of Emperor penguin +eggs--but of that later. + +It is clear that winds and currents are, broadly speaking, the governing +factors of the density of pack-ice. By experience we know that clear +water may be found in the autumn where great tracts of ice barred the way +in summer. The tendency of the pack is northwards, where the ice melts +into the warmer waters. But the bergs remain when all traces of the pack +have disappeared, and, drifting northwards still, form the menace to +shipping so well known to sailors rounding the Horn. It is not hard to +imagine that one monster ice island of twenty miles in length, such as do +haunt these seas, drifting into navigated waters and calving into +hundreds of great bergs as it goes, will in itself produce what seamen +call a bad year for ice. And the last stages of these, when the bergs +have degenerated into 'growlers,' are even worse, for then the sharpest +eye can hardly distinguish them as they float nearly submerged though +they have lost but little of their powers of evil. + +There are two main types of Antarctic berg. The first and most common is +the tabular form. Bergs of this shape cruise about in thousands and +thousands. A less common form is known as the pinnacled berg, and in +almost every case this is a tabular berg which has been weathered or has +capsized. The number of bergs which calve direct from a mountain glacier +into the sea is probably not very great. Whence then do they come? + +The origin of the tabular bergs was debated until a few years ago. They +have been recorded up to forty and even fifty miles in length, and they +have been called floe bergs, because it was supposed that they froze +first as ordinary sea-ice and increased by subsequent additions from +below. But now we know that these bergs calve off from the Antarctic +Barriers, the largest of which is known as the Great Ice Barrier, which +forms the southern boundary of the Ross Sea. We were to become very +familiar with this vast field of ice. We know that its northern face is +afloat, we guess that it may all be afloat. At any rate the open sea now +washes against its face at least forty miles south of where it ran in +the days of Ross. Though this Barrier may be the largest in the world, it +is one of many. The most modern review of this mystery, Scott's article +on The Great Ice Barrier, must serve until the next first-hand +examination by some future explorer. + +A berg shows only about one-eighth of its total mass above water, and a +berg two hundred feet high will therefore reach approximately fourteen +hundred feet below the surface of the sea. Winds and currents have far +more influence upon them than they have upon the pack, through which +these bergs plough their way with a total disregard for such flimsy +obstacles, and cause much chaos as they go. For the rest woe betide the +ship which is so fixed into the pack that she cannot move if one of these +monsters bears down upon her. + +Words cannot tell the beauty of the scenes through which we were to pass +during the next three weeks. I suppose the pack in winter must be a +terrible place enough: a place of darkness and desolation hardly to be +found elsewhere. But forms which under different conditions can only +betoken horror now conveyed to us impressions of the utmost peace and +beauty, for the sun had kissed them all. + +"We have had a marvellous day. The morning watch was cloudy, but it +gradually cleared until the sky was a brilliant blue, fading on the +horizon into green and pink. The floes were pink, floating in a deep blue +sea, and all the shadows were mauve. We passed right under a monster +berg, and all day have been threading lake after lake and lead after +lead. 'There is Regent Street,' said somebody, and for some time we drove +through great streets of perpendicular walls of ice. Many a time they +were so straight that one imagined they had been cut off with a ruler +some hundreds of yards in length."[53] + + +[Illustration: MIDNIGHT--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +On another occasion: + +"Stayed on deck till midnight. The sun just dipped below the southern +horizon. The scene was incomparable. The northern sky was gloriously rosy +and reflected in the calm sea between the ice, which varied from +burnished copper to salmon pink; bergs and pack to the north had a +pale greenish hue with deep purple shadows, the sky shaded to saffron and +pale green. We gazed long at these beautiful effects."[54] + +But this was not always so. There was one day with rain, there were days +of snow and hail and cold wet slush, and fog. "The position to-night is +very cheerless. All hope that this easterly wind will open the pack seems +to have vanished. We are surrounded with compacted floes of immense area. +Openings appear between these floes and we slide crab-like from one to +another with long delays between. It is difficult to keep hope alive. +There are streaks of water sky over open leads to the north, but +everywhere to the south we have the uniform white sky. The day has been +overcast and the wind force 3 to 5 from the E.N.E.--snow has fallen from +time to time. There could scarcely be a more dreary prospect for the eye +to rest upon."[55] + +With the open water we left behind the albatross and the Cape pigeon +which had accompanied us lately for many months. In their place we found +the Antarctic petrel, "a richly piebald bird that appeared to be almost +black and white against the ice floes,"[56] and the Snowy petrel, of +which I have already spoken. + +No one of us whose privilege it was to be there will forget our first +sight of the penguins, our first meal of seal meat, or that first big +berg along which we coasted close in order that London might see it on +the film. Hardly had we reached the thick pack, which prevailed after the +suburbs had been passed, when we saw the little Adélie penguins hurrying +to meet us. Great Scott, they seemed to say, what's this, and soon we +could hear the cry which we shall never forget. "Aark, aark," they said, +and full of wonder and curiosity, and perhaps a little out of breath, +they stopped every now and then to express their feelings, "and to gaze +and cry in wonder to their companions; now walking along the edge of a +floe in search of a narrow spot to jump and so avoid the water, and with +head down and much hesitation judging the width of the narrow gap, to +give a little standing jump across as would a child, and running on the +faster to make up for its delay. Again, coming to a wider lead of water +necessitating a plunge, our inquisitive visitor would be lost for a +moment, to reappear like a jack-in-the-box on a nearer floe, where +wagging his tail, he immediately resumed his race towards the ship. Being +now but a hundred yards or so from us he pokes his head constantly +forward on this side and on that, to try and make out something of the +new strange sight, crying aloud to his friends in his amazement, and +exhibiting the most amusing indecision between his desire for further +investigation and doubt as to the wisdom and propriety of closer contact +with so huge a beast."[57] + +They are extraordinarily like children, these little people of the +Antarctic world, either like children, or like old men, full of their own +importance and late for dinner, in their black tail-coats and white +shirt-fronts--and rather portly withal. We used to sing to them, as they +to us, and you might often see "a group of explorers on the poop, singing +'She has rings on her fingers and bells on her toes, and she shall have +music wherever she goes,' and so on at the top of their voices to an +admiring group of Adélie penguins."[58] + +Meares used to sing to them what he called 'God save,' and declared that +it would always send them headlong into the water. He sang flat: perhaps +that was why. + +Two or more penguins will combine to push a third in front of them +against a skua gull, which is one of their enemies, for he eats their +eggs or their young if he gets the chance. They will refuse to dive off +an ice-foot until they have persuaded one of their companions to take the +first jump, for fear of the sea-leopard which may be waiting in the water +below, ready to seize them and play with them much as a cat will play +with a mouse. As Levick describes in his book about the penguins at Cape +Adare: "At the place where they most often went in, a long terrace of ice +about six feet in height ran for some hundreds of yards along the edge +of the water, and here, just as on the sea-ice, crowds would stand near +the brink. When they had succeeded in pushing one of their number over, +all would crane their necks over the edge, and when they saw the pioneer +safe in the water, the rest followed."[59] + +It is clear then that the Adélie penguin will show a certain spirit of +selfishness in tackling his hereditary enemies. But when it comes to the +danger of which he is ignorant his courage betrays want of caution. +Meares and Dimitri exercised the dog-teams out upon the larger floes when +we were held up for any length of time. One day a team was tethered by +the side of the ship, and a penguin sighted them and hurried from afar +off. The dogs became frantic with excitement as he neared them: he +supposed it was a greeting, and the louder they barked and the more they +strained at their ropes, the faster he bustled to meet them. He was +extremely angry with a man who went and saved him from a very sudden end, +clinging to his trousers with his beak, and furiously beating his shins +with his flippers. It was not an uncommon sight to see a little Adélie +penguin standing within a few inches of the nose of a dog which was +almost frantic with desire and passion. + +The pack-ice is the home of the immature penguins, both Emperor and +Adélie. But we did not see any large numbers of immature Emperors during +this voyage. + +We soon became acquainted with the sea-leopard, which waits under the +ice-foot for the little penguins; he is a brute, but sinuous and graceful +as the seal world goes. He preys especially upon the Adélie penguin, and +Levick found no less than eighteen penguins, together with the remains of +many others, in the stomach of one sea-leopard. In the water the leopard +seems "a trifle faster than the Adélies, as one of them occasionally +would catch up with one of the fugitives, who then, realizing that speed +alone would not avail him, started dodging from side to side, and +sometimes swam rapidly round and round in a circle of about twelve feet +diameter for a full minute or more, doubtless knowing that he was +quicker in turning than his great heavy pursuer, but exhaustion would +overtake him in the end, and we could see the head and jaws of the great +sea-leopard rise to the surface as he grabbed his victim. The sight of a +panic-stricken little Adélie tearing round and round in this manner was +sadly common late in the season."[60] + +Fish and small seal have also been found in its stomach. With long +powerful head and neck and a sinuous body, it is equipped with most +formidable teeth with which it tears strips out of the still living +birds, and flippers which are adapted entirely for speed in the water. It +is a solitary animal with a large range of distribution. It has been +supposed to bring forth its young in the pack, but nothing definite is +known on this subject. One day we saw a big sea-leopard swimming along +with the ship. He dived under the floes and reappeared from floe to floe +as we went, and for a time we thought he was interested in us. But soon +we sighted another lying away on a floe, and our friend in the water +began to rear his head up perpendicularly, and seemed to be trying to +wind his mate, as we supposed. He was down wind from her, and appeared to +find her at a distance of 150 to 200 yards, and the last we saw of him he +was heading up the side of the floe where she lay. + +There are four kinds of seal in the Antarctic; of one of these, the +sea-leopard, I have already spoken. Another is called the Ross seal, for +Sir James Ross discovered it in 1840. It seems to be a solitary beast, +living in the pack, and is peculiar for its "pug-like expression of +countenance."[61] It has always been rare, and no single specimen was +seen on this expedition, though the Terra Nova must have passed through +more pack than most whalers see in a life-time. It looks as if the Ross +seal is more rare than was supposed. + +[Illustration: A SEA LEOPARD] + +[Illustration: A WEDDELL SEAL] + +The very common seal of the Antarctic is the Weddell, which seldom lives +in the pack but spends its life catching fish close to the shores of the +continent, and digesting them, when caught, lying sluggishly upon the +ice-foot. We came to know them later in their hundreds in McMurdo Sound, +for the Weddell is a land-loving seal and is only found in large numbers +near the coast. Just at this time it was the crab-eating seal which we +saw very fairly often, generally several of them together, but never in +large numbers. + +Wilson has pointed out in his article upon seals in the Discovery +Report[62] that the Weddell and the crab-eater seal, which are the two +commoner of the Antarctic seals, have agreed to differ both in habit and +in diet, and therefore they share the field successfully. He shows that +"the two penguins which share the same area have differentiated in a +somewhat similar manner." The Weddell seal and the Emperor penguin "have +the following points in common, namely, a littoral distribution, a fish +diet and residential non-migratory habit, remaining as far south the +whole year round as open water will allow; whereas the other two (the +crab-eating seal and the Adélie penguin) have in common a more pelagic +habit, a crustacean diet, and a distribution definitely migratory in the +case of the penguin, and although not so definitely migratory in the case +of the seal, yet checked from coming so far south as Weddell's seal in +winter by a strong tendency to keep in touch with pelagic ice."[63] +Wilson considers that the advantage lies in each case with the +"non-migratory and more southern species," i.e. the Weddell seal and +the Emperor penguin. I doubt whether he would confirm this now. The +Emperor penguin, weighing six stones and more, seems to me to have a very +much harder fight for life than the little Adélie. + +Before the Discovery started from England in 1901 an 'Antarctic Manual' +was produced by the Royal Geographical Society, giving a summary of the +information which existed up to that date about this part of the world. +It is interesting reading, and to the Antarctic student it proves how +little was known in some branches of science at that date, and what +strides were made during the next few years. To read what was known of +the birds and beasts of the Antarctic and then to read Wilson's +Zoological Report of the Discovery Expedition is an education in what one +man can still do in an out-of-the-way part of the world to elucidate the +problems which await him. + +The teeth of a crab-eating seal "are surmounted by perhaps the most +complicated arrangement of cusps found in any living mammal."[64] The +mouth is so arranged that the teeth of the upper jaw fit into those of +the lower, and "the cusps form a perfect sieve ... a hitherto +unparalleled function for the teeth of a mammal."[65] The food of this +seal consists mainly of Euphausiae, animals much like shrimps, which it +doubtless keeps in its mouth while it expels the water through its teeth, +like those whales which sift their food through their baleen plates." +This development of cusps in the teeth of the [crab-eating seal] is +probably a more perfect adaptation to this purpose than in any other +mammal, and has been produced at the cost of all usefulness in the teeth +as grinders. The grit, however, which forms a fairly constant part of the +contents of the stomach and intestines, serves, no doubt, to grind up the +shells of the crustaceans, and in this way the necessity for grinders is +completely obviated."[66] + +The sea-leopard has a very formidable set of teeth suitable for his +carnivorous diet. The Weddell, living on fish, has a more simple group, +but these are liable to become very worn in old age, due to his habit of +gnawing out holes in the ice for himself, so graphically displayed on +Ponting's cinematograph. When he feels death approaching, the crab-eating +seal, never inclined to live in the company of more than a few of his +kind, becomes still more solitary. The Weddell seal will travel far up +the glaciers of South Victoria Land, and there we have found them lying +dead. But the crab-eating seal will wander even farther. He leaves the +pack. "Thirty miles from the sea-shore and 3000 feet above sea-level, +their carcases were found on quite a number of occasions, and it is hard +to account for such vagaries on other grounds than that a sick animal +will go any distance to get away from its companions"[67] (and perhaps it +should be added from its enemies). + +Often the under sides of the floes were coloured a peculiar yellow. This +coloration is caused by minute unicellular plants called diatoms. The +floating life of the Antarctic is most dense. "Diatoms were so abundant +in parts of the Ross Sea, that a large plankton net (18 meshes to an +inch) became choked in a few minutes with them and other members of the +Phytoplankton. It is extremely probable that in such localities whales +feed upon the plants as well as the animals of the plankton."[68] I do +not know to what extent these open waters are frequented by whales during +the winter, but in the summer months they are full of them, right down to +the fringe of the continent. Most common of all is the kind of sea-wolf +known as the Killer Whale, who measures 30 feet long. He hunts in packs +up to at least a hundred strong, and as we now know, he does not confine +his attacks to seal and other whales, but will also hunt man, though +perhaps he mistakes him for a seal. This whale is a toothed beast and a +flesh-eater, and is more properly a dolphin. But it seems that there are +at least five or six other kinds of whales, some of which do not +penetrate south of the pack, while others cruise in large numbers right +up to the edge of the fast ice. They feed upon the minute surface life of +these seas, and large numbers of them were seen not only by the Terra +Nova on her various cruises, but also by the shore parties in the waters +of McMurdo Sound. In both Wilson and Lillie we had skilled whale +observers, and their work has gone far to elucidate the still obscure +questions of whale distribution in the South. + +The pack-ice offers excellent opportunities for the identification of +whales, because their movements are more restricted than in the open +ocean. In order to identify, the observer generally has only the blow, +and then the shape of the back and fin as the whale goes down, to guide +him. In the pack he sometimes gets more, as in the case of Balaenoptera +acutorostrata (Piked whale) on March 3, 1911. The ship "was ploughing her +way through thick pack-ice, in which the water was freezing between the +floes, so that the only open spaces for miles around were those made by +the slow movement of the ship. We saw several of these whales during the +day, making use of the holes in the ice near the ship for the purpose of +blowing. There was scarcely room between the floes for the whales to come +up to blow in their usual manner, which consists in rising almost +horizontally, and breaking the surface of the water with their backs. On +this occasion they pushed their snouts obliquely out of the water, nearly +as far as the eye, and after blowing, withdrew them below the water +again. Commander Pennell noted that several times one rested its head on +a floe not twenty feet from the ship, with its nostrils just on the +water-line; raising itself a few inches, it would blow and then subside +again for a few minutes to its original position with its snout resting +on the floe. They took no notice of pieces of coal which were thrown at +them by the men on board the ship."[69] + +But no whale which we saw in the pack, and we often saw it elsewhere +also, was so imposing as the great Blue whale, some of which were +possibly more than 100 feet long. "We used to watch this huge whale come +to the surface again and again to blow, at intervals of thirty to forty +seconds, and from the fact that at each of four or five appearances no +vestige of a dorsal fin was visible, we began to wonder whether we had +not found the Right whale that was once reported to be so abundant in +Ross Sea. Again and again the spout went up into the cold air, a white +twelve-foot column of condensed moisture, followed by a smooth broad +back, and yet no fin. For some time we remained uncertain as to its +identity, till at last in sounding for a longer disappearance and a +greater depth than usual, the hinder third of the enormous beast appeared +above the surface for the first time with its little angular dorsal fin, +at once dispelling any doubts we might have had."[70] + +It is supposed to be the largest mammal that has ever existed.[71] As it +comes up to blow, "one sees first a small dark hump appear and then +immediately a jet of grey fog squirted upwards fifteen to eighteen feet, +gradually spreading as it rises vertically into the frosty air. I have +been nearly in these blows once or twice and had the moisture in my face +with a sickening smell of shrimpy oil. Then the hump elongates and up +rolls an immense blue-grey or blackish-grey round back with a faint ridge +along the top, on which presently appears a small hook-like dorsal fin, +and then the whole sinks and disappears."[72] + +To the biologist the pack is of absorbing interest. If you want to see +life, naked and unashamed, study the struggles of this ice-world, from +the diatom in the ice-floe to the big killer whale; each stage essential +to the life of the stage above, and living on the stage below: + + THE PROTOPLASMIC CYCLE + + Big floes have little floes all around about 'em, + And all the yellow diatoms[73] couldn't do without 'em. + Forty million shrimplets feed upon the latter, + And _they_ make the penguin and the seals and whales + Much fatter. + + Along comes the Orca[74] and kills these down below, + While up above the Afterguard[75] attack them on the floe: + And if a sailor tumbles in and stoves the mushy pack in, + He's crumpled up between the floes, and so they get + _Their_ whack in. + + Then there's no doubt he soon becomes a Patent Fertilizer, + Invigorating diatoms, although they're none the wiser, + So the protoplasm passes on its never-ceasing round, + Like a huge recurring decimal ... to which no + End is found.[76] + +We were early on the scene compared with previous expeditions, but I do +not suppose this alone can explain the extremely heavy ice conditions we +met. Possibly we were too far east. Our progress was very slow, and often +we were hung up for days at a time, motionless and immovable, the pack +all close about us. Patience and always more patience! "From the masthead +one can see a few patches of open water in different directions, but the +main outlook is the same scene of desolate hummocky pack."[77] And again: +"We have scarcely moved all day, but bergs which have become quite old +friends are on the move, and one has approached and almost circled +us."[78] + +And then without warning and reason, as far as we could see, it would +open out again, and broad black leads and lakes would appear where there +had been only white snow and ice before, and we would make just a few +more miles, and sometimes we would raise steam only to suffer further +disappointment. Generally speaking, a dark black sky means open water, +and this is known as an open-water sky; high lights in the sky mean ice, +and this is known as ice-blink. + +The changes were as sudden as they were unexpected. Thus early in the +morning of Christmas Eve, about a fortnight after we had entered the +pack, "we have come into a region of where the open water exceeds the +ice; the former lies in great irregular pools three or four miles or more +across and connecting with many leads. The latter--and the fact is +puzzling--still contain floes of enormous dimensions; we have just passed +one which is at least two miles in diameter...." And then, "Alas! alas! +at 7 A.M. this morning we were brought up with a solid sheet of pack +extending in all directions, save that from which we had come."[79] + +Delay was always irksome to Scott. As time went on this waiting in the +pack became almost intolerable. He began to think we might have to winter +in the pack. And all the time our scanty supply of coal was being eaten +up, until it was said that Campbell's party would never be taken to King +Edward VII.'s Land. Scott found decisions to bank fires, to raise steam +or to let fires out, most difficult at this time. "If one lets fires out +it means a dead loss of over two tons, when the boiler has to be heated +again. But this two tons would only cover a day under banked fires, so +that for anything longer than twenty-four hours it is economy to put the +fires out. At each stoppage one is called upon to decide whether it is to +be for more or less than twenty-four hours."[80] Certainly England should +have an oil-driven ship for polar work. + +The Terra Nova proved a wonderfully fine ice ship. Bowers' middle watch +especially became famous for the way in which he put the ship at the ice, +and more than once Scott was alarmed by the great shock and collisions +which were the result: I have seen him hurry up from his cabin to put a +stop to it! But Bowers never hurt the ship, and she gallantly responded +to the calls made upon her. Sometimes it was a matter of forcing two +floes apart, at others of charging and breaking one. Often we went again +and again at some stubborn bit, backing and charging alternately, as well +as the space behind us would allow. If sufficient momentum was gained the +ship rode upon the thicker floes, rising up upon it and pressing it down +beneath her, until suddenly, perhaps when its nearest edge was almost +amidships, the weight became too great and the ice split beneath us. At +other times a tiny crack, no larger than a vein, would run shivering from +our bows, which widened and widened until the whole ship passed through +without difficulty. Always when below one heard the grumbling of the ice +as it passed along the side. But it was slow work, and hard on the +engines. There were days when we never moved at all. + +"I can imagine few things more trying to the patience than the long +wasted days of waiting. Exasperating as it is to see the tons of coal +melting away with the smallest mileage to our credit, one has at least +the satisfaction of active fighting and the hope of better fortune. To +wait idly is the worst of conditions. You can imagine how often and how +restlessly we climbed to the crow's nest and studied the outlook. And +strangely enough there was generally some change to note. A water lead +would mysteriously open up a few miles away, or the place where it had +been would as mysteriously close. Huge icebergs crept silently towards or +past us, and continually we were observing these formidable objects with +range finder and compass to determine the relative movement, sometimes +with misgivings as to our ability to clear them. Under steam the change +of conditions was even more marked. Sometimes we would enter a lead of +open water and proceed for a mile or two without hindrance; sometimes we +would come to big sheets of thin ice which broke easily as our iron-shod +prow struck them, and sometimes even a thin sheet would resist all our +attempts to break it; sometimes we would push big floes with comparative +ease and sometimes a small floe would bar our passage with such obstinacy +that one would almost believe it possessed of an evil spirit; sometimes +we passed through acres of sludgy sodden ice which hissed as it swept +along the side, and sometimes the hissing ceased seemingly without rhyme +or reason, and we found our screw churning the sea without any effect. + +"Thus the steaming days passed away in an ever-changing environment and +are remembered as an unceasing struggle. + +"The ship behaved splendidly--no other ship, not even the Discovery, +would have come through so well. Certainly the Nimrod would never have +reached the south water had she been caught in such pack. As a result I +have grown strangely attached to the Terra Nova. As she bumped the floes +with mighty shocks, crushing and grinding a way through some, twisting +and turning to avoid others, she seemed like a living thing fighting a +great fight. If only she had more economical engines she would be +suitable in all respects. + +[Illustration: TERRA NOVA] + +"Once or twice we got among floes which stood 7 or 8 feet above water, +with hummocks and pinnacles as high as 25 feet. The ship could have stood +no chance had such floes pressed against her, and at first we were a +little alarmed in such situations. But familiarity breeds contempt; +there never was any pressure in the heavy ice, and I'm inclined to think +there never would be. + +"The weather changed frequently during our journey through the pack. The +wind blew strong from the west and from the east; the sky was often +darkly overcast; we had snowstorms, flaky snow, and even light rain. In +all such circumstances we were better placed in the pack than outside of +it. The foulest weather could do us little harm. During quite a large +percentage of days, however, we had bright sunshine, which, even with the +temperature well below freezing, made everything look bright and +cheerful. The sun also brought us wonderful cloud effects, marvellously +delicate tints of sky, cloud and ice, such effects as one might travel +far to see. In spite of our impatience we would not willingly have missed +many of the beautiful scenes which our sojourn in the pack afforded us. +Ponting and Wilson have been busy catching these effects, but no art can +reproduce such colours as the deep blue of the icebergs."[81] + +As a rule the officer of the watch conned from the crow's nest, shouting +his orders to the steersman direct, and to the engine-room through the +midshipman of the watch, who stood upon the bridge. It is thrilling work +to the officer in charge, who not only has to face the immediate problem +of what floes he dare and what he dare not charge, but also to puzzle out +the best course for the future,--but I expect he soon gets sick of it. + +About this time Bowers made a fancy sketch of the Terra Nova hitting an +enormous piece of ice. The masts are all whipped forward, and from the +crow's nest is shot first the officer of the watch, followed by cigarette +ends and empty cocoa mugs, and lastly the hay with which the floor was +covered. Upon the forecastle stands Farmer Hayseed (Oates) chewing a +straw with the greatest composure, and waiting until the hay shall fall +at his feet, at which time he will feed it to his ponies. This crow's +nest, which was a barrel lashed to the top of the mainmast, to which +entrance was gained by a hinged trap-door, shielded the occupant from +most of the wind. I am not sure that the steersman did not have the most +uninviting job, but hot cocoa is a most comforting drink and there was +always plenty to be had. + +Rennick was busy sounding. The depths varied from 1804 to at least 3890 +fathoms, and the bottom generally showed volcanic deposits. Our line of +soundings showed the transition from the ocean depths to the continental +shelf. A series of temperatures was gained by Nelson by means of +reversible thermometers down to 3891 metres. + +The winch upon which the sounding line was wound was worked by hand on +this cruise. It was worked mechanically afterwards, and of course this +ought always to be done if possible. Just now it was a wearisome +business, especially when we lowered a water-sample bottle one day to +1800 metres, spent hours in winding it up and found it still open when it +arrived at the surface! Water samples were also obtained at the various +depths. Lillie and Nelson were both busy tow-netting for plankton with +full-speed, Apstein, Nansen, 24-and 180-mesh nets. + +I don't think many at home had a more pleasant Christmas Day than we. It +was beautifully calm with the pack all round. At 10 we had church with +lots of Christmas hymns, and then decorated the ward-room with all our +sledging flags. These flags are carried by officers on Arctic +expeditions, and are formed of the St. George's Cross with a continuation +ending in a swallow-tail in the heraldic colours to which the individual +is entitled, and upon this is embroidered his crest. The men forrard had +their Christmas dinner of fresh mutton at mid-day; there was plenty of +penguin for them, but curiously enough they did not think it good enough +for a Christmas dinner. The ward-room ate penguin in the evening, and +after the toast of 'absent friends' we began to sing, and twice round the +table everybody had to contribute a song. Ponting's banjo songs were a +great success, also Oates's 'The Vly on the tu-urmuts.' Meares sang "a +little song about our Expedition, and many of the members that Southward +would go," of his own composition. The general result was that the +watches were all over the place that night. At 4 A.M. Day whispered in +my ear that there was nothing to do, and Pennell promised to call me if +there was--so I remembered no more until past six. + +And Crean's rabbit gave birth to seventeen little ones, and it was said +that Crean had already given away twenty-two. + +We had stopped and banked fires against an immense composite floe on the +evening of Christmas Eve. How we watched the little changes in the ice +and the wind, and scanned the horizon for those black patches which meant +open water ahead. But always there was that same white sky to the south +of us. And then one day there came the shadow of movement on the sea, the +faintest crush on the brash ice, the whisper of great disturbances afar +off. It settled again: our hopes were dashed to the ground. Then came the +wind. It was so thick that we could not see far; but even in our +restricted field changes were in progress. + +"We commence to move between two floes, make 200 or 300 yards, and are +then brought up bows on to a large lump. This may mean a wait of anything +from ten minutes to half-an-hour, whilst the ship swings round, falls +away, and drifts to leeward. When clear she forges ahead again and the +operation is repeated. Occasionally when she can get a little way on she +cracks the obstacle and slowly passes through it. There is a distinct +swell--very long, very low. I counted the period as about nine seconds. +Every one says the ice is breaking up."[82] + +On December 28 the gale abated. The sky cleared, and showed signs of open +water ahead. It was cold in the wind but the sun was wonderful, and we +lay out on deck and basked in its warmth, a cheerful, careless crowd. +After breakfast there was a consultation between Scott and Wilson in the +crow's nest. It was decided to raise steam. + +Meanwhile we sounded, and found a volcanic muddy bottom at 2035 fathoms. +The last sounding showed 1400 fathoms; we had passed over a bank. + +Steam came at 8 P.M. and we began to push forward. At first it was hard +going, but slowly we elbowed our way until the spaces of open water +became more frequent. Soon we found one or two large pools, several miles +in extent; then the floes became smaller. Later we could see no really +big floes at all; "the sheets of thin ice are broken into comparatively +regular figures, none more than thirty yards across," and "we are +steaming amongst floes of small area evidently broken by swell, and with +edges abraded by contact."[83] + +We could not be far from the southern edge of the pack. Twenty-four hours +after raising steam we were still making good progress, checking +sometimes to carve our way through some obstacle. At last we were getting +a return for the precious coal expended. The sky was overcast, the +outlook from the masthead flat and dreary, but hour by hour it became +more obvious that we neared the threshold of the open sea. At 1 A.M. on +Friday, December 30 (lat. about 71½° S., noon observation 72° 17´ S., +177° 9´ E.) Bowers steered through the last ice stream. Behind was some +400 miles of ice. Cape Crozier was 334 miles (geog.) ahead. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [40] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 6. + + [41] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 7. + + [42] Ibid. p. 9. + + [43] Ibid. p. 8. + + [44] Wilson in the _Discovery Natural History Reports._ + + [45] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 11-12. + + [46] Wilson's Journal. + + [47] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 14-15. + + [48] Raper, _Practice of Navigation_, article 547. + + [49] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 13. + + [50] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 21-22. + + [51] Ibid. pp. 24-25. + + [52] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 2. + + [53] My own diary. + + [54] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 25. + + [55] Ibid. p. 60. + + [56] Wilson. + + [57] Wilson, _Discovery Natural History Report_, vol. ii. part ii. + p. 38. + + [58] Wilson's Journal. + + [59] Levick, _Antarctic Penguins_, p. 83. + + [60] Levick, _Antarctic Penguins_, p. 85. + + [61] Wilson in the _Discovery Natural History Report, Zoology_, + vol. ii. part i. p. 44. + + [62] _Discovery Natural History Report, Zoology_, vol. ii. part i. + Wilson, pp. 32, 33. + + [63] Ibid. p. 33. + + [64] _Antarctic Manual: Seals_, by Barrett-Hamilton, p. 216. + + [65] Ibid. p. 217. + + [66] _Discovery Natural History Report, Zoology_, vol. ii. part i. + by E. A. Wilson, p. 36. + + [67] _Discovery Natural History Report, Zoology_, vol. ii. part i. + by E. A. Wilson. + + [68] _Terra Nova Natural History Report, Cetacea_, vol. i. No. 3, + p. 111, by Lillie. + + [69] _Terra Nova Natural History Report, Zoology_, vol. i. No. 3, + _Cetacea_, by D. G. Lillie, p. 114. + + [70] _Discovery Natural History Report, Zoology_, vol. ii. part i. + pp. 3-4, by E. A. Wilson. + + [71] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 22. + + [72] Wilson's Journal, _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 613. + + [73] Minute plants. + + [74] Killer whale. + + [75] Officers' mess on the Terra Nova. + + [76] Griffith Taylor in _South Polar Times_. + + [77] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 35. + + [78] Ibid. p. 39. + + [79] Ibid. pp. 54, 55. + + [80] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 56. + + [81] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 73-75. + + [82] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 62. + + [83] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 68, 69. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +LAND + + Beyond this flood a frozen continent + Lies dark and wilde, beat with perpetual storms + Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land + Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems + Of ancient pile; all else deep snow and ice.... + MILTON, _Paradise Lost_, II. + + +"They say it's going to blow like hell. Go and look at the glass." Thus +Titus Oates quietly to me a few hours before we left the pack. + +I went and looked at the barograph and it made me feel sea-sick. Within a +few hours I was sick, _very_ sick; but we newcomers to the Antarctic had +yet to learn that we knew nothing about its barometer. Nothing very +terrible happened after all. When I got up to the bridge for the morning +watch we were in open water and it was blowing fresh. It freshened all +day, and by the evening it was blowing a southerly with a short choppy +North Sea swell, and very warm. By 4 A.M. the next morning there was a +big sea running and the dogs and ponies were having a bad time. Rennick +had the morning watch these days, and I was his humble midshipman. + +At 5.45 we sighted what we thought was a berg on the port bow. About +three minutes later Rennick said, "There's a bit of pack," and I went +below and reported to Evans. It was very thick with driving snow and also +foggy, and before Evans got up to the bridge we were quite near the pack, +and amongst bits which had floated from it, one of which must have been +our berg. We took in the headsails as quickly as possible, these being +the only sails set, and nosed along dead slow to leeward under steam +alone. Gradually we could see either pack or the blink of it all along +our port and starboard beam, while gradually we felt our way down a big +patch of open water. + +There was quite a meeting on the bridge, and it was decided to get well +in, and lie in open water under lee of the pack till the gale blew itself +out. "Under ordinary circumstances the safe course would have been to go +about and stand to the east. But in our case we must risk trouble to get +smoother water for the ponies. We passed a stream of ice over which the +sea was breaking heavily, and one realized the danger of being amongst +loose floes in such a sea. But soon we came to a compacter body of floes, +and running behind this we were agreeably surprised to find comparatively +smooth water. We ran on for a bit, then stopped and lay to."[84] + +All that day we lay behind that pack, steaming slowly to leeward every +now and then, as the ice drifted down upon us. Towards night it began to +clear. It was New Year's Eve. + +I turned in, thinking to wake in 1911. But I had not been long asleep +when I found Atkinson at my side. "Have you seen the land?" he said. +"Wrap your blankets round you, and go and see." And when I got up on deck +I could see nothing for a while. Then he said: "All the high lights are +snow lit up by the sun." And there they were: the most glorious peaks +appearing, as it were like satin, above the clouds, the only white in a +dark horizon. The first glimpse of Antarctic land, Sabine and the great +mountains of the Admiralty Range. They were 110 miles away. But + + Icy mountains high on mountains pil'd + Seem to the shivering sailor from afar + Shapeless and white, an atmosphere of cloud;[85] + +and, truth to tell, I went back to my warm bunk. At midnight a rowdy mob, +ringing the New Year in with the dinner-bell, burst into our Nursery. I +expected to be hauled out, but got off with a dig in the ribs from +Birdie Bowers. + +In brilliant sunshine we coasted down Victoria Land. "To-night it is +absolutely calm, with glorious bright sunshine. Several people were +sunning themselves at 11 o'clock! Sitting on deck and reading."[86] + +At 8.30 on Monday night, January 2, we sighted Erebus, 115 miles away. +The next morning most of us were on the yards furling sail. We were +heading for Cape Crozier, the northern face of Ross Island was open to +our fascinated gaze, and away to the east stretched the Barrier face +until it disappeared below the horizon. Adélie penguins and Killer whales +were abundant in the water through which we steamed. + +I have seen Fuji, the most dainty and graceful of all mountains; and also +Kinchinjunga: only Michael Angelo among men could have conceived such +grandeur. But give me Erebus for my friend. Whoever made Erebus knew all +the charm of horizontal lines, and the lines of Erebus are for the most +part nearer the horizontal than the vertical. And so he is the most +restful mountain in the world, and I was glad when I knew that our hut +would lie at his feet. And always there floated from his crater the lazy +banner of his cloud of steam. + +Now we had reached the Barrier face some five miles east of the point at +which it joins the basalt cliffs of Cape Crozier. We could see the great +pressure waves which had proved such an obstacle to travellers from the +Discovery to the Emperor penguin rookery. The Knoll was clear, but the +summit of Mount Terror was in the clouds. As for the Barrier we seemed to +have known it all our lives, it was so exactly like what we had imagined +it to be, and seen in the pictures and photographs. + +Scott had a whaler launched, and we pulled in under the cliffs. There was +a considerable swell. + +"We were to examine the possibilities of landing, but the swell was so +heavy in its break among the floating blocks of ice along the actual +beach and ice foot that a landing was out of the question. We should +have broken up the boat and have all been in the water together. But I +assure you it was tantalizing to me, for there about six feet above us on +a small dirty piece of the old bay ice about ten feet square one living +Emperor penguin chick was standing disconsolately stranded, and close by +stood one faithful old Emperor parent asleep. This young Emperor was +still in the down, a most interesting fact in the bird's life history at +which we had rightly guessed, but which no one had actually observed +before. It was in a stage never yet seen or collected, for the wings were +already quite clean of down and feathered as in the adult, also a line +down the breast was shed of down and part of the head. This bird would +have been a treasure to me, but we could not risk life for it, so it had +to remain where it was. It was a curious fact that with as much clean ice +to live on as they could have wished for, these destitute derelicts of a +flourishing colony, now gone north to sea on floating bay ice, should +have preferred to remain standing on the only piece of bay ice left, a +piece about ten feet square and now pressed up six feet above water +level, evidently wondering why it was so long in starting north with the +general exodus which must have taken place just a month ago. The whole +incident was most interesting and full of suggestion as to the slow +working of the brain of these queer people. Another point was most weird +to see, that on the _under_ side of this very dirty piece of sea-ice, +which was about two feet thick and which hung over the water as a sort of +cave, we could see the legs and lower halves of dead Emperor chicks +hanging through, and even in one place a dead adult. I hope to make a +picture of the whole quaint incident, for it was a corner crammed full of +Imperial history in the light of what we already knew, and it would +otherwise have been about as unintelligible as any group of animate or +inanimate nature could possibly have been. As it is, it throws more light +on the life history of this strangely primitive bird.... + +"We were joking in the boat as we rowed under these cliffs and saying it +would be a short-lived amusement to see the overhanging cliff part +company and fall on us. So we were glad to find that we were rowing back +to the ship and already 200 or 300 yards away from the place and in open +water when there was a noise like crackling thunder and a huge plunge +into the sea and a smother of rock dust like the smoke of an explosion, +and we realized that the very thing had happened which we had just been +talking about. Altogether it was a very exciting row, for before we got +on board we had the pleasure of seeing the ship shoved in so close to +these cliffs by a belt of heavy pack ice that to us it appeared a toss-up +whether she got out again or got forced in against the rocks. She had no +time or room to turn, and got clear by backing out through the belt of +pack stern first, getting heavy bumps under the counter and on the rudder +as she did so, for the ice was heavy and the swell considerable."[87] + +Westward of Cape Crozier the sides of Mount Terror slope down to the sea, +forming a possible landing-place in calm weather. Here there is a large +Adélie penguin rookery in summer, and it was here that the Discovery left +a record of her movements tied to a post to guide the relieving ship the +following year. It was the return of a sledge party which tried to reach +this record from the Barrier that led to Vince's terrible death.[88] As +we coasted along we could see this post quite plainly, looking as new as +the day it was erected, and we know now that there is communication with +the Barrier behind, while this rookery itself is free from the blizzards +which sweep out to sea by Cape Crozier. It was therefore an excellent +place to winter and it was a considerable disappointment to find that it +was impossible to land. + +This was the first sight we had of a rookery of the little Adélie +penguin. Hundreds of thousands of birds dotted the shore, and there were +many thousands in the sea round the ship. As we came to know these +rookeries better we came to look upon these quaint creatures more as +familiar friends than as casual acquaintances. Whatever a penguin does +has individuality, and he lays bare his whole life for all to see. He +cannot fly away. And because he is quaint in all that he does, but still +more because he is fighting against bigger odds than any other bird, and +fighting always with the most gallant pluck, he comes to be considered as +something apart from the ordinary bird--sometimes solemn, sometimes +humorous, enterprising, chivalrous, cheeky--and always (unless you are +driving a dog-team) a welcome and, in some ways, an almost human friend. + +The alternative landing-place to Cape Crozier was somewhere in McMurdo +Sound, the essential thing being that we should have access to and from +the Barrier, such communication having to be by sea-ice, since the land +is for the most part impassable. As we steamed from Cape Crozier to Cape +Bird, the N.W. extremity of Ross Island, we carried out a detailed +running survey. + +When we neared Cape Bird and Beaufort Island we could see that there was +much pack in the mouth of the Strait. By keeping close in to the land we +avoided the worst of the trouble, and "as we rounded Cape Bird we came in +sight of the old well-remembered landmarks--Mount Discovery and the +Western Mountains--seen dimly through a hazy atmosphere. It was good to +see them again, and perhaps after all we are better this side of the +Island. It gives one a homely feeling to see such a familiar scene."[89] + +Right round from Cape Crozier to Cape Royds the coast is cold and +forbidding, and for the most part heavily crevassed. West of Cape Bird +are some small penguin rookeries, and high up on the ice slopes could be +seen some grey granite boulders. These are erratics, brought by ice from +the Western Mountains, and are evidence of a warmer past when the Barrier +rose some two thousand feet higher than it does now, and stretched many +hundreds of miles farther out to sea. But now the Antarctic is becoming +colder, the deposition of snow is therefore farther north, and the +formation of ice correspondingly less. + +[Illustration: SOUNDING--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +[Illustration: KRISRAVITZA] + +Many watched all night, as this new world unfolded itself, cape by cape +and mountain by mountain. We pushed through some heavy floes and "at 6 +A.M. (on January 4) we came through the last of the Strait pack some +three miles north of Cape Royds. We steered for the Cape, fully expecting +to find the edge of the pack-ice ranging westward from it. To our +astonishment we ran on past the Cape with clear water or thin sludge ice +on all sides of us. Past Cape Royds, past Cape Barne, past the glacier on +its south side, and finally round and past Inaccessible Island, a good +two miles south of Cape Royds. The Cape itself was cut off from the +south. We could have gone farther, but the last sludge ice seemed to be +increasing in thickness, and there was no wintering spot to aim for but +Cape Armitage.[90] I have never seen the ice of the Sound in such a +condition or the land so free from snow. Taking these facts in +conjunction with the exceptional warmth of the air, I came to the +conclusion that it had been an exceptionally warm summer. At this point +it was evident that we had a considerable choice of wintering spots. We +could have gone to either of the small islands, to the mainland, the +Glacier Tongue, or pretty well anywhere except Hut Point. My main wish +was to choose a place that would not be easily cut off from the Barrier, +and my eye fell on a cape which we used to call the Skuary, a little +behind us. It was separated from the old Discovery quarters by two deep +bays on either side of the Glacier Tongue, and I thought that these bays +would remain frozen until late in the season, and that when they froze +over again the ice would soon become firm. I called a council and put +these propositions. To push on to the Glacier Tongue and winter there; to +push west to the 'tombstone' ice and to make our way to an inviting spot +to the northward of the cape we used to call 'the Skuary.' I favoured the +latter course, and on discussion we found it obviously the best, so we +turned back close around Inaccessible Island and steered for the fast ice +off the Cape at full speed. After piercing a small fringe of thin ice at +the edge of the fast floe the ship's stem struck heavily on hard bay ice +about a mile and a half from the shore. Here was a road to the Cape and a +solid wharf on which to land our stores. We made fast with +ice-anchors."[91] + +Scott, Wilson and Evans walked away over the sea-ice, but were soon back. +They reported an excellent site for a hut on a shelving beach on the +northern side of the Cape before us, which was henceforward called Cape +Evans, after our second in command. Landing was to begin forthwith. + +First came the two big motor sledges which took up so much of our deck +space. In spite of the hundreds of tons of sea-water which had washed +over and about them they came out of their big crates looking "as fresh +and clean as if they had been packed on the previous day."[92] They were +running that same afternoon. + +We had a horse-box for the ponies, which came next, but it wanted all +Oates' skill and persuasion to get them into it. All seventeen of them +were soon on the floe, rolling and kicking with joy, and thence they were +led across to the beach where they were carefully picketed to a rope run +over a snow slope where they could not eat sand. Shackleton lost four out +of eight ponies within a month of his arrival. His ponies were picketed +on rubbly ground at Cape Royds, and ate the sand for the salt flavour it +possessed. The fourth pony died from eating shavings in which chemicals +had been packed. This does not mean that they were hungry, merely that +these Manchurian ponies eat the first thing that comes in their way, +whether it be a bit of sugar or a bit of Erebus. + +Meanwhile the dog-teams were running light loads between the ship and the +shore. "The great trouble with them has been due to the fatuous conduct +of the penguins. Groups of these have been constantly leaping on to our +floe. From the moment of landing on their feet their whole attitude +expressed devouring curiosity and a pig-headed disregard for their own +safety. They waddle forward, poking their heads to and fro in their +usually absurd way, in spite of a string of howling dogs straining to get +at them. 'Hulloa!' they seem to say, 'here's a game--what do all you +ridiculous things want?' And they come a few steps nearer. The dogs make +a rush as far as their harness or leashes allow. The penguins are not +daunted in the least, but their ruffs go up and they squawk with +semblance of anger, for all the world as though they were rebutting a +rude stranger--their attitude might be imagined to convey, 'Oh, that's +the sort of animal you are; well, you've come to the wrong place--we +aren't going to be bluffed and bounced by you,' and then the final fatal +steps forward are taken and they come within reach. There is a spring, a +squawk, a horrid red patch on the snow, and the incident is closed."[93] + +Everything had to be sledged nearly a mile and a half across the sea-ice, +but at midnight, after seventeen hours' continuous work, the position was +most satisfactory. The large amount of timber which went to make the hut +was mostly landed. The ponies and dogs were sleeping in the sun on shore. +A large green tent housed the hut builders, and the site for the hut was +levelled. + +"Such weather in such a place comes nearer to satisfying my ideal of +perfection than any condition I have ever experienced. The warm glow of +the sun with the keen invigorating cold of the air forms a combination +which is inexpressibly health-giving and satisfying to me, whilst the +golden light on this wonderful scene of mountain and ice satisfies every +claim of scenic magnificence. No words of mine can convey the +impressiveness of the wonderful panorama displayed to our eyes.... It's +splendid to see at last the effect of all the months of preparation and +organisation. There is much snoring about me as I write (2 A.M.) from men +tired after a hard day's work and preparing for such another to-morrow. I +also must sleep, for I have had none for 48 hours--but it should be to +dream happily."[94] + +Getting to bed about midnight and turning out at 5 A.M. we kept it up day +after day. Petrol, paraffin, pony food, dog food, sledges and sledging +gear, hut furniture, provisions of all kinds both for life at the hut and +for sledging, coal, scientific instruments and gear, carbide, medical +stores, clothing--I do not know how many times we sledged over that +sea-ice, but I do know that we were landed as regards all essentials in +six days. "Nothing like it has been done before; nothing so expeditious +and complete."[95] ... and "Words cannot express the splendid way in +which every one works."[96] + +The two motors, the two dog-teams, man-hauling parties, and, as they were +passed for work by Oates, the ponies; all took part in this transport. As +usual Bowers knew just where everything was, and where it was to go, and +he was most ably seconded on the ship by Rennick and Bruce. Both +man-hauling parties and pony-leaders commonly did ten journeys a day, a +distance of over thirty miles. The ponies themselves did one to three or +four journeys as they were considered fit. + +Generally speaking the transport seemed satisfactory, but it soon became +clear that sea-ice was very hard on the motor sledge runners. "The motor +sledges are working well, but not very well; the small difficulties will +be got over, but I rather fear they will never draw the loads we expect +of them. Still they promise to be a help, and they are a lively and +attractive feature of our present scene as they drone along over the +floe. At a little distance, without silencers, they sound exactly like +threshing machines."[97] + +The ponies were the real problem. It was to be expected that they would +be helpless and exhausted after their long and trying voyage. Not a bit +of it! They were soon rolling about, biting one another, kicking one +another, and any one else, with the best will in the world. After two +days' rest on shore, twelve of them were thought fit to do one journey, +on which they pulled loads varying from 700 to 1000 lbs. with ease on the +hard sea-ice surface. But it was soon clear that these ponies were an +uneven lot. There were the steady workers like Punch and Nobby; there +were one or two definitely weak ponies like Blossom, Blücher and Jehu; +and there were one or two strong but rather impossible beasts. One of +these was soon known as Weary Willie. His outward appearance belied him, +for he looked like a pony. A brief acquaintance soon convinced me that +he was without doubt a cross between a pig and a mule. He was obviously a +strong beast and, since he always went as slowly as possible and stopped +as often as possible it was most difficult to form any opinion as to what +load he was really able to draw. Consequently I am afraid there is little +doubt that he was generally overloaded until that grim day on the Barrier +when he was set upon by a dog-team. It was his final collapse at the end +of the Depôt journey which caused Scott to stay behind when we went out +on the sea-ice. But of that I shall speak again. + +Twice only have I ever seen Weary Willie trot. We were leading the ponies +now as always with halters and without bits. Consequently our control was +limited, especially on ice, but doubtless the ponies' comfort was +increased, especially in cold weather when a metal bit would have been +difficult if not impossible. On this occasion he and I had just arrived +at the ship after a trudge in which I seemed to be pulling both Weary and +the sledge. Just then a motor back-fired, and we started back across that +floe at a pace which surprised Weary even more than myself, for he fell +over the sledge, himself and me, and for days I felt like a big black +bruise. The second occasion on which he got a move on was during the +Depôt journey when Gran on ski tried to lead him. + +Christopher and Hackenschmidt were impossible ponies. Christopher, as we +shall see, died on the Barrier a year after this, fighting almost to the +last. Hackenschmidt, so called "from his vicious habit of using both fore +and hind legs in attacking those who came near him,"[98] led an even more +lurid life but had a more peaceful end. Whether Oates could have tamed +him I do not know: he would have done it if it were possible, for his +management of horses was wonderful. But in any case Hackenschmidt +sickened at the hut while we were absent on the Depôt journey, for no +cause which could be ascertained, gradually became too weak to stand, and +was finally put out of his misery. + +There was a breathless minute when Hackenschmidt, with a sledge attached +to him, went galloping over the hills and boulders. Below him, all +unconscious of his impending fate, was Ponting, adjusting a large camera +with his usual accuracy. Both survived. There were runaways innumerable, +and all kinds of falls. But these ponies could tumble about unharmed in a +way which would cause an English horse to lie up for a week. "There is no +doubt that the bumping of the sledges close at the heels of the animals +is the root of the evil."[99] + +There were two adventures during this first week of landing stores which +might well have had a more disastrous conclusion. The first of these was +the adventure of Ponting and the Killer whales. + +"I was a little late on the scene this morning, and thereby witnessed a +most extraordinary scene. Some six or seven killer whales, old and young, +were skirting the fast floe edge ahead of the ship; they seemed excited +and dived rapidly, almost touching the floe. As we watched, they suddenly +appeared astern, raising their snouts out of water. I had heard weird +stories of these beasts, but had never associated serious danger with +them. Close to the water's edge lay the wire stern rope of the ship, and +our two Esquimaux dogs were tethered to this. I did not think of +connecting the movement of the whales with this fact, and seeing them so +close I shouted to Ponting, who was standing abreast of the ship. He +seized his camera and ran towards the floe edge to get a close picture of +the beasts, which had momentarily disappeared. The next moment the whole +floe under him and the dogs heaved up and split into fragments. One could +hear the booming noise as the whales rose under the ice and struck it +with their backs. Whale after whale rose under the ice, setting it +rocking fiercely; luckily Ponting kept his feet and was able to fly to +security. By an extraordinary chance also, the splits had been made +around and between the dogs, so that neither of them fell into the water. +Then it was clear that the whales shared our astonishment, for one after +another their huge hideous heads shot vertically into the air through +the cracks which they had made. As they reared them to a height of six +or eight feet it was possible to see their tawny head markings, their +small glistening eyes, and their terrible array of teeth--by far the +largest and most terrifying in the world. There cannot be a doubt that +they looked up to see what had happened to Ponting and the dogs. + +"The latter were horribly frightened and strained to their chains, +whining; the head of one killer must certainly have been within five feet +of one of the dogs. + +"After this, whether they thought the game insignificant, or whether they +missed Ponting is uncertain, but the terrifying creatures passed on to +other hunting grounds, and we were able to rescue the dogs, and what was +even more important, our petrol--five or six tons of which was waiting on +a piece of ice which was not split away from the main mass. + +"Of course, we have known well that killer whales continually skirt the +edge of the floes and that they would undoubtedly snap up any one who was +unfortunate enough to fall into the water; but the facts that they could +display such deliberate cunning, that they were able to break ice of such +thickness (at least 2½ feet), and that they could act in unison, were a +revelation to us. It is clear that they are endowed with singular +intelligence, and in future we shall treat that intelligence with every +respect."[100] + +We were to be hunted by these Killer whales again. + +The second adventure was the loss of the third motor sledge. It was +Sunday morning, January 8, and Scott had given orders that this motor was +to be hoisted out of the ship. "This was done first thing and the motor +placed on firm ice. Later Campbell told me one of the men had dropped a +leg through crossing a sludgy patch some 200 yards from the ship. I +didn't consider it very serious, as I imagined the man had only gone +through the surface crust. About 7 A.M. I started for the shore with a +single man load, leaving Campbell looking about for the best crossing for +the motor."[101] + +I find a note in my own diary as to what happened after that: "Last night +the ice was getting very soft in places, and I was a little doubtful +about leading ponies over a spot on the route to the hut which is about a +quarter of a mile from the ship. It has been thawing very fast the last +few days, and has been very hot as Antarctic weather goes. This morning +was the same, and Bailey went in up to his neck. + +"Some half-hour after the motor was put on to the floe, we were told to +tow it on to firm ice as that near the ship was breaking up. All hands +started on a long tow line. We got on to the rotten piece, and somebody +behind shouted 'You must run.' From that moment everything happened very +quickly. Williamson fell right in through the ice; immediately afterwards +we were all brought up with a jerk. Then the line began to pull us +backwards; the stern of the motor had sunk through the ice, and the whole +car began to sink. It slowly went right through and disappeared and then +the tow line followed it. Everything possible was done to hang on to the +rope, but in the end we had to let it go, each man keeping his hold until +he was dragged to the lip of the hole. Then we made for the fast ice, +leaving the rotten bit between us and the ship. + +"Pennell and Priestley sounded their way back to the ship, and Day asked +Priestley to bring his goggles when he returned. They came back with a +life-line, Pennell leading. Suddenly the ice gave way under Priestley, +who disappeared entirely and came up, so we learned afterwards, under the +ice, there being a big current. In a moment Pennell was lying flat upon +the floe on his chest, got his hand under Priestley's arm, and so pulled +him out. All Priestley said was, 'Day, here are your goggles.' We all got +back to the ship, but communication between the ship and the shore was +interrupted for the rest of the day, when a solid road was found right up +to the ship in another place."[102] + +Meanwhile the hut was rising very quickly, and Davies, who was Chippy +Chap, the carpenter, deserves much credit. He was a leading shipwright +in the navy, always willing and bright, and with a very thorough +knowledge of his job. I have seen him called up hour after hour, day and +night, on the ship, when the pumps were choked by the coal balls which +formed in the bilges, and he always arrived with a smile on his face. +Altogether he was one of our most useful men. In this job of hut-building +he was helped by two of our seamen, Keohane and Abbott, and others. +Latterly I believe there were more people working than there were +hammers! + +A plan of this hut is given here. It was 50 feet long, by 25 feet wide, +and 9 feet to the eaves. The insulation, which was very satisfactory, was +seaweed, sewn up in the form of a quilt. + +"The sides have double [match-] boarding inside and outside the frames, +with a layer of our excellent quilted seaweed insulation between each +pair of boardings. The roof has a single match-boarding inside, but on +the outside is a match-boarding, then a layer of 2-ply ruberoid, then a +layer of quilted seaweed, then a second match-boarding, and finally a +cover of 3-ply ruberoid."[103] + +The floor consisted of a wooden boarding next the frame, then a quilt of +seaweed, then a layer of felt upon which was a second boarding and +finally linoleum. + +We thought we should be warm, and we were. In fact, during the winter, +with twenty-five men living there, and the cooking range going, and +perhaps also the stove at the other end, the hut not infrequently became +fuggy, big though it was. + +The entrance was through a door in a porch before you got to the main +door. In the porch were the generators of the acetylene gas, which was +fitted throughout by Day, who was also responsible for the fittings of +the ventilator, cooking range, and stove, the chimney pipes from these +running along through the middle of the hut before entering a common +vent. Little heat was lost. The pipes were fitted with dampers, and air +inlets which could be opened or shut at will to control the ventilation. +Besides a big ventilator in the top of the hut there was an adjustable +air inlet also at the base of the chamber which formed the junction of +the two chimneys. The purpose of this was also ventilation, but it was +not successful. + +The bulkhead which separated the men's quarters, or mess deck, from the +rest of the hut, was formed of such cases as contained goods in glass, +including wine, which would have frozen and broken outside. The bulkhead +did not go as high as the top of the hut. When the contents of a case +were wanted, a side of the box was taken out, and the empty case then +formed a shelf. + +We started to live in the hut on January 18, beautifully warm, the +gramophone going, and everybody happy. But for a long time before this +most of the landing party had been living in tents on shore. It was very +comfortable, far more so than might be supposed, judging only by the +popular idea of a polar life. We were now almost landed, there were just +a few things more to come over from the ship. "It was blowing a mild +blizzard from the south, and I took a sledge over to the ship, which was +quite blotted out in blinding snow at times. It was as hard to get an +empty sledge over, as generally it is to drag a full one. Tea on the +ship, which was very full of welcome, but also very full of the +superiority of their own comforts over those of the land. Their own +comforts were not so very obvious, since they had tried to get the stove +in the wardroom going for the first time. They were all coughing in the +smoke, and everything inside was covered with smuts."[104] + +The hut itself was some twelve feet above the sea, and situated upon what +was now an almost sandy beach of black lava. It was thought that this was +high enough to be protected from any swell likely to arrive in such a +sheltered place, but, as we shall see, Scott was very anxious as to the +fate of the hut, when, on the Depôt journey, a swell removed not only +miles of sea-ice and a good deal of Barrier, but also the end of Glacier +Tongue. We never saw this beach again, for the autumn gales covered it +with thick drifts of snow, and the thaw was never enough to remove this +for the two other summers we spent here. There is no doubt this was an +exceptional year for thaw. We never again saw a little waterfall such as +was now tumbling down the rocks from Skua Lake into the sea. + +The little hill of 66 feet high behind us was soon named Wind Vane Hill, +and there were other meteorological instruments there besides. A +snow-drift or ice-drift always forms to leeward of any such projection, +and that beneath this hill was large enough for us to drive into it two +ice caves. The first of these was to contain our larder, notably the +frozen mutton carcasses brought down by us from New Zealand in the +ice-house on deck. These, however, showed signs of mildew, and we never +ate very freely of them. Seal and penguin were our stock meat foods, and +mutton was considered to be a luxury. + +The second cave, 13 feet long by 5 feet wide, hollowed out by Simpson and +Wright, was for the magnetic instruments. The temperature of these caves +was found to be fairly constant. Unfortunately, this was the only drift +into which we could tunnel, and we had no such mass of snow and ice as is +afforded by the Barrier, which can be burrowed, and was burrowed +extensively by Amundsen and his men. + +The cases containing the bulk of our stores were placed in stacks +arranged by Bowers up on the sloping ground to the west of the hut, +beginning close to the entrance door. The sledges lay on the hill side +above them. This arrangement was very satisfactory during the first +winter, but the excessive blizzards of the second winter and the immense +amount of snow which was gathering about the camp caused us to move +everything up to the top of the ridge behind the hut where the wind kept +them more clear. Amundsen found it advisable to put his cases in two long +lines.[105] + +The dogs were tethered to a long chain or rope. The ponies' stable was +built against the northern side of the hut, and was thus sheltered from +the blizzards which always blow here from the south. Against the south +side of the hut Bowers built himself a store-room. "Every day he +conceives or carries out some plan to benefit the camp."[106] + +"Scott seems very cheery about things," I find in my diary about this +time. And well he might be. A man could hardly be better served. We +slaved until we were nearly dead-beat, and then we found something else +to do until we were quite dead-beat. Ship's company and landing parties +alike, not only now but all through this job, did their very utmost, and +their utmost was very good. The way men worked was fierce. + +"If you can picture our house nestling below this small hill on a long +stretch of black sand, with many tons of provision cases ranged in neat +blocks in front of it and the sea lapping the ice-foot below, you will +have some idea of our immediate vicinity. As for our wider surroundings +it would be difficult to describe their beauty in sufficiently glowing +terms. Cape Evans is one of the many spurs of Erebus and the one that +stands closest under the mountain, so that always towering above us we +have the grand snowy peak with its smoking summit. North and south of us +are deep bays, beyond which great glaciers come rippling over the lower +slopes to thrust high blue-walled snouts into the sea. The sea is blue +before us, dotted with shining bergs or ice floes, whilst far over the +Sound, yet so bold and magnificent as to appear near, stand the beautiful +Western Mountains with their numerous lofty peaks, their deep glacial +valley and clear cut scarps, a vision of mountain scenery that can have +few rivals."[107] + +[Illustration: MT. EREBUS, THE RAMP AND THE HUT] + +"Before I left England people were always telling me the Antarctic must +be dull without much life. Now we are in ourselves a perfect farmyard. +There are nineteen ponies fifty yards off and thirty dogs just behind, +and they howl like the wolves they are at intervals, led by Dyk. The +skuas are nesting all round and fighting over the remains of the seals +which we have killed, and the penguins which the dogs have killed, +whenever they have got the chance. The collie bitch which we have +brought down for breeding purposes wanders about the camp. A penguin is +standing outside my tent, presumably because he thinks he is going to +moult here. A seal has just walked up into the horse lines--there are +plenty of Weddell and penguins and whales. On board we have Nigger and a +blue Persian kitten, with rabbits and squirrels. The whole place teems +with life. + +"Franky Drake is employed all day wandering round for ice for watering +the ship. Yesterday he had made a pile out on the floe, and the men +wanted to have a flag put on it, and have it photographed, and called +'Mr. Drake's Furthest South.'"[108] + +January 25 was fixed as the day upon which twelve of us, with eight +ponies and the two dog-teams, were to start south to lay a depôt upon the +Barrier for the Polar Journey. Scott was of opinion that the bays between +us and the Hut Point Peninsula would freeze over in March, probably early +in March, and that we should most of us get back to Cape Evans then. At +the same time the ponies could not come down over the cliffs of this +tongue of land, and preparations had to be made for a lengthy stay at Hut +Point for them and their keepers. For this purpose Scott meant to use the +old Discovery hut at Hut Point.[109] + +On January 15 he took Meares and one dog-team, and started for Hut Point, +which was fifteen statute miles to the south of us. They crossed Glacier +Tongue, finding upon it a depôt of compressed fodder and maize which had +been left by Shackleton. The open water to the west nearly reached the +Tongue. + +On arrival at the hut Scott was shocked to find it full of snow and ice. +This was serious, and, as we found afterwards the drifted snow had thawed +down into ice: the whole of the inside of this hut was a big ice block. +In the middle of this ice was a pile of cases left by the Discovery as a +depôt. They were, we knew, full of biscuit. + +"There was something too depressing in finding the old hut in such a +desolate condition. I had had so much interest in seeing all the old +landmarks and the huts apparently intact. To camp outside and feel that +all the old comforts and cheer had departed was dreadfully +heartrending."[110] + +That night "we slept badly till the morning and, therefore, late. After +breakfast we went up the hills; there was a keen S.E. breeze, but the sun +shone and my spirits revived. There was very much less snow everywhere +than I had ever seen. The ski run was completely cut through in two +places, the Gap and Observation Hill almost bare, a great bare slope on +the side of Arrival Heights, and on top of Crater Heights an immense bare +table-land. How delighted we should have been to see it like this in the +old days! The pond was thawed and the confervae green in fresh water. The +hole which we had dug in the mound in the pond was still there, as Meares +discovered by falling into it up to his waist, and getting very wet. + +"On the south side we could see the pressure ridges beyond Pram Point as +of old--Horseshoe Bay calm and unpressed--the sea-ice pressed on Pram +Point and along the Gap ice front, and a new ridge running around C. +Armitage about 2 miles off. We saw Ferrar's old thermometer tubes +standing out of the snow slope as though they'd been placed yesterday. +Vince's cross might have been placed yesterday--the paint was so fresh +and the inscription so legible."[111] + +We had two officers who had been with Shackleton in his 1908 +Expedition--Priestley, who was in our Northern Party, and Day, who was in +charge of our motors. Priestley with two others sledged over to Cape +Royds and has left an account of the old hut there: + +"After pitching tent Levick and I went over to the hut to forage. On the +way I visited Derrick Point and took a large seven-pound tin of butter +while Levick opened up the hut. It was very dark inside but I pulled the +boarding down from the windows so that we could see all right. It was +very funny to see everything lying about just as we had left it, in that +last rush to get off in the lull of the blizzard. On Marston's bunk was a +sixpenny copy of the Story of Bessie Costrell, which some one had +evidently read and left open. Perhaps what brought the old times back +again more than anything else was the fact that as I came out of the +larder the sleeve of my wind clothes caught the tap of the copper and +turned it on. When I heard the drip of the water I turned instinctively +and turned the tap off, almost expecting to hear Bobs' raucous voice +cursing me for my clumsiness. Perhaps what strikes one more forcibly than +anything else is the fact that nothing has been disturbed. On the table +was the remains of a batch of bread that Bobs had cooked for us and that +was only partially consumed before the Nimrod called for us. Some of the +rolls showed the impression of bites given to them in 1909. All round the +bread were the sauces, pickles, pepper and salt of our usual standing +lunch, and a half-opened tin of gingerbreads was a witness to the dryness +of the climate for they were still crisp as the day they were opened. + +"In the cubicle near the larder were the loose tins that poor Armytage +and myself had collected from all round the hut before we left. + +"On the shelves of my cubicle are still stacked the magazines and paper +brought down by the relief ship. Nothing is changed at all except the +company. It is almost dismal. I expect to see people come in through the +door after a walk over the surrounding hills. + +"We had not much time to look round us; for Campbell was cooking in the +tent, so we slung a few tins of jam, a plum-pudding, some tea, and +gingerbreads into a sack, and returned to camp. By this time it was +snowing heavily and continued to do so after dinner so that we turned in +immediately (1.30 P.M.) and went off to sleep. One thing worth mentioning +is that on several of the drifts are well-defined hoof marks, some of +them looking so new that we could have sworn that they had been made this +year. + +"The Old Sport [Levick] gave us a start by suddenly announcing that he +could see a ship quite close, and for some time we were on tenterhooks, +but his ship proved to be the Terra Nova ice-anchored off the Skuary. + +"The whole place is very eerie, there is such a feeling of life about it. +Not only do I feel it but the others do also. Last night after I turned +in I could have sworn that I heard people shouting to each other. + +"I thought that I had only got an attack of nerves but Campbell asked me +if I had heard any shouting, for he had certainly done so. It must have +been the seals calling to each other, but it certainly did sound most +human. We are getting so worked up that we should not be a bit surprised +to see a settlement of Japanese or some other such people some day when +we stroll round towards Blacksand Beach. The Old Sport created some +amusement this evening by opening a tin of Nestlé's milk at both ends +instead of making the two holes at one end. He informed us that he had +got so used to using two whole tins of milk for cocoa for fourteen people +at night that he always opened them that way. + +"As a consequence we have to spend most of our spare time making bungs to +keep the milk in the tin."[112] + +Meanwhile, as was to be expected, the action of the, I suspect, abnormal +summer sea temperature was showing its effect upon the sea-ice. Sea-ice +thaws from below when the temperature of the water rises. The northern +ice goes out first here, being next to the open water, but big thaw pools +form at the same time wherever a current of water flows over shallows, as +at the end of Cape Evans, Hut Point and Cape Armitage. + +On January 17 the ice was breaking away between the point of Cape Evans +and the ship, although a road still remained fast between the ship and +the shore. The ship began to get up steam, but the fast ice broke away +quickly that night. I believe they got steam in three hours, twelve hours +being the time generally allowed: only just in time, however, for she +broke adrift as it was reported. The next morning she made fast to the +ice only 200 yards from the ice-foot of the Cape. + +"For the present the position is extraordinarily comfortable. With a +southerly blow she would simply bind on to the ice, receiving great +shelter from the end of the Cape. With a northerly blow she might turn +rather close to the shore, where the soundings run to three fathoms, but +behind such a stretch of ice she could scarcely get a sea or swell +without warning. It looks a wonderfully comfortable little nook, but of +course one can be certain of nothing in this place; one knows from +experience how deceptive the appearance of security may be."[113] + +The ship's difficulties were largely due to the shortage of coal. Again +on the night of January 20-21 we had an anxious time. + +"Fearing a little trouble I went out of the hut in the middle of the +night and saw at once that she was having a bad time--the ice was +breaking with a northerly swell and the wind increasing, with the ship on +dead lee shore; luckily the ice anchors had been put well in on the floe +and some still held. Pennell was getting up steam and his men struggling +to replace the anchors. + +"We got out the men and gave some help. At 6 steam was up, and I was +right glad to see the ship back out to windward, leaving us to recover +anchors and hawsers."[114] + +A big berg drove in just after the ship had got away, and grounded where +she had been lying. The ship returned in the afternoon, and it seems that +she was searching round for an anchorage, and trying to look behind this +berg. There was a strongish northerly wind blowing. The currents and +soundings round Cape Evans were then unknown. The current was setting +strongly from the north through the strip of sea which divides +Inaccessible Island from Cape Evans, a distance of some two-thirds of a +mile. The engines were going astern, but the current and wind were too +much for her, and the ship ran aground, being fast for some considerable +distance aft--some said as far as the mainmast. + +"Visions of the ship failing to return to New Zealand and of sixty people +waiting here arose in my mind with sickening pertinacity, and the only +consolation I could draw from such imaginations was the determination +that the southern work should go on as before--meanwhile the least ill +possible seemed to be an extensive lightening of the ship with boats as +the tide was evidently high when she struck--a terribly depressing +prospect. + +"Some three or four of us watched it gloomily from the shore whilst all +was bustle on board, the men shifting cargo aft. Pennell tells me they +shifted 10 tons in a very short time. + +"The first ray of hope came when by careful watching one could see that +the ship was turning very slowly, then one saw the men running from side +to side and knew that an attempt was being made to roll her off. The +rolling produced a more rapid turning movement at first, and then she +seemed to hang again. But only for a short time; the engines had been +going astern all the time and presently a slight movement became +apparent. But we only knew she was getting clear when we heard cheers on +board, and more cheers from the whaler. + +"Then she gathered stern way and was clear. The relief was +enormous."[115] + +All this took some time, and Scott himself came back into the hut with us +and went on bagging provisions for the Depôt journey. At such times of +real disaster he was a very philosophical man. We were not yet ready to +go sledging, but on January 23 the ice in North Bay all went out, and +that in South Bay began to follow it. Because this was our road to the +Barrier, it was suddenly decided that we must start on the Depôt journey +the following day or perhaps not at all. Already it was impossible to get +sledges south off the Cape: but there was a way to walk the ponies along +the land until they could be scrambled down a steep rubbly slope on to +sea-ice which still remained. Would it float away before we got there? It +was touch and go. "One breathes a prayer that the Road holds for the few +remaining hours. It goes in one place between a berg in open water and a +large pool of the Glacier face--it may be weak in that part, and at any +moment the narrow isthmus may break away. We are doing it on a very +narrow margin."[116] + +FOOTNOTES: + + [84] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 77. + + [85] Thomson. + + [86] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 80. + + [87] Wilson's Journal, _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 613, + 614. + + [88] See Introduction, p. xxxv. + + [89] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 87. + + [90] The extreme south point of the island, a dozen miles farther, + on one of whose minor headlands, Hut Point, stood the + Discovery hut. + + [91] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 88-90. + + [92] Ibid. p. 91. + + [93] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 52-93. + + [94] Ibid. pp. 92-94. + + [95] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 111. + + [96] Ibid. p. 94. + + [97] Ibid. p. 100. + + [98] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 230. + + [99] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 113-114. + + [100] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 94-96. + + [101] Ibid. p. 106. + + [102] My own diary. + + [103] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 111. + + [104] My own diary. + + [105] _The South Pole_, vol. i. p. 278. + + [106] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 128. + + [107] Ibid. p. 129. + + [108] My own diary. + + [109] See Introduction, p. xxxiv. + + [110] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 122. + + [111] Ibid. pp. 122-123. + + [112] Priestley's diary. + + [113] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 127. + + [114] Ibid. p. 134. + + [115] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 136. + + [116] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 138. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE DEPÔT JOURNEY + + The dropping of the daylight in the west. + ROBERT BROWNING. + + + January to March 1911 + + SCOTT MEARES CREAN + WILSON ATKINSON FORDE + LIEUT. EVANS CHERRY-GARRARD DIMITRI + BOWERS GRAN + OATES KEOHANE + +Imaginative friends of the thirteen men who started from Cape Evans on +January 24, 1911, may have thought of them as athletes, trained for some +weeks or months to endure the strains which they were to face, sleeping a +good nine hours a night, eating carefully regulated meals and doing an +allotted task each day under scientific control. + +They would be far from the mark. For weeks we had turned in at midnight +too tired to take off our clothes, and had been lucky if we were allowed +to sleep until 5 A.M. We had eaten our meals when we could, and we had +worked in the meantime just as hard as it was physically possible to do. +If we sat down on a packing-case we went to sleep. + +And we finally left the camp in a state of hurry bordering upon panic. +Since the ice to the south of us, the road to the Barrier, was being +nibbled away by thaw, winds and tides, it was impossible to lead the +ponies down from the Cape on to the sea-ice. The open sea was before us +and on our right front. It was necessary to lead them up among the lava +blocks which lay on the escarpment of Erebus, south-eastwards towards +Land's End, and thence to slide them down a steep but rubbly slope to the +ice which still remained. As a matter of fact that ice went out the very +next day. + +During the last two days provisions had been bagged with the utmost +despatch; sledges packed; letters scribbled; clothing sorted and rough +alterations to it made. Scott was busy, with Bowers' help, making such +arrangements as could be suggested for a further year's stay, for which +the ship was to order the necessaries. Oates was busy weighing out the +pony food for the journey, sorting harness, and generally managing a most +unruly mob of ponies. Many were the arguments as to the relative value of +a pair of socks or their equivalent weight in tobacco, for we were +allowed 12 lbs. of private gear apiece, to consist of everything which we +did not habitually wear on our bodies. This included such things as: + + Sleeping-boots. + Sleeping-socks. + Extra pair of day socks. + A shirt. + Tobacco and pipe. + Notebook for diary and pencil. + Extra balaclava helmet. + Extra woollen mitts. + Housewife containing buttons, needles, darning needles, + thread and wool. + Extra pair of finnesko. + Big safety-pins with which to hang up our socks. + And perhaps one small book. + +My most vivid recollection of the day we started is the sight of Bowers, +out of breath, very hot, and in great pain from a bad knock which he had +given his knee against a rock, being led forward by his big pony Uncle +Bill, over whom temporarily he had but little control. He had been left +behind in the camp, giving last instructions about the storage of cases +and management of provisions, and had practically lost himself in trying +to follow us over what was then unknown ground. He was wearing all the +clothing which was not included in his personal gear, for he did not +think it fair to give the pony the extra weight. He had bruised his leg +in an ugly way, and for many days he came to me to bandage it. He was +afraid that if he let the doctors see it they would forbid him to go +forward. He had had no sleep for seventy-two hours. + +That first night (January 24) we pitched our inexperienced camp not far +from Hut Point. But our first taste of sledging was not without incident. +Starting with the ponies only we walked them to Glacier Tongue, where the +ice and open water joined, and as we went we watched the ship pass us out +in the Strait and moor up to the end of the Tongue. Getting the ponies +across the Tongue with its shallow but numerous crevasses and holes was +ticklish work, but we tethered them safely off the Terra Nova, which +meanwhile was landing dogs, sledges and gear. Then we got some lunch on +board. A large lead in the sea-ice to the south of the Tongue +necessitated some hours' work in man-hauling all sledges along the back +of the Tongue until a way could be found down on to safe ice. We then +followed with the ponies. "If a pony falls into one of these holes I +shall sit down and cry," said Oates. Within three minutes my pony was +wallowing, with only his head and forelegs visible, in a mess of brash +and snow, which had concealed a crack in the sea-ice which was obviously +not going to remain much longer in its present position. We got lashings +round him and hauled him out. Poor Guts! He was fated to drown: but in an +hour he appeared to have forgotten all about his mishap, and was pulling +his first load towards Hut Point as gallantly as always. + +The next day we took further stores from the ship to the camp which had +formed. Some of these loads were to be left on the edge of the Barrier +when we got there, but for the present we had to relay, that is, take one +load forward and come back for another. + +On the 26th we sledged back to the ship for our last load, and said +good-bye on the sea-ice to those men with whom we had already worked so +long, to Campbell and his five companions who were to suffer so much, to +cheery Pennell and his ship's company. + +Before we left, Scott thanked Pennell and his men "for their splendid +work. They have behaved like bricks, and a finer lot of men never sailed +in a ship.... It was a little sad to say farewell to all these good +fellows and Campbell and his men. I do most heartily trust that all will +be successful in their ventures, for indeed their unselfishness and their +generous high spirit deserve reward. God bless them." + +Four of that Depôt party were never to see these men again, and Pennell, +Commander of the Queen Mary, went down with his ship in the battle of +Jutland. + +Two days later, January 28, we sledged our first loads on to the Barrier. +By that day we had done nearly ninety miles of relay work, first from the +ship at Glacier Tongue to our camp off Hut Point, and then onwards. Those +first days of sledging were wonderful! What memories they must have +brought to Scott and Wilson when to us, who had never seen them before, +these much-discussed landmarks were almost like old friends. As we made +our way over the frozen sea every seal-hole was of interest, and every +type of wind-swept snow a novelty. The peak of Terror opened out behind +the crater of Erebus, and we walked under Castle Rock and Danger Slope +until, rounding the promontory, we saw the little jagged Hut Point, and +on it the cross placed there to Vince's memory, all unchanged. There was +the old Discovery hut and the Bay in which the Discovery lay, and from +which she was almost miraculously freed at the last moment, only to be +flung upon the shoal which runs out from the Point, where some tins of +the old Discovery days lie on the bottom still and glint in the evening +sun. And round about the Bay were the Heights of which we had read, +Observation Hill, and Crater Hill separated from it by The Gap--through +which the wind was streaming; of course it was, for this must be the +famous Hut Point wind. + +A few hundred more blizzards had swept over it since those days, but it +was all just the same, even to Ferrar's little stakes placed across the +glacierets to mark their movement, more, even to the footsteps still +plainly visible on the slopes. + +The ponies were dragging up to 900 lbs. each these days, and though they +did not seem to be unduly distressed, two of them soon showed signs of +lameness. This caused some anxiety, but the trouble was mended by rest. +On the whole, though the surface was hard, I think we were giving them +too much weight. + +The sea-ice off Hut Point and Observation Hill was already very +dangerous, and had we then had the experience and knowledge of sea-ice +with which we can now look back, it is probable that we should not have +slept so easily upon its surface. Parties travelling to Hut Point and +beyond in summer must keep well out from the Point and Cape Armitage. But +all haste was being made to transport the necessary stores on to the +Barrier surface, where a big home depôt could be made, so far as we could +judge, in safety. The pressure ridges in the sea-ice between Cape +Armitage and Pram Point, which are formed by the movement of the Barrier, +were large, and in some of the hollows countless seals were playing in +the water. Judging by the size of these ridges and by the thickness of +this ice when it broke up, the ice south of Hut Point was at least two +years old. + +I well remember the day we took the first of our loads on to the Barrier. +I expect we were all a little excited, for to walk upon the Barrier for +the first time was indeed an adventure: what kind of surface was it, and +how about these beastly crevasses of which we had read so much? Scott was +ahead, and so far as we could see there was nothing but the same level of +ice all round--when suddenly he was above us, walking up the sloping and +quite invisible drift. A minute after and our ponies and sledges were up +and over the tide crack, and beneath us soft and yielding snow, very +different from the hard wind-swept surface of the frozen sea, which we +had just left. Really it was rather prosaic and a tame entrance. But the +Barrier is a tricky place, and it takes years to get to know her. + +On our outward journey this day Oates did his best to kill a seal. My own +tent was promised some kidneys if we were good, and our mouths watered +with the prospect of the hoosh before us. The seal had been left for +dead, and when on our homeward way we neared the place of his demise +Titus went off to carve our dinner from him. The next thing we saw was +the seal lolloping straight for his hole, while Oates did his best to +stab him. The quarry made off safely not much hurt, for, as we discovered +later, a clasp-knife is quite useless to kill a seal. Oates returned with +a bad cut, as his hand had slipped down the knife; and it was a long time +before he was allowed to forget it. + +This Barrier, which we were to know so well, was soft, too soft for the +ponies, and apparently flat. Only to our left, some hundreds of yards +distant, there were two little snowy mounds. We got out the telescope +which we carried, but could make nothing of them. While we held our +ponies Scott walked towards them, and soon we saw him brushing away snow +and uncovering something dark beneath. They were tents, obviously left by +Shackleton or his men when the Nimrod was embarking his Southern party +from the Barrier. They were snowed up outside, and iced up inside almost +to the caps. Afterwards we dug them out, a good evening's work. The +fabric was absolutely rotten, we just tore it down with our hands, but +the bamboos and caps were as sound as ever. When we had dug down to the +floor-cloth we found everything intact as when it was left. The cooker +was there and a primus--Scott lighted it and cooked a meal; we often used +it afterwards. And there were Rowntree's cocoa, Bovril, Brand's extract +of beef, sheep's tongues, cheese and biscuits--all open to the snow and +all quite good. We ate them for several days. There is something +impressive in these first meals off food which has been exposed for +years. + +It was on a Saturday, January 28, that we took our first load a short +half-mile on to the Barrier and left it at a place afterwards known as +the Fodder Depôt. Two days later we moved our camp 1 mile 1200 yards +farther on to the Barrier and here was erected the main depôt, known as +Safety Camp. 'Safety' because it was supposed that even if a phenomenal +break-up of sea-ice should occur, and take with it part of the Barrier, +this place would remain. Subsequent events proved the supposition well +founded. This short bit of Barrier sledging gave all of us food for +thought, for the surface was appallingly soft, and the poor ponies were +sinking deep. It was obvious that no animals could last long under such +conditions. But somehow Shackleton had got his four a long way. + +There was now no hurry, for there was plenty of food. It was only when we +went on from here that we must economize food and travel fast. It was +determined to give the ponies a rest while we made the depôt and +rearranged sledges, which we did on the following day. We had with us one +pair of pony snow-shoes, a circle of wire as a foundation, hooped round +with bamboo, and with beckets of the same material. The surface suggested +their trial, which was completely successful. The question of snow-shoes +had been long and anxiously considered, and shoes for all the ponies were +at Cape Evans; but as we had so lately landed from the ship the ponies +had not been trained in their use, and they had not been brought. + +Scott immediately sent Wilson and Meares with a dog-team to see whether +the sea-ice would allow them to reach Cape Evans and bring back shoes for +the other ponies. Meanwhile the next morning saw us trying to accustom +the animals to wearing snow-shoes by exercising them in the one pair we +possessed. But it seemed no use continuing to do this after the dog party +came in. They had found the sea-ice gone between Glacier Tongue and +Winter Quarters and so were empty-handed. They reported that a crevasse +at the edge of the Tongue had opened under the sledge, which had tilted +back into the crevasse but had run over it. These Glacier Tongue +crevasses are shallow things; Gran fell into one later and walked out of +the side of the Tongue on to the sea-ice beyond! + +It was determined to start on the following day with five weeks' +provisions for men and animals; to go forward for about fourteen days, +depôt two weeks' provisions and return. Most unfortunately Atkinson would +have to be left behind with Crean to look after him. He had chafed his +foot, and the chafe had suppurated. To his great disappointment there was +no alternative but to lie up. Luckily we had another tent, and there was +the cooker and primus we had dug out of Shackleton's tent. Poor Crean was +to spend his spare time in bringing up loads from the Fodder Depôt to +Safety Camp and, worse still from his point of view, dig a hole downwards +into the Barrier for scientific observations! + +We left the following morning, February 2, and marched on a patchy +surface for five miles (Camp 4). The temperature was above zero and Scott +decided to see whether the surface was not better at night. On the whole, +it is problematical whether this is the case--we came to the conclusion +later that the ideal surface for pulling a sledge on ski was found at a +temperature of about +16°. But there is no doubt whatever that ponies +should do their work at night, when the temperature is colder, and rest +and sleep when the sun has its greatest altitude and power. And so we +camped and turned in to our sleeping-bags at 4 P.M. and marched again +soon after midnight, doing five miles before and five miles after lunch: +lunch, if you please, being about 1 A.M., and a very good time, for just +then the daylight seemed to be thin and bleak and one always felt the +cold. + +Our road lay eastwards through the Strait, some twenty-five miles in +width, which runs between the low, rather uninteresting scarp of White +Island to the south, and the beautiful slopes of Erebus and Terror to the +north. This part of the Barrier is stagnant, but the main stream in front +of us, unchecked by land, flows uninterruptedly northwards towards the +Ross Sea. Only where the stream presses against the Bluff, White Island +and, most important of all, Cape Crozier, and rubs itself against the +nearly stationary ice upon which we were travelling, pressures and +rendings take place, forming some nasty crevasses. It was intended to +steer nearly east until this line was crossed some distance north of +White Island, and then steer due south. + +It is most difficult on a large snow surface to say whether it is flat. +Certainly there are plenty of big crevasses for several miles in this +neighbourhood, though they are generally well covered, and we found only +very small ones on this outward journey. I am inclined to think there are +also some considerable pressure waves. As we came up to Camp 5 we +floundered into a pocket of soft snow in which one pony after another +plunged deeper and deeper until they were buried up to their bellies and +could move no more. I suppose it was an old crevasse filled with soft +snow, or perhaps one of the pressure-ridge hollows which had been +recently drifted up. My own pony somehow got through with his sledge to +the other side, and every moment I expected the ground to fall below us +and a chasm to swallow us up. The others had to be unharnessed and led +out. The only set of snow-shoes was then put on to Bowers' big pony and +he went back and drew the stranded sledges out. Beyond we pitched our +camp. + +On February 3-4 we marched for ten miles to Camp 6. In the last five +miles we crossed several crevasses, our first; and I heard Oates ask some +one what they looked like. "Black as hell," he said, but we saw no more +just now, for this march carried us beyond the line of pressure which +runs between White Island and Cape Crozier. This halt was called Corner +Camp, as we turned here and marched due south. Corner Camp will be heard +of again and again in this story: it is thirty miles from Hut Point. + +By 4 P.M. it was blowing our first Barrier blizzard. We were to find out +afterwards that a Corner Camp blizzard blows nearly as often as a Hut +Point wind. The Bluff seems to be the breeding-place for these +disturbances, which pour out towards the sea by way of Cape Crozier. +Corner Camp is in the direct line between the two. + +One summer blizzard is much like another. The temperature, never very +low, rises, and you are not cold in the tent. Sometimes a blizzard is a +very welcome rest: after weeks of hard pulling, dragging yourself awake +each morning, feeling as though you had only just gone to sleep, with +the mental strain perhaps which work among crevasses entails, it is most +pleasant to be put to bed for two or three days. You may sleep +dreamlessly nearly all the time, rousing out for meals, or waking +occasionally to hear from the soft warmth of your reindeer bag the deep +boom of the tent flapping in the wind, or drowsily you may visit other +parts of the world, while the drifting snow purrs against the green tent +at your head. + +But outside there is raging chaos. It is blowing a full gale: the air is +full of falling snow, and the wind drives this along and adds to it the +loose snow which is lying on the surface of the Barrier. Fight your way a +few steps away from the tent, and it will be gone. Lose your sense of +direction and there is nothing to guide you back. Expose your face and +hands to the wind, and they will very soon be frost-bitten. And this at +midsummer. Imagine the added cold of spring and autumn: the cold and +darkness of winter. + +The animals suffer most, and during this first blizzard all our ponies +were weakened, and two of them became practically useless. It must be +remembered that they had stood for five weeks upon a heaving deck; they +had been through one very bad gale: the time during which we were +unloading the ship was limited, and since that time they had dragged +heavy loads the greater part of 200 miles. Nothing was left undone for +them which we could manage, but necessarily the Antarctic is a grim place +for ponies. I think Scott felt the sufferings of the ponies more than the +animals themselves. It was different for the dogs. These fairly warm +blizzards were only a rest for them. Snugly curled up in a hole in the +snow they allowed themselves to be drifted over. Bieleglas and Vaida, two +half brothers who pulled side by side, always insisted upon sharing one +hole, and for greater warmth one would lie on the top of the other. At +intervals of two hours or so they fraternally changed places. + +This blizzard lasted three days. + +We now marched nearly due south, the open Barrier in front, Mount Terror +and the sea behind, for five days, covering fifty-four miles, when, being +now level with the southern extremity of the Bluff, we laid the Bluff +Depôt. The bearings of Bluff Depôt, as well as those of Corner Camp, are +given in Scott's Last Expedition. + +The characteristics of these days were the collapse of two of the ponies, +Blücher and Blossom, and the partial collapse of a third, Jimmy Pigg, +although the surface hardened, becoming a marbled series of wind-swept +ridges and domes in this region. For the rest the new hands were finding +out how to keep warm on the Barrier, how to pitch a tent and cook a meal +in twenty minutes, and the thousand and one little tips which only +experience can teach. But all the care in the world could do little for +the poor ponies. + +It must be confessed at once that some of these ponies were very poor +material, and it must be conceded that Oates who was in charge of them +started with a very great handicap. From first to last it was Oates' +consummate management, seconded by the care and kindness of the ponies' +leaders, which obtained results which often exceeded the most sanguine +hopes. + +One evening we watched Scott digging crumbly blocks of snow out of the +Barrier and building a rough wall, something like a grouse butt, to the +south of his pony. In our inmost hearts I fear we viewed these +proceedings with distrust, and saw in it but little usefulness,--one +little bit of leaky wall in a great plain of snow. But a very little wind +(which you must understand comes almost invariably from the south) +convinced us from personal experience what a boon these walls could be. +Henceforward every night on camping each pony leader built a wall behind +his pony while his pemmican was cooking, and came out after supper to +finish this wall before he turned in to his sleeping-bag--no small thing +when you consider that the warmth of your hours of rest depends largely +upon getting into your bag immediately you have eaten your hoosh and +cocoa. And not seldom you might hear a voice in your dreams: "Bill! +Nobby's kicked his wall down"; and out Bill would go to build it up +again. + +[Illustration: DOGSKIN 'MITTS'] + +[Illustration: SLEDGING SPOON, CUP AND PANNIKIN] + +Oates wished to take certain of the ponies as far south as possible on +the Depôt journey, and then to kill them and leave the meat there as a +depôt of dog food for the Polar Journey. Scott was against this plan. +Here at Bluff Depôt he decided to send back the three weakest ponies +(Blossom, Blücher and Jimmy Pigg, with their leaders, Lieutenant Evans, +Forde and Keohane). They started back the next morning (February 13) +while the remainder of the party went forward over a surface which +gradually became softer as we left behind the windy region of the Bluff. +We now had with us the two teams of dogs, driven by Meares and Wilson, +and five ponies. + + Scott with 'Nobby.' + Oates with 'Punch.' + Bowers with 'Uncle Bill.' + Gran with 'Weary Willie.' + Cherry-Garrard with 'Guts.' + +Scott, Wilson, Meares and myself inhabited one tent, Bowers, Oates and +Gran the other. Scott was evolving in his mind means by which ponies +should follow one another in a string, the second pony with his leading +rein fastened to the back of the sledge of the first and so on, the +cavalcade to be managed by two or three men only, instead of one man to +lead each pony. + +Sunday night (February 12) we started from Bluff Depôt and did seven +miles before lunch against a considerable drift and wind. It was pretty +cold, and ten minutes after we left our lunch camp with the ponies it was +blowing a full blizzard. The dog party had not started, so we camped and +slept five in the four-man tent, and it was by no means uncomfortable. +Probably this was the time when Scott first thought of taking a five-man +party to the Pole. By Monday evening the blizzard was over, the dogs came +up, and we did 6½ miles of very heavy going. Gran's pony, Weary Willie, a +sluggish and obstinate animal, was far behind, as usual, when we halted +our ponies at the camping place. Farther off the dog-teams were coming +up. What happened never became clear. Poor Weary, it seems, was in +difficulties in a snow-drift: the dogs of one team being very hungry +took charge of their sledge and in a moment were on the horse, to all +purposes a pack of ravenous wolves. Gran and Weary made a good fight and +the dogs were driven off, but Weary came into camp without his sledge, +covered with blood and looking very sick. + +We halted after doing only ¾ mile more after lunch; for the pony was +done, and little wonder. The following day we did 7½ miles with +difficulty, both Uncle Bill and Weary Willie going very slowly and +stopping frequently. The going was very deep. The ponies were fast giving +out, and it was evident that we had much to learn as to their use on the +Barrier; they were thin and very hungry; their rations were +unsatisfactory; and the autumn temperatures and winds were beyond their +strength. We went on one more day in a minus twenty temperature and light +airs, and then in latitude 79° 29´ S. it was determined to lay the depôt, +which was afterwards known as One Ton, and return. In view of subsequent +events it should be realized that this depôt was just a cairn of snow in +which were buried food and oil, and over which a flag waved on a bamboo. +There is no land visible from One Ton except on a very clear day and it +is 130 geographical miles from Hut Point. + +We spent a day making up the mound which contained about a ton of +provisions, oil, compressed fodder, oats and other necessaries for the +forthcoming Polar Journey. Scott was satisfied with the result, and +indeed this depôt ensured that we could start southwards for the Pole +fully laden from this point. + +Here the party was again split into two for the return. Scott was anxious +to get such news about the landing of Campbell's party on King Edward +VII.'s Land as the ship should have left at Hut Point on her return +journey. He decided to take the two dog-teams, the first with himself and +Meares, the second with Wilson and myself, and make a quick return, +leaving Bowers with Oates and Gran to help him to bring back the five +ponies, driving them one behind the other. + + * * * * * + +THE RETURN OF THE PONY PARTY FROM ONE TON DEPÔT + +(_From a Letter written by Bowers_) + +As our loads were so light Titus thought it would be better for the +ponies to do their full march in one stretch and so have a longer rest. +We, therefore, decided to forgo lunch and have a good meal on camping. +The recent trails were fresh enough to follow and so saved us steering by +compass, which is very difficult as the needle will only come to rest +after you have been standing still for about a minute. That march was +extraordinary, the snowy mist hid all distant objects and made all close +ones look gigantic. Although we were walking on a flat undulating plain, +one could not get away from the impression that the ground was +hilly--quite steep in places with deep hollows by the wayside. Suddenly a +herd of apparent cattle would appear in the distance, then you would +think, 'No, it's a team of dogs broken loose and rushing towards you.' In +another moment one would be walking over the black dots of some old horse +droppings which had been the cause of the hallucinations. Since then I +have often been completely taken in by appearances under certain +conditions of light, and the novelty has worn off. Sastrugi are the hard +waves formed by wind on a snow surface; these are seldom more than a foot +or so in height, and often so obscured as to be imperceptible +irregularities. On this occasion they often appeared like immense ridges +until you walked over them. After going about 10 miles we spotted a tiny +black triangle in the dead white void ahead, it was over a mile away and +was the lunch camp of the dogs. We were fairly close before they broke +camp and hurriedly packed up. I thought they looked rather sheepish at +having been caught up, like the hare and the tortoise again. Still we had +been marching very quickly and Scott was delighted to see Weary Willie +going so well. They then dashed off, and after completing just over 12 +miles we reached Pagoda Cairn where a bale of fodder had been left. + +Here we camped and threw up our walls as quickly as possible to shelter +the beasts from the cold wind. Weary was the most annoying, he would +deliberately back into his wall and knock the whole structure down. In +the case of my own pony, I had to put the wall out of his reach as his +aim in life was to eat it, generally beginning at the bottom. He would +diligently dislodge a block, and bring down the whole fabric. One cannot +be angry with the silly beggars--Titus says a horse has practically no +reasoning power, the thing to do is simply to throw up another wall and +keep on at it. + +The weather cleared during the night, and the next day, February 19, we +started off under ideal conditions, the sun was already dipping pretty +low, marks easy to pick up, and on this occasion we could plainly see a +cairn over seven miles away, raised by the mirage; the only trouble about +seeing things so far off is that they take such an awful time to reach. +Mirage is a great feature down here and one of the most common of optical +phenomena on the Barrier; it is often difficult to persuade oneself that +open water does not lie ahead. We passed the scene of Weary Willie's +fight with the dogs during the march and also had an amusing argument as +to a dark object on the snow ahead. At first we thought it was the dog +camp again, but it turned out to be an empty biscuit tin, such is the +deceptive nature of the light. Later we sighted our old blizzard camp and +decided to utilize the walls again. Weary Willie was decidedly worse and +had to be literally jumped along by the pony to which he was attached. +Within half a mile of the walls Weary refused to go farther, and after +wasting some time in vain efforts to urge him on we had to camp where we +were, having only done 10½ miles. This was very sad, but I took hope from +the fact that Titus, who is usually pretty pessimistic, had not yet given +up hopes of getting him back alive. He had an extra whack of oats at the +expense of the other ponies, and my big beast made up for his shortage by +hauling the sledge towards him with his tethered leg, and forcing his +nose into our precious biscuit tank, out of which he helped himself +liberally at our expense. The sledges were now too light to anchor the +animals, so we had to peg them down with anything we could and bank them +up with snow. + +Weary was better the next day (February 20) but we decided at the outset +to go no farther than the Bluff Camp where we had left some fodder. This +was barely 10 miles off, yet my old animal showed signs of lassitude +before the end; there was nothing alarming, however, and we saw the depôt +over five miles off which interested the beasts, who see these things and +somehow connect them, in the backs of their silly old heads, with food +and rest. Weary Willie made a decided improvement, so we camped in high +spirits. Captain Scott had asked me if possible to take some theodolite +observations for the determination of the position of Bluff Camp. Ours is +much farther off and farther beyond the Bluff than the old Discovery +Depôt A, which was practically the same position Shackleton used. In both +cases, Scott and Shackleton were keeping nearer the coast; now, however, +that the Beardmore has been discovered we can aim straight for that, +which takes one farther east by at least 15 miles off the Bluff. This is +rather an advantage, I think, as close in to this remarkable headland the +onward movement of the Barrier arrested by the immovable hills causes a +terrific chaos of crevasses off the cliffs at the end. These extend many +miles and include some chasms big enough to take the Terra Nova all +standing. Needless to remark, one is well clear of this sort of scenery +with ponies--hence our course. I was unable to get any observations, +unfortunately, as it clouded over almost at once and later in the day +started to snow without wind. This often happens before a bliz, and as we +were anxious about the ponies to say nothing of our own shortage of +biscuit we felt a trifle apprehensive. It was very gloomy when we left +camp at midnight, as the midnight sun was already cartwheeling the +southern horizon, the first sign of autumn, also the season had +undoubtedly broken up, and the sky was covered with low stratus clouds as +thick as a hedge. We lost sight of the cairn almost at once and followed +the remains of old tracks for a little while till the snowy gloom made it +impossible to see them. You will remember that it was at the Bluff Camp +that Teddy Evans returned with the three weak ponies, so there were +plenty of traces of our march now. Just on four miles from the start I +saw a small mound some distance to the west, and struck over there: it +was a small cairn without the signs of a camp and rather puzzled me at +the time. As I shall mention it later I will call it X for convenience. +We then pushed on and I found steering most difficult. In the fuzzy +nothingness ahead one could see no point on which to fix the eye, and the +compass required standing still to look at it every time. Our sledging +compasses are spirit ones, and as steady as a small hand compass could +possibly be. You will understand, however, that owing to the proximity of +the Magnetic Pole the pull on the needle is chiefly downwards. It is +forced into a horizontal position by a balancing weight on the N. side, +so it is obvious that its direction power is greatly reduced. On the +ship, owing to the vibration of the engines and the motors, we were +absolutely unable to steer by the compass at all when off the region of +the Magnetic Pole. + +On this occasion (February 21) we zig-zagged all over the place--first I +went ahead, and Oates said I zig-zagged, then he went ahead, and I +understood at once, as it was impossible to walk straight for two +consecutive minutes. However, we plodded along with frequent stoppages +till the wind came away, and then having determined the direction of +that, steered by keeping the snow on our backs. The wind was not strong +enough to be unpleasant, and all was well. We legged it into the void for +nearly seven miles beyond X Cairn when I suddenly found myself only a few +yards away from another cairn. This shows that somehow, without the use +of tracks or landmarks, we had marched seven miles without being able to +see thirty yards, and had yet hit off the direct track to a T; of course, +it was only coincidence, though some people might credit themselves with +superlative navigating powers on such evidence. The wind increased, and +with the knowledge I now have of blizzards I would camp at once. Then I +thought it better to shove on, as the ponies were marching splendidly. +The danger lay in the fact that though it is easy enough for you to +march with the wind behind, you can't march for ever and you will +probably get tired before the wind does. Camping in a stiff breeze is +always difficult, to say nothing of a gale; and for three men with five +ponies to manage would be wellnigh impossible. Fortunately for us this +was not really a blizzard, though it was quite near enough to one. The +sky broke later and showed the Bluff and White Island, and then the +scurrying clouds of drift would encircle us to break again and come on +again. + +After having done seventeen miles we got a lull and stopped to camp right +away. We were pretty quick about it, and fortunately got the ponies +picketed, and tent pitched, before the wind came down on us again. We +were pretty hungry by the time the walls were erected. Still we were +quite happy, ate everything we could get, except the three lumps of sugar +I always kept for old Uncle Bill out of my whack. The little blow blew +itself out towards evening and in perfect calm and sunshine I got a +splendid set of observations. Erebus and Terror were showing up as clear +as a bell and I got a large number of angles for Evans' survey. We +started out as usual, and had the most pleasant, as well as the longest, +of our return marches on the last day of summer, February 22. We did +eighteen miles right off the reel, the sun was brilliant from midnight +onwards. He now half immersed himself below the horizon for a short +interval once in 24 hours. All old cairns were visible a tremendous +distance, six or seven miles at least for big ones. Mount Terror lay +straight ahead and looked so clear that it seemed impossible to imagine +it 70 miles away. At the end of our march we saw a small cairn beyond our +8th outward camp mound. Nobody would have rigged up another cairn so +close without an object, so the thought of a dead horse flashed through +my mind at once. Titus was so sure that Blücher would never get back, +that he had bet Gran a biscuit on it. I saw the cairn had a fodder bale +on the top, and later saw a note made fast to the wire. It was in Teddy +Evans' handwriting and to our surprise recorded Blossom's death. Titus +was so sure that Blossom would survive Blücher that we started to think +back and thus the mystery of X Cairn was clear to me. I was quite certain +now that both the ancient ponies had died and that Jimmy Pigg had +returned alone. The following day (February 23) was a good marching day +also, but a bit cloudy latterly. We did fourteen miles as this evidence +of pony failure made us all the more anxious about ours, though really +they were going very well. About eight miles on we came to one of Evans' +camps and the solitary pony wall told its own tale of the death of the +other two. He must have had a miserable return. At eleven miles there +were two bales of fodder depôted, we were only 50 miles odd from our +destination off Cape Armitage, and had one meal over three days' food. +If, therefore, we could average 15 miles a day that would suffice. It was +a silly risk in view of blizzards and other possibilities, chiefly our +own inexperience. As it was I took it and left the fodder there for next +year. + +February 24 was another march into impenetrable gloom. Fortunately Corner +Camp, though dark enough, was not shaded in mist. I examined it for notes +and evidence and found some. The sun set properly now, and had we been +farther from home I should have changed to day marching. I have seldom +seen such a scene of utter desolation as Corner Camp presented on that +gloomy day. The fog then settled down and like people of the mist, we +struck off blindly to the N.W. At 3.15 A.M. a light S. breeze came away; +I dreaded a blizzard with so little pony food, and already regretted my +folly in leaving the fodder. After doing twelve miles we had to camp, as +it was impossible even to march straight in the white haze. We made five +colossal walls and turned in, hoping for the best. Fortune favours the +reckless, as well as the brave, at times, and it did this time, as the +blizzard still held off. The signs of one impending were unmistakable +notwithstanding. Weary Willie did less well on February 25, and as the +surface became heavier, we had to camp after only doing eleven miles. + +I thought best in view of the threatening appearance of the weather to +have a six hours' rest, and march into Safety Camp the same day, a +distance of eight miles. We found to our horror that Gran had dropped +the top cap of our primus at the last camp. Cold food stared us in face! + +However, we did manage to melt some snow for a cheering drink by cutting +a piece of tin as near the shape of the cap as possible. Our biscuit was +finished owing to the ravages of my pony. Before turning in I saw some +specks to the N. and skipping my theodolite on its tripod, looked through +the telescope and saw two tents and a number of ski stuck up. [This was +Scott's man-hauling party together with Jimmy Pigg, going out to Corner +Camp.] This we concluded was either a man-hauling, or man and beast party +bound for Corner Camp. We overslept and so did not get away till the +afternoon. It was still very cloudy and threatening. I found that I had +steered considerably to the southward of the right direction in the fog, +and it is lucky we met with no crevasses off White Island. Safety Camp at +last appeared, and the last four miles seemed interminable. We had given +the animals their last feed before starting, not a particle remained, but +they stuck it. The surface was very heavy. Once, however, that they had +seen the camp they never stopped. I suppose they knew they were nearly +home. We marched in about 9.30 P.M. I said 'Thank God' when I looked at +the weather, and the empty sledges. The dogs were in camp, also the dome +tent [we had some tents shaped like a dome in addition to those we used +for sledging], out of which Uncle Bill (the real 'Uncle Bill Wilson') and +Meares emerged. We soon had the ponies behind walls and well fed, +borrowed their primus for ourselves, and had a square meal of pemmican +and biscuit with fids of seal liver in it. + +(End of Bowers' Account.) + + +THE RETURN OF THE DOG PARTY + +The history of the dog-teams was eventful. We travelled fast, doing +nearly 78 miles in the first three days, by which time we were +approaching Corner Camp. The dogs were thin and hungry and we were +pushing them each day just so long as they could pull, running ourselves +for the most part. Scott determined to cut the corner, that is to miss +Corner Camp and cut diagonally across our outward track. It was not +expected that this would bring us across any badly crevassed area. + +We started on the evening of February 20 in a very bad light. It was +coldish, with no wind. After going about three miles I saw a drop in the +level of the Barrier which the sledge was just going to run over. I +shouted to Wilson to look out, but he had already jumped on to the sledge +(for he was running) having seen Stareek put his paws through. It was a +nasty crevasse, about twenty feet across with blue holes on both sides. +The sledge ran over and immediately on the opposite side was brought up +by a large 'haystack' of pressure which we had not seen owing to the +light. Meares' team, on our left, never saw any sign of pressure. The +light was so bad that we never saw this cairn of ice until we ran into +it. + +We ran level for another two miles, Meares and Scott on our left. We were +evidently crossing many crevasses. Quite suddenly we saw the dogs of +their team disappearing, following one another, just like dogs going down +a hole after some animal. + +"In a moment," wrote Scott, "the whole team were sinking--two by two we +lost sight of them, each pair struggling for foothold. Osman the leader +exerted all his strength and kept a foothold--it was wonderful to see +him. The sledge stopped and we leapt aside. The situation was clear in +another moment. We had been actually travelling along the bridge [or snow +covering] of a crevasse, the sledge had stopped on it, whilst the dogs +hung in their harness in the abyss, suspended between the sledge and the +leading dog. Why the sledge and ourselves didn't follow the dogs we shall +never know." + +We of the other sledge stopped hurriedly, tethered our team and went to +their assistance with the Alpine rope. Osman, the big leader, was in +great difficulties. He crouched resisting with all his enormous strength +the pull of the rope upon which the team hung in their harness in mid +air. It was clear that if Osman gave way the sledge and dogs would +probably all be lost down the crevasse. + +First we pulled the sledge off the crevasse, and drove the tethering peg +and driving stick through the cross pieces to hold it firm. Scott and +Meares then tried to pull up the rope from Osman's end, while we hung on +to the sledge to prevent it slipping down the crevasse. They could not +move it an inch. We then put the strain as much as possible on to a peg. +Meanwhile two dogs had fallen out of their harness into the crevasse and +could be seen lying on a snow-ledge some 65 feet down. Later they curled +up and went to sleep. Another dog as he hung managed to get some purchase +for his feet on the side of the crevasse, and a free fight took place +among several more of them, as they dangled, those that hung highest +using the backs of those under them to get a purchase. + +"It takes one a little time," wrote Scott, "to make plans under such +sudden circumstances, and for some minutes our efforts were rather +futile. We could not get an inch on the main trace of the sledge or on +the leading rope, which was binding Osman to the snow with a throttling +pressure. Then thought became clearer. We unloaded our sledge, putting in +safety our sleeping-bags with the tent and cooker. Choking sounds from +Osman made it clear that the pressure on him must soon be relieved. I +seized the lashing off Meares' sleeping-bag, passed the tent poles across +the crevasse, and with Meares managed to get a few inches on the leading +line; this freed Osman, whose harness was immediately cut. + +"Then securing the Alpine rope to the main trace we tried to haul up +together. One dog came up and was unlashed, but by this time the rope had +cut so far back at the edge that it was useless to attempt to get more of +it. But we could now unbend the sledge, and do that for which we should +have aimed from the first, namely, run the sledge across the gap and work +from it. We managed to do this, our fingers constantly numbed. Wilson +held on to the anchored trace whilst the rest of us laboured at the +leader end. The leading rope was very small and I was fearful of its +breaking, so Meares was lowered down a foot or two to secure the Alpine +rope to the leading end of the trace; this done, the work of rescue +proceeded in better order. Two by two we hauled the animals up to the +sledge and one by one cut them out of their harness. Strangely the last +dogs were the most difficult, as they were close under the lip of the +gap, bound in by the snow-covered rope. Finally, with a gasp we got the +last poor creature on to firm snow. We had recovered eleven of the +thirteen."[117] + +The dogs had been dangling for over an hour, and some of them showed +signs of internal injuries. Meanwhile the two remaining dogs were lying +down the crevasse on a snow-ledge. Scott proposed going down on the +Alpine rope to get them; all his instincts of kindness were aroused, as +well as the thought of the loss of two of the team. Wilson thought it was +a mad idea and very dangerous, and said so, asking however whether he +might not go down instead of Scott if anybody had to go. Scott insisted, +and we paid down the 90-foot Alpine rope to test the distance. The ledge +was about 65 feet below. We lowered Scott, who stood on the ledge while +we hauled up the two dogs in turn. They were glad to see him, and little +wonder! + +But the rescued dogs which were necessarily running about loose on the +Barrier, in their mangled harnesses, chose this moment to start a free +fight with the other team. With a hurried shout down the crevasse we had +to rush off to separate them. Nougis I. had been considerably mauled +before this was done--also, incidentally, my heel! But at last we +separated them, and hauled Scott to the surface. It was all three of us +could do and our fingers were frost-bitten towards the end. + +Scott's interest in the incident, apart from the recovery of the dogs, +was scientific. Since we were running across the line of cleavage when +the dogs went down, it was to be expected that we should be crossing the +crevasses at right angles, and not be travelling, as actually happened, +parallel to, or along them. While we were getting him up the sixty odd +feet to which we had lowered him he kept muttering: "I wonder why this is +running the way it is--you expect to find them at right angles," and +when down the crevasse he wanted to go off exploring, but we managed to +persuade him that the snow-ledge upon which he was standing was utterly +unsafe, and indeed we could see the nothingness below through the blue +holes in the shelf. Another regret was that we had no thermometer: the +temperature of the inside of the Barrier is of great interest and a +fairly reliable record of the average temperature throughout the year +might have been obtained when so far down into it. Altogether we could +congratulate ourselves on a fortunate ending to a nasty business. We +expected several more miles of crevasses, and the wind was getting up, +driving the surface drift like smoke over the ground, with a very black +sky to the south. We pitched the tent, had a good meal and mended the dog +harness which had been ruthlessly cut in clearing the dogs. Luckily we +found no more crevasses for it was now blowing hard, and rescue work +would have been difficult, and we pushed on as far as possible that +night, doing eleven miles after lunch, and sixteen for the day. It had +been strenuous, for we had been working in or over the crevasse for 2½ +hours, and dogs and men were tired out. It cleared and became quite warm +as we camped. There was a pleasant air of friendship in the tent that +night, rather more than usual. That is generally the result of this kind +of business. + +We reached Safety Camp next day (February 22) anxious for news of the +ship's doings, the landing of Campbell's party, and of the ponies which +had been sent back from the Bluff Depôt. Lieutenant Evans, Forde and +Keohane, the pony leaders, were there, but only one pony. The other two +had died of exhaustion soon after they left us and we had passed the +cairns which marked their graves without knowledge. Their story was grim, +and they had had a mournful journey back. First Blossom, and then Blücher +collapsed, their ends being hastened by the blizzard of February 1. + +This crevasse incident, followed by the news of the loss of the ponies, +was a blow to Scott, and his mind was also uneasy about Atkinson and +Crean, whom we had left here, and who had disappeared leaving no record. +Nor was the report from the Terra Nova here, so we judged that the +missing men and the report must be at Hut Point. After three or four +hours' sleep, and a cup of tea and a biscuit, we started man-hauling with +cooker and sleeping-bags: the former because we were to have our good +meal at the hut, the latter in case we were hung up. Travelling over the +sea-ice as far as the Gap, from which we saw that the open sea reached to +Hut Point, we made our way into the hut, and there was a mystery. The +accumulations of ice which we found in it were dug away: there was a +notice outside dated February 8 saying, "mail for Captain Scott is in bag +inside south door." We hunted everywhere, but there was no Atkinson nor +Crean, nor mail, nor the things which the ship was to have brought. All +kinds of wild theories were advanced. By the presence of a fresh onion +and some bread it was clear that the ship's party had been there, but the +rest was utterly vague. It was then suggested that we were expected back +about this time, and that the missing men had been sledging to Safety +Camp round Cape Armitage on the very shaky sea-ice while we passed them +as we came through the Gap. Sledge tracks were found leading on to the +sea-ice: we started back in doubt. Scott was terribly anxious, we were +all tired, and the depôt never seemed to come nearer. It was not until we +were some two hundred yards from it that we saw the extra tent. "Thank +God!" I heard Scott mutter under his breath, and "I believe you were even +more anxious than I was, Bill." + +Atkinson had the ship's mail, signed by Campbell. "Every incident of the +day," Scott wrote, "pales before the startling contents of the mail-bag +which Atkinson gave me--a letter from Campbell setting out his doings and +the finding of Amundsen established in the Bay of Whales." + +[Illustration: HUT POINT--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +Strongly as Scott tries to word this, it quite fails to convey how he +felt, and how we all felt more or less, in spite of the warning conveyed +in the telegram from Madeira to Melbourne. For an hour or so we were +furiously angry, and were possessed with an insane sense that we must go +straight to the Bay of Whales and have it out with Amundsen and his +men in some undefined fashion or other there and then. Such a mood could +not and did not bear a moment's reflection; but it was natural enough. We +had just paid the first instalment of the heart-breaking labour of making +a path to the Pole; and we felt, however unreasonably, that we had earned +the first right of way. Our sense of co-operation and solidarity had been +wrought up to an extraordinary pitch; and we had so completely forgotten +the spirit of competition that its sudden intrusion jarred frightfully. I +do not defend our burst of rage--for such it was--I simply record it as +an integral human part of my narrative. It passed harmlessly; and Scott's +account proceeds as follows: + +"One thing only fixes itself definitely in my mind. The proper, as well +as the wiser, course for us is to proceed exactly as though this had not +happened. To go forward and do our best for the honour of the country +without fear or panic. There is no doubt that Amundsen's plan is a very +serious menace to ours. He has a shorter distance to the Pole by 60 +miles--I never thought he could have got so many dogs safely to the ice. +His plan of running them seems excellent. But, above and beyond all, he +can start his journey early in the season--an impossible condition with +ponies."[118] + +We read that on leaving McMurdo Sound the Terra Nova coasted eastward +along the Barrier face, with Campbell and his men who were to be landed +on King Edward VII.'s Land if possible. She surveyed the face of the +Barrier as she went from Cape Crozier to longitude 170° W., whence she +shaped a course direct for Cape Colbeck, which Priestley states in his +diary "is only 200 feet high according to our measurement and looks +uncommonly like common or garden Barrier." + +Here they met heavy pack, and were forced to return without finding any +place where the cliff was low enough to allow Campbell and his five men +to land. They coasted back, making for an inlet known as Balloon Bight. +Priestley tells the story: + +"February 1, 1911. Our trip has not been without outcome after all, and +all our doubts about wintering here or in South Victoria Land have been +settled in a startling fashion. About ten o'clock we steamed into a deep +bay in the Barrier which proved to be Shackleton's Bay of Whales, and our +observations in the last expedition [Shackleton's] have been wonderfully +upheld. Our present sights and angles Pennell tells me are almost a +duplicate of those that we got. Every one has always been doubtful about +the Bay of Whales we reported, but now the matter has been set at rest +finally. There is no doubt now that Balloon Bight and the neighbouring +bay marked on the Discovery's chart have become merged into one, and +further, that since that period the resulting bight has broken back +considerably more: indeed it seems to have altered a good deal on its +western border since our visit to it in 1908. Otherwise it is the same, +the same deceptive caves and shadows having from a distance the +appearance of rock exposures, the same pressure-ridged cliffs, the same +undulations behind, the same expanse of sea-ice and even the same crowds +of whales. I hope that before we leave we shall find it possible to +survey the bight, but that depends on the weather. It was satisfactory to +find all our observations coming right and everybody backing up +Shackleton, and I turned in last night feeling quite cheerful and +believing that there would be a really good chance of the Eastern Party +finding a home on the Barrier here--our last chance of surveying King +Edward's Land. + +"However, man proposes but God disposes, and I was waked up by Lillie at +one o'clock this morning by the astounding news that there was a ship in +the bay at anchor to the sea-ice. All was confusion on board for a few +minutes, everybody rushing up on deck with cameras and clothes. + +"It was no false alarm, there she was within a few yards of us, and what +is more, those of us who had read Nansen's books recognized the Fram. + +"She is rigged with fore and aft sails and as she has petrol engines she +has no funnel. Soon afterwards the men forward declared that they sighted +a hut on the Barrier, and the more excited declared that there was a +party coming out to meet us. Campbell, Levick, and myself were therefore +lowered over the side of the ship while she was being made fast, and set +off on ski towards the dark spot we could see. This proved to be only an +abandoned depôt and we returned to the ship, where Campbell, who in his +anxiety to be the first to meet them had left us beginners far behind, +had opened up conversation with the night watchman. + +"He informed us that there were only three men on board and that the +remainder of them were settling Amundsen in winter quarters about as far +from the depôt as the depôt was from the ship. Amundsen is coming to +visit the Fram to-morrow, and we are staying long enough to allow Pennell +and Campbell to interview him. They reached the pack about January 6 and +were through it by the 12th, so they did not have as bad a time as we +did. They inform us that Amundsen does not intend to make his descent on +the Pole until next year. This is encouraging as it means a fair race for +the next summer, though the news we are bringing to them will keep the +Western [Main] Party on tenterhooks of excitement all the winter. + +"Our plans have of course been decided for us. We cannot according to +etiquette trench on their winter quarters, but must return to McMurdo +Sound and then go off towards Robertson Bay and settle ourselves as best +we can. While we are waiting events we have not been by any means idle. +Rennick got a sounding, 180 fathoms, and the crew have killed three +seals, including one beautiful silver crab-eater, Lillie has secured +water samples at 50, 100, 150, and 170 fathoms and has had a haul with +the plankton net, and Williams is endeavouring to fit up the trawl for a +haul to-morrow if we get time and appropriate weather. I got a roll of +films and gave the roll to Drake to take home and get developed in +Christchurch. There are photographs of the Fram, of the Fram and Terra +Nova together, of their depôt, and of the ice-cliffs and the sea-ice +which is decidedly overcut, the thick snow having been removed in places +by the swell until a ledge several yards wide is lying just submerged. + +"It has been calm all the night with the snow falling at intervals. + +"February 4, 1911. I was waked at seven o'clock this morning by Levick +demanding the loan of my camera. It appears that Amundsen, Johansen and +six men had arrived at the Fram this morning at about 6.30 A.M., and had +come over to interview Campbell and Pennell. Campbell, Pennell and Levick +then went back to breakfast with them and stayed until nearly noon when +they returned telling us to expect Amundsen, Nilsen, the first lieutenant +of the Fram who is taking her back after landing the party, and a young +lieutenant whose name none of us caught, to lunch. After lunch a party of +officers and men went to see the rest of the Norwegians, see over the +ship, and say good-bye. I did not go and was able to show Lieut. Jensen +over the ship in the meantime. About three o'clock we let go the ice +anchor and parted from the Fram, steaming along the ice very slowly in +order to dredge from 190 to 300 fathoms. The haul was successful, about +two bucketsful of the muddy bottom being secured, and a still more +valuable catch from the biological point of view were two long crinoids, +about a couple of feet in length and in fairly perfect condition, which +had become attached to the outside of the net. + +"We are now standing along the Barrier continuing our survey to the bight +we first struck, after which we sail to Cape Evans, stay a day there and +then make up North to try and effect a lodgment on the coast beyond Cape +Adare. + +"During the morning Browning and I examined the ice-face forming the +eastern face of the bight. We found it to be made of clear ice of grain +from a quarter to three-eighths of an inch in size and full of bubbles. + +"On the way there I took a couple of photographs of some of Amundsen's +dogs, and when we were there I got a few of crevasses and caves in the +Barrier face. + +"Well! we have left the Norwegians and our thoughts are full, too full, +of them at present. The impression they have left with me is that of a +set of men of distinctive personality, hard, and evidently inured to +hardship, good goers and pleasant and good-humoured. All these qualities +combine to make them very dangerous rivals, but even did one want not to, +one cannot help liking them individually in spite of the rivalry. + +"One thing I have particularly noticed is the way in which they are +refraining from getting information from us which might be useful to +them. We have news which will make the Western Party as uneasy as +ourselves and the world will watch with interest a race for the Pole next +year, a race which may go any way, and may be decided by luck or by +dogged energy and perseverance on either side. + +"The Norwegians are in dangerous winter quarters, for the ice is breaking +out rapidly from the Bay of Whales which they believe to be +Borchgrevink's Bight, and they are camped directly in front of a distinct +line of weakness. On the other hand if they get through the winter safely +(and they are aware of their danger), they have unlimited dogs, the +energy of a nation as northern as ourselves, and experience with +snow-travelling that could be beaten by no collection of men in the +world. + +"There remains the Beardmore Glacier. Can their dogs face it, and if so, +who will get there first. One thing I feel and that is that our Southern +Party will go far before they permit themselves to be beaten by any one, +and I think that two parties are very likely to reach the Pole next year, +but God only knows which will get there first. + +"A few of the things we learnt about the Norwegians are as follows: + +"The engines of the Fram occupy only half the size of our wardroom, the +petrol tanks have not needed replenishment since they left Norway, and +their propeller can be lifted by three men. They kept fresh potatoes from +Norway to the Barrier. (Some of them must surely be renegade Irishmen.) +They have each a separate cabin 'tween-decks in the Fram, and are very +comfortable. They are using for transporting their stores to the hut, +eight teams of five dogs each, working every alternate day. + +"They intend to use for the Polar Journey teams of ten dogs, each team +working one day out of two. Their dogs stop at a whistle, and if they +make a break they can be stopped by overturning the sledge, empty or full +as the case may be. They are nine in the shore party and ten in the ship. +Their ship is going back to Buenos Ayres with Nilsen in charge and during +the winter is to encircle the world, sounding all the way. + +"They are not starting on the dash South this year and do not yet know +whether they will lay depôts this year. They have 116 dogs and ten of +these are bitches, so that they can rear pups, and have done so very +successfully on the way out. The Fram acts like a cork in the sea; she +rolls tremendously but does not ship water, and during the voyage they +have had the dogs running loose about the decks. There is a lot more +miscellaneous information, but I may remember it more coherently a little +later when the main impressions of the rencontre are a little more +faint."[119] + +It will be seen that Priestley missed three points. First, he was left +with a conventional but very erroneous impression of Amundsen as a blunt +Norwegian sailor, not in the least an intellectual. Second, he thought +Amundsen had camped on the ice and not on terra firma. Third, he thought +Amundsen was going to the Pole by the old route over the Beardmore. The +truth was that Amundsen was an explorer of the markedly intellectual +type, rather Jewish than Scandinavian, who had proved his sagacity by +discovering solid footing for the winter by pure judgment. For the +moment, let it be confessed, we all underrated Amundsen, and could not +shake off the feeling that he had stolen a march on us. + +Back to McMurdo Sound, and the news left at Hut Point. Then the two +ponies which had been allotted to Campbell were swum ashore at Cape +Evans, since he thought that now they would be of more use to Scott than +to himself. Subsequent events proved the extreme usefulness of this +unselfish act. The Terra Nova would steam north and try and land +Campbell's party on the extreme northern shores of Queen Victoria Land. +At the same time there was so little coal left that it might be necessary +to go straight back to New Zealand. Campbell regretted not being able to +see Scott, supposing that the altered circumstances caused Scott to wish +to rearrange his parties, and also because Amundsen had asked Campbell to +land his party at the Bay of Whales, giving him the area to the east to +explore, and Campbell did not wish to accept before getting Scott's +permission. + +As we know now coal ran so short that it came to an alternative of +dumping Campbell, his men and gear hastily on the beach at Cape Adare, or +taking them back to New Zealand. As one member of the crew said: +"Exploring is all very well in its way, but it is a thing which can be +very easily overdone." The ship was as ready to get rid of them as they +were to get rid of the ship. They were landed, working to their waists in +the surf, and the ship got safely back to New Zealand. + +Scott decided that the period of waiting until the pony party arrived +from One Ton should be employed in sledging stores out to Corner Camp. +But the dog-teams were done, "the dogs are thin as rakes; they are +ravenous and very tired. I feel this should not be, and that it is +evident that they are underfed. The ration must be increased next year +and we must have some properly-thought-out diet. The biscuit alone is not +good enough."[120] In addition, several dogs were feeling the effects of +injuries due to the crevasse incident. There remained the men and the one +pony which had survived out of the three sent back from Bluff Depôt, +namely Jimmy Pigg. + +The party started on Friday, February 24, marching by day. It consisted +of Scott, Crean and myself with one sledge and tent, Lieutenant Evans, +Atkinson and Forde with a second sledge and tent, and Keohane leading +James Pigg. On the second night out we saw the pony party pass us in the +distance on their way to Safety Camp.[121] At Corner Camp Scott decided +to leave Lieutenant Evans' party to come in with the pony more slowly, +and himself to push on with Crean and myself at top speed for Safety +Camp. We made a forced march well into the night, doing twenty-six miles +for the day, and camped some ten miles from Safety Camp, where the pony +party must by this time have arrived. + +The events which followed were disastrous, and the steps which led to a +catastrophe which entailed the loss of much of our best transport, and +only by a miracle did not lead to the loss of several lives, were +complicated. At this moment, the night of February 26, there were three +parties on the Barrier. Behind Scott was Lieutenant Evans' party and the +pony, James Pigg. Scott himself was camped within easy marching distance +of Safety Camp with Crean and myself. At Safety Camp were the two +dog-teams with Wilson and Meares, while the pony party from One Ton Depôt +had just arrived with five ponies which were for the most part thin, +hungry and worn. Between Safety Camp and Hut Point lay the frozen sea, +which might or might not break up this year, but we knew from our +observations a few days before that the ice was in a shaky condition. At +that time the ice sheet extended some seven miles to the north of Hut +Point. The season was fast closing in: temperatures of fifty or sixty +degrees of frost had been common for the last fortnight, and this was bad +for the ponies. We had been unfortunate in having several severe +blizzards, and it was already clear that it was these autumn blizzards +more than cold temperatures and soft surfaces which the ponies could not +endure. Scott was most anxious to get the animals into such shelter as we +could make for them at Hut Point. + +The next morning, February 27, we woke to a regular cold autumn +blizzard--very thick, wind force 9 and temperature about minus twenty. +This was disheartening, and indeed with our six worn ponies still on the +Barrier the outlook for them was discouraging. The blizzard came to an +end the next morning. Scott must take up the first part of that day's +story: + +"Packed up at 6 A.M. and marched into Safety Camp. Found every one very +cold and depressed. Wilson and Meares had had continuous bad weather +since we left, Bowers and Oates since their arrival. The blizzard had +raged for two days. The animals looked in a sorry condition, but all were +alive. The wind blew keen and cold from the east. There could be no +advantage in waiting here, and soon all arrangements were made for a +general shift to Hut Point. Packing took a long time. The snowfall had +been prodigious, and parts of the sledges were 3 or 4 feet under drift. +About 4 o'clock the two dog-teams got safely away. Then the pony party +prepared to go. As the cloths were stript from the ponies the ravages of +the blizzard became evident. The animals, without exception, were +terribly emaciated, and Weary Willie was in a pitiable condition. + +"The plan was for the ponies to follow the dog tracks, our small party to +start last and get in front of the ponies on the sea-ice. I was very +anxious about the sea-ice passage owing to the spread of the water +holes."[122] + +The two dog-teams left with Meares and Wilson some time before the +ponies, and for the moment they go out of this story. + +Bowers' pony, Uncle Bill, was ready first, and he started with him. We +got three more ponies harnessed, Punch, Nobby and Guts, and tried to +harness Weary Willie, but when we attempted to lead him forward he +immediately fell down. + +Scott rapidly reorganized. He sent Crean and me forward with the three +better ponies to join Bowers, now waiting a mile ahead. Oates and Gran he +kept with himself, to try and help the sick pony. His diary tells how "we +made desperate efforts to save the poor creature, got him once more on +his legs, gave him a hot oat mash. Then, after a wait of an hour, Oates +led him off, and we packed the sledge and followed on ski; 500 yards from +the camp the poor creature fell again and I felt it was the last effort. +We camped, built a snow wall round him, and did all we possibly could to +get him on his feet. Every effort was fruitless, though the poor thing +made pitiful struggles. Towards midnight we propped him up as +comfortably as we could and went to bed. + +"Wednesday, March 1. A.M. Our pony died in the night. It is hard to have +got him back so far only for this. It is clear that these blizzards are +terrible for the poor animals. Their coats are not good, but even with +the best of coats it is certain they would lose condition badly if caught +in one, and we cannot afford to lose condition at the beginning of a +journey. It makes a late start necessary for next year. + +"Well, we have done our best and bought our experience at a heavy cost. +Now every effort must be bent on saving the remaining animals."[123] + +A letter from Bowers home, which certainly does not overstate the +adventures of himself and the two men sent forward to join him, is +probably the best description of the incidents which followed. It will be +remembered that Crean and I with three ponies were sent from Safety Camp +to join him: he was already leading one pony. Night was beginning to +fall, and the light was bad, but from the edge of the Barrier the two +dog-teams could still be seen as black dots in the distance towards Cape +Armitage. + +"On the night of February 28 I led off with my pony and was surprised at +the delay in the others leaving--knowing nothing of Weary's collapse. +Over the edge of the Barrier I went, and at the bottom of the snow +incline awaited the others. To my surprise Cherry and Crean appeared with +Punch, Nobby and Guts in a string, and then I heard the reason for Oates +and Scott not having come on. My orders were to push on to Hut Point over +the sea-ice without delay, and to follow the dogs; previously I had been +told to camp on the sea-ice only in case of the beasts being unable to go +on. We had four pretty heavy sledges, as we were taking six weeks' man +food and oil to the hut, as well as a lot of gear from the depôt, and +pony food, etc. Unfortunately the dogs misunderstood their orders and, +instead of piloting us, dashed off on their own. We saw them like specks +in the distance in the direction of the old seal crack. Having crossed +this they wheeled to the right in the direction of Cape Armitage and +disappeared into a black indefinite mist, which seemed to pervade +everything in that direction. We heard afterwards that in a mile or two +they came to some alarming signs and, turning, made for the Gap where +they got up on to the land about midnight. + +"I plugged on in their tracks, till we came to the seal crack which was +an old pressure-ridge running many miles S.W. from Pram Point. We +considered the ice behind this crack--over which we had just come--fast +ice; it was older ice than that beyond, as it had undoubtedly frozen over +first. Having crossed the crack we streaked on for Cape Armitage. The +animals were going badly, owing to the effects of the blizzard, and +frequent stoppages were necessary. On coming to some shaky ice we headed +farther west as there were always some bad places off the cape, and I +thought it better to make a good circuit. Crean, who had been over the +ice recently, told me it was all right farther round. However, about a +mile farther on I began to have misgivings; the cracks became too +frequent to be pleasant, and although the ice was from five to ten feet +thick, one does not like to see water squelching between them, as we did +later. It spells motion, and motion on sea-ice means breakage. I shoved +on in the hope of getting on better ice round the cape, but at last came +a moving crack, and that decided me to turn back. We could see nothing +owing to the black mist, everything looked solid as ever, but I knew +enough to mistrust moving ice, however solid it seemed. It was a beastly +march back: dark, gloomy and depressing. The beasts got more and more +down in their spirits and stopped so frequently that I thought we would +never reach the seal crack. I said to Cherry, however, that I would take +no risks, and camp well over the other side on the old sound ice if we +could get there. This we managed to do eventually. Here there was soft +snow, whereas on the sea side of the crack it was hard: that is the +reason we lost the dogs' tracks at once on crossing. Even over this crack +I thought it best to march as far in as possible. We got well into the +bay, as far as our exhausted ponies would drag, before I camped and +threw up the walls, fed the beasts, and retired to feed ourselves. We had +only the primus with the missing cap and it took over 1½ hours to heat up +the water; however, we had a cup of pemmican. It was very dark, and I +mistook a small bag of curry powder for the cocoa bag, and made cocoa +with that, mixed with sugar; Crean drank his right down before +discovering anything was wrong. It was 2 P.M. before we were ready to +turn in. I went out and saw everything quiet: the mist still hung to the +west, but you could see a good mile and all was still. The sky was very +dark over the Strait though, the unmistakable sign of open water. I +turned in. Two and a half hours later I awoke, hearing a noise. Both my +companions were snoring, I thought it was that and was on the point of +turning in again having seen that it was only 4.30, when I heard the +noise again. I thought--'my pony is at the oats!' and went out. + +"I cannot describe either the scene or my feelings. I must leave those to +your imagination. We were in the middle of a floating pack of broken-up +ice. The tops of the hills were visible, but all below was thin mist and +as far as the eye could see there was nothing solid; it was all broken +up, and heaving up and down with the swell. Long black tongues of water +were everywhere. The floe on which we were had split right under our +picketing line, and cut poor Guts' wall in half. Guts himself had gone, +and a dark streak of water alone showed the place where the ice had +opened under him. The two sledges securing the other end of the line were +on the next floe and had been pulled right to the edge. Our camp was on a +floe not more than 30 yards across. I shouted to Cherry and Crean, and +rushed out in my socks to save the two sledges; the two floes were +touching farther on and I dragged them to this place and got them on to +our floe. At that moment our own floe split in two, but we were all +together on one piece. I then got my finnesko on, remarking that we had +been in a few tight places, but this was about the limit. I have been +told since that I was quixotic not to leave everything and make for +safety. You will understand, however, that I never for one moment +considered the abandonment of anything. + +"We packed up camp and harnessed up our ponies in remarkably quick time. +When ready to move I had to decide which way to go. Obviously towards +Cape Armitage was impossible, and to the eastward also, as the wind was +from that direction, and we were already floating west towards the open +sound. Our only hope lay to the south, and thither I went. We found the +ponies would jump the intervals well. At least Punch would and the other +two would follow him. My idea was never to separate, but to get +everything on to one floe at a time; and then wait till it touched or +nearly touched another in the right direction, and then jump the ponies +over and drag the four sledges across ourselves. In this way we made +slow, but sure progress. While one was acting all was well, the waiting +for a lead to close was the worst trial. Sometimes it would take 10 +minutes or more, but there was so much motion in the ice that sooner or +later bump you would go against another piece, and then it was up and +over. Sometimes they split, sometimes they bounced back so quickly that +only one horse could get over, and then we had to wait again. We had to +make frequent detours and were moving west all the time with the pack, +still we were getting south, too. + +"Very little was said. Crean like most bluejackets behaved as if he had +done this sort of thing often before. Cherry, the practical, after an +hour or two dug out some chocolate and biscuit, during one of our +enforced waits, and distributed it. I felt at that time that food was the +last thing on earth I wanted, and put it in my pocket; in less than half +an hour, though, I had eaten the lot. The ponies behaved as well as my +companions, and jumped the floes in great style. After getting them on a +new floe we simply left them, and there they stood chewing at each +others' head ropes or harness till we were over with the sledges and +ready to take them on again. Their implicit trust in us was touching to +behold. A 12-feet sledge makes an excellent bridge if an opening is too +wide to jump. After some hours we saw fast ice ahead, and thanked God for +it. Meanwhile a further unpleasantness occurred in the arrival of a host +of the terrible 'killer' whales. These were reaping a harvest of seal in +the broken-up ice, and cruised among the floes with their immense black +fins sticking up, and blowing with a terrific roar. The Killer is +scientifically known as the Orca, and, though far smaller than the sperm +and other large whales, is a much more dangerous animal. He is armed with +a huge iron jaw and great blunt socket teeth. Killers act in concert, +too, and, as you may remember, nearly got Ponting when we were unloading +the ship, by pressing up the thin ice from beneath and splitting it in +all directions. + +"It took us over six hours to get close to the fast ice, which proved to +be the Barrier, some immense chunks of which we actually saw break off +and join the pack. Close in, the motion was less owing to the jambing up +of the ice somewhere farther west. We had only just cleared the Strait in +time though, as all the ice in the centre, released beyond Cape Armitage, +headed off into the middle of the Strait, and thence to the Ross Sea. Our +spirits rose as we neared the Barrier edge, and I made for a big sloping +floe which I expected would be touching; at any rate I anticipated no +difficulty. We rushed up the slope towards safety, and were little +prepared for the scene that met our eyes at the top. All along the +Barrier face a broad lane of water from thirty to forty feet wide +extended. This was filled with smashed-up brash ice, which was heaving up +and down to the swell like the contents of a cauldron. Killers were +cruising there with fiendish activity, and the Barrier edge was a sheer +cliff of ice on the other side fifteen to twenty feet high. It was a case +of so near and yet so far. Suddenly our great sloping floe calved in two, +so we beat a hasty retreat. I selected a sound-looking floe just clear of +this turmoil, that was at least ten feet thick, and fairly rounded, with +a flat surface. Here we collected everything and having done all that man +could do, we fed the beasts and took counsel. + +"Cherry and Crean both volunteered to do anything, in the spirit they had +shown right through. It appeared of first necessity to communicate with +Captain Scott. I guessed his anxiety on our behalf, and, as we could do +nothing more, we wanted help of some sort. It occurred to me that a man +working up to windward along the Barrier face might happen upon a floe +touching [the Barrier]. It was obviously impossible to take ponies up +there anywhere, but an active man might wait his opportunity. Going to +windward, too, he could always retreat on to our floe, as the ice was +being pushed together in our direction. The next consideration was, whom +to send. To go myself was out of the question. The problem was whether to +send one, or both, my companions. As my object was to save the animals +and gear, it appeared to me that one man remaining would be helpless in +the event of the floe splitting up, as he would be busy saving himself. I +therefore decided to send one only. This would have to be Crean, as +Cherry, who wears glasses, could not see so well. Both volunteered, but +as I say, I thought out all the pros and cons and sent Crean, knowing +that, at the worst, he could get back to us at any time. I sent a note to +Captain Scott, and, stuffing Crean's pockets with food, we saw him +depart. + +"Practical Cherry suggested pitching the tent as a mark of our +whereabouts, and having done this I mounted the theodolite to watch Crean +through the telescope. The rise and fall of the floe made this difficult, +especially as a number of Emperor penguins came up and looked just like +men in the distance. Fortunately the sunlight cleared the frost smoke, +and as it fell calm our westerly motion began to decrease. The swell +started to go down. Outside us in the centre of the Strait all the ice +had gone out, and open water remained. We were one of a line of loose +floes floating near the Barrier edge. Crean was hours moving to and fro +before I had the satisfaction of seeing him up on the Barrier. I said: +'Thank God one of us is out of the wood, anyhow.' + +"It was not a pleasant day that Cherry and I spent all alone there, +knowing as we did that it only wanted a zephyr from the south to send us +irretrievably out to sea; still there is satisfaction in knowing that one +has done one's utmost, and I felt that having been delivered so +wonderfully so far, the same Hand would not forsake us at the last. + +"We gave the ponies all they could eat that day. The Killers were too +interested in us to be pleasant. They had a habit of bobbing up and down +perpendicularly, so as to see over the edge of a floe, in looking for +seals. The huge black and yellow heads with sickening pig eyes only a few +yards from us at times, and always around us, are among the most +disconcerting recollections I have of that day. The immense fins were bad +enough, but when they started a perpendicular dodge they were positively +beastly. As the day wore on skua gulls, looking upon us as certain +carrion, settled down comfortably near us to await developments. The +swell, however, was getting less and less and it resolved itself into a +question of speed, as to whether the wind or Captain Scott would reach us +first. + +"Crean had got up into the Barrier at great risks to himself as I +gathered afterwards from his very modest account. He had reached Captain +Scott some time after his [Scott's] meeting with Wilson.[124] I heard +that at the time Captain Scott was very angry with me for not abandoning +everything and getting away safely myself. For my own part I must say +that the abandoning of the ponies was the one thing that had never +entered my head. It was a long way round, but at 7 P.M. he arrived at the +edge of the Barrier opposite us with Oates and Crean. Everything was +still, and Cherry and I could have got on safe ice at any time during the +last half hour by using the sledge as a ladder. A big overturned fragment +had jambed in the lane, between a high floe and the Barrier edge, and, +there being no wind, it remained there. However, there was the +consideration of the ponies, so we waited. + +"Scott, instead of blowing me up, was too relieved at our safety to be +anything but pleased. I said: 'What about the ponies and the sledges?' He +said: 'I don't care a damn about the ponies and sledges. It's you I want, +and I am going to see you safe here up on the Barrier before I do +anything else.' Cherry and I had got everything ready, so, dragging up +two sledges, we dumped the gear off them, and using them as ladders, one +down from the berg on to the buffer piece of ice, and the other up to the +top of the Barrier, we got up without difficulty. Captain Scott was so +pleased, that I realized the feeling he must have had all day. He had +been blaming himself for our deaths, and here we were very much alive. He +said: 'My dear chaps, you can't think how glad I am to see you +safe--Cherry likewise.' + +"I was all for saving the beasts and sledges, however, so he let us go +back and haul the sledges on to the nearest floe. We did this one by one +and brought the ponies along, while Titus dug down a slope from the +Barrier edge in the hope of getting the ponies up it. Scott knew more +about ice than any of us, and realizing the danger we didn't, still +wanted to abandon things. I fought for my point tooth and nail, and got +him to concede one article and then another, and still the ice did not +move till we had thrown and hauled up every article on to the Barrier +except the two ladders and the ponies. + + * * * * * + +"To my intense disappointment at this juncture the ice started to move +again. Titus had been digging down a road in the Barrier edge, and I +hoped to dig down a similar slope from the floe, the snow thus shovelled +down would go over the blue ice chunk, cover up the slippery ice and +level it up. It would have taken hours, but was the only chance of +getting the animals up. We dug like fury until Captain Scott peremptorily +ordered us up. I ran up on the floe and took the nosebags off the ponies +before we got on to the Barrier, and hauled the sledges up. It was only +just in time. There was the faintest south-easterly air, but, like a +black snake, the lane of water stretched between the ponies and +ourselves. It widened almost imperceptibly, 2 feet, 6 feet, 10 feet, 20 +feet, and, sick as we were about the ponies, we were glad to be on the +safe side of that. + +"We dragged the sledges in a little way, and, leaving them, pitched the +two tents half a mile farther in, for bits of the Barrier were +continually calving. While supper (it was about 3 A.M.) was being cooked, +Scott and I walked down again. The wind had gone to the east, and all the +ice was under weigh. A lane 70 feet wide extended along the Barrier edge, +and Killers were chasing up and down it like racehorses. Our three +unfortunate beasts were some way out, sailing parallel to the Barrier. We +returned, and if ever one could feel miserable I did then. My feelings +were nothing to what poor Captain Scott had had to endure that day. I at +once broached the hopeful side of the subject, remarking that, with the +two Campbell had left, we had ten ponies at Winter quarters. He said, +however, that he had no confidence whatever in the motors after the way +their rollers had become messed up unloading the ship. He had had his +confidence in the dogs much shaken on the return journey, and now he had +lost the most solid asset--the best of his pony transport. He said: 'Of +course we shall have a run for our money next season, but as far as the +Pole is concerned I have but very little hope.' We had a mournful meal, +but after the others turned in I went down again, and by striking across +diagonally came abreast of the ponies' floe, over a mile away. They were +moving west fast, but they saw me, and remained huddled together not the +least disturbed, or doubting that we would bring them their breakfast +nosebags as usual in the morning. Poor trustful creatures! If I could +have done it then, I would gladly have killed them rather than picture +them starving on that floe out on the Ross Sea, or eaten by the exultant +Killers that cruised around. + +"After breakfast Captain Scott sent me to bring up the sledges. It was +dead calm again. Hope always springs, so I took his pair of glasses and +looked west from the Barrier edge. Nearly all the ice had gone, but a +medley of floes had been hurled up against a long point of Barrier much +farther west. To my delight I saw three green specks on one of these--the +pony rugs--and all four of us legged it back to the tent to tell Captain +Scott. We were soon off over the Barrier. It was a long way, but we had a +tent and some food. Crean had a bad day of snow-blindness, and could see +absolutely nothing. So, on arrival at the place, we pitched the tent and +left him there. The ponies were in a much worse place than the day +before, but the ice was still there, and some floes actually touched the +Barrier. + +"After our recent experience Captain Scott would only let us go on +condition that as soon as he gave the order we were to drop everything +and run for the Barrier. I was in a feverish hurry, and with Titus and +Cherry selected a possible route over about six floes, and some low brash +ice. The hardest jump was the first one, but it was nothing to what they +had done the day before, so we put Punch at it. Why he hung fire I cannot +think,[125] but he did, at the very edge, and the next moment was in the +water. I will draw a veil over our struggle to get the plucky little pony +out. We could not manage it, and Titus had at last to put an end to his +struggles with a pick. + +"There was now my pony and Nobby. We abandoned that route, while Captain +Scott looked out another and longer one by going right out on the +sea-floes. This we decided on, if we could get the animals off their +present floe, which necessitated a good jump on any side. Captain Scott +said he would have no repetition of Punch's misfortune if he could help +it. He would rather kill them on the floe. Anyhow, we rushed old Nobby at +the jump, but he refused. It seemed no good, but I rushed him at it again +and again. Scott was for killing them [it should be remembered that this +ice, with the men on it, might drift away from the Barrier at any moment, +and then there might be no further chance of saving the men] but I was +not, and, pretending not to hear him, I rushed the old beast again. He +cleared it beautifully, and Titus, seizing the opportunity, ran my pony +at it with similar success. We then returned to the Barrier and worked +along westward till a suitable place for getting up was found. There +Scott and Cherry started digging a road, while Titus and I went out via +the sea-ice to get the ponies. We had an empty sledge as a bridge or +ladder, in case of emergency, and had to negotiate about forty floes to +reach the animals. It was pretty easy going, though, and we brought them +along with great success as far as the two nearest floes. At this place +the ice was jambed. + +"Nobby cleared the last jump splendidly, when suddenly in the open water +pond on one side a school of over a dozen of the terrible whales arose. +This must have flurried my horse just as he was jumping, as instead of +going straight he jumped [sideways] and just missed the floe with his +hind legs. It was another horrible situation, but Scott rushed Nobby up +on the Barrier, while Titus, Cherry and I struggled with poor old Uncle +Bill. Why the whales did not come under the ice and attack him I cannot +say--perhaps they were full of seal, perhaps they were so engaged in +looking at us on the top of the floe that they forgot to look below; +anyhow, we got him safely as far as [the bottom of the Barrier cliff], +pulling him through the thin ice towards a low patch of brash. + +"Captain Scott was afraid of something happening to us with those +devilish whales so close, and was for abandoning the horse right away. I +had no eyes or ears for anything but the horse just then, and getting on +to the thin brash ice got the Alpine rope fast to each of the pony's +forefeet. Crean was too blind to do anything but hold the rescued horse +on the Barrier, but the other four of us pulled might and main till we +got the old horse out and lying on his side. The brash ice was so thin +that, had a 'Killer' come up then he would have scattered it, and the lot +of us into the water like chaff. I was sick with disappointment when I +found that my horse could not rise. Titus said: 'He's done; we shall +never get him up alive.' The cold water and shock on top of all his +recent troubles, had been too much for the undefeated old sportsman. In +vain I tried to get him to his feet; three times he tried and then fell +over backwards into the water again. At that moment a new danger arose. +The whole piece of Barrier itself started to subside. + +"It had evidently been broken before, and the tide was doing the rest. We +were ordered up and it certainly was all too necessary; still Titus and I +hung over the old Uncle Bill's head. I said: 'I can't leave him to be +eaten alive by those whales.' There was a pick lying up on the floe. +Titus said: 'I shall be sick if I have to kill another horse like I did +the last.' I had no intention that anybody should kill my own horse but +myself, and getting the pick I struck where Titus told me. I made sure of +my job before we ran up and jumped the opening in the Barrier, carrying a +blood-stained pick-axe instead of leading the pony I had almost +considered safe. + +"We returned to our old camp that night (March 2) with Nobby, the only +one saved of the five that left One Ton Depôt. I was fearfully cut up +about my pony and Punch, but it was better than last night; we knew they +would not have to starve and that all their troubles were now at an end. +Before supper I went for a walk along the Barrier with Scott, and the +next day we started back. We left one tent, two sledges and a lot of gear +as Nobby could only pull two light sledges, and we could not pull an +excessive weight on that bad surface. As it was we had over 800 lbs. on +the sledge when we left. It was a glaring day with the surface soft and +sandy, a combination of unpleasant circumstances. It took five hours to +drag as far as the place we had originally gone down on to the sea-ice +from the Barrier. + +"Evans and his party should now have arrived from Corner Camp, and as +Captain Scott wanted to see if they had left a note at Safety Camp, I +walked up there while the tea was being brewed. It was about 1¼ miles +away, and I found traces of the party in the snow, but no note. It fed me +up to see the walls so recently occupied by our ponies, and I was glad to +leave. The afternoon march was interminable; it seemed as if we would +never reach the coast. At last we came to the Pram Point Pressure Ridges +where the Barrier joins the peninsula to eastward of Cape Armitage. They +are waves of ice up to 20 feet in height running along parallel to each +other with a valley in between each, and are only crevassed badly at the +outer end as far as we have seen, though there are smaller crevasses +right along. We camped in one of these valleys about 9.30 P.M.; I was +thoroughly tired, so I think was everybody else. We were about a mile +from the ice edge; and the problem was where to get Nobby up the +precipitous slopes. This was solved by the arrival of Evans, Atkinson, +Forde and Keohane about midnight. They had seen us coming in from the +heights, and had come down for news. Teddy Evans had arrived the day +before, and, being warned off the Barrier edge by a note left by Captain +Scott, had made for the land with his party, and one horse Jimmy Pigg. He +had found a good way up a mile or so farther east, almost under Castle +Rock. He had walked to Hut Point with Atkinson the next day and heard of +the loss of Cherry, myself and the animals from Bill Wilson and Meares +who had been left there to look after their teams. I hadn't seen Atkinson +for quite a while when we met this time. + +"The next day we relayed the sledges up the slope which was about 700 +feet high rising from a small bay. It was so steep that the pony could +only be led up and we had to put on crampons to grip the ice. These are +merely a sole of leather with light metal plates for foot and heel +containing spikes. [These were altered afterwards.] They have leather +beckets and a lanyard rove off for making them fast over the finnesko. It +took us all the morning to get everything up to the top and then it +started to blow. The camp was wonderfully sheltered. Jimmy Pigg and Nobby +were reunited after many weeks, and to show their friendliness the former +bit the latter in the back of the neck as a first introduction. Atkinson +had gone to Hut Point to reassure Uncle Bill as to our safety and arrived +again with Gran just as we got the last load up. There was no sugar at +the hut except what the dogs had brought in, so Gran, who was quite +fresh, volunteered to get a couple of bags from the depôt at Safety Camp, +which could plainly be seen out on the Barrier. We all went to the edge +of the slope to see him go down it on ski. He did it splendidly and must +have been going with the speed of an express train down the incline, as +he was on the Barrier in an incredibly short time compared to the hours +we had dragged up the same slope with the loads. Teddy, Titus and Keohane +were left at the camp to be joined by Gran later. Scott started off for +Hut Point with Crean and Cherry on his sledge, while I followed with +Forde and Atkinson. The others helped us up several hundred feet of slope +and left us under Castle Rock. + +"It was here that they mistook their way in the blizzard and lost a man +from the Discovery. Though it was fine below it was blowing like anything +on the heights. I was too busily occupied to see much of the hills and +snow-slopes which I got to know so well later. It was about three miles +direct to the hut, but very up and down hill. At the last, however, you +see the Bay in panorama with Cape Armitage on one side, and Hut Point on +the other, where the Discovery lay two whole years. It is a magnificent +view from the heights and for wild desolate grandeur would take some +beating; the Western Mountains and the great dome of Mount Discovery +across the black strait of water, covered with dark frost smoke, and here +and there an iceberg driving fast towards the sea. About half a mile +below us was the little hut and, on the left, the 800-feet pyramid of +Observation Hill. It is a perfect chaos of hills and extinct craters just +here. + +"It was blowing like fun. We left one sledge on the top of ski-slope and +just took what was necessary on the other, such as our bags, etc. It was +my first experience of steep downhill sledging. Instead of anybody +pulling forward we all had to hang back and guide the sledge down the +slippery incline without letting it take charge or getting upset. It is +great fun. On reaching the head of the Bay, however, we had quite a +dangerous little bit to cross. Here it was swept of snow and there was +nothing but glassy ice and the incline ended in a low ice-cliff with the +water below it. Attached as we were to the sledge we should have been at +a disadvantage had it come to swimming, which a slip might easily have +brought about. We scratched carefully across this and then headed down on +the snow, arriving at the hut all well. The old hut had changed +tremendously since I last saw it, having been dug out and cleared of snow +and ice. Two unrecognizable sweeps greeted us heartily, they were Bill +and Meares; the dogs howled a chorus for our benefit; it was quite like +coming home. Inside the hut, the cause of the blackness was apparent, +they had a blubber fire going, an open one, with no chimney or uptake for +the smoke. After such a long open-air life it fairly choked me, and for +once I could not eat a square meal. We all slept in a row against the +west wall of the hut with our feet inboard. + +"The next morning Captain Scott, Bill, Cherry and I set out to walk to +Castle Rock and meet the other party. It was fairly fizzing from the sea, +but clear. Once up on the Heights, however, we seemed to get less wind. A +couple of hours later we were at the great rock, Castle Rock, which is +one of the best landmarks about here. The party in the Saddle Camp had +relayed two of the sledges up the slope; these we hauled on to the top +while the two ponies were harnessed and brought up. There were three +sledges left to take on altogether, so the ponies took one each and we +the other. Meanwhile Captain Scott walked over the shoulder under Castle +Rock to see down the Strait and came back with the intelligence that he +could hardly believe his eyes, but half the Glacier Tongue had broken off +and disappeared. This great Tongue of ice had stood there on arrival of +the Discovery, ten years before, and had remained ever since; it had a +depôt of Shackleton's on it, and Campbell had depôted his fodder on it +for us. On the eventful night of the break-up of the ice at least three +miles of the Tongue which had been considered practically terra firma had +gone, after having been there probably for centuries. We headed for the +hut: Bill had looked out a route for the ponies, to avoid slippery +places. It started to bliz, but was not too thick for us to see our +bearings. At the top of Ski Slope the ponies were taken out of the +sledges and led down a circuitous route over the rocks. The rest of us +put everything we wanted on one sledge and leaving the others up there +went down the slope as before. The two ponies arrived before us and were +stabled in the verandah. + +"That night for the first time since the establishment of Safety Camp the +depôt party were all together again, minus six ponies. In concluding my +report to Captain Scott on the 'floe' incident, which he asked me to set +down long afterwards, I said, 'In reconsidering the foregoing I have come +to the conclusion that I underestimated the danger signs on the sea-ice +on February 28, and on the following day might have attached more +importance to the safety of my companions. As it was, however, all +circumstances seemed to conspire together to make the situation +unavoidable.' I did not forget to mention the splendid behaviour of +Cherry and Crean, and, for my own part, I have no regrets. I took the +blame for my lack of experience, but knew that having done everything I +could do, it did not concern me if anybody liked to criticize my action. +My own opinion is that it just had to be, the circumstances leading to it +were too devious for mere coincidence. Six hours earlier we could have +walked to the hut on sound sea-ice. A few hours later we should have seen +open water on arrival at the Barrier edge. The blizzard that knocked out +the beasts, the death of Weary, the misunderstanding of the dogs, +everything, fitted in to place us on the sea-ice during the only two +hours of the whole year that we could possibly have been in such a +position. Let those who believe in coincidence carry on believing. Nobody +will ever convince me that there was not something more. Perhaps in the +light of next year we shall see what was meant by such an apparent blow +to our hopes. Certainly we shall start for the Pole with less of that +foolish spirit of blatant boast and ridiculous blind self-assurance, that +characterized some of us on leaving Cardiff. + +"Poor Captain Scott had now a new anxiety thrust upon him. The Winter +Station with ponies, stores and motors was all situated on a low beach +not twenty yards from the water's edge, and now that the ice had gone out +(and the hut was not six feet above sea-level at the floor) how had they +fared in the storm? This was a problem we could not solve without going +to see. Cape Evans, though dimly in sight, was as far off as New Zealand +till the sea froze over. The idea of attempting the shoulder of Erebus +did occur to Captain Scott, but it was so heavily crevassed as to make a +journey from our side almost impossible. On the other side Professor +David's party got up to the Summit without finding a crevasse. Captain +Scott took his reverses like a brick. I often went out for a walk with +him and sometimes he discussed his plans for next season. He took his +losses very philosophically and never blamed any of us." + + * * * * * + +This is the end of that part of Bowers' letter which deals with the +incident. Crean told me afterwards how he got on to the Barrier. He first +made for the Gap, following the best path of the ice, but then had to +retrace his steps and make for White Island jumping from floe to floe. +But then "I was pretty lively," said he: and "there were lots of penguins +and seals and killers knocking round that day." + +Crean had one of the ski sticks and that "was a great help to me for +getting over the floes. It was a sloping piece like what you were on and +it was very near touching the Barrier, in one corner of it only. Well, I +dug a hole with the ski stick in the side of the Barrier for a step for +one foot, and when I finished the hole I straddled my legs and got one on +the floe and one in the side of the Barrier. Then I got the stick and dug +it in on top and I gave myself a bit of a spring and got my outside leg +up top. It was a terrible place but I thought it was the only chance. + +"I made straight for Safety Camp and they must have spotted me: for I +think it was Gran that met me on skis. Then Scott and Wilson and Oates +met me a long way out: I explained how it happened. He was +worried-looking a bit, but he never said anything out of the way. He told +Oates to go inside and light the primus and give me a meal." + +A more detailed account of the behaviour of the hundreds of whales which +infested the lanes of open water between the broken floes and calved +bergs is of interest. Most of them at any rate were Killer whales (Orca +gladiator), and they were cruising about in great numbers, snorting and +blowing, while occasionally they would in some extraordinary way raise +themselves and look about over the ice, resting the fore part of their +enormous yellow and black bodies on the edge of the floes. They were +undisguisedly interested in us and the ponies, and we felt that if we +once got into the water our ends would be swift and bloody. + +But I have a very distinct recollection that the whales were not all +Killers, and that some, at any rate, were Bottle-nosed whales. This was +impressed upon me by one of the most dramatic moments of that night and +day. + +We made our way very slowly, sometimes waiting twenty minutes for the +floe on which we were to touch the next one in the direction we were +trying to go, but before us in the distance was a region of sea-ice which +appeared to slope gradually up on to the fast Barrier beyond. As we got +nearer we saw a dark line appear at intervals between the two. This we +considered was a crevasse at the edge of the Barrier which was opening +and shutting with the very big swell which was running, and on which all +the floes were bobbing up and down. We told one another that we could +rush the ponies over this as it closed. + +We approached the Barrier and began to rise up on the sloping floes which +had edged the Barrier and so on to small bergs which had calved from the +Barrier itself. Leaving Crean with the ponies, Bowers and I went forward +to prospect, and rose on to a berg from which we hoped to reach the +Barrier. + +I can never forget the scene that met us. Between us and the Barrier was +a lane of some fifty yards wide, a seething cauldron. Bergs were calving +off as we watched: and capsizing: and hitting other bergs, splitting into +two and falling apart. The Killers filled the whole place. Looking +downwards into a hole between our berg and the next, a hole not bigger +than a small room, we saw at least six whales. They were so crowded that +they could only lie so as to get their snouts out of the water, and my +memory is that their snouts were bottle-nosed. At this moment our berg +split into two parts and we hastily retreated to the lower and safer +floes. + +Now in the Zoological Report of the Discovery Expedition Wilson states +that the true identity of the Bottle-nosed whale (Hyperoodon rostrata) in +Antarctic Seas has not been conclusively established. But that inasmuch +as it certainly frequents seas so far as 48° S. latitude it is probable +that certain whales which he and other members of that expedition saw +frequenting the edge of the ice were, as they appeared to be, +Bottle-nosed whales. For my part, without great knowledge of whales, I am +convinced that these whales which lay but twenty feet below us were +whales of this species. + +After our rescue by Scott we pitched our tents, as has been described, at +least half a mile from the fast edge of the Barrier. All night long, or +as it really was, early morning, the Killers were snorting and blowing +under the Barrier, and sometimes, it seemed, under our tents. Time and +again some member of the party went out of the tent to see if the Barrier +had not broken farther back, but there was no visible change, and it must +have been that the apparently solid ice on which we were, was split up by +crevasses by the big swell which had been running, and that round us, +hidden by snow bridges, were leads of water in which whales were cruising +in search of seal. + +The next day most of the ice had gone out to sea, and I do not think the +whales were so numerous. The most noticeable thing about them that day +was the organization shown by the band of whales which appeared after +Bowers' pony, Uncle Bill, had fallen between two floes, and we were +trying to get him towards the Barrier. "Good God, look at the whales," +said some one, and there, in a pool of water behind the floe on which we +were working, lay twelve great whales in perfect line, facing the floe. +And out in front of them, like the captain of a company of soldiers, was +another. As we turned they dived as one whale, led by the big fellow in +front, and we certainly expected that they would attack the floe on which +we stood. Whether they never did so, or whether they tried and failed, +for the floes here were fifteen or sixteen feet thick, I do not know; we +never saw them again. + +One other incident of those days is worth recalling. "Cherry, Crean, +we're floating out to sea," was the startling awakening from Bowers, +standing in his socks outside the tent at 4.30 A.M. that Wednesday +morning. And indeed at first sight on getting outside the tent it looked +a quite hopeless situation. I thought it was madness to try and save the +ponies and gear when, it seemed, the only chance at all of saving the men +was an immediate rush for the Barrier, and I said so. "Well, I'm going to +try," was Bowers' answer, and, quixotic or no, he largely succeeded. I +never knew a man who treated difficulties with such scorn. + + * * * * * + +There must be some of my companions who look back upon Hut Point with a +peculiar fondness, such as men get for places where they have experienced +great joys and great trials. And Hut Point has an atmosphere of its own. +I do not know what it is. Partly aesthetic, for the sea and great +mountains, and the glorious colour effects which prevail in spring and +autumn, would fascinate the least imaginative; partly mysterious, with +the Great Barrier knocking at your door, and the smoke of Erebus by day +and the curtain of Aurora by night; partly the associations of the +place--the old hut, the old landmarks, so familiar to those who know the +history of the Discovery Expedition, the stakes in the snow, the holes +for which ice was dug to water the ship, Vince's Cross on the Point. Now +there is another Cross, on Observation Hill. + +And yet when we first arrived the hut was comfortless enough. Wilson and +Meares and Gran had been there some days; they had found some old bricks +and a grid, and there was an open blubber fire in the middle of the +floor. There was no outlet for the smoke and smuts and it was impossible +to see your neighbour, to speak without coughing, or to open your eyes +long before they began to smart. Atkinson and Crean had cleared the floor +of ice in our absence, but the space between the lower and upper roofs +was solid with blue ice, and the lower roof sagged down in places in a +dangerous way. The wind howled continuously and to say that the hut was +cold is a very mild expression of the reality. + +This hut was built by the Discovery Expedition, who themselves lived in +the ship which lay off the shore frozen into the sea-ice, as a workroom +and as a refuge in case of shipwreck. It was useful to them in some ways, +but was too large to heat with the amount of coal available, and was +rather a white elephant. Scott wrote of it that "on the whole our large +hut has been and will be of use to us, but its uses are never likely to +be of such importance as to render it indispensable, nor cause it to be +said that circumstances have justified the outlay made on it, or the +expenditure of space and trouble in bringing it to its final home. It is +here now, however, and here it will stand for many a long year with such +supplies as will afford the necessaries of life to any less fortunate +party who may follow in our footsteps and be forced to search for food +and shelter."[126] + +Well! It was to be more useful to Scott in 1910 to 1913 than he imagined +in 1902. We found the place with its verandah complete, the remains of +the two magnetic huts and a rubbish heap. It was wonderful what that +rubbish heap yielded up. Bricks to build a blubber stove, a sheet of iron +to put over the top of it, a length of stove piping to form a chimney. +Somehow somebody made cement, and built the bricks together, and one of +the magnetic huts gave up its asbestos sheeting to insulate the chimney +from the woodwork of the roofs. An old door made a cook's table, old +cases turned upside down made seats. The provisions left by the Discovery +were biscuits contained in some forty large packing cases. These we piled +up across the middle of our house as a bulkhead and the old Discovery +winter awning was dug out of the snow outside and fixed against the wall +thus made to keep the warmth in. At night we cleared the floor space and +spread our bags. + +[Illustration: HUT POINT FROM OBSERVATION HILL] + +The two precious survivors of the eight ponies with which we started on +our journey were housed in the verandah, which was made wind-proof and +snow-proof. The more truculent dogs lay tethered outside, the more docile +were allowed their freedom, but even so the dog fights were not +infrequent. We had one poor little dog, Makaka by name. When unloading +the ship this dog had been overrun by the sledge which he was helping to +pull; he suffered again when the team of dogs fell down the crevasse, and +was now partially paralysed. He was a wretched object, for the hair +refused to grow on his hind quarters, but he was a real sportsman and had +no idea of giving in. Meares and I went out one night when it was blowing +hard, attracted by the cries of a dog. It was Makaka who had ventured to +climb a steep slope and was now afraid to return. When the dogs finally +returned to Cape Evans, Makaka was allowed to run by the side of the +team; but when Cape Evans was reached he was gone. Search failed to find +him and, after some weeks, hope of him was abandoned. But a month +afterwards Gran and Debenham went over to Hut Point, and here at the +entrance of the hut they found Makaka, pitifully weak but able to bark to +them. He must have lived on seal, but how he did so in that condition is +a mystery. + +The reader may ask how it was that being so near our Winter Quarters at +Cape Evans we were unable to reach them immediately. Cape Evans is +fifteen miles across the sea from Hut Point, and though both huts are on +the same island--Hut Point being at the end of a peninsula and Cape Evans +on the remains of a flow of lava which juts out into the sea--the land +which joins the two has never yet been crossed by a sledge party owing to +the great ice falls which cover the slopes of Erebus. A glance at the map +will show that although Hut Point is surrounded with sea, or sea-ice, on +every side except that of Arrival Heights, the Barrier abuts upon the Hut +Point Peninsula to the south beyond Pram Point. Thus there is always +communication with the Barrier by a devious route by which indeed we had +just arrived, but farther progress north is cut off until the cold +temperature of the autumn and winter causes the open sea to freeze. We +arrived at Hut Point on March 5 and Scott expected to be able to cross on +the newly-frozen ice by about March 21. However, it was nearly a month +after that when the first party could pass to Cape Evans, and then only +the Bays were frozen and the Sound was still open water, owing to the +winds which swept the ice out to sea almost as soon as it was formed. + +On the top of all the anxieties which had oppressed him lately Scott had +a great fear that a swell so phenomenal as to break up Glacier Tongue, a +landmark which had probably been there for centuries, might have swept +away our hut at Cape Evans. He was so alarmed about it that he told +Wilson and myself to prepare to form a sledging party with him to +penetrate the Erebus icefalls and reach Cape Evans. "Went yesterday to +Castle Rock with Wilson to see what chance there might be of getting to +Cape Evans. The day was bright and it was quite warm walking in the sun. +There is no doubt the route to Cape Evans lies over the worst corner of +Erebus. From this distance (some 7 or 8 miles at least) the whole +mountain side looks a mass of crevasses, but a route might be found at a +level of 3000 or 4000 feet."[127] After some days the project was +abandoned as being hopeless. + +On March 8 Bowers led a party to bring in the gear and provisions which +had been left at Disaster Camp, the material, that is, which had been +rescued from the sea-ice. They were away three days and found the pulling +very hard. "At the corner of the bay the Barrier was buckled into round +ridges which took a couple of hours to cross. We marched for some time +alongside an enormous crevasse, which lay like a street near us. I +examined it at one point which must have been 15 feet wide, and though it +was impossible to see the bottom for snow cornices it was undoubtedly +open as I could hear a seal blowing below."[128] + +Bowers' letter describes them dragging their heavy load up the slope to +Castle Rock: "It took us all the morning to reach Saddle Camp with the +loads in two journeys. I found a steady plod up a steep hill without +spells is better and less exhausting than a rush and a number of rests. +This theory I put into practice with great success. I don't know whether +everybody saw eye to eye with me over the idea of getting to the top +without a spell. After the second sledge was up Atkinson said: 'I don't +mind you as a rule, but there are times when I positively hate you.'" + +Defoe could have written another Robinson Crusoe with Hut Point instead +of San Juan Fernandez. Our sledging supplies were mostly exhausted and we +depended upon the seals we could kill for food, fuel and light. We were +smutty as sweeps from the blubber we burned; and a more +blackguard-looking crew would have been hard to find. We spent our fine +days killing, cutting up and carrying in seal when we could find them, or +climbing the various interesting hills and craters which abound here, and +our evenings in long discussions which seldom settled anything. Some +looked after dogs, and others after ponies; some made geological +collections; others sketched the wonderful sunsets; but before and above +all we ate and slept. We must have spent a good twelve hours asleep in +our bags every day after our six weeks' sledging. And we rested. Perhaps +this is not everybody's notion of a very good time, but it was good +enough for us. + +The Weddell seal which frequents the seas which fringe the Antarctic +continent was a standby for most of our wants; for he can at a pinch +provide not only meat to eat, fuel for your fire and oil for your lamp, +but also leather for your finnesko and an antidote to scurvy. As he lies +out on the sea-ice, a great ungainly shape, nothing short of an actual +prod will persuade him to take much notice of an Antarctic explorer. Even +then he is as likely as not to yawn in your face and go to sleep again. +His instincts are all to avoid the water when alarmed, for he knows his +enemies the killer whales live there: but if you drive him into the water +he is transformed in the twinkling of an eye into a thing of beauty and +grace, which can travel and turn with extreme celerity and which can +successfully chase the fish on which he feeds. + +We were lucky now in that a small bay of sea-ice, about an acre in +extent, still remained within two miles of us at a corner where Barrier, +sea, and land meet, called Pram Point by Scott in the Discovery days. + +Now Pram Point during the summer months is one of the most populous seal +nurseries in McMurdo Sound. In this neighbourhood the Barrier, moving +slowly towards the Peninsula, buckles the sea-ice into pressure ridges. +As the trough of each ridge is forced downwards, so in summer pools of +sea water are formed in which the seal make their holes and among these +ridges they lie and bask in the sun: the males fight their battles, the +females bring forth their young: the children play and chase their tails +just like kittens. Now that the sea-ice had broken up, many seal were to +be found in this sheltered corner under the green and blue ice-cliffs of +Crater Hill. + +If you go seal killing you want a big stick, a bayonet, a flensing knife +and a steel. Any big stick will do, so long as it will hit the seal a +heavy blow on the nose: this stuns him and afterwards mercifully he feels +no more. The bayonet knife (which should be fitted into a handle with a +cross-piece to prevent the slipping of the hand down on to the blade) +should be at least 14 inches long without the handle; this is used to +reach the seal's heart. Our flensing knives were one foot long including +the handle, the blades were seven inches long by 1¼ inches broad: some +were pointed and others round and I do not know which was best. The +handles should be of wood as being warmer to hold. + +Killing and cutting up seals is a gruesome but very necessary business, +and the provision of suitable implements is humane as well as economic in +time and labour. The skin is first cut off with the blubber attached: the +meat is then cut from the skeleton, the entrails cleaned out, the liver +carefully excised. The whole is then left to freeze in pieces on the +snow, which are afterwards collected as rock-like lumps. The carcass can +be cut up with an axe when needed and fed to the dogs. Nothing except +entrails was wasted. + +[Illustration: SEALS] + +[Illustration: SEALS] + +[Illustration: FROM THE SEA--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +[Illustration: FROM THE SEA--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +Lighting was literally a burning question. I do not know that any lamp +was better than a tin matchbox fed with blubber, with strands of lamp +wick sticking up in it, but all kinds of patterns big and small were made +by proud inventors; they generally gave some light, though not a +brilliant one. There were more ambitious attempts than blubber. The worst +of these perhaps was produced by Oates. Somebody found some carbide and +Oates immediately schemed to light the hut with acetylene. I think he was +the only person who did not view the preparation with ill-concealed +nervousness. However, Wilson took the situation into his tactful hands. +For several days Oates and Wilson were deep in the acetylene plant scheme +and then, apparently without reason, it was found that it could not be +done. It was a successful piece of strategy which no woman could have +bettered. + +Bowers, Wilson, Atkinson and I were on Crater Hill one morning when we +espied a sledge party approaching from the direction of Castle Rock. As +we expected, this was the Geological party, consisting of Griffith +Taylor, Wright, Debenham and Seaman Evans, home from the Western +Mountains. They entirely failed to recognize in our black faces the men +whom they had last seen from the ship at Glacier Tongue. I hope their +story will be told by Debenham. For days their doings were the topic of +conversation. Both numerically and intellectually they were an addition +to our party, which now numbered sixteen. Taylor especially is seldom at +a loss for conversation and his remarks are generally original, if +sometimes crude. Most of us were glad to listen when the discussions in +which he was a leading figure raged round the blubber stove. Scott and +Wilson were always in the thick of it, and the others chimed in as their +interest, knowledge and experience led. Rash statements on questions of +fact were always dangerous, for our small community contained so many +specialists that errors were soon exposed. At the same time there were +few parts of the world that one or other of us had not visited at least +once. Later, when we came to our own limited quarters, books of reference +were constantly in demand to settle disputes. Such books as the Times +Atlas, a good encyclopaedia and even a Latin Dictionary are invaluable to +such expeditions for this purpose. To them I would add Who's Who. + +From odd corners we unearthed some Contemporary Reviews, the Girls' Own +Paper and the Family Herald, all of ten years ago! We also found encased +in ice an incomplete copy of Stanley Weyman's My Lady Rotha; it was +carefully thawed out and read by everybody, and the excitement was +increased by the fact that the end of the book was missing. + +"Who's going to cook?" was one of the last queries each night, and two +men would volunteer. It is not great fun lighting an ordinary coal fire +on a cold winter's morning, but lighting the blubber fire at Hut Point +when the metal frosted your fingers and the frozen blubber had to be +induced to drip was a far more arduous task. The water was converted from +its icy state and, by that time, the stove was getting hot, in inverse +proportion to your temper. Seal liver fry and cocoa with unlimited +Discovery Cabin biscuits were the standard dish for breakfast, and when +it was ready a sustained cry of 'hoosh' brought the sleepers from their +bags, wiping reindeer hairs from their eyes. I think I was responsible +for the greatest breakfast failure when I fried some biscuits and +sardines (we only had one tin). Leaving the biscuits in the frying pan, +the lid of a cooker, after taking it from the fire, they went on cooking +and became as charcoal. This meal was known as 'the burnt-offering.' On +April 1 Bowers prepared to make a fool of two of us by putting chaff in +our pannikins and covering the top only with seal meat. The plan turned +back upon the maker, for he had not enough left to make up the +deficiency, and, as I found out many weeks afterwards, surreptitiously +gave up his own hoosh to the April fools and went without himself. Of +such are the small incidents which afforded real amusement and even live +in the memory as outstanding features of our existence. + +Breakfast done, there was a general clean-up. One seized the apology for +a broom which existed: day foot-gear, finnesko, hair socks, ordinary +socks and puttees, took the place of fleecy sleeping-socks and fur-lined +sleeping-boots: lunch cooks began to make their preparations: ice was +fetched for water: a frozen chunk of red seal meat or liver was levered +and chopped with an ice axe from the general store of seal meat: fids of +sealskin, with the blubber attached, a good three inches of it perhaps, +were brought in and placed by the stove, much as we bring in a scuttle of +coal. Gradually the community scattered as duty or inclination led, +leaving some members to dig away the snow-drifts which had accumulated +round the door and windows during the night. + +By lunch time every one had some new item of interest. Wright had found a +new form of ice crystal: Scott had tested the ice off the Point and found +it five inches thick: Wilson had found new seal holes off Cape Armitage, +and we had hopes of finding our food and fuel nearer home: Atkinson had +killed an Emperor penguin which weighed over ninety pounds, a record: and +the assistant zoologist felt he would have to skin it, and did not want +to do so: Meares had found an excellent place to roll stones down Arrival +Heights into the sea: Debenham had a new theory to account for the Great +Boulder, as a mammoth block different in structure from the surrounding +geological features was called: Bowers had a scheme for returning from +the Pole by the Plateau instead of the Barrier: Oates might be heard +saying that he thought he could do with another chupattie. A favourite +pastime was the making of knots. Could you make a clove hitch with one +hand? + +The afternoon was like the morning, save that the sun was now sinking +behind the Western Mountains. These autumn effects were among the most +beautiful sights of the world, and it was now that Wilson made the +sketches for many of the water-colours which he afterwards painted at +Winter Quarters. The majority were taken from the summit of Observation +Hill, crouching under the lee of the rocks into which, nearly two years +after, we built the Cross which now stands to commemorate his death and +that of his companions. He sketched quickly with bare fingers and +mittened hands, jotting down the outlines of hills and clouds, and +pencilling in the colours by name. After a minute, more or less, the +fingers become too cold for such work, and they must be put back into the +wool and fur mitts until they are again warm enough to continue. Pencil +and sketch book, a Winsor and Newton, were carried in a little +blubber-stained wallet on his belt. Scott carried his sledge diaries in +similar books in a similar wallet made of green Willesden canvas and +fastened with a lanyard. + +There was a good fug in the hut by dinner time: this was a mixed +blessing. It was good for our gear: sleeping-bags, finnesko, mitts, socks +were all hung up and dried, most necessary after sledging, and most +important for the preservation of the skins; but it also started the most +infernal drip-drip from the roof. I have spoken of the double roof of the +old Discovery hut. This was still full of solid ice; indeed some time +afterwards a large portion of it fell, but luckily the inhabitants were +outside. The immediate problem was to prevent the leaks falling on +ourselves, our food or our clothing and bags. And so every tin was +brought into use and hung from leaky spots, while water chutes came into +their own. As the stove cooled so did the drip cease, and in no +prehistoric cavern did more stalactites and stalagmites grow apace. + +On March 16 the last sledge party to the Barrier that season started for +Corner Camp with provisions to increase the existing depôt there. The +party was in charge of Lieutenant Evans, and consisted of Bowers, Oates, +Atkinson, Wright, and myself, with two seamen, Crean and Forde. The +journey out and back took eight days and was uneventful as sledge +journeys go. Thick weather prevailed for several days, and after running +down our distance to Corner Camp we waited for it to clear. We found +ourselves six miles from the depôt and among crevasses, which goes to +show how easy it is to steer off the course under such conditions, and +how creditable the navigation is when a course is kept correctly, +sometimes more by instinct than by skill. + +But we got our first experience of cold weather sledging which was +useful. The minus thirties and forties are not very cold as we were to +understand cold afterwards, but quite cold enough to start with; cold +enough to teach you how to look after your footgear, handle metal and +not to waste time. However, the sun was still well up during the day, and +this makes all the difference, since any sun does more drying of clothes +and gear than none at all. At the same time we began to realize the +difficulties which attend upon spring journeys, though we could only +imagine what might be the trials on a journey in mid-winter, such as we +intended to essay. + +It is easy to be wise after the event, but, in looking back upon the +expedition as a whole, and the tragedy which was to come, mainly from the +unforeseen cold of the autumn on the Barrier (such as minus forties in +February) it seems that we might have grasped that these temperatures +were lower than might have been expected in the middle of March quite +near the open sea. Even if this had occurred to any one, and I do not +think that it did, I doubt whether the next step of reasoning would have +followed, namely, the possibility that the interior of the Barrier would, +as actually happened, prove to be much colder than was expected at this +date. On the contrary I several times heard Scott mention the possibility +of the Polar Party not returning until April. At the same time it must be +realized that pony transport to the foot of the Beardmore Glacier made a +late start inevitable, for the blizzards our ponies had already suffered +proved that spring weather on the Barrier would be intolerable to them. +As a matter of fact, Scott says in his Message to the Public, "no one in +the world would have expected the temperature and surfaces which we +encountered at this time of the year." + +We returned to find everything at Hut Point, including the hut, covered +with frozen spray. This was the result of a blizzard of which we only +felt the tail end on the Barrier. Scott wrote: "The sea was breaking +constantly and heavily on the ice foot. The spray carried right over the +Point--covering all things and raining on the roof of the hut. Poor +Vince's cross, some 30 feet above the water, was enveloped in it. Of +course the dogs had a very poor time, and we went and released two or +three, getting covered in spray during the operation--our wind clothes +very wet. This is the third gale from the South since our arrival here +(i.e. in 2½ weeks). Any one of these would have rendered the Bay +impossible for a ship, and, therefore, it is extraordinary that we should +have entirely escaped such a blow when the Discovery was in it in +1902."[129] + + * * * * * + +It is difficult to see long distances across open water at this time of +year because the comparatively warm water throws up into the air a fog, +known as frost-smoke. If there is a wind this smoke is carried over the +surface of the sea, but if calm the smoke rises and forms a dense +curtain. Standing on Arrival Heights, which form the nail of the +finger-like Peninsula on which we now lived, we could see the four +islands which lie near Cape Evans, and a black smudge in the face of the +glaciers which descend from Erebus, which we knew to be the face of the +steep slope above Cape Evans, afterwards named The Ramp. But, for the +present, our comfortable hut might have been thousands of miles away for +all the good it was to us. As soon as the wind fell calm the sea was +covered by a thin layer of ice, in twenty-four hours it might be four or +five inches thick, but as yet it never proved strong enough to resist the +next blizzard. In March the ice to the south was safe; there was +appearance of ice in the two bays at the foot of Erebus' slopes in the +beginning of April. + +We treated newly formed ice with far too little respect. It was on April +7 that Scott asked whether any of us would like to walk northwards over +the newly formed ice towards Castle Rock. We had walked about two miles, +the ice heaving up and down as we went, dodging the open pools and leads +to the best of our ability, when Taylor went right in. Luckily he could +lever himself out without help, and returned to the hut with all speed. +We prepared to cross this ice to Cape Evans the next day, but the whole +of it went out in the night. On another occasion we were prepared to set +out the following morning, but the ice on which we were to cross went +out on the turn of the tide some five hours before we timed ourselves to +start. + +Scott was of opinion that the ice in the two Bays under Erebus was firm, +and prepared to essay this route. The first of these bays is formed by +the junction of the Hut Point Peninsula with Erebus to the south, and by +Glacier Tongue to the north. Crossing Glacier Tongue a party can descend +on to the second bay beyond, the northern boundary of which is Cape +Evans. The Dellbridge Islands, of which Great Razorback is in direct line +between Glacier Tongue and Cape Evans, help to hold in any ice which +forms here. The route had never been attempted before, but it was hoped +that a way down from the Peninsula on to the frozen sea might be found at +the Hutton Cliffs, an outcrop of lava rock in the irregular ice face. + +"A party consisting of Scott, Bowers, Taylor, and Seaman Evans with one +tent, and Lieutenant Evans, Wright, Debenham, Gran and Crean with +another, started for Hut Point. It was dark to the south and snowing by +the time they reached the top of Ski Slope. We helped them past Third +Crater. The ice from Hut Point to Glacier Tongue was impossible, and so +they went on past Castle Rock and were to try and get down somewhere by +the Hutton Cliffs on to some fast sea-ice which seemed to have held there +some time, and so across Glacier Tongue on to sea-ice which also seemed +to be fast as far as Cape Evans. + +"After lunch Wilson and I started about 4 P.M. in half a blizzard. It was +much better on the Heights and fairly clear towards Erebus, but we could +not see any traces of the party on the ice. + +"April 12. This morning as it was beginning to get light a blizzard +started, and it is blowing very hard now. The large amount of snow which +has fallen will make it very thick. We are all anxious about the +returning party, for Scott talked of camping on the sea-ice. The ice in +Arrival Bay (just north of Hut Point) has gone out. They have +sleeping-bags, food for two meals, and a full primus for each tent. + +"April 13. We were very anxious about the returning party, especially +when all the ice north of Hut Point went out. The blizzard blew itself +out this morning, and it was a great change to see White Island and The +Bluff once more. Atkinson came in before lunch and told me that, looking +from the Heights, the ice from Glacier Tongue to Cape Evans appeared to +have gone out. This sobered our lunch. We all made our way to Second +Crater afterwards, and found the ice from the Hutton Cliffs to Glacier +Tongue and thence to Cape Evans was still in. + +"Before leaving, Scott arranged to give Véry Lights at 10 P.M. from Cape +Evans on the first clear night of the next three. To-night is the third, +and the first clear night. We were out punctually, and then as we watched +a flare blazed up, followed by quite a firework display. We all went wild +with excitement--knowing that all was well. Meares ran in and soaked some +awning with paraffin, and we lifted it as an answering flare and threw it +into the air again and again, until it was burning in little bits all +over the snow. The relief was great."[130] + + * * * * * + +Bowers must tell the story of the returning party: + +"We topped the ridges and headed for Erebus beyond Castle Rock. It looked +a little threatening at first, but cleared a bit as we got on. It was +quite interesting to be breaking new ground. Scott is a fine stepper in a +sledge, and he set a fast and easy swing all the time. It was snowing and +misty when we got beyond the Hutton Cliffs, but we pitched the tents for +lunch before going down the slope. There was no doubt that a blizzard was +coming up. It cleared during lunch, which we finished about 3.30 P.M., as +it had been a long morning march. + +"It was just as well for us that the mist cleared, for the slope was not +only crevassed in one direction, but it ended in a high ice-cliff. By +working along we found a lowish place about thirty feet down from top to +bottom. Over this we lowered men and sledges. It had started to blow and +the drift was flying off the cliff in clouds. We put in a couple of +strong male bamboos to lower the last man away, leaving the Alpine rope +there to facilitate ascent (i.e. for any party returning to Hut Point +with food). We then repacked the sledges and headed across the bay +towards the Glacier Tongue, where we arrived after dark about 6 P.M. The +young sea-ice was covered in a salt deposit which made it like pulling a +sledge over treacle instead of ice, and it was very heavy going after the +snow uplands. The Tongue was mostly hard blue ice, which is slipperiness +itself, and crevassed every few yards. Most of these were bridged, but +you were continually pushing a foot, or sometimes two, into nothingness, +in the semi-darkness. None of us, however, went down to the extent of our +harness. + +"Arrived on the other side we struck a sheltered dip, where we decided to +camp for something to eat. It was after 8 P.M. and I was for camping +there for the night, as it seemed to me folly to venture upon a piece of +untried newly frozen sea-ice in inky darkness, with a blizzard coming up +behind us. Against this of course we were only five miles from Cape +Evans, and though we had hardly any grub with us, not having anticipated +the cliff or the saltness of the sea-ice, and having to set out to do the +journey in one day, I thought hunger in a sleeping-bag better than lying +out in a blizzard on less than one foot of young ice. + +"After a meal we started off at 9.30 P.M. in a snowy mist in which we +could literally see nothing. It had fallen calm though, and at last we +could see the outline of the nearest of the Dellbridge Islands called the +Great Razorback; our course lay for a smaller island ahead called the +Little Razorback. As we neared the Little Razorback Island the snow hid +everything; in fact we could hardly see the island itself when we were +right under it. It was impossible to go wandering on, so we had after all +to camp on the sea-ice. There was scarcely any snow to put on the +valances of the tents, and the wet salt soaked the bags, and you knew +that there was only about six or ten inches of precarious ice between you +and the black waters beneath. Altogether I decided that I for one would +lie awake in such an insecure camp. + +"As expected the blizzard overtook us shortly after midnight, and the +shrieking of the wind among the rocks above might have been pretty +unpleasant had it not assured me that we were still close to the island +and not moving seaward. Needless to say, I said that I was sure the camp +was as safe as a church. At daylight Taylor dived out and in until the +wind from the door blew out the ice valance and the next moment the tent +closed on us like an umbrella. We would never have spread it again had +not some of the drift settled round us, and so we were able to secure it +after an hour or two. The air was full of thick drift, and to work off +some of Taylor's energy I said we might climb the island and look for +Cape Evans. + +"The island rose up straight from the sea at a sharp angle all round, and +we climbed it with difficulty. On the top we saw the reason of its name, +as it was absolutely so sharp right along that you could bestride the top +as though sitting in a saddle. It was too windy sitting up there to be +pleasant, so we descended, having seen nothing but clouds of flying snow, +and the peak of Inaccessible Island. At the bottom of the weather side we +found a small ledge perfectly flat and just big enough to take two tents +pitched close together. At this place the island made a wind buffer and +it was practically calm though the blizzard yelled all round. I urged +Captain Scott to camp on this ledge and Taylor fizzled for making for +Cape Evans, so Scott decided to ensure Taylor's safety, as he put it, and +we made for the ledge. Once there we had an ideal camp on good hard +ground and no wind, and had we had food the blizzard might have lasted a +week for aught I cared. + +[Illustration: THE HUT, EREBUS AND WHALE-BACK CLOUDS] + +"We were two nights there and on the morning of the 13th it took off +enough for us to head for home. We saw Sunny Jim's [Simpson's] +Observatory on the Hill, but still did not know how the hut had fared +till we got round the cape into North Bay. There was the Winter Station +all intact, however, and though North Bay had only just frozen in, it was +strong enough to bear us safely. Somebody saw us and in another moment +the hut poured out her little party, consisting of Sunny Jim, Ponting, +Nelson, Day, Lashly, Hooper, Clissold, Dimitri and Anton. Ponting's face +was a study as he ran up; he failed to recognize any of us and stopped +dead with a blank look--as he admitted afterwards, he thought it was the +Norwegian expedition for the space of a moment; and then we were all +being greeted as heartily as if we had really done something to be proud +of. + +"The motors had had to be shifted, and a lot of gear placed higher up the +beach, but the water had never reached near the hut, so all was well. +Inside it looked tremendous, and we looked at our grimy selves in a glass +for the first time for three months; no wonder Ponting did not recognize +the ruffians. He photographed a group of us, which will amuse you some +day, when it is permissible to send photos. We ate heartily and had hot +baths and generally civilized ourselves. I have since concluded that the +hut is the finest place in the southern hemisphere, but then I could not +shake down to it at once. I hankered for a sleeping-bag out on the snow, +or for the blubbery atmosphere of Hut Point. I expect the truth of the +matter was that all my special pals, Bill, Cherry, Titus, and Atch, had +been left behind. + +"We found eight ponies at Winter Quarters in the stable, Hackenschmidt +having died. These with our two at Hut Point left us with ten to start +the winter with. I at once looked out the other big Siberian horse that +had been a pair with my late lamented (they were the only Siberian +ponies, all the rest being Manchurians) and singled him out for myself, +should 'the powers that be' be willing. + +"A party had to return to Hut Point with some provision in a day or two, +so I asked to go. Captain Scott had decided to go himself, but said he +would be very pleased if I would go too; so it being a fine day we left +the following Monday. The two teams consisted of Captain Scott, Lashly, +Day and Dimitri with one tent and sledge, and Crean, Hooper, Nelson and +myself with the other. We had it fine as far as the Glacier Tongue; and +then along came the cheery old south wind in our faces; we crossed the +Tongue and struggled against this till we could camp under the Hutton +Cliffs where we got some shelter. All of us had our faces frost-bitten, +the washing and shaving having made mine quite tender. It was a bit of a +job getting up the cliff: we had to stand on top of a pile of fallen ice +and hoist a 10-feet sledge on to our shoulders, at least on to the +shoulders of the tall ones; this just touched the overhanging cornice. A +cornice of snow is caused by continual drift over a sharp edge: it takes +all sorts of fantastic shapes, but usually hangs over like this. Looking +edgeways it looks as if it must fall down, but as a matter of fact is +usually very tough indeed. In this case steps were cut in it with an ice +axe from our extemporary ladder, and Captain Scott and I got up first. +With the aid of a rope and the ladder we got the light ones up first, and +hauled up the gear last of all; hanging the sledge from the top with one +rope enabled the last two to struggle up it assisted by a rope round them +from above. It was a cold job and more frost-bites occurred in two of our +novices, one on a foot and the other on a finger. + +"We faced the blast again, but got it partially behind us on reaching the +Heights. We camped for the night under Castle Rock on an inclined slope. +It calmed down to a glorious night with a low temperature. Crean and I +lay head down hill to make Nelson and Hooper--who had never sledged +before--more comfortable. As a result Crean slipped half out of the tent +and let in a cold stream of air under the valance, for which I was at a +loss to account until the morning disclosed him thus, fast asleep of +course. It takes a lot to worry Captain Scott's coxswain. + +"We arrived at Hut Point and had a great reception there, chiefly on +account of the food we brought, particularly the sugar. We had been +living on some paraffin sugar when I left before, and even this was +finished. The next day we stayed there to kill seals. Cherry and I +skinned one and then went for a walk round Cape Armitage. It was blowing +big guns off the cape, fairly fizzing in fact. We went as far as Pram +Point and then turned, coming in with it behind us. I only had a thin +balaclava and my ears were nearly nipped."[131] + + * * * * * + +Meanwhile those of us who had been left at Hut Point with the ponies and +dogs journeyed out one afternoon to Safety Camp to get some more bales of +compressed fodder. Easter Sunday we spent in a howling blizzard, which +cleared in the afternoon sufficiently to see a golden sun sinking into a +sea of purple frost-smoke and drift. + +I have it on record that we had tinned haddock this day for breakfast, +made by Oates with great care, a biscuit and cheese hoosh for lunch, and +a pemmican fry this evening, followed by cocoa with a tin of sweetened +Nestlé's milk in it, truly a great luxury. For the rest we mended our +finnesko, and read Bleak House. Meares told us how the Chinese who were +going to war with the Lolos (who are one of the Eighteen tribes on the +borders of Thibet and China) tied the Lolo hostage to a bench, and, +having cut his throat, caught the blood which dripped from it. Into this +they dipped their flag, and then cut out the heart and liver, which the +officers ate, while the men ate the rest! + +The relief party arrived on April 18: "We had spent such a happy week, +just the seven of us, at the Discovery hut that I think, glad as we were +to see the men, we would most of us have rather been left undisturbed, +and I expected that it would mean that we should have to move homewards, +as it turned out. + +"Meares is to be left in charge of the party which remains, namely Forde +and Keohane of the old stagers, and Nelson, Day, Lashly and Dimitri of +the new-comers. He is very amusing with the stores and is evidently +afraid that the food which has just been brought in (sugar, self-raising +flour, chocolate, etc.) will all be eaten up by those who have brought +it. So we have dampers without butter, and a minimum of chocolate. + +"Tuesday and Tuesday night was one of our few still, cold days, nearly +minus thirty. The sea northwards from Hut Point, whence the ice had +previously all gone out, froze nearly five inches by Wednesday mid-day, +when we got three more seal. Scott was evidently thinking that on +Thursday, when we were to start, we might go by the sea-ice all the +way--when suddenly with no warning it silently floated out to sea."[132] + +[Illustration: A CORNICE OF SNOW] + +The following two teams travelled to Cape Evans via the Hutton Cliffs on +April 21: 1st team Scott, Wilson, Atkinson, Crean; 2nd team Bowers, +Oates, Cherry-Garrard, Hooper. It was blowing hard, as usual, at the +Hutton Cliffs, and we got rather frost-bitten when lowering the sledges +on to the sea-ice. The sun was leaving us for the next four months, but +luckily the light just lasted for this operation, though not for the +subsequent meal which we hastily ate under the cliffs, nor for the +crossing of Glacier Tongue. Bowers wrote home: + +"I had the lighter team and, knowing what a flier Captain Scott is I took +care to have the new sledge myself. Our weights were nothing and the +difference was only in the sledge runners, but it made all the difference +to us that day. Scott fairly legged it, as I expected, and we came along +gaily behind him. He could not understand it when the pace began to tell +more on his heavy team than on us. After lowering down the sledges over +the cliffs we recovered the rope we had left in the first place, and then +struck out over the sea-ice. Then our good runners told so much that I +owned up to mine being the better sledge, and offered to give them one of +my team. This was declined, but after we crossed the Tongue Captain Scott +said he would like to change sledges at the Little Razorback. At any time +over this stretch we could have run away from his team, and once they got +our sledge they started that game on us. We expected it, and never had I +stepped out so hard before. We had been marching hard for nearly 12 hours +and now we had two miles' spurt to do, and we should have stuck it, bad +runners and all, had we had smooth ice. As it was we struck a belt of +rough ice, and in the dark we all stumbled and I went down a whack, that +nearly knocked me out. This was not noticed fortunately, and still we +hung on to the end of their sledge while I turned hot and cold and +sick and went through the various symptoms before I got my equilibrium +back, which I fortunately did while legging it at full speed. They +started to go ahead soon after that though, and we could not hold our +own, although we were close to the cape. I had the same thing happen +again after another fall but we stuck it round the cape and arrived only +about 50 yards behind. I have never felt so done, and so was my team. Of +course we need not have raced, but we did, and I would do the same thing +every time. Titus produced a mug of brandy he had sharked from the ship +and we all lapped it up with avidity. The other team were just about laid +out, too, so I don't think there was much to be said either way."[133] + +Two days later the sun appeared for the last time for four months. + +Looking back I realized two things. That sledging, at any rate in summer +and autumn, was a much less terrible ordeal than my imagination had +painted it, and that those Hut Point days would prove some of the +happiest in my life. Just enough to eat and keep us warm, no more--no +frills nor trimmings: there is many a worse and more elaborate life. The +necessaries of civilization were luxuries to us: and as Priestley found +under circumstances compared to which our life at Hut Point was a Sunday +School treat, the luxuries of civilization satisfy only those wants which +they themselves create. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [117] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 180-81. + + [118] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 187-188. Scott + started for the Pole on November 1, 1911. Amundsen started + on September 8, 1911, but had to turn back owing to low + temperatures; he started again on October 19. + + [119] Priestley's diary. + + [120] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 185. + + [121] See p. 123. + + [122] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 190-191. + + [123] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 191-192. + + [124] Wilson camped with the two dog-teams on the land, and in the + morning saw us floating on the ice-floes through his + field-glasses. He made his way along the peninsula until he + could descend on to the Barrier, where he joined Scott. + + [125] I think he was stiff after standing so many hours.--A. C.-G. + + [126] Scott, _The Voyage of the Discovery_, vol. i. p. 350. + + [127] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 201. + + [128] Bowers. + + [129] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 207. + + [130] My own diary. + + [131] Bowers. + + [132] My own diary. + + [133] Bowers' letter. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE FIRST WINTER + + The highest object that human beings can set before themselves is + not the pursuit of any such chimera as the annihilation of the + unknown; it is simply the unwearied endeavour to remove its + boundaries a little further from our little sphere of + action.--HUXLEY. + + +And so we came back to our comfortable hut. Whatever merit there may be +in going to the Antarctic, once there you must not credit yourself for +being there. To spend a year in the hut at Cape Evans because you explore +is no more laudable than to spend a month at Davos because you have +consumption, or to spend an English winter at the Berkeley Hotel. It is +just the most comfortable thing and the easiest thing to do under the +circumstances. + +In our case the best thing was not at all bad, for the hut, as Arctic +huts go, was as palatial as is the Ritz, as hotels go. Whatever the +conditions of darkness, cold and wind, might be outside, there was +comfort and warmth and good cheer within. + +And there was a mass of work to be done, as well as at least two journeys +of the first magnitude ahead. + +When Scott first sat down at his little table at Winter Quarters to start +working out a most complicated scheme of weights and averages for the +Southern Journey, his thoughts were gloomy, I know. "This is the end of +the Pole," he said to me, when he pulled us off the bergs after the +sea-ice had broken up; the loss of six ponies out of the eight with which +we started the Depôt Journey, the increasing emaciation and weakness of +the pony transport as we travelled farther on the Barrier, the arrival +of the dogs after their rapid journey home, starved rakes which looked as +though they were absolutely done--these were not cheerful recollections +with which to start to plan a journey of eighteen hundred miles. + +On the other hand, we had ten ponies left, though two or three of them +were of more than doubtful quality; and it was obvious that considerable +improvement could and must be made in the feeding of both ponies and +dogs. With regard to the dogs the remedy was plain; their ration was too +small. With regard to the ponies the question was not so simple. One of +the main foods for the ponies which we had brought was compressed fodder +in the shape of bales. Theoretically this fodder was excellent food +value, and was made of wheat which was cut green and pressed. Whether it +was really wheat or not I do not know, but there could be no two opinions +about its nourishing qualities for our ponies. When fed upon it they lost +weight until they were just skin and bone. Poor beasts! It was pitiful to +see them. + +In Oates we had a man who had forgotten as much as most men know about +horses. It was no fault of his that this fodder was inadequate, nor that +we had lost so many of the best ponies which we had. Oates had always +been for taking the worst ponies out on the Depôt Journey: travelling as +far on to the Barrier as they could go, and there killing them and +depôting their flesh. Now Oates took the ten remaining ponies into his +capable hands. Some of them were scarecrows, especially poor Jehu, who +was never expected to start at all, and ended by gallantly pulling his +somewhat diminished load eight marches beyond One Ton Camp, a distance of +238 miles. Another, Christopher, was a man-killer if ever a horse was; he +had to be thrown in order to attach him to the sledge; to the end he +would lay out any man who was rash enough to give him the chance; once +started, and it took four men to achieve this, it was impossible to halt +him during the day's march, and so Oates and his three tent mates and +their ponies had to go without any lunch meal for 130 miles of the +Southern Journey. + +Oates trained them and fed them as though they were to run in the Derby. +They were exercised whenever possible throughout the winter and spring by +those who were to lead them on the actual journey. Fresh and good food +was found in the shape of oilcake and oats, a limited quantity of each of +which had been brought and was saved for the actual Polar Journey, and +everything which care and foresight could devise was done to save them +discomfort. It is a grim life for animals, but in the end we were to know +that up to the time of that bad blizzard almost at the Glacier Gateway, +which was the finishing post of these plucky animals, they had fed all +they needed, slept as well and lived as well as any, and better than most +horses in ordinary life at home. "I congratulate you, Titus," said +Wilson, as we stood under the shadow of Mount Hope, with the ponies' task +accomplished, and "I thank you," said Scott. + +Titus grunted and was pleased. + +Transport difficulties for the Polar Journey were considerable, but in +every other direction the outlook was bright. The men who were to do the +sledging had been away from Winter Quarters for three months. They had +had plenty of sledging experience, some of it none too soft. The sledges, +clothing, man-food, and outfit generally were excellent, although some +changes were suggested and could be put into effect. There was no obvious +means, however, of effecting the improvement most desired, a satisfactory +snow-shoe for the ponies. + +The work already accomplished was enormous. On the Polar Journey the +ponies and dogs could now travel light for the first hundred and thirty +geographical miles, when, at One Ton Camp, they would for the first time +take their full loads: the advantage of being able to start again with +full loads when so far on your way is obvious when it is considered that +the distance travelled depends upon the weight of food that can be +carried. During the geological journey on the western side of the Sound, +Taylor and his party had carried out much useful geological work in Dry +Valley and on the Ferrar and Koettlitz Glaciers, which had been +accurately plotted for the charts, and had been examined for the first +time by an expert physiographer and ice specialist. The ordinary routine +of scientific and meteorological observations usual with all Scott's +sledging parties was observed. + +Further, at Cape Evans there had been running for more than three months +a scientific station, which rivalled in thoroughness and exactitude any +other such station in the world. I hope that later a more detailed +account may be given of this continuous series of observations, some of +them demanding the most complex mechanism, and all of them watched over +by enthusiastic experts. It must here suffice to say that we who on our +return saw for the first time the hut and its annexes completely equipped +were amazed; though perhaps the gadget which appealed most to us at first +was the electric apparatus by which the cook, whose invention it was, +controlled the rising of his excellent bread. + +Glad as we were to find it all and to enjoy the food, bath and comfort +which it offered, we had no illusions about Cape Evans itself. It is +uninteresting, as only a low-lying spit of black lava covered for the +most part with snow, and swept constantly by high winds and drift, can be +uninteresting. The kenyte lava of which it is formed is a remarkable +rock, and is found in few parts of the world: but when you have seen one +bit of kenyte you have seen all. Unlike the spacious and lofty Hut Point +Peninsula, thirteen miles to the south, it has no outstanding hills and +craters; no landmarks such as Castle Rock. Unlike the broad folds of Cape +Royds, six miles to the north, it has none of the rambling walks and +varied lakes, in which is found most of the limited plant life which +exists in these latitudes, and though a few McCormick skuas meet here, +there is no nursery of penguins such as that which makes Cape Royds so +attractive in summer. Nor has the Great Ice Sheet, which reached up +Erebus and spread over the Ross Sea in the past, spilled over Cape Evans +in its retreat a wealth of foreign granites, dolerites, porphyrys and +sandstone such as cover the otherwise dull surface round Shackleton's old +Winter Quarters. + +Cape Evans is a low lava flow jutting out some three thousand feet from +the face of the glaciers which clothe the slopes of Erebus. It is roughly +an equilateral triangle in shape, at its base some three thousand feet +(9/16th mile) across. This base-line, which divides the cape from the +slopes of Erebus and the crevassed glaciers and giant ice-falls which +clothe them, consists of a ramp with a slope of thirty degrees, and a +varying height of some 100 to 150 feet. From our hut, four hundred yards +away, it looks like a great embankment behind which rises the majestic +volcano Erebus, with its plume of steam and smoke. + +The cape itself does not rise on the average more than thirty feet, and +somewhat resembles the back of a hog with several backbones. The hollows +between the ridges are for the most part filled with snow and ice, while +in one or two places where the accumulation of snow is great enough there +are little glacierets which do not travel far before they ignominiously +peter out. There are two small lakes, called Skua Lake and Island Lake +respectively. There is only one hill which is almost behind the hut, and +is called Wind Vane Hill, for on it were placed one of our wind vanes and +certain other meteorological instruments. Into the glacieret which flowed +down in the lee of this hill we drove two caves, which gave both an even +low temperature and excellent insulation. One of them was therefore used +for our magnetic observations, and the other as an ice-house for the +mutton we had brought from New Zealand. + +The north side, upon which we had built our hut, slopes down by way of a +rubbly beach to the sea in North Bay. We knew there was a beach for we +landed upon it, but we never saw it again even in the height of summer, +for the winter blizzards formed an ice foot several feet thick. The other +side of the cape ends abruptly in black bastions and baby cliffs some +thirty feet high. The apex of the triangle which forms as it were the +cape proper is a similar kenyte bluff. The whole makes a tricky place on +which to walk in the dark, for the surface is strewn with boulders of all +sizes and furrowed and channelled by drifts of hard and icy snow, and +quite suddenly you may find yourself prostrate upon a surface of slippery +blue ice. It may be easily imagined that it is no seemly place to +exercise skittish ponies or mules in a cold wind, but there is no other +place when the sea-ice is unsafe. + +Come and stand outside the hut door. All round you, except where the cape +joins the mountain, is the sea. You are facing north with your back to +the Great Ice Barrier and the Pole, with your eyes looking out of the +mouth of McMurdo Sound over the Ross Sea towards New Zealand, two +thousand miles of open water, pack and bergs. Look over the sea to your +left. It is mid-day, and though the sun will not appear above the horizon +he is still near enough to throw a soft yellow light over the Western +Mountains. These form the coast-line thirty miles across the Sound, and +as they disappear northwards are miraged up into the air and float, black +islands in a lemon sky. Straight ahead of you there is nothing to be seen +but black open sea, with a high light over the horizon, which you know +betokens pack; this is ice blink. But as you watch there appears and +disappears a little dark smudge. This puzzles you for some time, and then +you realize that this is the mirage of some far mountain or of Beaufort +Island, which guards the mouth of McMurdo Sound against such traffic as +ever comes that way, by piling up the ice floes across the entrance. + +As you still look north, in the middle distance, jutting out into the +sea, is a low black line of land, with one excrescence. This is Cape +Royds, with Shackleton's old hut upon it; the excrescence is High Peak, +and this line marks the first land upon the eastern side of McMurdo Sound +which you can see, and indeed is actually the most eastern point of Ross +Island. It disappears abruptly behind a high wall, and if you let your +eyes travel round towards your right front you see that the wall is a +perpendicular cliff two hundred feet high of pure green and blue ice, +which falls sheer into the sea, and forms, with Cape Evans, on which we +stand, the bay which lies in front of our hut, and which we called North +Bay. This great ice-cliff with its crevasses, towers, bastions and +cornices, was a never-ending source of delight to us; it forms the snout +of one of the many glaciers which slide down the slopes of Erebus: in +smooth slopes and contours where the mountain underneath is of regular +shape: in impassable icefalls where the underlying surface is steep or +broken. This particular ice stream is called the Barne Glacier, and is +about two miles across. The whole background from our right front to our +right rear, that is from N.E. to S.E., is occupied by our massive and +volcanic neighbour, Erebus. He stands 13,500 feet high. We live beneath +his shadow and have both admiration and friendship for him, sometimes +perhaps tinged with respect. However, there are no signs of dangerous +eruptive disturbances in modern times, and we feel pretty safe, despite +the fact that the smoke which issues from his crater sometimes rises in +dense clouds for many thousands of feet, and at others the trail of his +plume can be measured for at least a hundred miles. + +If you are not too cold standing about (it does not pay to stand about at +Cape Evans) let us make our way behind the hut and up Wind Vane Hill. +This is only some sixty-five feet high, yet it dominates the rest of the +cape and is steep enough to require a scramble, even now when the wind is +calm. Look out that you do not step on the electric wires which connect +the wind-vane cups on the hill with the recording dial in the hut. These +cups revolve in the wind, the revolutions being registered electrically: +every four miles a signal was sent to the hut, and a pen working upon a +chronograph registered one more step. There is also a meteorological +screen on the summit, which has to be visited at eight o'clock each +morning in all weathers. + +[Illustration: A SUMMER VIEW OVER CAPE EVANS AND MCMURDO SOUND FROM THE +RAMP--Emery Walker Limited, Collotypers.] + +Arrived on the top you will now be facing south, that is in the opposite +direction to which you were facing before. The first thing that will +strike you is that the sea, now frozen in the bays though still unfrozen +in the open sound, flows in nearly to your feet. The second, that though +the sea stretches back for nearly twenty miles, yet the horizon shows +land or ice in every direction. For a ship this is a cul-de-sac, as Ross +found seventy years ago. But as soon as you have grasped these two +facts your whole attention will be riveted to the amazing sight on your +left. Here are the southern slopes of Erebus; but how different from +those which you have lately seen. Northwards they fell in broad calm +lines to a beautiful stately cliff which edged the sea. But here--all the +epithets and all the adjectives which denote chaotic immensity could not +adequately tell of them. Visualize a torrent ten miles long and twenty +miles broad; imagine it falling over mountainous rocks and tumbling over +itself in giant waves; imagine it arrested in the twinkling of an eye, +frozen and white. Countless blizzards have swept their drifts over it, +but have failed to hide it. And it continues to move. As you stand in the +still cold air you may sometimes hear the silence broken by the sharp +reports as the cold contracts it or its own weight splits it. Nature is +tearing up that ice as human beings tear paper. + +The sea-cliff is not so high here, and is more broken up by crevasses and +caves, and more covered with snow. Some five miles along the coast the +white line is broken by a bluff and black outcrop of rock; this is Turk's +Head, and beyond it is the low white line of Glacier Tongue, jutting out +for miles into the sea. We know, for we have already crossed it, that +there is a small frozen bay of sea-ice beyond, but all we can see from +Cape Evans is the base of the Hut Point Peninsula, with a rock outcrop +just showing where the Hutton Cliffs lie. The Peninsula prevents us from +seeing the Barrier, though the Barrier wind is constantly flowing over +it, as the clouds of drift now smoking over the Cliffs bear witness. +Farther to the right still, the land is clear: Castle Rock stands up like +a sentinel, and beyond are Arrival Heights and the old craters we have +got to know so well during our stay at Hut Point. The Discovery hut, +which would, in any case, be invisible at fifteen miles, is round that +steep rocky corner which ends the Peninsula, due south from where we +stand. + +There remains undescribed the quadrant which stretches to our right front +from south to west. Just as we have previously seen the line of the +Western Mountains disappearing to the north miraged up in the light of +the mid-day sun, so now we see the same line of mountains running south, +with many miles of sea or Barrier between us and them. On the far +southern horizon, almost in transit with Hut Point, stands Minna Bluff, +some ninety miles away, beyond which we have laid the One Ton Depôt, and +from this point, as our eyes move round to the right, we see peak after +peak of these great mountain ranges--Discovery, Morning, Lister, Hooker, +and the glaciers which divide them one from another. They rise almost +without a break to a height of thirteen thousand feet. Between us and +them is the Barrier to the south, and the sea to the north. Unless a +blizzard is impending or blowing, they are clearly visible, a gigantic +wall of snow and ice and rock, which bounds our view to the west, +constantly varied by the ever-changing colour of the Antarctic. Beyond is +the plateau. + +We have not yet mentioned four islands which lie within a radius of about +three miles from where we stand. The most important is a mile from the +end of Cape Evans and is called Inaccessible Island, owing to the +inhospitality of its steep lava side, even when the sea is frozen; we +found a way up, but it is not a very interesting place. Tent Island lies +farther out and to the south-west. The remaining two, which are more +islets than islands, rise in front of us in South Bay. They are called +Great and Little Razorback, being ribs of rock with a sharp divide in the +centre. The latter of these is the refuge upon which Scott's party +returning to Cape Evans pitched their camp when overtaken by a blizzard +some weeks ago. All these islands are of volcanic origin and black in +general colour, but I believe there is evidence to show that the lava +stream which created them flowed from McMurdo Sound rather than from the +more obvious craters of Erebus. Their importance in this story is the +indirect help they gave in holding in sea-ice against southerly +blizzards, and in forming landmarks which proved useful more than once to +men who had lost their bearings in darkness and thick weather. In this +respect also several icebergs which sailed in from the Ross Sea and +grounded on the shallows which run between Inaccessible Island and the +cape, as well as in South Bay, were most useful as well as being +interesting and beautiful. For two years we watched the weathering of +these great towers and bastions of ice by sea and sun and wind, and left +them still lying in the same positions, but mere tumbled ruins of their +former selves. + +Many places in the panorama we have examined show black rock, and the +cape on which we stand exposes at times more black than white. This fact +always puzzles those who naturally conclude that all the Antarctic is +covered with ice and snow. The explanation is simple, that winds of the +great velocity which prevails in this region will not only prevent snow +resting to windward of out-cropping rocks and cliffs, but will even wear +away the rocks themselves. The fact that these winds always blow from the +south, or southerly, causes a tendency for this aspect of any projecting +rock to be blown free from snow, while the north or lee side is drifted +up by a marbled and extremely hard tongue of snow, which disappears into +a point at a distance which depends upon the size of the rock. + +Of course for the most part the land is covered to such a depth by +glaciers and snow that no wind will do more than pack the snow or expose +the ice beneath. At the same time, to visualize the Antarctic as a white +land is a mistake, for, not only is there much rock projecting wherever +mountains or rocky capes and islands rise, but the snow seldom looks +white, and if carefully looked at will be found to be shaded with many +colours, but chiefly with cobalt blue or rose-madder, and all the +gradations of lilac and mauve which the mixture of these colours will +produce. A White Day is so rare that I have recollections of going out +from the hut or the tent and being impressed by the fact that the snow +really looked white. When to the beautiful tints in the sky and the +delicate shading on the snow are added perhaps the deep colours of the +open sea, with reflections from the ice foot and ice-cliffs in it, all +brilliant blues and emerald greens, then indeed a man may realize how +beautiful this world can be, and how clean. + +Though I may struggle with inadequate expression to show the reader that +this pure Land of the South has many gifts to squander upon those who +woo her, chiefest of these gifts is that of her beauty. Next, perhaps, is +that of grandeur and immensity, of giant mountains and limitless spaces, +which must awe the most casual, and may well terrify the least +imaginative of mortals. And there is one other gift which she gives with +both hands, more prosaic, but almost more desirable. That is the gift of +sleep. Perhaps it is true of others as is certainly the case with me, +that the more horrible the conditions in which we sleep, the more +soothing and wonderful are the dreams which visit us. Some of us have +slept in a hurricane of wind and a hell of drifting snow and darkness, +with no roof above our heads, with no tent to help us home, with no +conceivable chance that we should ever see our friends again, with no +food that we could eat, and only the snow which drifted into our +sleeping-bags which we could drink day after day and night after night. +We slept not only soundly the greater part of these days and nights, but +with a certain numbed pleasure. We wanted something sweet to eat: for +preference tinned peaches in syrup! Well! That is the kind of sleep the +Antarctic offers you at her worst, or nearly at her worst. And if the +worst, or best, happens, and Death comes for you in the snow, he comes +disguised as Sleep, and you greet him rather as a welcome friend than as +a gruesome foe. She treats you thus when you are in the extremity of +peril and hardship; perhaps then you can imagine what draughts of deep +and healthy slumber she will give a tired sledger at the end of a long +day's march in summer, when after a nice hot supper he tucks his soft dry +warm furry bag round him with the light beating in through the green silk +tent, the homely smell of tobacco in the air, and the only noise that of +the ponies tethered outside, munching their supper in the sun. + +And so it came about that during our sojourn at Cape Evans, in our +comfortable warm roomy home, we took our full allotted span of sleep. +Most were in their bunks by 10 P.M., sometimes with a candle and a book, +not rarely with a piece of chocolate. The acetylene was turned off at +10.30, for we had a limited quantity of carbide, and soon the room was +in complete darkness, save for the glow of the galley stove and where a +splash of light showed the night watchman preparing his supper. Some +snored loudly, but none so loud as Bowers; others talked in their sleep, +the more so when some nasty experience had lately set their nerves on +edge. There was always the ticking of many instruments, and sometimes the +ring of a little bell: to this day I do not know what most of them meant. +On a calm night no sound penetrated except, perhaps, the whine of a dog, +or the occasional kick of a pony in the stable outside. Any disturbance +was the night watchman's job. But on a bad blizzard night the wind, as it +tore seawards over the hut, roared and howled in the ventilator let into +the roof: in the more furious gusts the whole hut shook, and the pebbles +picked up by the hurricane scattered themselves noisily against the +woodwork of the southern wall. We did not get many nights like these the +first winter; during the second we seemed to get nothing else. One +ghastly blizzard blew for six weeks. + +The night watchman took his last hourly observation at 7 A.M., and was +free to turn in after waking the cook and making up the fire. Frequently, +however, he had so much work to do that he preferred to forgo his sleep +and remain up. For instance, if the weather looked threatening, he would +take his pony out for exercise as soon as possible in the morning, or +those lists of stores were not finished, or that fish trap had to be +looked after: all kinds of things. + +A sizzling on the fire and a smell of porridge and fried seal liver +heralded breakfast, which was at 8 A.M. in theory and a good deal later +in practice. A sleepy eye might see the meteorologist stumping out +(Simpson always stumped) to change the records in his magnetic cave and +visit his instruments on the Hill. Twenty minutes later he would be back, +as often as not covered with drift and his wind helmet all iced up. +Meanwhile, the more hardy ones were washing: that is, they rubbed +themselves, all shivering, with snow, of a minus temperature, and +pretended they liked it. Perhaps they were right, but we told them it was +swank. I'm not sure that it wasn't! It should be explained that water +was seldom possible in a land where ice is more abundant than coal. + +One great danger threatened all our meals in this hut, namely that of a +Cag. A Cag is an argument, sometimes well informed and always heated, +upon any subject under the sun, or temporarily in our case, the moon. +They ranged from the Pole to the Equator, from the Barrier to Portsmouth +Hard and Plymouth Hoe. They began on the smallest of excuses, they +continued through the widest field, they never ended; they were left in +mid air, perhaps to be caught up again and twisted and tortured months +after. What caused the cones on the Ramp; the formation of ice crystals; +the names and order of the public-houses if you left the Main Gate of +Portsmouth Dockyard and walked to the Unicorn Gate (if you ever reached +so far); the best kinds of crampons in the Antarctic, and the best place +in London for oysters; the ideal pony rug; would the wine steward at the +Ritz look surprised if you asked him for a pint of bitter? Though the +Times Atlas does not rise to public-houses nor Chambers's Encyclopaedia +sink to behaviour at our more expensive hotels, yet they settled more of +these disputes than anything else. + +On the day we are discussing, though mutterings can still be heard from +Nelson's cubicle, the long table has been cleared and every one is busy +by 9.30. From now until supper at 7 work is done by all in some form or +other, except for a short luncheon interval. I do not mean for a minute +that we all sit down, as a man may do in an office at home, and solidly +grind away for upwards of nine hours or more. Not a bit of it. We have +much work out of doors, and exercise is a consideration of the utmost +importance. But when we go out, each individual quite naturally takes the +opportunity to carry out such work as concerns him, whether it deals with +ice or rocks, dogs or horses, meteorology or biology, tide-gauges or +balloons. + +When blizzards allowed, the ponies were exercised by their respective +leaders between breakfast and mid-day, when they were fed. This +exercising of animals might be a pleasant business, on the other hand it +could be the deuce and all: it depended on the pony and the weather. A +blubber fire was kept burning in the snug stable, which was built against +the lee wall of the hut: the ponies were, therefore, quite warm, and +found it chilly directly they were led outside, even if there was no +wind. + +The difficulties of exercising them in the dark were so great that with +the best intentions in the world it was difficult to give them sufficient +work for the good feeding they received. Add to this the fact that one at +any rate of these variable animals was really savage, and that most of +them were keen to break away if possible, and the hour of exercise was +not without its thrills even on the calmest and most moonlight days. The +worst days were those when it was difficult to say whether the ponies +should be taken out on the sea-ice or not. It was thick weather that was +to be feared, for then, if the leader once lost his bearings, it was most +difficult for him to return. An overcast sky, light falling snow, perhaps +a light northerly wind generally meant a blizzard, but the blizzard might +not break for twenty-four hours, it might be upon you in four seconds. It +was difficult to say whether the pony should miss his exercise, whether +the fish trap should be raised, whether to put off your intended trip to +Cape Royds. Generally the risks were taken, for, on the whole, it is +better to be a little over-bold than a little over-cautious, while always +there was a something inside urging you to do it just because there was a +certain risk, and you hardly liked not to do it. It is so easy to be +afraid of being afraid! + +Let me give one instance: it must be typical of many. It was thick as it +could be, no moon, no stars, light falling snow, and not even a light +breeze to keep in your face to give direction. Bowers and I decided to +take our ponies out, and once over the tide crack, where the working +sea-ice joins the fast land-ice, we kept close under the tall cliffs of +the Barne Glacier. So far all was well, and also when we struck along a +small crack into the middle of the bay, where there was a thermometer +screen. This we read with some difficulty by the light of a match and +started back towards the hut. In about a quarter of an hour we knew we +were quite lost until an iceberg which we recognized showed us that we +had been walking at right angles to our course, and got us safe home. + +On a clear crisp day, with the full moon to show you the ridges and +cracks and sastrugi, it was most pleasant to put on your ski and wander +forth with no object but that of healthy pleasure. Perhaps you would make +your way round the bluff end of the cape and strike southwards. Here you +may visit Nelson working with his thermometers and current meters and +other instruments over a circular hole in the ice, which he keeps open +from day to day by breaking out the 'biscuit' of newly formed ice. He has +connected himself with the hut by telephone, and built round himself an +igloo of drifted snow and the aforesaid 'biscuits,' which effectually +shelter him from the wind. Or you may meet Meares and Dimitri returning +with the dog-teams from a visit to Hut Point. A little farther on the +silence is complete. But now your ear catches the metallic scratch of ski +sticks on hard ice; there is some one else ski-ing over there, it may be +many miles away, for sound travels in an amazing way. Every now and then +there comes a sharp crack like a pistol shot; it is the ice contracting +in the glaciers of Erebus, and you know that it is getting colder. Your +breath smokes, forming white rime over your face, and ice in your beard; +if it is very cold you may actually hear it crackle as it freezes in mid +air! + +These were the days which remain visibly in the mind as the most +enjoyable during this first winter season. It was all so novel, these +much-dreaded, and amongst us much-derided, terrors of the Long Winter +Night. The atmosphere is very clear when it is not filled with snow or +ice crystals, and the moonlight lay upon the land so that we could see +the main outlines of the Hut Point Peninsula, and even Minna Bluff out on +the Barrier ninety miles away. The ice-cliffs of Erebus showed as great +dark walls, but above them the blue ice of the glaciers gleamed silvery, +and the steam flowed lazily from the crater carried away in a long line, +showing us that the northerly breezes prevailed up there, and were +storing up trouble in the south. Sometimes a shooting star would seem to +fall right into the mountain, and for the most part the Aurora flitted +uneasily about in the sky. + +The importance of plenty of out-door exercise was generally recognized, +and our experience showed us that the happiest and healthiest members of +our party during this first year were those who spent the longest period +in the fresh air. As a rule we walked and worked and ski-ed alone, not I +feel sure because of any individual distaste for the company of our +fellows but rather because of a general inclination to spend a short +period of the day without company. At least this is certainly true of the +officers: I am not so sure about the men. Under the circumstances, the +only time in the year that a man could be alone was in his walks abroad +from Winter Quarters, for the hut, of course, was always occupied, and +when sledging this sardine-like existence was continuous night and day. + +There was one regular exception to this rule. Every possible evening, +that is to say if it was not blowing a full blizzard, Wilson and Bowers +went up the Ramp together 'to read Bertram.' Now this phrase will convey +little meaning without some explanation. I have already spoken of the +Ramp as the steep rubbly slope partly covered by snow and partly by ice +which divided the cape on which we lived from the glaciated slopes of +Erebus. After a breathless scramble up this embankment one came upon a +belt of rough boulder-strewn ground from which arose at intervals conical +mounds, the origin of which puzzled us for many months. At length, by the +obvious means of cutting a section through one of them, it was proved +that there was a solid kenyte lava block in the centre of this cone, +proving that the whole was formed by the weathering of a single rock. +Threading your way for some hundreds of yards through this terrain, a +scramble attended by many slips and falls on a dark night, you reached +the first signs of glaciation. A little farther, isolated in the ice +stream, is another group of debris cones, and on the largest of these we +placed meteorological Screen "B," commonly called Bertram. This screen, +together with "A" (Algernon) and "C" (Clarence), which were in North and +South Bays respectively, were erected by Bowers, who thought, rightly, +that they would form an object to which men could guide their walks, and +that at the same time the observations of maximum, minimum and present +temperatures would be a useful check to the meteorologist when he came to +compare them with those taken at the hut. As a matter of fact the book in +which we used to enter these observations shows that the air temperatures +out on the sea-ice vary considerably from those on the cape, and that the +temperatures several hundred feet up on the slopes of Erebus are often +several degrees higher than those taken at sea-level. I believe that much +of the weather in this part of the world is an intensely local affair, +and these screens produced useful data. + +Wilson and Bowers would go up the Ramp when it was blowing and drifting +fairly hard, so that although the rocks and landmarks immediately round +them were visible, all beyond was blotted out. It is quite possible to +walk thus among landmarks which you know at a time when it is most unwise +to go out on to the sea-ice where there are no fixed points to act as a +guide. + +It was Wilson's pleasant conceit to keep his balaclava rolled up, so that +his face was bare, on such occasions, being somewhat proud of the fact +that he had not, as yet, been frost-bitten. Imagine our joy when he +entered the hut one cold windy evening with two white spots on his cheeks +which he vainly tried to hide behind his dogskin mitts. + +[Illustration: MCMURDO SOUND--Apsley Cherry-Garrard, del.--Emery Walker +Ltd., Collotypers.] + +The ponies' lunch came at mid-day, when they were given snow to drink and +compressed fodder with oats or oil-cake on alternate days to eat, the +proportion of which was arranged according to the work they were able to +do in the present, or expected to do in the future. Our own lunch was +soon after one, and a few minutes before that time Hooper's voice would +be heard: "Table please, Mr. Debenham," and all writing materials, +charts, instruments and books would have to be removed. On Sunday, this +table displayed a dark blue cloth, but for meals and at all other times +it was covered with white oilcloth. + +Lunch itself was a pleasant meatless meal, consisting of limited bread +and butter with plenty of jam or cheese, tea or cocoa, the latter being +undoubtedly a most useful drink in a cold country. Many controversies +raged over the rival merits of tea and cocoa. Some of us made for +ourselves buttered toast at the galley fire; I must myself confess to a +weakness for Welsh Rarebit, and others followed my example on cheese days +in making messes of which we were not a little proud. Scott sat at the +head of the table, that is at the east end, but otherwise we all took our +places haphazard from meal to meal as our conversation, or want of it, +merited, or as our arrival found a vacant chair. Thus if you felt +talkative you might always find a listener in Debenham; if inclined to +listen yourself it was only necessary to sit near Taylor or Nelson; if, +on the other hand, you just wanted to be quiet, Atkinson or Oates would, +probably, give you a congenial atmosphere. + +There was never any want of conversation, largely due to the fact that no +conversation was expected: we most of us know the horrible blankness +which comes over our minds when we realize that because we are eating we +are also supposed to talk, whether we have anything to say or not. It was +also due to the more primitive reason that in a company of specialists, +whose travels extended over most parts of the earth, and whose subjects +overlapped and interlocked at so many points, topics of conversation were +not only numerous but full of possibilities of expansion. Add to this +that from the nature of our work we were probably people of an +inquisitive turn of mind and wanted to get to the bottom of the subjects +which presented themselves, and you may expect to find, as was in fact +the case, an atmosphere of pleasant and quite interesting conversation +which sometimes degenerated into heated and noisy argument. + +The business of eating over, pipes were lit without further formality. I +mention pipes only because while we had a most bountiful supply of +tobacco, the kindly present of Mr. Wills, our supply of cigarettes from +the same source was purposely limited and only a small quantity were +landed, allowing of a ration to such members who wished. Consequently +cigarettes were an article of some value, and in a land where the +ordinary forms of currency are valueless they became a frequent stake to +venture when making bets. Indeed, "I bet you ten cigarettes," or "I bet +you a dinner when we get back to London," became the most frequent bids +of the argumentative gambler, occasionally varied when the bettor was +more than usually certain of the issue by the offer of a pair of socks. + +By two o'clock we were dispersed once more to our various works and +duties. If it was bearable outside, the hut would soon be empty save for +the cook and a couple of seamen washing up the plates; otherwise every +one went out to make the most of any glimmering of daylight which still +came to us from the sun below the northern horizon. And here it may be +explained that whereas in England the sun rises more or less in the east, +is due south at mid-day, and sets in the west, this is not the case in +the Antarctic regions. In the latitude in which we now lived the sun is +at his highest at mid-day in the north, at his lowest at midnight in the +south. As is generally known he remains entirely above the horizon for +four months of the summer (October-February) and entirely below the +horizon for four months in the winter (April 21-August 21). About +February 27, the end of summer, he begins to set and rise due south at +midnight; the next day he sets a little earlier and dips a little deeper. +During March and April he is going deeper and deeper every day, until, by +the middle of April, he is set all the time except for just a peep over +the northern horizon at mid-day, which is his last farewell before he +goes away. + +The reverse process takes place from August 21 onwards. On this date the +sun just peeped above the sea to the north of our hut. The next day he +rose a little higher and longer, and in a few weeks he was rising well in +the east and sinking behind the Western Mountains. But he did not stop +there. Soon he was rising in the S.E. until in the latter days of +September he never rose, for he never set; but circled round us by day +and night. On Midsummer Day (December 21) at the South Pole the sun +circles round for twenty-four hours without changing his altitude for one +minute of a degree, but elsewhere he is always rising in the sky until +mid-day in the north and falling from that time until midnight in the +south. + +Often, far too often, it was blizzing, and it was impossible to go out +except into the camp to take the observations, to care for the dogs, to +get ice for water or to bring in stores. Even a short excursion of a few +yards had to be made with great care under such circumstances, and +certainly no one went outside more than was necessary, if only because +one was obliged to dig the accumulated drift from the door before it was +possible to proceed. Blizzard or no blizzard, most men were back in the +hut soon after four, and from then until 6.30 worked steadily at their +jobs. As supper time approached some kindly-disposed person would sit +down and play on the Broadwood pianola which was one of our blessings, +and so it was that we came to supper with good tempers as well as keen +appetites. + +Soup, in which the flavour of tomatoes occurred all too frequently, +followed by seal or penguin, and twice a week by New Zealand mutton, with +tinned vegetables, formed the basis of our meal, and this was followed by +a pudding. We drank lime juice and water which sometimes included a +suspicious penguin flavour derived from the ice slopes from which our +water was quarried. + +During our passage out to New Zealand in the ship (or as Meares always +insisted on calling her, the steamer) it was our pleasant custom to have +a glass of port or a liqueur after dinner. Alas, we had this no longer: +after leaving New Zealand space allowed of little wine being carried in +the Terra Nova, even if the general medical opinion of the expedition had +not considered its presence undesirable. We had, however, a few cases for +special festivals, as well as some excellent liqueur brandy which was +carried as medical comforts on our sledge journeys. Any officer who +allowed the distribution of this luxury on nearing the end of a journey +became extremely popular. + +Lack of wine probably led to the suspension of a custom which had +prevailed on the Terra Nova, namely, the drinking of the old toast of +Saturday night, "Sweethearts and wives; may our sweethearts become our +wives, and our wives remain our sweethearts," and that more appropriate +(in our case) toast of Sunday, namely, "absent friends." We had but few +married officers, though I must say most survivors of the expedition +hurried to remedy this single state of affairs when they returned to +civilization. Only two of them are unmarried now. Most of them will +probably make a success of it, for the good Arctic explorer has most of +the defects and qualities of a good husband. + +On the top of the pianola, close to the head of the table, lived the +gramophone; and under the one looking-glass we possessed, which hung on +the bulkhead of Scott's cubicle, was a home-made box with shelves on +which lay our records. It was usual to start the gramophone after dinner, +and its value may be imagined. It is necessary to be cut off from +civilization and all that it means to enable you to realize fully the +power music has to recall the past, or the depths of meaning in it to +soothe the present and give hope for the future. We had also records of +good classical music, and the kindly-disposed individual who played them +had his reward in the pleasant atmosphere of homeliness which made itself +felt. After dinner had been cleared away, some men sat on at the table +occupied with books and games. Others dispersed to various jobs. In the +matter of games it was noticeable that one would have its vogue and yield +place to another without any apparent reason. For a few weeks it might be +chess, which would then yield its place to draughts and backgammon, and +again come into favour. It is a remarkable fact that, though we had +playing cards with us none of our company appeared desirous to use them. +In fact I cannot remember seeing a game of cards played except in the +ship on the voyage from England. + +[Illustration: THE SEA'S FRINGE OF ICE] + +With regard to books we were moderately well provided with good modern +fiction, and very well provided with such authors as Thackeray, Charlotte +Brontë, Bulwer-Lytton and Dickens. With all respect to the kind givers +of these books, I would suggest that the literature most acceptable to +us in the circumstances under which we did most of our reading, that is +in Winter Quarters, was the best of the more recent novels, such as +Barrie, Kipling, Merriman and Maurice Hewlett. We certainly should have +taken with us as much of Shaw, Barker, Ibsen and Wells as we could lay +our hands on, for the train of ideas started by these works and the +discussions to which they would have given rise would have been a godsend +to us in our isolated circumstances. The one type of book in which we +were rich was Arctic and Antarctic travel. We had a library of these +given to us by Sir Lewis Beaumont and Sir Albert Markham which was very +complete. They were extremely popular, though it is probably true that +these are books which you want rather to read on your return than when +you are actually experiencing a similar life. They were used extensively +in discussions or lectures on such polar subjects as clothing, food +rations, and the building of igloos, while we were constantly referring +to them on specific points and getting useful hints, such as the use of +an inner lining to our tents, and the mechanism of a blubber stove. + +I have already spoken of the importance of maps and books of reference, +and these should include a good encyclopaedia and dictionaries, English, +Latin and Greek. Oates was generally deep in Napier's History of the +Peninsular War, and some of us found Herbert Paul's History of Modern +England a great stand-by. Most of us managed to find room in our personal +gear when sledging for some book which did not weigh much and yet would +last. Scott took some Browning on the Polar Journey, though I only saw +him reading it once; Wilson took Maud and In Memoriam; Bowers always had +so many weights to tally and observations to record on reaching camp that +I feel sure he took no reading matter. Bleak House was the most +successful book I ever took away sledging, though a volume of poetry was +useful, because it gave one something to learn by heart and repeat during +the blank hours of the daily march, when the idle mind is all too apt to +think of food in times of hunger, or possibly of purely imaginary +grievances, which may become distorted into real foundations of discord +under the abnormal strain of living for months in the unrelieved company +of three other men. If your companions have much the same tastes as +yourself it is best to pool your allowance of weights and take one book +which will offer a wide field of thought and discussion. I have heard +Scott and Wilson bless the thought which led them to take Darwin's Origin +of Species on their first Southern Journey. Such is the object of your +sledging book, but you often want the book which you read for half an +hour before you go to sleep at Winter Quarters to take you into the +frivolous fripperies of modern social life which you may not know and may +never wish to know, but which it is often pleasant to read about, and +never so much so as when its charms are so remote as to be entirely +tantalizing. + +Scott, who always amazed me by the amount of work he got through without +any apparent effort, was essentially the driving force of the expedition: +in the hut quietly organizing, working out masses of figures, taking the +greatest interest in the scientific work of the station, and perhaps +turning out, quite by the way, an elaborate paper on an abstruse problem +in the neighbourhood; fond of his pipe and a good book, Browning, Hardy +(Tess was one of his favourites), Galsworthy. Barrie was one of his +greatest friends. + +He was eager to accept suggestions if they were workable, and always keen +to sift even the most unlikely theories if by any means they could be +shaped to the desired end: a quick and modern brain which he applied with +thoroughness to any question of practice or theory. Essentially an +attractive personality, with strong likes and dislikes, he excelled in +making his followers his friends by a few words of sympathy or praise: I +have never known anybody, man or woman, who could be so attractive when +he chose. + +Sledging he went harder than any man of whom I have ever heard. Men never +realized Scott until they had gone sledging with him. On our way up the +Beardmore Glacier we were going at top pressure some seventeen hours out +of the twenty-four, and when we turned out in the morning we felt as +though we had only just turned in. By lunch time we felt that it was +impossible to get through in the afternoon a similar amount of work to +that which we had done in the morning. A cup of tea and two biscuits +worked wonders, and the first two hours of the afternoon's march went +pretty well, indeed they were the best hours' marching of the day; but by +the time we had been going some 4½ or 5 hours we were watching Scott for +that glance to right and left which betokened the search for a good +camping site. "Spell oh!" Scott would cry, and then "How's the enemy, +Titus?" to Oates, who would hopefully reply that it was, say, seven +o'clock. "Oh, well, I think we'll go on a little bit more," Scott would +say. "Come along!" It might be an hour or more before we halted and made +our camp: sometimes a blizzard had its silver lining. Scott could not +wait. However welcome a blizzard could be to tired bodies (I speak only +of summer sledging), to Scott himself any delay was intolerable. And it +is hard to realize how difficult waiting may be to one in a responsible +position. It was our simple job to follow, to get up when we were roused, +to pull our hardest, to do our special work as thoroughly and quickly as +possible; it was Scott who had to organize distances and weights and +food, as well as do the same physical work as ourselves. In sledging +responsibility and physical work are combined to an extent seldom if ever +found elsewhere. + +His was a subtle character, full of lights and shades. + +England knows Scott as a hero; she has little idea of him as a man. He +was certainly the most dominating character in our not uninteresting +community: indeed, there is no doubt that he would carry weight in any +gathering of human beings. But few who knew him realized how shy and +reserved the man was, and it was partly for this reason that he so often +laid himself open to misunderstanding. + +Add to this that he was sensitive, femininely sensitive, to a degree +which might be considered a fault, and it will be clear that leadership +to such a man may be almost a martyrdom, and that the confidence so +necessary between leader and followers, which must of necessity be based +upon mutual knowledge and trust, becomes in itself more difficult. It +wanted an understanding man to appreciate Scott quickly; to others +knowledge came with experience. + +He was not a _very_ strong man physically, and was in his youth a weakly +child, at one time not expected to live. But he was well proportioned, +with broad shoulders and a good chest, a stronger man than Wilson, weaker +than Bowers or Seaman Evans. He suffered from indigestion, and told me at +the top of the Beardmore that he never expected to go on during the first +stage of the ascent. + +Temperamentally he was a weak man, and might very easily have been an +irritable autocrat. As it was he had moods and depressions which might +last for weeks, and of these there is ample evidence in his diary. The +man with the nerves gets things done, but sometimes he has a terrible +time in doing them. He cried more easily than any man I have ever known. + +What pulled Scott through was character, sheer good grain, which ran over +and under and through his weaker self and clamped it together. It would +be stupid to say he had all the virtues: he had, for instance, little +sense of humour, and he was a bad judge of men. But you have only to read +one page of what he wrote towards the end to see something of his sense +of justice. For him justice was God. Indeed I think you must read all +those pages; and if you have read them once, you will probably read them +again. You will not need much imagination to see what manner of man he +was. + +And notwithstanding the immense fits of depression which attacked him, +Scott was the strongest combination of a strong mind in a strong body +that I have ever known. And this because he was so weak! Naturally so +peevish, highly strung, irritable, depressed and moody. Practically such +a conquest of himself, such vitality, such push and determination, and +withal in himself such personal and magnetic charm. He was naturally an +idle man, he has told us so;[134] he had been a poor man, and he had a +horror of leaving those dependent upon him in difficulties. You may read +it over and over again in his last letters and messages.[135] + +He will go down to history as the Englishman who conquered the South Pole +and who died as fine a death as any man has had the honour to die. His +triumphs are many--but the Pole was not by any means the greatest of +them. Surely the greatest was that by which he conquered his weaker self, +and became the strong leader whom we went to follow and came to love. + + * * * * * + +Scott had under him this first year in his Main Party a total of 15 +officers and 9 men. These officers may be divided into three executive +officers and twelve scientific staff, but the distinction is very rough, +inasmuch as a scientist such as Wilson was every bit as executive as +anybody else, and the executive officers also did much scientific work. I +will try here briefly to give the reader some idea of the personality and +activities of these men as they work any ordinary day in the hut. It +should be noticed that not all the men we had with us were brought to do +sledging work. Some were chosen rather for their scientific knowledge +than for their physical or other fitness for sledging. The regular +sledgers in this party of officers were Scott, Wilson, Evans, Bowers, +Oates (ponies), Meares (dogs), Atkinson (surgeon), Wright (physicist), +Taylor (physiographer), Debenham (geologist), Gran and myself, while Day +was to drive his motors as far as they would go on the Polar Journey. +This leaves Simpson, who was the meteorologist and whose observations had +of necessity to be continuous; Nelson, whose observations into marine +biology, temperatures of sea, salinity, currents and tides came under the +same heading; and Ponting, whose job was photography, and whose success +in this art everybody recognizes. + +However much of good I may write of Wilson, his many friends in England, +those who served with him on the ship or in the hut, and most of all +those who had the good fortune to sledge with him (for it is sledging +which is far the greatest test) will all be dissatisfied, for I know that +I cannot do justice to his value. If you knew him you could not like him: +you simply had to love him. Bill was of the salt of the earth. If I were +asked what quality it was before others that made him so useful, and so +lovable, I think I should answer that it was because he never for one +moment thought of himself. In this respect also Bowers, of whom I will +speak in a moment, was most extraordinary, and in passing may I be +allowed to say that this is a most necessary characteristic of a good +Antarctic traveller? We had many such, officers and seamen, and the +success of the expedition was in no small measure due to the general and +unselfish way in which personal likes and dislikes, wishes or tastes were +ungrudgingly subordinated to the common weal. Wilson and Pennell set an +example of expedition first and the rest nowhere which others followed +ungrudgingly: it pulled us through more than one difficulty which might +have led to friction. + +Wilson was a man of many parts. He was Scott's right-hand man, he was the +expedition's Chief of the Scientific Staff: he was a doctor of St. +George's Hospital, and a zoologist specializing in vertebrates. His +published work on whales, penguins and seals contained in the Scientific +Report of the Discovery Expedition is still the best available, and makes +excellent reading even to the non-scientist. On the outward journey of +the Terra Nova he was still writing up his work for the Royal Commission +on Grouse Disease, the published report of which he never lived to see. +But those who knew him best will probably remember Wilson by his +water-colour paintings rather than by any other form of his many-sided +work. + +As a boy his father sent him away on rambling holidays, the only +condition being that he should return with a certain number of drawings. +I have spoken of the drawings which he made when sledging or when +otherwise engaged away from painting facilities, as at Hut Point. He +brought back to Winter Quarters a note-book filled with such sketches of +outlines and colours: of sunsets behind the Western Mountains: of lights +reflected in the freezing sea or in the glass houses of the ice foot: of +the steam clouds on Erebus by day and of the Aurora Australis by night. +Next door to Scott he rigged up for himself a table, consisting of two +venesta cases on end supporting a large drawing-board some four feet +square. On this he set to work systematically to paint the effects which +he had seen and noted. He painted with his paper wet, and necessarily +therefore, he worked quickly. An admirer of Ruskin, he wished to paint +what he saw as truly as possible. If he failed to catch the effect he +wished, he tore up the picture however beautiful the result he had +obtained. There is no doubt as to the faithfulness of his colouring: the +pictures recalled then and will still recall now in intimate detail the +effects which we saw together. As to the accuracy of his drawing it is +sufficient to say that in the Discovery Expedition Scott wrote on his +Southern Journey: + +"Wilson is the most indefatigable person. When it is fine and clear, at +the end of our fatiguing days he will spend two or three hours seated in +the door of the tent, sketching each detail of the splendid mountainous +coast-scene to the west. His sketches are most astonishingly accurate; I +have tested his proportions by actual angular measurement and found them +correct."[136] + +In addition to the drawings of land, pack, icebergs and Barrier, the +primary object of which was scientific and geographical, Wilson has left +a number of paintings of atmospheric phenomena which are not only +scientifically accurate but are also exceedingly beautiful. Of such are +the records of auroral displays, parhelions, paraselene, lunar halos, fog +bows, irridescent clouds, refracted images of mountains and mirage +generally. If you look at a picture of a parhelion by Wilson not only can +you be sure that the mock suns, circles and shafts appeared in the sky as +they are shown on paper, but you can also rest assured that the number of +degrees between, say, the sun and the outer ring of light were in fact +such as he has represented them. You can also be certain in looking at +his pictures that if cirrus cloud is shown, then cirrus and not stratus +cloud was in the sky: if it is not shown, then the sky was clear. It is +accuracy such as this which gives an exceptional value to work viewed +from a scientific standpoint. Mention should also be made of the +paintings and drawings made constantly by Wilson for the various +specialists on the expedition whenever they wished for colour records of +their specimens; in this connection the paintings of fish and various +parasites are especially valuable. + +I am not specially qualified to judge Wilson from the artistic point of +view. But if you want accuracy of drawing, truth of colour, and a +reproduction of the soft and delicate atmospheric effects which obtain in +this part of the world, then you have them here. Whatever may be said of +the painting as such, it is undeniable that an artist of this type is of +inestimable value to an expedition which is doing scientific and +geographical work in a little-known part of the earth. + +Wilson himself set a low value on his artistic capacity. We used to +discuss what Turner would have produced in a land which offered colour +effects of such beauty. If we urged him to try and paint some peculiar +effect and he felt that to do so was beyond his powers he made no scruple +of saying so. His colour is clear, his brush-work clean: and he handled +sledging subjects with the vigour of a professional who knew all there +was to be known about a sledging life. + +[Illustration: LEADING PONIES ON THE BARRIER--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +Scott and Wilson worked hand in hand to further the scientific objects of +the expedition. For Scott, though no specialist in any one branch, had a +most genuine love of science. "Science--the rock foundation of all +effort," he wrote; and whether discussing ice problems with Wright, +meteorology with Simpson, or geology with Taylor, he showed not only a +mind which was receptive and keen to learn, but a knowledge which was +quick to offer valuable suggestions. I remember Pennell condemning +anything but scientific learning in dealing with the problems round us; +'no guesswork' was his argument. But he emphatically made an exception of +Scott, who had an uncanny knack of hitting upon a solution. Over and +over again in his diary we can read of the interest he took in pure and +applied science, and it is doubtful whether this side of an expedition in +high northern or southern latitudes has ever been more fortunate in their +leader. + +Wilson's own share in the scientific results is more obvious because he +was the director of the work. But no published reports will give an +adequate idea of the ability he showed in co-ordinating the various +interests of a varied community, nor of the tact he displayed in dealing +with the difficulties which arose. Above all his judgment was excellent, +and Scott as well as the rest of us relied upon him to a very great +extent. The value of judgment in a land where a wrong decision may mean +disaster as well as loss of life is beyond all price; weather in which +changes are most sudden is a case in point, also the state of sea-ice, +the direction to be followed in difficult country when sledging, the best +way of taking crevassed areas when they must be crossed, and all the ways +by which the maximum of result may be combined with the minimum of danger +in a land where Nature is sometimes almost too big an enemy to fight: all +this wants judgment, and if possible experience. Wilson could supply +both, for his experience was as wide as that of Scott, and I have +constantly known Scott change his mind after a talk with Bill. For the +rest I give quotations from Scott's diary: + +"He has had a hand in almost every lecture given, and has been consulted +in almost every effort which has been made towards the solution of the +practical or theoretical problems of our Polar world."[137] + +Again: + +"Words must always fail me when I talk of Bill Wilson. I believe he +really is the finest character I ever met--the closer one gets to him the +more there is to admire. Every quality is so solid and dependable; cannot +you imagine how that counts down here? Whatever the matter, one knows +Bill will be sound, shrewdly practical, intensely loyal and quite +unselfish. Add to this a wider knowledge of persons and things than is +at first guessable, a quiet vein of humour and really consummate tact, +and you have some idea of his values. I think he is the most popular +member of the party, and that is saying much."[138] + +And at the end, when Scott himself lay dying, he wrote to Mrs. Wilson: + +"I can do no more to comfort you, than to tell you that he died as he +lived, a brave, true man--the best of comrades and staunchest of +friends."[139] + +Physically Scott had been a delicate boy but developed into a strong man, +5 feet 9 inches in height, 11 stone 6 lbs. in weight, with a chest +measurement of 39¼ inches. Wilson was not a particularly strong man. On +leaving with the Discovery he was but lately cured of consumption, yet he +went with Scott to his farthest South, and helped to get Shackleton back +alive. Shackleton owed his life to those two. Wilson was of a slimmer, +more athletic build, a great walker, 5 feet 10½ inches in height, 11 +stones in weight, with a chest measurement of 36 inches. He was an ideal +example of my contention, which I believe can be proved many times over +to be a fact, that it is not strength of body but rather strength of will +which carries a man farthest where mind and body are taxed at the same +time to their utmost limit. Scott was 43 years of age at his death, and +Wilson 39. + +Bowers was of a very different build. Aged 28, he was only 5 feet 4 +inches in height while his chest measurement (which I give more as a +general guide to his physique than for any other reason) was 40 inches, +and his weight 12 stones. He was recommended to Scott by Sir Clements +Markham, who was dining one day with Captain Wilson-Barker on the +Worcester, on which ship Bowers was trained. Bowers was then home from +India, and the talk turned to the Antarctic. Wilson-Barker turned to Sir +Clements in the course of conversation and alluding to Bowers said: "Here +is a man who will be leading one of those expeditions some day." + +He lived a rough life after passing from the Worcester into the merchant +service, sailing five times round the world in the Loch Torridon. Thence +he passed into the service of the Royal Indian Marine, commanded a river +gunboat on the Irrawaddy, and afterwards served on H.M.S. Fox, where he +had considerable experience, often in open boats, preventing the +gun-running which was carried on by the Afghans in the Persian Gulf. + +Thence he came to us. + +It is at any rate a curious fact, and it may be a significant one, that +Bowers, who enjoyed a greater resistance to cold than any man on this +expedition, joined it direct from one of the hottest places on the globe. +My knowledge is insufficient to say whether it is possible that any trace +can be found here of cause and effect, especially since the opposite +seems to be the more common experience, in that such people as return +from India to England generally find the English winter trying. I give +the fact for what it may be worth, remarking only that the cold of an +English winter is generally damp, while that of the Antarctic is dry, so +far at any rate as the atmosphere is concerned. Bowers himself always +professed the greatest indifference not only to cold, but also to heat, +and his indifference was not that of a 'poseur,' as many experiences will +show. + +At the same time he was temperamentally one who refused to admit +difficulties. Indeed, if he did not actually welcome them he greeted them +with scorn, and in scorning went far to master them. Scott believed that +difficulties were made to be overcome: Bowers certainly believed that he +was the man to overcome them. This self-confidence was based on a very +deep and broad religious feeling, and carried conviction with it. The men +swore by him both on the ship and ashore. "He's all right," was their +judgment of his seamanship, which was admirable. "I like being with +Birdie, because I always know where I am," was the remark made to me by +an officer one evening as we pitched the tent. We had just been spending +some time in picking up a depôt which a less able man might well have +missed. + +As he was one of the two or three greatest friends of my life I find it +hard to give the reader a mental picture of Birdie Bowers which will not +appear extravagant. There were times when his optimism appeared forced +and formal though I believe it was not really so: there were times when I +have almost hated him for his infernal cheerfulness. To those accustomed +to judge men by the standards of their fashionable and corseted +drawing-rooms Bowers appeared crude. "You couldn't kill that man if you +took a pole-axe to him," was the comment of a New Zealander at a dance at +Christchurch. Such men may be at a discount in conventional life; but +give me a snowy ice-floe waving about on the top of a black swell, a ship +thrown aback, a sledge-party almost shattered, or one that has just upset +their supper on to the floorcloth of the tent (which is much the same +thing), and I will lie down and cry for Bowers to come and lead me to +food and safety. + +Those whom the gods love die young. The gods loved him, if indeed it be +benevolent to show your favourites a clear, straight, shining path of +life, with plenty of discomfort and not a little pain, but with few +doubts and no fears. Browning might well have had Bowers in mind when he +wrote of + + One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward; + Never doubted clouds would break; + Never dreamed, though right were worsted, wrong would triumph; + Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight better, + Sleep to wake. + +There was nothing subtle about him. He was transparently simple, +straightforward and unselfish. His capacity for work was prodigious, and +when his own work happened to take less than his full time he +characteristically found activity in serving a scientist or exercising an +animal. So he used to help to send up balloons with self-recording +instruments attached to them, and track the threads which led to them +when detached. He was responsible for putting up the three outlying +meteorological screens and read them more often than anybody else. At +times he looked after some of the dogs because at the moment there was +nobody else whose proper job it happened to be, and he took a particular +fancy to one of our strongest huskies called Krisravitza, which is the +Russian (so I'm told) for 'most beautiful.' This fancy originated in the +fact that to Kris, as the most truculent of our untamed devils, fell a +large share of well-deserved punishment. A living thing in trouble be it +dog or man was something to be helped. Being the smallest man in the +party he schemed to have allotted to him the largest pony available both +for the Depôt and Polar Journeys. Their exercise, when he succeeded, was +a matter for experiment, for his knowledge of horses was as limited as +his love of animals was intense. He started to exercise his second pony +(for the first was lost on the floe) by riding him. "I'll soon get used +to him," he said one day when Victor had just deposited him in the +tide-crack, "to say nothing of his getting used to me," he added in a +more subdued voice. + +This was open-air work, and as such more congenial than that which had to +be done inside the hut. But his most important work was indoors, and he +brought to it just the same restless enthusiasm which allowed no leisure +for reading or relaxation. + +He joined as one of the ship's officers in London. Given charge of the +stores, the way in which he stowed the ship aroused the admiration of +even the stevedores, especially when he fell down the main hatch one +morning on to the pig-iron below, recovered consciousness in about half a +minute, and continued work for the rest of the day as though nothing had +happened. + +As the voyage out proceeded it became obvious that his knowledge of the +stores and undefeatable personality would be of great value to the shore +party, and it was decided that he should land, to his great delight. He +was personally responsible for all food supplies, whether for home +consumption or for sledging, for all sledging stores and the distribution +of weights, the loading of sledges, the consumption of coal, the issue of +clothing, bosun's stores, and carpenter's stores. Incidentally the keeper +of stores wanted a very exact knowledge of the cases which contained +them, for the drifts of snow soon buried them as they lay in the camp +outside. + +As time proved his capacity Scott left one thing after another in +Bowers' hands. Scott was a leader of men, and it is a good quality in +such to delegate work from themselves on to those who prove their power +to shoulder the burden. Undoubtedly Bowers saved Scott a great deal of +work, and gave him time which he might not otherwise have been able to +spare to interest himself in the scientific work of the station, greatly +to its benefit, and do a good deal of useful writing. The two ways in +which Bowers helped Scott most this winter were in the preparation of the +plans and the working out of the weights of the Southern Journey, which +shall be discussed later, and in the routine work of the station, for +which he was largely responsible, and which ran so smoothly that I am +unable to tell the reader how the stores were issued, or the dinner +settled, by what rule the working parties for fetching ice for water and +other kindred jobs about the camp were ordered. They just happened, and I +don't know how. I only know that Bowers had the bunk above mine in the +hut, and that when I was going to sleep he was generally standing on a +chair and using his own bunk as a desk, and I conclude from the numerous +lists of stores and weights which are now in my hands that these were +being produced. Anyway the job was done, and the fact that we knew +nothing about it goes far to prove how efficiently it was carried +through. + +For him difficulties simply did not exist. I have never known a more +buoyant, virile nature. Scott's writings abound in references to the +extraordinary value he placed upon his help, and after the share which he +took in the Depôt and Winter Journeys it was clear that he would probably +be taken in the Polar Party, as indeed proved to be the case. No man of +that party better deserved his place. "I believe he is the hardest +traveller that ever undertook a Polar Journey, as well as one of the most +undaunted."[140] + +The standard is high. + +[Illustration: FROZEN SEA AND CLIFFS OF ICE] + +Bowers gave us two of our best lectures, the first on the Evolution of +Sledge Foods, at the end of which he discussed our own rations on the +Depôt Journey, and made suggestions which he had worked out +scientifically for those of the Polar Journey. His arguments were sound +enough to disarm the hostility if not to convert to his opinions at least +one scientist who had come to hear him strongly of opinion that an +untrained man should not discuss so complex a subject. The second +lecture, on the Evolution of Polar Clothing, was also the fruit of much +work. The general conclusion come to (and this was after the Winter +Journey) was that our own clothing and equipment could not be bettered in +any important respect, though it must be always understood that the +expedition wore wind-proof clothing and not furs, except for hands and +feet. When man-hauling, wind-proof, I am convinced, cannot be improved +upon, but for dog-driving in cold weather I suspect that furs may be +better. + +The table was cleared after supper and we sat round it for these lectures +three times a week. There was no compulsion about them, and the seamen +only turned up for those which especially interested them, such as +Meares' vivid account of his journeyings on the Eastern or Chinese +borderland of Thibet. This land is inhabited by the 'Eighteen Tribes,' +the original inhabitants of Thibet who were driven out by the present +inhabitants, and Meares told us chiefly of the Lolos who killed his +companion Brook after having persuaded him that they were friendly and +anxious to help him. "He had no pictures and very makeshift maps, yet he +held us really entranced for nearly two hours by the sheer interest of +his adventures. The spirit of the wanderer is in Meares' blood: he has no +happiness but in the wild places of the earth. I have never met so +extreme a type. Even now he is looking forward to getting away by himself +to Hut Point, tired already of our scant measure of civilization."[141] + +Three lectures a week were too many in the opinion of the majority. The +second winter with our very reduced company we had two a week, and I feel +sure that this was an improvement. No officer nor seaman, however, could +have had too many of Ponting's lectures, which gave us glimpses into +many lands illustrated by his own inimitable slides. Thus we lived every +now and then for a short hour in Burmah, India or Japan, in scenes of +trees and flowers and feminine charm which were the very antithesis of +our present situation, and we were all the better for it. Ponting also +illustrated the subjects of other lectures with home-made slides of +photographs taken during the autumn or from printed books. But for the +most part the lecturers were perforce content with designs and plans, +drawn on paper and pinned one on the top of the other upon a large +drawing-board propped up on the table and torn off sheet by sheet. + +From the practical point of view the most interesting evening to us was +that on which Scott produced the Plan of the Southern Journey. The reader +may ask why this was not really prepared until the winter previous to the +journey itself, and the answer clearly is that it was impossible to +arrange more than a rough idea until the autumn sledging had taught its +lesson in food, equipment, relative reliability of dogs, ponies and men, +and until the changes and chances of our life showed exactly what +transport would be available for the following sledging season. Thus it +was with lively anticipation that we sat down on May 8, an advisory +committee as it were, to hear and give our suggestions on the scheme +which Scott had evolved in the early weeks of the winter after the +adventures of the Depôt Journey and the loss of six ponies. + +It was on just such a winter night, too, that Scott read his interesting +paper on the Ice Barrier and Inland Ice which will probably form the +basis for all future work on these subjects. The Barrier, he maintained, +is probably afloat, and covers at least five times the extent of the +North Sea with an average thickness of some 400 feet, though it has only +been possible to get the very roughest of levels. According to the +movement of a depôt laid in the Discovery days the Barrier moved 608 +yards towards the open Ross Sea in 13½ months. It must be admitted that +the inclination of the ice-sheet is not sufficient to cause this, and the +old idea that the glacier streams flowing down from Inland Plateau +provide the necessary impetus is imperfect. It was Simpson's suggestion +that "the deposition of snow on the Barrier leads to an expansion due to +the increase of weight." Some admittedly vague ideas as to the extent and +character of the inland ice-sheet ended a clever and convincing paper +which contained a lot of good reasoning. + +Simpson proved an excellent lecturer, and in meteorology and in the +explanation of the many instruments with which his corner of the hut was +full he possessed subjects which interested and concerned everybody. +Nelson on Biological Problems and Taylor on Physiography were always +interesting. "Taylor, I dreamt of your lecture last night. How could I +live so long in the world and not know something of so fascinating a +subject!" Thus Scott on the morning following one of these lectures.[142] +Wright on Ice Problems, Radium, and the Origin of Matter had highly +technical subjects which left many of us somewhat befogged. But Atkinson +on Scurvy had an audience each member of which felt that he had a +personal interest in the subject under discussion. Indeed one of his +hearers was to suffer the advanced stage of this dread disease within six +months. Atkinson inclined to Almroth Wright's theory that scurvy is due +to an acid intoxication of the blood caused by bacteria. He described the +litmus-paper test which was practised on us monthly, and before and after +sledge journeys. In this the blood of each individual is drawn and +various strengths of dilute sulphuric acid are added to it until it is +neutralized, the healthy man showing normal 30 to 50, while the man with +scorbutic signs will be normal 50 to 90 according to the stage to which +he has reached. The only thing which is certain to stop scurvy is fresh +vegetables: fresh meat when life is otherwise under extreme conditions +will not do so, an instance being the Siege of Paris when they had plenty +of horse meat. In 1795 voyages were being ruined by scurvy and Anson lost +300 out of 500 men, but in that year the first discoveries were made and +lime-juice was introduced by Blaine. From this time scurvy practically +disappeared from the Navy, and there was little scurvy in Nelson's days; +but the reason is not clear, since, according to modern research, +lime-juice only helps to prevent it. It continued in the Merchant +Service, and in a decade from about 1865 some 400 cases were admitted +into the Dreadnought Hospital, whereas in the decade 1887 to 1896 there +were only 38 cases. We had, at Cape Evans, a salt of sodium to be used to +alkalize the blood as an experiment, if necessity arose. Darkness, cold, +and hard work are in Atkinson's opinion important causes of scurvy. + +Nansen was an advocate of variety of diet as being anti-scorbutic, and +Scott recalled a story told him by Nansen which he had never understood. +It appeared that some men had eaten tins of tainted food. Some of it was +slightly tainted, some of it was really bad. They rejected the really bad +ones, and ate those only which were slightly tainted. "And of course," +said Nansen, "they should have eaten the worst." + +I have since asked Nansen about this story. He tells me that he must have +been referring to the crew of the Windward, the ship of the +Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition to Franz Josef Land in 1894-97. The crew of +this ship, which was travelling to and from civilization, got scurvy, +though the land party kept healthy. Of this Jackson writes: "In the case +of the crew of the Windward I fear that there was considerable +carelessness in the use of tinned meats that were not free from taint, +although tins quite gone were rejected.... We [on shore] largely used +fresh bear's meat, and the crew of the Windward were also allowed as much +as they could be induced to eat. They, however, preferred tinned meat +several days a week to a diet of bear's meat alone; and some of the crew +had such a prejudice against bear's meat as to refuse to eat it at +all."[143] + +Of course tainted food should not have been eaten at all, but if it had +to be eaten, then, according to Nansen, the ptomaines which cause scurvy +in the earlier stages of decomposition are destroyed by the ferment which +forms in the later stages. They should therefore have taken the worst +tins, if any at all. + +Wilson was strongly of opinion that fresh meat alone would stop scurvy: +on the Discovery seal meat cured it. As to scurvy on Scott's Discovery +Southern Journey, he made light of it: however, during the Winter Journey +I remember Wilson stating that Shackleton several times fell in a faint +as he got outside the tent, and he seems to have been seriously ill: +Wilson knew that he himself had scurvy some time before the others knew +it, because the discoloration of his gums did not show in front for some +time. He did not think their dogs on that journey had scurvy, but +ptomaine poisoning from fish which had travelled through the tropics. He +was of opinion that on returning from sledge journeys on the Discovery +they had wrongly attributed to scurvy such symptoms as rash on the body, +swollen legs and ankles, which were rather the result of excessive +fatigue. I may add that we had these signs on our return from the Winter +Journey. + +Then there were lectures on Geology by Debenham, on birds and beasts and +also on Sketching by Wilson, on Surveying by Evans: but perhaps no +lecture remains more vividly in my memory than that given by Oates on +what _we_ called 'The Mismanagement of Horses.' Of course to all of us +who were relying upon the ponies for the first stage of the Southern +Journey the subject was of interest as well as utility, but the greater +share of interest centred upon the lecturer, for it was certainly +supposed that taciturn Titus could not have concealed about his person +the gift of the gab, and it was as certain as it could be that the whole +business was most distasteful to him. Imagine our delight when he proved +to have an elaborate discourse with full notes of which no one had seen +the preparation. "I have been fortunate in securing another night," he +mentioned amidst mirth, and proceeded to give us the most interesting and +able account of the minds and bodies of horses in general and ours in +particular. He ended with a story of a dinner-party at which he was a +guest, probably against his will. A young lady was so late that the party +sat down to dinner without waiting longer. Soon she arrived covered with +blushes and confusion. "I'm so sorry," she said, "but that horse was the +limit, he ..." "Perhaps it was a jibber," suggested her hostess to help +her out. "No, he was a ----. I heard the cabby tell him so several +times." + +Titus Oates was the most cheerful and lovable old pessimist that you +could imagine. Often, after tethering and feeding our ponies at a night +camp on the Barrier, we would watch the dog-teams coming up into camp. +"I'll give these dogs ten days more," he would murmur in a voice such as +some people used when they heard of a British victory. I am acquainted +with so few dragoons that I do not know their general characteristics. +Few of them, I imagine, would have gone about with the slouch which +characterized his method of locomotion, nor would many of them have dined +in a hat so shabby that it was picked off the peg and passed round as a +curiosity. + +He came to look after the horses, and as an officer in the Inniskillings +he, no doubt, had excellent training. But his skill went far deeper than +that. There was little he didn't know about horses, and the pity is that +he did not choose our ponies for us in Siberia: we should have had a very +different lot. In addition to his general charge of them all, Oates took +as his own pony the aforesaid devil Christopher for the Southern Journey +and for previous training. We shall hear much more of Christopher, who +appeared to have come down to the Antarctic to initiate the well-behaved +inhabitants into all the vices of civilization, but from beginning to end +Oates' management of this animal might have proved a model to any +governor of a lunatic asylum. His tact, patience and courage, for +Christopher was a very dangerous beast, remain some of the most vivid +recollections of a very gallant gentleman. + +In this connection let me add that no animals could have had more +considerate and often self-sacrificing treatment than these ponies of +ours. Granted that they must be used at all (and I do not mean to enter +into that question) they were fed, trained, and even clothed as friends +and companions rather than as beasts of burden. They were never hit, a +condition to which they were clearly unaccustomed. They lived far better +than they had before, and all this was done for them in spite of the +conditions under which we ourselves lived. We became very fond of our +beasts but we could not be blind to their faults. The mind of a horse is +a very limited concern, relying almost entirely upon memory. He rivals +our politicians in that he has little real intellect. Consequently, when +the pony was faced with conditions different from those to which he was +accustomed, he showed but little adaptability; and when you add to this +frozen harness and rugs, with all their straps and buckles and lashings, +an incredible facility for eating anything within reach including his own +tethering ropes and the headstalls, fringes and whatnots of his +companions, together with our own scanty provisions and a general wish to +do anything except the job of the moment, it must be admitted that the +pony leader's lot was full of occasions for bad temper. Nevertheless +leaders and ponies were on the best of terms (excepting always +Christopher), which is really not surprising when you come to think that +most of the leaders were sailors whose love of animals is profound. + +A lean-to roof was built against the northern side of the hut, and the +ends and open side were boarded up. This building when buttressed by the +bricks of coal which formed our fuel, and drifted up with snow by the +blizzards, formed an extremely sheltered and even warm stable. The ponies +stood in stalls with their heads towards the hut and divided from it by a +corridor; the bars which kept them in carried also their food boxes. They +lay down very little, the ground was too cold, and Oates was of opinion +that litter would not have benefited them if we had had space in the ship +to bring it. The floor of their stall was formed of the gravel on which +the hut was built. On any future occasion it might be worth consideration +whether a flooring of wood might add to their comfort. As you walked down +this narrow passage you passed a line of heads, many of which would have +a nip at you in the semi-darkness, and at the far end Oates had rigged up +for himself a blubber stove, more elaborate than the one we had made +with the odds and ends at Hut Point, but in principle the same, in that +the fids of sealskin with the blubber attached to them were placed on a +grid, and the heat generated caused them to drop their oil on to ashes +below which formed the fire. This fire not only warmed the stable, but +melted the snow to water the ponies and heated their bran mashes. I do +not wonder that this warm companionable home appealed to their minds when +they were exercising in the cold, dark, windy sea-ice: they were always +trying to get rid of their leader, and if successful generally went +straight back to the hut. Here they would dodge their pursuers until such +time as they were sick of the game, when they quietly walked into the +stable of their own accord to be welcomed with triumphant squeals and +kickings by their companions. + +I have already spoken of their exercise. Their ration during the winter +was as follows: + + 8 A.M. Chaff. + + 12 NOON. Snow. Chaff and oats or oil-cake alternate days. + + 5 P.M. Snow. Hot bran mash with oil-cake, or boiled oats and chaff; + finally a small quantity of hay. + +In the spring they were got into condition on hard food all cold, and by +a carefully increased scale of exercise during the latter part of which +they drew sledges with very light loads. + +Unfortunately I have no record as to what changes of feeding stuffs Oates +would have made if it had been possible. Certainly we should not have +brought the bales of compressed fodder, which as I have already +explained,[144] was theoretically green wheat cut young, but practically +no manner of use as a food, though of some use perhaps as bulk. Probably +he would have used hay for this purpose at Winter Quarters had our stock +of it not been very limited, for hay takes up too much room on a ship +when every square inch of stowage space is of value. The original weights +of fodder with which we left New Zealand were: compressed chaff, 30 +tons; hay, 5 tons; oil-cake, 5-6 tons; bran, 4-5 tons; and two kinds of +oats, of which the white was better than the black. We wanted more bran +than we had.[145] This does not exhaust our list of feeding stuffs, for +one of our ponies called Snippets would eat blubber, and so far as I know +it agreed with him. + +We left New Zealand with nineteen ponies, seventeen of which were +destined for the Main Party and two for the help of Campbell in the +exploration of King Edward VII.'s Land. Two of these died in the big gale +at sea, and we landed fifteen ponies at Cape Evans in January. Of these +we lost six on the Depôt Journey, while Hackenschmidt, who was a vicious +beast, sickened and wasted away in our absence, for no particular reason +that we could discover, until there was nothing to do but shoot him. Thus +eight only out of the original seventeen Main Party ponies which started +from New Zealand were left by the beginning of the winter. + +I have told[146] how, during our absence on the Depôt Journey, the ship +had tried to land Campbell with his two ponies on King Edward VII.'s +Land, but had been prevented from reaching it by pack ice. Coasting back +in search of a landing place they found Amundsen in the Bay of Whales. +Under the circumstances Campbell decided not to land his party there but +to try and land on the north coast of South Victoria Land, in which he +was finally successful. In the interval the ship returned to Cape Evans +with the news, and since he was of opinion that his animals would be +useless to him in that region he took the opportunity to swim the two +ponies ashore, a distance of half a mile, for the ship could get no +nearer and the sea-ice had gone. Thus we started the winter with +Campbell's two ponies (Jehu and Chinaman), two ponies which had survived +the Depôt Journey (Nobby and James Pigg), and six ponies which had been +left at Cape Evans (Snatcher, Snippets, Bones, Victor, Michael and +Christopher) a total of ten. + +Of these ten Christopher was the only real devil with vice, but he was a +strong pony, and it was clear that he would be useful if he could be +managed. Bones, Snatcher, Victor and Snippets were all useful ponies. +Michael was a highly-strung nice beast, but his value was doubtful; +Chinaman was more doubtful still, and it was questionable sometimes +whether Jehu would be able to pull anything at all. This leaves Nobby and +Jimmy Pigg, both of which were with us on the Depôt Journey. Nobby was +the best of the two; he was the only survivor from the sea-ice disaster, +and I am not sure that his rescue did not save the situation with regard +to the Pole. Jimmy Pigg was wending his way slowly back from Corner Camp +at this time and so was also saved. He was a weak pony but did extremely +well on the Polar Journey. It may be coincidence that these two ponies, +the only ponies which had gained previous sledging experience, did better +according to their strength than any of the others, but I am inclined to +believe that their familiarity with the conditions on the Barrier was of +great value to them, doing away with much useless worry and exhaustion. + +And so it will be understood with what feelings of anxiety any cases of +injury or illness to our ponies were regarded. The cases of injury were +few and of small importance, thanks to the care with which they were +exercised in the dark on ice which was by no means free from +inequalities. Let me explain in passing that this ice is almost always +covered by at least a thin layer of drifted snow and for the most part is +not slippery. Every now and then there would be a great banging and +crashing heard through the walls of the hut in the middle of the night. +The watchman would run out, Oates put on his boots, Scott be audibly +uneasy. It was generally Bones or Chinaman kicking their stalls, perhaps +to keep themselves warm, but by the time the watchman had reached the +stable he would be met by a line of sleepy faces blinking at him in the +light of the electric torch, each saying plainly that he could not +possibly have been responsible for a breach of the peace! + +But antics might easily lead to accidents, and more than once a pony was +found twisted up in some way in his stall, or even to have fallen to the +ground. Their heads were tied on either side to the stanchions of the +stall, and so if they tried to lie down complications might arise. More +alarming was the one serious case of illness, preceded by a slighter case +of a similar nature in another pony. Jimmy Pigg had a slight attack of +colic in the middle of June, but he was feeding all right again during +the evening of the same day. It was at noon, July 14, that Bones went off +his feed. This was followed by spasms of acute pain. "Every now and again +he attempted to lie down, and Oates eventually thought it was wiser to +allow him to do so. Once down, his head gradually drooped until he lay at +length, every now and then twitching very horribly with the pain, and +from time to time raising his head and even scrambling to his legs when +it grew intense. I don't think I ever realized before how pathetic a +horse could be under such conditions; no sound escapes him, his misery +can only be indicated by those distressing spasms and by dumb movement of +the head with a patient expression always suggestive of appeal."[147] +Towards midnight it seemed that we were to lose him, and, apart from +other considerations, we knew that unless we could keep all the surviving +animals alive the risks of failure in the coming journey were much +increased. + +"It was shortly after midnight when I [Scott] was told that the animal +seemed a little easier. At 2.30 I was again in the stable and found the +improvement had been maintained; the horse still lay on its side with +outstretched head, but the spasms had ceased, its eye looked less +distressed, and its ears pricked to occasional noises. As I stood looking +it suddenly raised its head and rose without effort to its legs; then in +a moment, as though some bad dream had passed, it began to nose at some +hay and at its neighbour. Within three minutes it had drunk a bucket of +water and had started to feed."[148] + +The immediate cause of the trouble was indicated by "a small ball of +semi-fermented hay covered with mucus and containing tape-worms; so far +not very serious, but unfortunately attached to this mass was a strip of +the lining of the intestine."[149] + +The recovery of Bones was uninterrupted. Two day later another pony went +off his feed and lay down, but was soon well again. + +Considerable speculation as to the original cause of this illness never +found a satisfactory answer. Some traced it to a want of ventilation, and +it is necessary to say that both the ponies who were ill stood next to +the blubber stove; at any rate a big ventilator was fitted and more fresh +air let in. Others traced it to the want of water, supposing that the +animals would not eat as much snow as they would have drunk water; the +easy remedy for this was to give them water instead of snow. We also gave +them more salt than they had had before. Whatever the cause may have been +we had no more of this colic, and the improvement in their condition +until we started sledging was uninterrupted. + +All the ponies were treated for worms; it was also found that they had +lice, which were eradicated after some time and difficulty by a wash of +tobacco and water. I know that Oates wished that he had clipped the +ponies at the beginning of the winter, believing that they would have +grown far better coats if this had been done. He also would have wished +for a loose box for each pony. + +No account of the ponies would be complete without mention of our Russian +pony boy, Anton. He was small in height, but he was exceedingly strong +and had a chest measurement of 40 inches. + +[Illustration: EREBUS AND LANDS END] + +[Illustration: EREBUS BEHIND GREAT RAZORBACK] + +I believe both Anton and Dimitri, the Russian dog driver, were brought +originally to look after the ponies and dogs on their way from Siberia to +New Zealand. But they proved such good fellows and so useful that we were +very glad to take them on the strength of the landing party. I fear that +Anton, at any rate, did not realize what he was in for. When we arrived +at Cape Crozier in the ship on our voyage south, and he saw the two great +peaks of Ross Island in front and the Barrier Cliff disappearing in an +unbroken wall below the eastern horizon, he imagined that he reached +the South Pole, and was suitably elated. When the darkness of the winter +closed down upon us, this apparently unnatural order of things so preyed +upon his superstitious mind that he became seriously alarmed. Where the +sea-ice joined the land in front of the hut was of course a working +crack, caused by the rise and fall of the tide. Sometimes the sea-water +found its way up, and Anton was convinced that the weird phosphorescent +lights which danced up out of the sea were devils. In propitiation we +found that he had sacrificed to them his most cherished luxury, his +scanty allowance of cigarettes, which he had literally cast upon the +waters in the darkness. It was natural that his thoughts should turn to +the comforts of his Siberian home, and the one-legged wife whom he was +going to marry there, and when it became clear that a another year would +be spent in the South his mind was troubled. And so he went to Oates and +asked him, "If I go away at the end of this year, will Captain Scott +disinherit me?" In order to try and express his idea, for he knew little +English, he had some days before been asking "what we called it when a +father died and left his son nothing." Poor Anton! + +He looked long and anxiously for the ship, and with his kit-bag on his +shoulder was amongst the first to trek across the ice to meet her. Having +asked for and obtained a job of work there was no happier man on board: +he never left her until she reached New Zealand. Nevertheless he was +always cheerful, always working, and a most useful addition to our small +community. + +It is still usual to talk of people living in complete married happiness +when we really mean, so Mr. Bernard Shaw tells me, that they confine +their quarrels to Thursday nights. If then I say that we lived this life +for nearly three years, from the day when we left England until the day +we returned to New Zealand, without any friction of any kind, I shall be +supposed to be making a formal statement of somewhat limited truth. May I +say that there is really no formality about it, and nothing but the +truth. To be absolutely accurate I must admit to having seen a man in a +very 'prickly' state on one occasion. That was all. It didn't last and +may have been well justified for aught I know: I have forgotten what it +was all about. Why we should have been more fortunate than polar +travellers in general it is hard to say, but undoubtedly a very powerful +reason was that we had no idle hours: there was no time to quarrel. + +Before we went South people were always saying, "You will get fed up with +one another. What will you do all the dark winter?" As a matter of fact +the difficulty was to get through with the work. Often after working all +through a long night-watch officers carried on as a matter of course +through the following day in order to clear off arrears. There was little +reading or general relaxation during the day: certainly not before +supper, if at all. And while no fixed hours for work were laid down, the +custom was general that all hours between breakfast and supper should be +so used. + +Our small company was desperately keen to obtain results. The youngest +and most cynical pessimist must have had cause for wonder to see a body +of healthy and not unintellectual men striving thus single-mindedly to +add their small quota of scientific and geographical knowledge to the sum +total of the world--with no immediate prospect of its practical utility. +Laymen and scientists alike were determined to attain the objects to gain +which they had set forth. + +And I believe that in a vague intangible way there was an ideal in front +of and behind this work. It is really not desirable for men who do not +believe that knowledge is of value for its own sake to take up this kind +of life. The question constantly put to us in civilization was and still +is: "What is the use? Is there gold? or Is there coal?" The commercial +spirit of the present day can see no good in pure science: the English +manufacturer is not interested in research which will not give him a +financial return within one year: the city man sees in it only so much +energy wasted on unproductive work: truly they are bound to the wheel of +conventional life. + +Now unless a man believes that such a view is wrong he has no business to +be 'down South.' Our magnetic and meteorological work may, I suppose, +have a fairly immediate bearing upon commerce and shipping: otherwise I +cannot imagine any branch of our labours which will do more at present +than swell the central pool of unapplied knowledge. The members of this +expedition believed that it was worth while to discover new land and new +life, to reach the Southern Pole of the earth, to make elaborate +meteorological and magnetic observations and extended geological surveys +with all the other branches of research for which we were equipped. They +were prepared to suffer great hardship; and some of them died for their +beliefs. Without such ideals the spirit which certainly existed in our +small community would have been impossible. + +But if the reasons for this happy state of our domestic life were due +largely to the adaptability and keenness of the members of our small +community, I doubt whether the frictions which have caused other +expeditions to be less comfortable than they might have been, would have +been avoided in our case, had it not been for the qualities in some of +our men which set a fashion of hard work without any thought of personal +gain. + +With all its troubles it is a good life. We came back from the Barrier, +telling one another we loathed the place and nothing on earth should make +us return. But now the Barrier comes back to us, with its clean, open +life, and the smell of the cooker, and its soft sound sleep. So much of +the trouble of this world is caused by memories, for we only remember +half. + +We have forgotten--or nearly forgotten--how the loss of a biscuit crumb +left a sense of injury which lasted for a week; how the greatest friends +were so much on one another's nerves that they did not speak for days for +fear of quarrelling; how angry we felt when the cook ran short on the +weekly bag; how sick we were after the first meals when we could eat as +much as we liked; how anxious we were when a man fell ill many hundreds +of miles from home, and we had a fortnight of thick weather and had to +find our depôts or starve. We remember the cry of _Camp Ho!_ which +preceded the cup of tea which gave us five more miles that evening; the +good fellowship which completed our supper after safely crossing a bad +patch of crevasses; the square inch of plum pudding which celebrated our +Christmas Day; the chanties we sang all over the Barrier as we marched +our ponies along. + +We travelled for Science. Those three small embryos from Cape Crozier, +that weight of fossils from Buckley Island, and that mass of material, +less spectacular, but gathered just as carefully hour by hour in wind and +drift, darkness and cold, were striven for in order that the world may +have a little more knowledge, that it may build on what it knows instead +of on what it thinks. + +Some of our men were ambitious: some wanted money, others a name; some a +help up the scientific ladder, others an F.R.S. Why not? But we had men +who did not care a rap for money or fame. I do not believe it mattered to +Wilson when he found that Amundsen had reached the Pole a few days before +him--not much. Pennell would have been very bored if you had given him a +knighthood. Lillie, Bowers, Priestley, Debenham, Atkinson and many others +were much the same. + +But there is no love lost between the class of men who go out and do such +work and the authorities at home who deal with their collections. I +remember a conversation in the hut during the last bad winter. Men were +arguing fiercely that professionally they lost a lot by being down South, +that they fell behindhand in current work, got out of the running and so +forth. There is a lot in that. And then the talk went on to the +publication of results, and the way in which they would wish them done. A +said he wasn't going to hand over his work to be mucked up by such and +such a body at home; B said he wasn't going to have his buried in museum +book-shelves never to be seen again; C said he would jolly well publish +his own results in the scientific journals. And the ears of the armchair +scientists who might deal with our hard-won specimens and observations +should have been warm that night. + +At the time I felt a little indignant. It seemed to me that these men +ought to think themselves lucky to be down South at all: there were +thousands who would have liked to take their place. But now I +understand quite a lot more than I did then. Science is a big thing if +you can travel a Winter Journey in her cause and not regret it. I am +not sure she is not bigger still if you can have dealings with +scientists and continue to follow in her path. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [134] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 604. + + [135] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 599, 602, 607. + + [136] Scott, _Voyage of the Discovery_, vol. ii. p. 53. + + [137] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 295. + + [138] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 432-433. + + [139] Ibid. p. 597. + + [140] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 362. + + [141] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 396. + + [142] _With Scott: The Silver Lining_, Taylor, p. 240. + + [143] F. G. Jackson, _A Thousand Days in the Arctic_, vol. ii. pp. + 380-381. + + [144] See p. 179. + + [145] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 4. + + [146] See pp. 130-134. + + [147] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 352. + + [148] Ibid. p. 353. + + [149] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 353. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE WINTER JOURNEY + + Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, + Or what's a Heaven for? + R. BROWNING, _Andrea del Sarto._ + + To me, and to every one who has remained here the result of this + effort is the appeal it makes to our imagination, as one of the + most gallant stories in Polar History. That men should wander + forth in the depth of a Polar night to face the most dismal cold + and the fiercest gales in darkness is something new; that they + should have persisted in this effort in spite of every adversity + for five full weeks is heroic. It makes a tale for our generation + which I hope may not be lost in the telling. + + Scott's Diary, at Cape Evans. + + +The following list of the Winter Journey sledge weights (for three men) +is taken from the reckoning made by Bowers before we started: + +_Expendible Stores_-- lbs. lbs. +'Antarctic' biscuit 135 +3 Cases for same 12 +Pemmican 110 +Butter 21 +Salt 3 +Tea 4 +Oil 60 +Spare parts for primus, and matches 2 +Toilet paper 2 +Candles 8 +Packing 5 +Spirit 8 370 + +_Permanent Weights, etc._ +2 9-ft. Sledges, 41 lbs. each 82 +1 Cooker complete 13 +2 Primus filled with oil 8 +1 Double tent complete 35 +1 Sledging shovel 3.5 +3 Reindeer sleeping-bags, 12 lbs. each 36 +3 Eider-down sleeping-bag linings, 4 lbs. each 12 +1 Alpine rope 5 +1 Bosun's bag, containing repairing materials, and +1 Bonsa outfit, containing repairing tools 5 +3 Personal bags, each containing 15 lbs. spare clothing, etc. 45 +Lamp box with knives, steel, etc., for seal and penguin 21 +Medical and scientific box 40 +2 Ice axes, 3 lbs. each 6 +3 Man-harnesses 3 +3 Portaging harnesses 3 +Cloth for making roof and door for stone igloo 24 +Instrument box 7 +3 Pairs ski and sticks (discarded afterwards) 33 +1 Pickaxe 11 +3 Crampons, 2 lbs. 3 oz. each 6.5 +2 Bamboos for measuring tide if possible, 14 feet each 4 +2 Male bamboos 4 +1 Plank to form top of door of igloo 2 +1 Bag sennegrass 1 +6 Small female bamboo ends and +1 Knife for cutting snow block to make igloo 4 +Packing 8 420 + ---- + 790 + ==== + +The 'Lamp box' mentioned above contained the following: + + 1 Lamp for burning blubber. + 1 Lamp for burning spirit. + 1 Tent candle lamp. + 1 Blubber cooker. + 1 Blowpipe. + +The party of three men set out with a total weight of 757 lbs. to draw, +the ski and sticks in the above list being left behind at the last +moment. + +It was impossible to load the total bulk upon one 12-ft. sledge, and so +two 9-ft. sledges were taken, one toggled on behind the other. While this +made the packing and handling of the gear much easier, it nearly doubled +the friction surface against which the party had to pull. + + * * * * * + + _June 22. Midwinter Night._ + +A hard night: clear, with a blue sky so deep that it looks black: the +stars are steel points: the glaciers burnished silver. The snow rings and +thuds to your footfall. The ice is cracking to the falling temperature +and the tide crack groans as the water rises. And over all, wave upon +wave, fold upon fold, there hangs the curtain of the aurora. As you +watch, it fades away, and then quite suddenly a great beam flashes up and +rushes to the zenith, an arch of palest green and orange, a tail of +flaming gold. Again it falls, fading away into great searchlight beams +which rise behind the smoking crater of Mount Erebus. And again the +spiritual veil is drawn-- + + Here at the roaring loom of Time I ply + And weave for God the garment thou seest him by. + +Inside the hut are orgies. We are very merry--and indeed why not? The sun +turns to come back to us to-night, and such a day comes only once a year. + +After dinner we had to make speeches, but instead of making a speech +Bowers brought in a wonderful Christmas tree, made of split bamboos and a +ski stick, with feathers tied to the end of each branch; candles, sweets, +preserved fruits, and the most absurd toys of which Bill was the owner. +Titus got three things which pleased him immensely, a sponge, a whistle, +and a pop-gun which went off when he pressed in the butt. For the rest of +the evening he went round asking whether you were sweating. "No." "Yes, +you are," he said, and wiped your face with the sponge. "If you want to +please me very much you will fall down when I shoot you," he said to me, +and then he went round shooting everybody. At intervals he blew the +whistle. + +He danced the Lancers with Anton, and Anton, whose dancing puts that of +the Russian Ballet into the shade, continually apologized for not being +able to do it well enough. Ponting gave a great lecture with slides which +he had made since we arrived, many of which Meares had coloured. When one +of these came up one of us would shout, "Who coloured that," and another +would cry, "Meares,"--then uproar. It was impossible for Ponting to +speak. We had a milk punch, when Scott proposed the Eastern Party, and +Clissold, the cook, proposed Good Old True Milk. Titus blew away the +ball of his gun. "I blew it into the cerulean--how doth Homer have +it?--cerulean azure--hence Erebus." As we turned in he said, "Cherry, are +you responsible for your actions?" and when I said Yes, he blew loudly on +his whistle, and the last thing I remembered was that he woke up Meares +to ask him whether he was fancy free. + +It was a magnificent bust. + + * * * * * + +Five days later and three men, one of whom at any rate is feeling a +little frightened, stand panting and sweating out in McMurdo Sound. They +have two sledges, one tied behind the other, and these sledges are piled +high with sleeping-bags and camping equipment, six weeks' provisions, and +a venesta case full of scientific gear for pickling and preserving. In +addition there is a pickaxe, ice-axes, an Alpine rope, a large piece of +green Willesden canvas and a bit of board. Scott's amazed remark when he +saw our sledges two hours ago, "Bill, why are you taking all this oil?" +pointing to the six cans lashed to the tray on the second sledge, had a +bite in it. Our weights for such travelling are enormous--253 lbs. a man. + +It is mid-day but it is pitchy dark, and it is not warm. + +As we rested my mind went back to a dusty, dingy office in Victoria +Street some fifteen months ago. "I want you to come," said Wilson to me, +and then, "I want to go to Cape Crozier in the winter and work out the +embryology of the Emperor penguins, but I'm not saying much about it--it +might never come off." Well! this was better than Victoria Street, where +the doctors had nearly refused to let me go because I could only see the +people across the road as vague blobs walking. Then Bill went and had a +talk with Scott about it, and they said I might come if I was prepared to +take the additional risk. At that time I would have taken anything. + +After the Depôt Journey, at Hut Point, walking over that beastly, +slippery, sloping ice-foot which I always imagined would leave me some +day in the sea, Bill asked me whether I would go with him--and who else +for a third? There can have been little doubt whom we both wanted, and +that evening Bowers had been asked. Of course he was mad to come. And +here we were. "This winter travel is a new and bold venture," wrote Scott +in the hut that night, "but the right men have gone to attempt it." + +I don't know. There never could have been any doubt about Bill and +Birdie. Probably Lashly would have made the best third, but Bill had a +prejudice against seamen for a journey like this--"They don't take enough +care of themselves, and they _will_ not look after their clothes." But +Lashly was wonderful--if Scott had only taken a four-man party and Lashly +to the Pole! + +What is this venture? Why is the embryo of the Emperor penguin so +important to Science? And why should three sane and common-sense +explorers be sledging away on a winter's night to a Cape which has only +been visited before in daylight, and then with very great difficulty? + +I have explained more fully in the Introduction to this book[150] the +knowledge the world possessed at this time of the Emperor penguin, mainly +due to Wilson. But it is because the Emperor is probably the most +primitive bird in existence that the working out of his embryology is so +important. The embryo shows remains of the development of an animal in +former ages and former states; it recapitulates its former lives. The +embryo of an Emperor may prove the missing link between birds and the +reptiles from which birds have sprung. + +Only one rookery of Emperor penguins had been found at this date, and +this was on the sea-ice inside a little bay of the Barrier edge at Cape +Crozier, which was guarded by miles of some of the biggest pressure in +the Antarctic. Chicks had been found in September, and Wilson reckoned +that the eggs must be laid in the beginning of July. And so we started +just after midwinter on the weirdest bird's-nesting expedition that has +ever been or ever will be. + +[Illustration: EMPERORS] + +But the sweat was freezing in our clothing and we moved on. All we could +see was a black patch away to our left which was Turk's Head: when this +disappeared we knew that we had passed Glacier Tongue which, unseen by +us, eclipsed the rocks behind. And then we camped for lunch. + +That first camp only lives in my memory because it began our education of +camp work in the dark. Had we now struck the blighting temperature which +we were to meet.... + +There was just enough wind to make us want to hurry: down harness, each +man to a strap on the sledge--quick with the floor-cloth--the bags to +hold it down--now a good spread with the bamboos and the tent inner +lining--hold them, Cherry, and over with the outer covering--snow on to +the skirting and inside with the cook with his candle and a box of +matches.... + +That is how we tied it: that is the way we were accustomed to do it, day +after day and night after night when the sun was still high or at any +rate only setting, sledging on the Barrier in spring and summer and +autumn; pulling our hands from our mitts when necessary--plenty of time +to warm up afterwards; in the days when we took pride in getting our tea +boiling within twenty minutes of throwing off our harness: when the man +who wanted to work in his fur mitts was thought a bit too slow. + +But now it _didn't_ work. "We shall have to go a bit slower," said Bill, +and "we shall get more used to working in the dark." At this time, I +remember, I was still trying to wear spectacles. + +We spent that night on the sea-ice, finding that we were too far in +towards Castle Rock; and it was not until the following afternoon that we +reached and lunched at Hut Point. I speak of day and night, though they +were much the same, and later on when we found that we could not get the +work into a twenty-four-hour day, we decided to carry on as though such a +convention did not exist; as in actual fact it did not. We had already +realized that cooking under these conditions would be a bad job, and that +the usual arrangement by which one man was cook for the week would be +intolerable. We settled to be cook alternately day by day. For food we +brought only pemmican and biscuit and butter; for drink we had tea, and +we drank hot water to turn in on. + +Pulling out from Hut Point that evening we brought along our heavy loads +on the two nine-foot sledges with comparative ease; it was the first, and +though we did not know it then, the only bit of good pulling we were to +have. Good pulling to the sledge traveller means easy pulling. Away we +went round Cape Armitage and eastwards. We knew that the Barrier edge was +in front of us and also that the break-up of the sea-ice had left the +face of it as a low perpendicular cliff. We had therefore to find a place +where the snow had formed a drift. This we came right up against and met +quite suddenly a very keen wind flowing, as it always does, from the cold +Barrier down to the comparatively warm sea-ice. The temperature was -47° +F., and I was a fool to take my hands out of my mitts to haul on the +ropes to bring the sledges up. I started away from the Barrier edge with +all ten fingers frost-bitten. They did not really come back until we were +in the tent for our night meal, and within a few hours there were two or +three large blisters, up to an inch long, on all of them. For many days +those blisters hurt frightfully. + +We were camped that night about half a mile in from the Barrier edge. The +temperature was -56°. We had a baddish time, being very glad to get out +of our shivering bags next morning (June 29). We began to suspect, as we +knew only too well later, that the only good time of the twenty-four +hours was breakfast, for then with reasonable luck we need not get into +our sleeping-bags again for another seventeen hours. + +[Illustration: A PANORAMIC VIEW OF ROSS ISLAND FROM CRATER HILL] + +The horror of the nineteen days it took us to travel from Cape Evans to +Cape Crozier would have to be re-experienced to be appreciated; and any +one would be a fool who went again: it is not possible to describe it. +The weeks which followed them were comparative bliss, not because later +our conditions were better--they were far worse--because we were +callous. I for one had come to that point of suffering at which I did not +really care if only I could die without much pain. They talk of the +heroism of the dying--they little know--it would be so easy to die, a +dose of morphia, a friendly crevasse, and blissful sleep. The trouble is +to go on.... + +It was the darkness that did it. I don't believe minus seventy +temperatures would be bad in daylight, not comparatively bad, when you +could see where you were going, where you were stepping, where the sledge +straps were, the cooker, the primus, the food; could see your footsteps +lately trodden deep into the soft snow that you might find your way back +to the rest of your load; could see the lashings of the food bags; could +read a compass without striking three or four different boxes to find one +dry match; could read your watch to see if the blissful moment of getting +out of your bag was come without groping in the snow all about; when it +would not take you five minutes to lash up the door of the tent, and five +hours to get started in the morning.... + +But in these days we were never less than four hours from the moment when +Bill cried "Time to get up" to the time when we got into our harness. It +took two men to get one man into his harness, and was all they could do, +for the canvas was frozen and our clothes were frozen until sometimes not +even two men could bend them into the required shape. + +The trouble is sweat and breath. I never knew before how much of the +body's waste comes out through the pores of the skin. On the most bitter +days, when we had to camp before we had done a four-hour march in order +to nurse back our frozen feet, it seemed that we must be sweating. And +all this sweat, instead of passing away through the porous wool of our +clothing and gradually drying off us, froze and accumulated. It passed +just away from our flesh and then became ice: we shook plenty of snow and +ice down from inside our trousers every time we changed our foot-gear, +and we could have shaken it from our vests and from between our vests and +shirts, but of course we could not strip to this extent. But when we got +into our sleeping-bags, if we were fortunate, we became warm enough +during the night to thaw this ice: part remained in our clothes, part +passed into the skins of our sleeping-bags, and soon both were sheets of +armour-plate. + +As for our breath--in the daytime it did nothing worse than cover the +lower parts of our faces with ice and solder our balaclavas tightly to +our heads. It was no good trying to get your balaclava off until you had +had the primus going quite a long time, and then you could throw your +breath about if you wished. The trouble really began in your +sleeping-bag, for it was far too cold to keep a hole open through which +to breathe. So all night long our breath froze into the skins, and our +respiration became quicker and quicker as the air in our bags got fouler +and fouler: it was never possible to make a match strike or burn inside +our bags! + +Of course we were not iced up all at once: it took several days of this +kind of thing before we really got into big difficulties on this score. +It was not until I got out of the tent one morning fully ready to pack +the sledge that I realized the possibilities ahead. We had had our +breakfast, struggled into our foot-gear, and squared up inside the tent, +which was comparatively warm. Once outside, I raised my head to look +round and found I could not move it back. My clothing had frozen hard as +I stood--perhaps fifteen seconds. For four hours I had to pull with my +head stuck up, and from that time we all took care to bend down into a +pulling position before being frozen in. + +By now we had realized that we must reverse the usual sledging routine +and do everything slowly, wearing when possible the fur mitts which +fitted over our woollen mitts, and always stopping whatever we were +doing, directly we felt that any part of us was getting frozen, until the +circulation was restored. Henceforward it was common for one or other of +us to leave the other two to continue the camp work while he stamped +about in the snow, beat his arms, or nursed some exposed part. But we +could not restore the circulation of our feet like this--the only way +then was to camp and get some hot water into ourselves before we took our +foot-gear off. The difficulty was to know whether our feet were frozen or +not, for the only thing we knew for certain was that we had lost all +feeling in them. Wilson's knowledge as a doctor came in here: many a time +he had to decide from our descriptions of our feet whether to camp or to +go on for another hour. A wrong decision meant disaster, for if one of us +had been crippled the whole party would have been placed in great +difficulties. Probably we should all have died. + +On June 29 the temperature was -50° all day and there was sometimes a +light breeze which was inclined to frost-bite our faces and hands. Owing +to the weight of our two sledges and the bad surface our pace was not +more than a slow and very heavy plod: at our lunch camp Wilson had the +heel and sole of one foot frost-bitten, and I had two big toes. Bowers +was never worried by frost-bitten feet. + +That night was very cold, the temperature falling to -66°, and it was +-55° at breakfast on June 30. We had not shipped the eider-down linings +to our sleeping-bags, in order to keep them dry as long as possible. My +own fur bag was too big for me, and throughout this journey was more +difficult to thaw out than the other two: on the other hand, it never +split, as did Bill's. + +We were now getting into that cold bay which lies between the Hut Point +Peninsula and Terror Point. It was known from old Discovery days that the +Barrier winds are deflected from this area, pouring out into McMurdo +Sound behind us, and into the Ross Sea at Cape Crozier in front. In +consequence of the lack of high winds the surface of the snow is never +swept and hardened and polished as elsewhere: it was now a mass of the +hardest and smallest snow crystals, to pull through which in cold +temperatures was just like pulling through sand. I have spoken elsewhere +of Barrier surfaces, and how, when the cold is very great, sledge runners +cannot melt the crystal points but only advance by rolling them over and +over upon one another. That was the surface we met on this journey, and +in soft snow the effect is accentuated. Our feet were sinking deep at +every step. + +And so when we tried to start on June 30 we found we could not move both +sledges together. There was nothing for it but to take one on at a time +and come back for the other. This has often been done in daylight when +the only risks run are those of blizzards which may spring up suddenly +and obliterate tracks. Now in darkness it was more complicated. From 11 +A.M. to 3 P.M. there was enough light to see the big holes made by our +feet, and we took on one sledge, trudged back in our tracks, and brought +on the second. Bowers used to toggle and untoggle our harnesses when we +changed sledges. Of course in this relay work we covered three miles in +distance for every one mile forward, and even the single sledges were +very hard pulling. When we lunched the temperature was -61°. After lunch +the little light had gone, and we carried a naked lighted candle back +with us when we went to find our second sledge. It was the weirdest kind +of procession, three frozen men and a little pool of light. Generally we +steered by Jupiter, and I never see him now without recalling his +friendship in those days. + +We were very silent, it was not very easy to talk: but sledging is always +a silent business. I remember a long discussion which began just now +about cold snaps--was this the normal condition of the Barrier, or was it +a cold snap?--what constituted a cold snap? The discussion lasted about a +week. Do things slowly, always slowly, that was the burden of Wilson's +leadership: and every now and then the question, Shall we go on? and the +answer Yes. "I think we are all right as long as our appetites are good," +said Bill. Always patient, self-possessed, unruffled, he was the only man +on earth, as I believe, who could have led this journey. + +That day we made 3¼ miles, and travelled 10 miles to do it. The +temperature was -66° when we camped, and we were already pretty badly +iced up. That was the last night I lay (I had written slept) in my big +reindeer bag without the lining of eider-down which we each carried. For +me it was a very bad night: a succession of shivering fits which I was +quite unable to stop, and which took possession of my body for many +minutes at a time until I thought my back would break, such was the +strain placed upon it. They talk of chattering teeth: but when your body +chatters you may call yourself cold. I can only compare the strain to +that which I have been unfortunate enough to see in a case of lock-jaw. +One of my big toes was frost-bitten, but I do not know for how long. +Wilson was fairly comfortable in his smaller bag, and Bowers was snoring +loudly. The minimum temperature that night as taken under the sledge was +-69°; and as taken on the sledge was -75°. That is a hundred and seven +degrees of frost. + +We did the same relay work on July 1, but found the pulling still harder; +and it was all that we could do to move the one sledge forward. From now +onwards Wilson and I, but not to the same extent Bowers, experienced a +curious optical delusion when returning in our tracks for the second +sledge. I have said that we found our way back by the light of a candle, +and we found it necessary to go back in our same footprints. These holes +became to our tired brains not depressions but elevations: hummocks over +which we stepped, raising our feet painfully and draggingly. And then we +remembered, and said what fools we were, and for a while we compelled +ourselves to walk through these phantom hills. But it was no lasting +good, and as the days passed we realized that we must suffer this +absurdity, for we could not do anything else. But of course it took it +out of us. + +During these days the blisters on my fingers were very painful. Long +before my hands were frost-bitten, or indeed anything but cold, which was +of course a normal thing, the matter inside these big blisters, which +rose all down my fingers with only a skin between them, was frozen into +ice. To handle the cooking gear or the food bags was agony; to start the +primus was worse; and when, one day, I was able to prick six or seven of +the blisters after supper and let the liquid matter out, the relief was +very great. Every night after that I treated such others as were ready in +the same way until they gradually disappeared. Sometimes it was difficult +not to howl. + +I _did_ want to howl many times every hour of these days and nights, but +I invented a formula instead, which I repeated to myself continually. +Especially, I remember, it came in useful when at the end of the march +with my feet frost-bitten, my heart beating slowly, my vitality at its +lowest ebb, my body solid with cold, I used to seize the shovel and go on +digging snow on to the tent skirting while the cook inside was trying to +light the primus. "You've got it in the neck--stick it--stick it--you've +got it in the neck," was the refrain, and I wanted every little bit of +encouragement it would give me: then I would find myself repeating "Stick +it--stick it--stick it--stick it," and then "You've got it in the neck." +One of the joys of summer sledging is that you can let your mind wander +thousands of miles away for weeks and weeks. Oates used to provision his +little yacht (there was a pickled herring he was going to have): I +invented the compactest little revolving bookcase which was going to hold +not books, but pemmican and chocolate and biscuit and cocoa and sugar, +and have a cooker on the top, and was going to stand always ready to +quench my hunger when I got home: and we visited restaurants and theatres +and grouse moors, and we thought of a pretty girl, or girls, and.... But +now that was all impossible. Our conditions forced themselves upon us +without pause: it was not possible to think of anything else. We got no +respite. I found it best to refuse to let myself think of the past or the +future--to live only for the job of the moment, and to compel myself to +think only how to do it most efficiently. Once you let yourself +imagine.... + +This day also (July 1) we were harassed by a nasty little wind which blew +in our faces. The temperature was -66°, and in such temperatures the +effect of even the lightest airs is blighting, and immediately freezes +any exposed part. But we all fitted the bits of wind-proof lined with +fur which we had made in the hut, across our balaclavas in front of our +noses, and these were of the greatest comfort. They formed other places +upon which our breath could freeze, and the lower parts of our faces were +soon covered with solid sheets of ice, which was in itself an additional +protection. This was a normal and not uncomfortable condition during the +journey: the hair on our faces kept the ice away from the skin, and for +myself I would rather have the ice than be without it, until I want to +get my balaclava off to drink my hoosh. We only made 2¼ miles, and it +took 8 hours. + +It blew force 3 that night with a temperature of -65.2°, and there was +some drift. This was pretty bad, but luckily the wind dropped to a light +breeze by the time we were ready to start the next morning (July 2). The +temperature was then -60°, and continued so all day, falling lower in the +evening. At 4 P.M. we watched a bank of fog form over the peninsula to +our left and noticed at the same time that our frozen mitts thawed out on +our hands, and the outlines of the land as shown by the stars became +obscured. We made 2½ miles with the usual relaying, and camped at 8 P.M. +with the temperature -65°. It really was a terrible march, and parts of +both my feet were frozen at lunch. After supper I pricked six or seven of +the worst blisters, and the relief was considerable. + +I have met with amusement people who say, "Oh, we had minus fifty +temperatures in Canada; they didn't worry _me_," or "I've been down to +minus sixty something in Siberia." And then you find that they had nice +dry clothing, a nice night's sleep in a nice aired bed, and had just +walked out after lunch for a few minutes from a nice warm hut or an +overheated train. And they look back upon it as an experience to be +remembered. Well! of course as an experience of cold this can only be +compared to eating a vanilla ice with hot chocolate cream after an +excellent dinner at Claridge's. But in our present state we began to look +upon minus fifties as a luxury which we did not often get. + +That evening, for the first time, we discarded our naked candle in +favour of the rising moon. We had started before the moon on purpose, but +as we shall see she gave us little light. However, we owed our escape +from a very sticky death to her on one occasion. + +It was a little later on when we were among crevasses, with Terror above +us, but invisible, somewhere on our left, and the Barrier pressure on our +right. We were quite lost in the darkness, and only knew that we were +running downhill, the sledge almost catching our heels. There had been no +light all day, clouds obscured the moon, we had not seen her since +yesterday. And quite suddenly a little patch of clear sky drifted, as it +were, over her face, and she showed us three paces ahead a great crevasse +with just a shining icy lid not much thicker than glass. We should all +have walked into it, and the sledge would certainly have followed us +down. After that I felt we had a chance of pulling through: God could not +be so cruel as to have saved us just to prolong our agony. + +But at present we need not worry about crevasses; for we had not reached +the long stretch where the moving Barrier, with the weight of many +hundred miles of ice behind it, comes butting up against the slopes of +Mount Terror, itself some eleven thousand feet high. Now we were still +plunging ankle-deep in the mass of soft sandy snow which lies in the +windless area. It seemed to have no bottom at all, and since the snow was +much the same temperature as the air, our feet, as well as our bodies, +got colder and colder the longer we marched: in ordinary sledging you +begin to warm up after a quarter of an hour's pulling, here it was just +the reverse. Even now I find myself unconsciously kicking the toes of my +right foot against the heel of my left: a habit I picked up on this +journey by doing it every time we halted. Well no. Not always. For there +was one halt when we just lay on our backs and gazed up into the sky, +where, so the others said, there was blazing the most wonderful aurora +they had ever seen. I did not see it, being so near-sighted and unable to +wear spectacles owing to the cold. The aurora was always before us as we +travelled east, more beautiful than any seen by previous expeditions +wintering in McMurdo Sound, where Erebus must have hidden the most +brilliant displays. Now most of the sky was covered with swinging, +swaying curtains which met in a great whirl overhead: lemon yellow, green +and orange. + +The minimum this night was -65°, and during July 3 it ranged between -52° +and -58°. We got forward only 2½ miles, and by this time I had silently +made up my mind that we had not the ghost of a chance of reaching the +penguins. I am sure that Bill was having a very bad time these nights, +though it was an impression rather than anything else, for he never said +so. We knew we did sleep, for we heard one another snore, and also we +used to have dreams and nightmares; but we had little consciousness of +it, and we were now beginning to drop off when we halted on the march. + +Our sleeping-bags were getting really bad by now, and already it took a +long time to thaw a way down into them at night. Bill spread his in the +middle, Bowers was on his right, and I was on his left. Always he +insisted that I should start getting my legs into mine before _he_ +started: we were rapidly cooling down after our hot supper, and this was +very unselfish of him. Then came seven shivering hours and first thing on +getting out of our sleeping-bags in the morning we stuffed our personal +gear into the mouth of the bag before it could freeze: this made a plug +which when removed formed a frozen hole for us to push into as a start in +the evening. + +We got into some strange knots when trying to persuade our limbs into our +bags, and suffered terribly from cramp in consequence. We would wait and +rub, but directly we tried to move again down it would come and grip our +legs in a vice. We also, especially Bowers, suffered agony from cramp in +the stomach. We let the primus burn on after supper now for a time--it +was the only thing which kept us going--and when one who was holding the +primus was seized with cramp we hastily took the lamp from him until the +spasm was over. It was horrible to see Birdie's stomach cramp sometimes: +he certainly got it much worse than Bill or I. I suffered a lot from +heartburn especially in my bag at nights: we were eating a great +proportion of fat and this was probably the cause. Stupidly I said +nothing about it for a long time. Later when Bill found out, he soon made +it better with the medical case. + +Birdie always lit the candle in the morning--so called and this was an +heroic business. Moisture collected on our matches if you looked at them. +Partly I suppose it was bringing them from outside into a comparatively +warm tent; partly from putting boxes into pockets in our clothing. +Sometimes it was necessary to try four or five boxes before a match +struck. The temperature of the boxes and matches was about a hundred +degrees of frost, and the smallest touch of the metal on naked flesh +caused a frost-bite. If you wore mitts you could scarcely feel +anything--especially since the tips of our fingers were already very +callous. To get the first light going in the morning was a beastly cold +business, made worse by having to make sure that it was at last time to +get up. Bill insisted that we must lie in our bags seven hours every +night. + +In civilization men are taken at their own valuation because there are so +many ways of concealment, and there is so little time, perhaps even so +little understanding. Not so down South. These two men went through the +Winter Journey and lived: later they went through the Polar Journey and +died. They were gold, pure, shining, unalloyed. Words cannot express how +good their companionship was. + +Through all these days, and those which were to follow, the worst I +suppose in their dark severity that men have ever come through alive, no +single hasty or angry word passed their lips. When, later, we were sure, +so far as we can be sure of anything, that we must die, they were +cheerful, and so far as I can judge their songs and cheery words were +quite unforced. Nor were they ever flurried, though always as quick as +the conditions would allow in moments of emergency. It is hard that often +such men must go first when others far less worthy remain. + +[Illustration: CAMPING AFTER DARK--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +There are those who write of Polar Expeditions as though the whole +thing was as easy as possible. They are trusting, I suspect, in a public +who will say, "What a fine fellow this is! we know what horrors he has +endured, yet see, how little he makes of all his difficulties and +hardships." Others have gone to the opposite extreme. I do not know that +there is any use in trying to make a -18° temperature appear formidable +to an uninitiated reader by calling it fifty degrees of frost. I want to +do neither of these things. I am not going to pretend that this was +anything but a ghastly journey, made bearable and even pleasant to look +back upon by the qualities of my two companions who have gone. At the +same time I have no wish to make it appear more horrible than it actually +was: the reader need not fear that I am trying to exaggerate. + +During the night of July 3 the temperature dropped to -65°, but in the +morning we wakened (we really did wake that morning) to great relief. The +temperature was only -27° with the wind blowing some 15 miles an hour +with steadily falling snow. It only lasted a few hours, and we knew it +must be blowing a howling blizzard outside the windless area in which we +lay, but it gave us time to sleep and rest, and get thoroughly thawed, +and wet, and warm, inside our sleeping-bags. To me at any rate this +modified blizzard was a great relief, though we all knew that our gear +would be worse than ever when the cold came back. It was quite impossible +to march. During the course of the day the temperature dropped to -44°: +during the following night to -54°. + +The soft new snow which had fallen made the surface the next day (July 5) +almost impossible. We relayed as usual, and managed to do eight hours' +pulling, but we got forward only 1½ miles. The temperature ranged between +-55° and -61°, and there was at one time a considerable breeze, the +effect of which was paralysing. There was the great circle of a halo +round the moon with a vertical shaft, and mock moons. We hoped that we +were rising on to the long snow cape which marks the beginning of Mount +Terror. That night the temperature was -75°; at breakfast -70°; at noon +nearly -77°. The day lives in my memory as that on which I found out +that records are not worth making. The thermometer as swung by Bowers +after lunch at 5.51 P.M. registered -77.5°, which is 109½ degrees of +frost, and is I suppose as cold as any one will want to endure in +darkness and iced-up gear and clothes. The lowest temperature recorded by +a Discovery Spring Journey party was -67.7°,[151] and in those days +fourteen days was a long time for a Spring Party to be away sledging and +they were in daylight. This was our tenth day out and we hoped to be away +for six weeks. + +Luckily we were spared wind. Our naked candle burnt steadily as we +trudged back in our tracks to fetch our other sledge, but if we touched +metal for a fraction of a second with naked fingers we were frost-bitten. +To fasten the strap buckles over the loaded sledge was difficult: to +handle the cooker, or mugs, or spoons, the primus or oil can was worse. +How Bowers managed with the meteorological instruments I do not know, but +the meteorological log is perfectly kept. Yet as soon as you breathed +near the paper it was covered with a film of ice through which the pencil +would not bite. To handle rope was always cold and in these very low +temperatures dreadfully cold work. The toggling up of our harnesses to +the sledge we were about to pull, the untoggling at the end of the stage, +the lashing up of our sleeping-bags in the morning, the fastening of the +cooker to the top of the instrument box, were bad, but not nearly so bad +as the smaller lashings which were now strings of ice. One of the worst +was round the weekly food bag, and those round the pemmican, tea and +butter bags inside were thinner still. But the real devil was the lashing +of the tent door: it was like wire, and yet had to be tied tight. If you +had to get out of the tent during the seven hours spent in our +sleeping-bags you must tie a string as stiff as a poker, and re-thaw your +way into a bag already as hard as a board. Our paraffin was supplied at a +flash point suitable to low temperatures and was only a little milky: it +was very difficult to splinter bits off the butter. + +The temperature that night was -75.8°, and I will not pretend that it did +not convince me that Dante was right when he placed the circles of ice +below the circles of fire. Still we slept sometimes, and always we lay +for seven hours. Again and again Bill asked us how about going back, and +always we said no. Yet there was nothing I should have liked better: I +was quite sure that to dream of Cape Crozier was the wildest lunacy. That +day we had advanced 1½ miles by the utmost labour, and the usual relay +work. This was quite a good march--and Cape Crozier is 67 miles from Cape +Evans! + +More than once in my short life I have been struck by the value of the +man who is blind to what appears to be a common-sense certainty: he +achieves the impossible. We never spoke our thoughts: we discussed the +Age of Stone which was to come, when we built our cosy warm rock hut on +the slopes of Mount Terror, and ran our stove with penguin blubber, and +pickled little Emperors in warmth and dryness. We were quite intelligent +people, and we must all have known that we were not going to see the +penguins and that it was folly to go forward. And yet with quiet +perseverance, in perfect friendship, almost with gentleness those two men +led on. I just did what I was told. + +It is desirable that the body should work, feed and sleep at regular +hours, and this is too often forgotten when sledging. But just now we +found we were unable to fit 8 hours marching and 7 hours in our +sleeping-bags into a 24-hour day: the routine camp work took more than 9 +hours, such were the conditions. We therefore ceased to observe the quite +imaginary difference between night and day, and it was noon on Friday +(July 7) before we got away. The temperature was -68° and there was a +thick white fog: generally we had but the vaguest idea where we were, and +we camped at 10 P.M. after managing 1¾ miles for the day. But what a +relief. Instead of labouring away, our hearts were beating more +naturally: it was easier to camp, we had some feeling in our hands, and +our feet had not gone to sleep. Birdie swung the thermometer and found +it only -55°. "Now if we tell people that to get only 87 degrees of frost +can be an enormous relief they simply won't believe us," I remember +saying. Perhaps you won't but it was, all the same: and I wrote that +night: "There is something after all rather good in doing something never +done before." Things were looking up, you see. + +Our hearts were doing very gallant work. Towards the end of the march +they were getting beaten and were finding it difficult to pump the blood +out to our extremities. There were few days that Wilson and I did not get +some part of our feet frost-bitten. As we camped, I suspect our hearts +were beating comparatively slowly and weakly. Nothing could be done until +a hot drink was ready--tea for lunch, hot water for supper. Directly we +started to drink then the effect was wonderful: it was, said Wilson, like +putting a hot-water bottle against your heart. The beats became very +rapid and strong and you felt the warmth travelling outwards and +downwards. Then you got your foot-gear off--puttees (cut in half and +wound round the bottom of the trousers), finnesko, saennegrass, hair +socks, and two pairs of woollen socks. Then you nursed back your feet and +tried to believe you were glad--a frost-bite does not hurt until it +begins to thaw. Later came the blisters, and then the chunks of dead +skin. + +Bill was anxious. It seems that Scott had twice gone for a walk with him +during the Winter, and tried to persuade him not to go, and only finally +consented on condition that Bill brought us all back unharmed: we were +Southern Journey men. Bill had a tremendous respect for Scott, and later +when we were about to make an effort to get back home over the Barrier, +and our case was very desperate, he was most anxious to leave no gear +behind at Cape Crozier, even the scientific gear which could be of no use +to us and of which we had plenty more at the hut. "Scott will never +forgive me if I leave gear behind," he said. It is a good sledging +principle, and the party which does not follow it, or which leaves some +of its load to be fetched in later is seldom a good one: but it is a +principle which can be carried to excess. + +And now Bill was feeling terribly responsible for both of us. He kept on +saying that he was sorry, but he had never dreamed it was going to be as +bad as this. He felt that having asked us to come he was in some way +chargeable with our troubles. When leaders have this kind of feeling +about their men they get much better results, if the men are good: if men +are bad or even moderate they will try and take advantage of what they +consider to be softness. + +The temperature on the night of July 7 was -59°. + +On July 8 we found the first sign that we might be coming to an end of +this soft, powdered, arrowrooty snow. It was frightfully hard pulling; +but every now and then our finnesko pierced a thin crust before they sank +right in. This meant a little wind, and every now and then our feet came +down on a hard slippery patch under the soft snow. We were surrounded by +fog which walked along with us, and far above us the moon was shining on +its roof. Steering was as difficult as the pulling, and four hours of the +hardest work only produced 1¼ miles in the morning, and three more hours +1 mile in the afternoon--and the temperature was -57° with a +breeze--horrible! + +In the early morning of the next day snow began to fall and the fog was +dense: when we got up we could see nothing at all anywhere. After the +usual four hours to get going in the morning we settled that it was +impossible to relay, for we should never be able to track ourselves back +to the second sledge. It was with very great relief that we found we +could move both sledges together, and I think this was mainly due to the +temperature which had risen to -36°. + +This was our fourth day of fog in addition to the normal darkness, and we +knew we must be approaching the land. It would be Terror Point, and the +fog is probably caused by the moist warm air coming up from the sea +through the pressure cracks and crevasses; for it is supposed that the +Barrier here is afloat. + +I wish I could take you on to the great Ice Barrier some calm evening +when the sun is just dipping in the middle of the night and show you the +autumn tints on Ross Island. A last look round before turning in, a good +day's march behind, enough fine fat pemmican inside you to make you +happy, the homely smell of tobacco from the tent, a pleasant sense of +soft fur and the deep sleep to come. And all the softest colours God has +made are in the snow; on Erebus to the west, where the wind can scarcely +move his cloud of smoke; and on Terror to the east, not so high, and more +regular in form. How peaceful and dignified it all is. + +That was what you might have seen four months ago had you been out on the +Barrier plain. Low down on the extreme right or east of the land there +was a black smudge of rock peeping out from great snow-drifts: that was +the Knoll, and close under it were the cliffs of Cape Crozier, the Knoll +looking quite low and the cliffs invisible, although they are eight +hundred feet high, a sheer precipice falling to the sea. + +It is at Cape Crozier that the Barrier edge, which runs for four hundred +miles as an ice-cliff up to 200 feet high, meets the land. The Barrier is +moving against this land at a rate which is sometimes not much less than +a mile in a year. Perhaps you can imagine the chaos which it piles up: +there are pressure ridges compared to which the waves of the sea are like +a ploughed field. These are worst at Cape Crozier itself, but they extend +all along the southern slopes of Mount Terror, running parallel with the +land, and the disturbance which Cape Crozier makes is apparent at Corner +Camp some forty miles back on the Barrier in the crevasses we used to +find and the occasional ridges we had to cross. + +In the Discovery days the pressure just where it hit Cape Crozier formed +a small bay, and on the sea-ice frozen in this bay the men of the +Discovery found the only Emperor penguin rookery which had ever been +seen. The ice here was not blown out by the blizzards which cleared the +Ross Sea, and open water or open leads were never far away. This gave the +Emperors a place to lay their eggs and an opportunity to find their food. +We had therefore to find our way along the pressure to the Knoll, and +thence penetrate _through_ the pressure to the Emperors' Bay. And we had +to do it in the dark. + +Terror Point, which we were approaching in the fog, is a short twenty +miles from the Knoll, and ends in a long snow-tongue running out into the +Barrier. The way had been travelled a good many times in Discovery days +and in daylight, and Wilson knew there was a narrow path, free from +crevasses, which skirted along between the mountain and the pressure +ridges running parallel to it. But it is one thing to walk along a +corridor by day, and quite another to try to do so at night, especially +when there are no walls by which you can correct your course--only +crevasses. Anyway, Terror Point must be somewhere close to us now, and +vaguely in front of us was that strip of snow, neither Barrier nor +mountain, which was our only way forward. + +We began to realize, now that our eyes were more or less out of action, +how much we could do with our feet and ears. The effect of walking in +finnesko is much the same as walking in gloves, and you get a sense of +touch which nothing else except bare feet could give you. Thus we could +feel every small variation in surface, every crust through which our feet +broke, every hardened patch below the soft snow. And soon we began to +rely more and more upon the sound of our footsteps to tell us whether we +were on crevasses or solid ground. From now onwards we were working among +crevasses fairly constantly. I loathe them in full daylight when much can +be done to avoid them, and when if you fall into them you can at any rate +see where the sides are, which way they run and how best to scramble out; +when your companions can see how to stop the sledge to which you are all +attached by your harness; how most safely to hold the sledge when +stopped; how, if you are dangling fifteen feet down in a chasm, to work +above you to get you up to the surface again. And then our clothes were +generally something like clothes. Even under the ideal conditions of good +light, warmth and no wind, crevasses are beastly, whether you are pulling +over a level and uniform snow surface, never knowing what moment will +find you dropping into some bottomless pit, or whether you are rushing +for the Alpine rope and the sledge, to help some companion who has +disappeared. I dream sometimes now of bad days we had on the Beardmore +and elsewhere, when men were dropping through to be caught up and hang at +the full length of the harnesses and toggles many times in an hour. On +the same sledge as myself on the Beardmore one man went down once head +first, and another eight times to the length of his harness in 25 +minutes. And always you wondered whether your harness was going to hold +when the jerk came. But those days were a Sunday School treat compared to +our days of blind-man's buff with the Emperor penguins among the +crevasses of Cape Crozier. + +Our troubles were greatly increased by the state of our clothes. If we +had been dressed in lead we should have been able to move our arms and +necks and heads more easily than we could now. If the same amount of +icing had extended to our legs I believe we should still be there, +standing unable to move: but happily the forks of our trousers still +remained movable. To get into our canvas harnesses was the most absurd +business. Quite in the early days of our journey we met with this +difficulty, and somewhat foolishly decided not to take off our harness +for lunch. The harnesses thawed in the tent, and froze back as hard as +boards. Likewise our clothing was hard as boards and stuck out from our +bodies in every imaginable fold and angle. To fit one board over the +other required the united efforts of the would-be wearer and his two +companions, and the process had to be repeated for each one of us twice a +day. Goodness knows how long it took; but it cannot have been less than +five minutes' thumping at each man. + +As we approached Terror Point in the fog we sensed that we had risen and +fallen over several rises. Every now and then we felt hard slippery snow +under our feet. Every now and then our feet went through crusts in the +surface. And then quite suddenly, vague, indefinable, monstrous, there +loomed a something ahead. I remember having a feeling as of ghosts about +as we untoggled our harnesses from the sledge, tied them together, and +thus roped walked upwards on that ice. The moon was showing a ghastly +ragged mountainous edge above us in the fog, and as we rose we found that +we were on a pressure ridge. We stopped, looked at one another, and then +_bang_--right under our feet. More bangs, and creaks and groans; for that +ice was moving and splitting like glass. The cracks went off all round +us, and some of them ran along for hundreds of yards. Afterwards we got +used to it, but at first the effect was very jumpy. From first to last +during this journey we had plenty of variety and none of that monotony +which is inevitable in sledging over long distances of Barrier in summer. +Only the long shivering fits following close one after the other all the +time we lay in our dreadful sleeping-bags, hour after hour and night +after night in those temperatures--they were as monotonous as could be. +Later we got frost-bitten even as we lay in our sleeping-bags. Things are +getting pretty bad when you get frost-bitten in your bag. + +There was only a glow where the moon was; we stood in a moonlit fog, and +this was sufficient to show the edge of another ridge ahead, and yet +another on our left. We were utterly bewildered. The deep booming of the +ice continued, and it may be that the tide has something to do with this, +though we were many miles from the ordinary coastal ice. We went back, +toggled up to our sledges again and pulled in what we thought was the +right direction, always with that feeling that the earth may open +underneath your feet which you have in crevassed areas. But all we found +were more mounds and banks of snow and ice, into which we almost ran +before we saw them. We were clearly lost. It was near midnight, and I +wrote, "it may be the pressure ridges or it may be Terror, it is +impossible to say,--and I should think it is impossible to move till it +clears. We were steering N.E. when we got here and returned S.W. till we +seemed to be in a hollow and camped." + +The temperature had been rising from -36° at 11 A.M. and it was now -27°; +snow was falling and nothing whatever could be seen. From under the tent +came noises as though some giant was banging a big empty tank. All the +signs were for a blizzard, and indeed we had not long finished our supper +and were thawing our way little by little into our bags when the wind +came away from the south. Before it started we got a glimpse of black +rock and knew we must be in the pressure ridges where they nearly join +Mount Terror. + +It is with great surprise that in looking up the records I find that +blizzard lasted three days, the temperature and wind both rising till it +was +9° and blowing force 9 on the morning of the second day (July 11). +On the morning of the third day (July 12) it was blowing storm force +(10). The temperature had thus risen over eighty degrees. + +It was not an uncomfortable time. Wet and warm, the risen temperature +allowed all our ice to turn to water, and we lay steaming and beautifully +liquid, and wondered sometimes what we should be like when our gear froze +up once more. But we did not do much wondering, I suspect: we slept. From +that point of view these blizzards were a perfect Godsend. + +We also revised our food rations. From the moment we started to prepare +for this journey we were asked by Scott to try certain experiments in +view of the Plateau stage of the Polar Journey the following summer. It +was supposed that the Plateau stage would be the really tough part of the +Polar Journey, and no one then dreamed that harder conditions could be +found in the middle of the Barrier in March than on the Plateau, ten +thousand feet higher, in February. In view of the extreme conditions we +knew we must meet on this winter journey, far harder of course in point +of weather than anything experienced on the Polar Journey, we had +determined to simplify our food to the last degree. We only brought +pemmican, biscuit, butter and tea: and tea is not a food, only a pleasant +stimulant, and hot: the pemmican was excellent and came from Beauvais, +Copenhagen. + +[Illustration: CAMP WORK IN A BLIZZARD, PASSING IN THE COOKER--E. A. +Wilson, del.] + +The immediate advantage of this was that we had few food bags to handle +for each meal. If the air temperature is 100 degrees of frost, then +everything in the air is about 100 degrees of frost too. You have only to +untie the lashings of one bag in a -70° temperature, with your feet +frozen and your fingers just nursed back after getting a match to strike +for the candle (you will have tried several boxes--metal), to realize +this as an advantage. + +The immediate and increasingly pressing disadvantage is that you have no +sugar. Have you ever had a craving for sugar which never leaves you, even +when asleep? It is unpleasant. As a matter of fact the craving for sweet +things never seriously worried us on this journey, and there must have +been some sugar in our biscuits which gave a pleasant sweetness to our +mid-day tea or nightly hot water when broken up and soaked in it. These +biscuits were specially made for us by Huntley and Palmer: their +composition was worked out by Wilson and that firm's chemist, and is a +secret. But they are probably the most satisfying biscuit ever made, and +I doubt whether they can be improved upon. There were two kinds, called +Emergency and Antarctic, but there was I think little difference between +them except in the baking. A well-baked biscuit was good to eat when +sledging if your supply of food was good: but if you were very hungry an +underbaked one was much preferred. By taking individually different +quantities of biscuit, pemmican and butter we were able roughly to test +the proportions of proteids, fats and carbo-hydrates wanted by the human +body under such extreme circumstances. Bill was all for fat, starting +with 8 oz. butter, 12 oz. pemmican and only 12 oz. biscuit a day. Bowers +told me he was going for proteids, 16 oz. pemmican and 16 oz. biscuit, +and suggested I should go the whole hog on carbo-hydrates. I did not like +this, since I knew I should want more fat, but the rations were to be +altered as necessary during the journey, so there was no harm in trying. +So I started with 20 oz. of biscuit and 12 oz. of pemmican a day. + +Bowers was all right (this was usual with him), but he did not eat all +his extra pemmican. Bill could not eat all his extra butter, but was +satisfied. I got hungry, certainly got more frost-bitten than the +others, and wanted more fat. I also got heartburn. However, before taking +more fat I increased my biscuits to 24 oz., but this did not satisfy me; +I wanted fat. Bill and I now took the same diet, he giving me 4 oz. of +butter which he could not eat, and I giving him 4 oz. of biscuit which +did not satisfy my wants. We both therefore had 12 oz. pemmican, 16 oz +biscuit and 4 oz. butter a day, but we did not always finish our butter. +This is an extremely good ration, and we had enough to eat during most of +this journey. We certainly could not have faced the conditions without. + +I will not say that I was entirely easy in my mind as we lay out that +blizzard somewhere off Terror Point; I don't know how the others were +feeling. The unearthly banging going on underneath us may have had +something to do with it. But we were quite lost in the pressure and it +might be the deuce and all to get out in the dark. The wind eddied and +swirled quite out of its usual straightforward way, and the tent got +badly snowed up: our sledge had disappeared long ago. The position was +not altogether a comfortable one. + +Tuesday night and Wednesday it blew up to force 10, temperature from -7° +to +2°. And then it began to modify and get squally. By 3 A.M. on +Thursday (July 13) the wind had nearly ceased, the temperature was +falling and the stars were shining through detached clouds. We were soon +getting our breakfast, which always consisted of tea, followed by +pemmican. We soaked our biscuits in both. Then we set to work to dig out +the sledges and tent, a big job taking several hours. At last we got +started. In that jerky way in which I was still managing to jot a few +sentences down each night as a record, I wrote: + +"Did 7½ miles during day--seems a marvellous run--rose and fell over +several ridges of Terror--in afternoon suddenly came on huge crevasse on +one of these--we were quite high on Terror--moon saved us walking in--it +might have taken sledge and all." + +To do seven miles in a day, a distance which had taken us nearly a week +in the past, was very heartening. The temperature was between -20° and +-30° all day, and that was good too. When crossing the undulations which +ran down out of the mountain into the true pressure ridges on our right +we found that the wind which came down off the mountain struck along the +top of the undulation, and flowing each way, caused a N.E. breeze on one +side and a N.W. breeze on the other. There seemed to be wind in the sky, +and the blizzard had not cleared as far away as we should have wished. + +During the time through which we had come it was by burning more oil than +is usually allowed for cooking that we kept going at all. After each meal +was cooked we allowed the primus to burn on for a while and thus warmed +up the tent. Then we could nurse back our frozen feet and do any +necessary little odd jobs. More often we just sat and nodded for a few +minutes, keeping one another from going too deeply to sleep. But it was +running away with the oil. We started with 6 one-gallon tins (those tins +Scott had criticized), and we had now used four of them. At first we said +we must have at least two one-gallon tins with which to go back; but by +now our estimate had come down to one full gallon tin, and two full +primus lamps. Our sleeping-bags were awful. It took me, even as early in +the journey as this, an hour of pushing and thumping and cramp every +night to thaw out enough of mine to get into it at all. Even that was not +so bad as lying in them when we got there. + +Only -35° but "a very bad night" according to my diary. We got away in +good time, but it was a ghastly day and my nerves were quivering at the +end, for we could not find that straight and narrow way which led between +the crevasses on either hand. Time after time we found we were out of our +course by the sudden fall of the ground beneath our feet--in we went and +then--"are we too far right?"--nobody knows--"well let's try nearer in to +the mountain," and so forth! "By hard slogging 2¾ miles this +morning--then on in thick gloom which suddenly lifted and we found +ourselves under a huge great mountain of pressure ridge looking black in +shadow. We went on, bending to the left, when Bill fell and put his arm +into a crevasse. We went over this and another, and some time after got +somewhere up to the left, and both Bill and I put a foot into a crevasse. +We sounded all about and everywhere was hollow, and so we ran the sledge +down over it and all was well."[152] Once we got right into the pressure +and took a longish time to get out again. Bill lengthened his trace out +with the Alpine rope now and often afterwards so he found the crevasses +well ahead of us and the sledge: nice for us but not so nice for Bill. +Crevasses in the dark _do_ put your nerves on edge. + +When we started next morning (July 15) we could see on our left front and +more or less on top of us the Knoll, which is a big hill whose +precipitous cliffs to seaward form Cape Crozier. The sides of it sloped +down towards us, and pressing against its ice-cliffs on ahead were miles +and miles of great pressure ridges, along which we had travelled, and +which hemmed us in. Mount Terror rose ten thousand feet high on our left, +and was connected with the Knoll by a great cup-like drift of +wind-polished snow. The slope of this in one place runs gently out on to +the corridor along which we had sledged, and here we turned and started +to pull our sledges up. There were no crevasses, only the great drift of +snow, so hard that we used our crampons just as though we had been on +ice, and as polished as the china sides of a giant cup which it +resembled. For three miles we slogged up, until we were only 150 yards +from the moraine shelf where we were going to build our hut of rocks and +snow. This moraine was above us on our left, the twin peaks of the Knoll +were across the cup on our right; and here, 800 feet up the mountain +side, we pitched our last camp. + +We had arrived. + +What should we call our hut? How soon could we get our clothes and bags +dry? How would the blubber stove work? Would the penguins be there? "It +seems too good to be true, 19 days out. Surely seldom has any one been so +wet; our bags hardly possible to get into, our wind-clothes just frozen +boxes. Birdie's patent balaclava is like iron--it is wonderful how our +cares have vanished."[153] + +It was evening, but we were so keen to begin that we went straight up to +the ridge above our camp, where the rock cropped out from the snow. We +found that most of it was _in situ_ but that there were plenty of +boulders, some gravel, and of course any amount of the icy snow which +fell away below us down to our tent, and the great pressure about a mile +beyond. Between us and that pressure, as we were to find out afterwards, +was a great ice-cliff. The pressure ridges, and the Great Ice Barrier +beyond, were at our feet; the Ross Sea edge but some four miles away. The +Emperors must be somewhere round that shoulder of the Knoll which hides +Cape Crozier itself from our view. + +Our scheme was to build an igloo with rock walls, banked up with snow, +using a nine-foot sledge as a ridge beam, and a large sheet of green +Willesden canvas as a roof. We had also brought a board to form a lintel +over the door. Here with the stove, which was to be fed with blubber from +the penguins, we were to have a comfortable warm home whence we would +make excursions to the rookery perhaps four miles away. Perhaps we would +manage to get our tent down to the rookery itself and do our scientific +work there on the spot, leaving our nice hut for a night or more. That is +how we planned it. + +That same night "we started to dig in under a great boulder on the top of +the hill, hoping to make this a large part of one of the walls of the +hut, but the rock came close underneath and stopped us. We then chose a +moderately level piece of moraine about twelve feet away, and just under +the level of the top of the hill, hoping that here in the lee of the +ridge we might escape a good deal of the tremendous winds which we knew +were common. Birdie gathered rocks from over the hill, nothing was too +big for him; Bill did the banking up outside while I built the wall with +the boulders. The rocks were good, the snow, however, was blown so hard +as to be practically ice; a pick made little impression upon it, and the +only way was to chip out big blocks gradually with the small shovel. The +gravel was scanty, but good when there was any. Altogether things looked +very hopeful when we turned in to the tent some 150 yards down the slope, +having done about half one of the long walls."[154] + +The view from eight hundred feet up the mountain was magnificent and I +got my spectacles out and cleared the ice away time after time to look. +To the east a great field of pressure ridges below, looking in the +moonlight as if giants had been ploughing with ploughs which made furrows +fifty or sixty feet deep: these ran right up to the Barrier edge, and +beyond was the frozen Ross Sea, lying flat, white and peaceful as though +such things as blizzards were unknown. To the north and north-east the +Knoll. Behind us Mount Terror on which we stood, and over all the grey +limitless Barrier seemed to cast a spell of cold immensity, vague, +ponderous, a breeding-place of wind and drift and darkness. God! What a +place! + +"There was now little moonlight or daylight, but for the next forty-eight +hours we used both to their utmost, being up at all times by day and +night, and often working on when there was great difficulty in seeing +anything; digging by the light of the hurricane lamp. By the end of two +days we had the walls built, and banked up to one or two feet from the +top; we were to fit the roof cloth close before banking up the rest. The +great difficulty in banking was the hardness of the snow, it being +impossible to fill in the cracks between the blocks which were more like +paving-stones than anything else. The door was in, being a triangular +tent doorway, with flaps which we built close in to the walls, cementing +it with snow and rocks. The top folded over a plank and the bottom was +dug into the ground."[155] + +Birdie was very disappointed that we could not finish the whole thing +that day: he was nearly angry about it, but there was a lot to do yet and +we were tired out. We turned out early the next morning (Tuesday 18th) to +try and finish the igloo, but it was blowing too hard. When we got to +the top we did some digging but it was quite impossible to get the roof +on, and we had to leave it. We realized that day that it blew much harder +at the top of the slope than where our tent was. It was bitterly cold up +there that morning with a wind force 4-5 and a minus thirty temperature. + +The oil question was worrying us quite a lot. We were now well in to the +fifth of our six tins, and economizing as much as possible, often having +only two hot meals a day. We had to get down to the Emperor penguins +somehow and get some blubber to run the stove which had been made for us +in the hut. The 19th being a calm fine day we started at 9.30, with an +empty sledge, two ice-axes, Alpine rope, harnesses and skinning tools. + +Wilson had made this journey through the Cape Crozier pressure ridges +several times in the Discovery days. But then they had daylight, and they +had found a practicable way close under the cliffs which at the present +moment were between us and the ridges. + +As we neared the bottom of the mountain slope, farther to the north than +we had previously gone, we had to be careful about crevasses, but we soon +hit off the edge of the cliff and skirted along it until it petered out +on the same level as the Barrier. Turning left handed we headed towards +the sea-ice, knowing that there were some two miles of pressure between +us and Cape Crozier itself. For about half a mile it was fair going, +rounding big knobs of pressure but always managing to keep more or less +on the flat and near the ice-cliff which soon rose to a very great height +on our left. Bill's idea was to try and keep close under this cliff, +along that same Discovery way which I have mentioned above. They never +arrived there early enough for the eggs in those days; the chicks were +hatched. Whether we should now find any Emperors, and if so whether they +would have any eggs, was by no means certain. + +However, we soon began to get into trouble, meeting several crevasses +every few yards, and I have no doubt crossing scores of others of which +we had no knowledge. Though we hugged the cliffs as close as possible we +found ourselves on the top of the first pressure ridge, separated by a +deep gulf from the ice-slope which we wished to reach. Then we were in a +great valley between the first and second ridges: we got into huge heaps +of ice pressed up in every shape on every side, crevassed in every +direction: we slithered over snow-slopes and crawled along drift ridges, +trying to get in towards the cliffs. And always we came up against +impossible places and had to crawl back. Bill led on a length of Alpine +rope fastened to the toggle of the sledge; Birdie was in his harness also +fastened to the toggle, and I was in my harness fastened to the rear of +the sledge, which was of great use to us both as a bridge and a ladder. + +Two or three times we tried to get down the ice-slopes to the +comparatively level road under the cliff, but it was always too great a +drop. In that dim light every proportion was distorted; some of the +places we actually did manage to negotiate with ice-axes and Alpine rope +looked absolute precipices, and there were always crevasses at the bottom +if you slipped. On the way back I did slip into one of these and was +hauled out by the other two standing on the wall above me. + +We then worked our way down into the hollow between the first and second +large pressure ridges, and I believe on to the top of the second. The +crests here rose fifty or sixty feet. After this I don't know where we +went. Our best landmarks were patches of crevasses, sometimes three or +four in a few footsteps. The temperatures were lowish (-37°), it was +impossible for me to wear spectacles, and this was a tremendous +difficulty to me and handicap to the party: Bill would find a crevasse +and point it out; Birdie would cross; and then time after time, in trying +to step over or climb over on the sledge, I put my feet right into the +middle of the cracks. This day I went well in at least six times; once, +when we were close to the sea, rolling into and out of one and then down +a steep slope until brought up by Birdie and Bill on the rope. + +[Illustration: A PROCESSION OF EMPERORS] + +[Illustration: THE KNOLL BEHIND THE CLIFFS OF CAPE CROZIER] + +We blundered along until we got into a great cul-de-sac which probably +formed the end of the two ridges, where they butted on to the sea-ice. On +all sides rose great walls of battered ice with steep snow-slopes in +the middle, where we slithered about and blundered into crevasses. To the +left rose the huge cliff of Cape Crozier, but we could not tell whether +there were not two or three pressure ridges between us and it, and though +we tried at least four ways, there was no possibility of getting forward. + +And then we heard the Emperors calling. + +Their cries came to us from the sea-ice we could not see, but which must +have been a chaotic quarter of a mile away. They came echoing back from +the cliffs, as we stood helpless and tantalized. We listened and realized +that there was nothing for it but to return, for the little light which +now came in the middle of the day was going fast, and to be caught in +absolute darkness there was a horrible idea. We started back on our +tracks and almost immediately I lost my footing and rolled down a slope +into a crevasse. Birdie and Bill kept their balance and I clambered back +to them. The tracks were very faint and we soon began to lose them. +Birdie was the best man at following tracks that I have ever known, and +he found them time after time. But at last even he lost them altogether +and we settled we must just go ahead. As a matter of fact, we picked them +up again, and by then were out of the worst: but we were glad to see the +tent. + +The next morning (Thursday, June 20) we started work on the igloo at 3 +A.M. and managed to get the canvas roof on in spite of a wind which +harried us all that day. Little did we think what that roof had in store +for us as we packed it in with snow blocks, stretching it over our second +sledge, which we put athwartships across the middle of the longer walls. +The windward (south) end came right down to the ground and we tied it +securely to rocks before packing it in. On the other three sides we had a +good two feet or more of slack all round, and in every case we tied it to +rocks by lanyards at intervals of two feet. The door was the difficulty, +and for the present we left the cloth arching over the stones, forming a +kind of portico. The whole was well packed in and over with slabs of hard +snow, but there was no soft snow with which to fill up the gaps between +the blocks. However, we felt already that nothing could drag that roof +out of its packing, and subsequent events proved that we were right. + +It was a bleak job for three o'clock in the morning before breakfast, and +we were glad to get back to the tent and a meal, for we meant to have +another go at the Emperors that day. With the first glimpse of light we +were off for the rookery again. + +But we now knew one or two things about that pressure which we had not +known twenty-four hours ago; for instance, that there was a lot of +alteration since the Discovery days and that probably the pressure was +bigger. As a matter of fact it has been since proved by photographs that +the ridges now ran out three-quarters of a mile farther into the sea than +they did ten years before. We knew also that if we entered the pressure +at the only place where the ice-cliffs came down to the level of the +Barrier, as we did yesterday, we could neither penetrate to the rookery +nor get in under the cliffs where formerly a possible way had been found. +There was only one other thing to do--to go over the cliff. And this was +what we proposed to try and do. + +Now these ice-cliffs are some two hundred feet high, and I felt +uncomfortable, especially in the dark. But as we came back the day before +we had noticed at one place a break in the cliffs from which there hung a +snow-drift. It _might_ be possible to get down that drift. + +And so, all harnessed to the sledge, with Bill on a long lead out in +front and Birdie and myself checking the sledge behind, we started down +the slope which ended in the cliff, which of course we could not see. We +crossed a number of small crevasses, and soon we knew we must be nearly +there. Twice we crept up to the edge of the cliff with no success, and +then we found the slope: more, we got down it without great difficulty +and it brought us out just where we wanted to be, between the land cliffs +and the pressure. + +[Illustration: THE BARRIER PRESSURE AT CAPE CROZIER] + +Then began the most exciting climb among the pressure that you can +imagine. At first very much as it was the day before--pulling +ourselves and one another up ridges, slithering down slopes, tumbling +into and out of crevasses and holes of all sorts, we made our way along +under the cliffs which rose higher and higher above us as we neared the +black lava precipices which form Cape Crozier itself. We straddled along +the top of a snow ridge with a razor-backed edge, balancing the sledge +between us as we wriggled: on our right was a drop of great depth with +crevasses at the bottom, on our left was a smaller drop also crevassed. +We crawled along, and I can tell you it was exciting work in the more +than half darkness. At the end was a series of slopes full of crevasses, +and finally we got right in under the rock on to moraine, and here we had +to leave the sledge. + +We roped up, and started to worry along under the cliffs, which had now +changed from ice to rock, and rose 800 feet above us. The tumult of +pressure which climbed against them showed no order here. Four hundred +miles of moving ice behind it had just tossed and twisted those giant +ridges until Job himself would have lacked words to reproach their Maker. +We scrambled over and under, hanging on with our axes, and cutting steps +where we could not find a foothold with our crampons. And always we got +towards the Emperor penguins, and it really began to look as if we were +going to do it this time, when we came up against a wall of ice which a +single glance told us we could never cross. One of the largest pressure +ridges had been thrown, end on, against the cliff. We seemed to be +stopped, when Bill found a black hole, something like a fox's earth, +disappearing into the bowels of the ice. We looked at it: "Well, here +goes!" he said, and put his head in, and disappeared. Bowers likewise. It +was a longish way, but quite possible to wriggle along, and presently I +found myself looking out of the other side with a deep gully below me, +the rock face on one hand and the ice on the other. "Put your back +against the ice and your feet against the rock and lever yourself along," +said Bill, who was already standing on firm ice at the far end in a snow +pit. We cut some fifteen steps to get out of that hole. Excited by now, +and thoroughly enjoying ourselves, we found the way ahead easier, until +the penguins' call reached us again and we stood, three crystallized +ragamuffins, above the Emperors' home. They were there all right, and we +were going to reach them, but where were all the thousands of which we +had heard? + +We stood on an ice-foot which was really a dwarf cliff some twelve feet +high, and the sea-ice, with a good many ice-blocks strewn upon it, lay +below. The cliff dropped straight, with a bit of an overhang and no +snow-drift. This may have been because the sea had only frozen recently; +whatever the reason may have been it meant that we should have a lot of +difficulty in getting up again without help. It was decided that some one +must stop on the top with the Alpine rope, and clearly that one should be +I, for with short sight and fogged spectacles which I could not wear I +was much the least useful of the party for the job immediately ahead. Had +we had the sledge we could have used it as a ladder, but of course we had +left this at the beginning of the moraine miles back. + +We saw the Emperors standing all together huddled under the Barrier cliff +some hundreds of yards away. The little light was going fast: we were +much more excited about the approach of complete darkness and the look of +wind in the south than we were about our triumph. After indescribable +effort and hardship we were witnessing a marvel of the natural world, and +we were the first and only men who had ever done so; we had within our +grasp material which might prove of the utmost importance to science; we +were turning theories into facts with every observation we made,--and we +had but a moment to give. + +[Illustration: EMPERORS, BARRIER AND SEA ICE--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +The disturbed Emperors made a tremendous row, trumpeting with their +curious metallic voices. There was no doubt they had eggs, for they tried +to shuffle along the ground without losing them off their feet. But when +they were hustled a good many eggs were dropped and left lying on the +ice, and some of these were quickly picked up by eggless Emperors who had +probably been waiting a long time for the opportunity. In these poor +birds the maternal side seems to have necessarily swamped the other +functions of life. Such is the struggle for existence that they can only +live by a glut of maternity, and it would be interesting to know whether +such a life leads to happiness or satisfaction. + +I have told[156] how the men of the Discovery found this rookery where we +now stood. How they made journeys in the early spring but never arrived +early enough to get eggs and only found parents and chicks. They +concluded that the Emperor was an impossible kind of bird who, for some +reason or other, nests in the middle of the Antarctic winter with the +temperature anywhere below seventy degrees of frost, and the blizzards +blowing, always blowing, against his devoted back. And they found him +holding his precious chick balanced upon his big feet, and pressing it +maternally, or paternally (for both sexes squabble for the privilege) +against a bald patch in his breast. And when at last he simply must go +and eat something in the open leads near by, he just puts the child down +on the ice, and twenty chickless Emperors rush to pick it up. And they +fight over it, and so tear it that sometimes it will die. And, if it can, +it will crawl into any ice-crack to escape from so much kindness, and +there it will freeze. Likewise many broken and addled eggs were found, +and it is clear that the mortality is very great. But some survive, and +summer comes; and when a big blizzard is going to blow (they know all +about the weather), the parents take the children out for miles across +the sea-ice, until they reach the threshold of the open sea. And there +they sit until the wind comes, and the swell rises, and breaks that +ice-floe off; and away they go in the blinding drift to join the main +pack-ice, with a private yacht all to themselves. + +You must agree that a bird like this is an interesting beast, and when, +seven months ago, we rowed a boat under those great black cliffs,[157] +and found a disconsolate Emperor chick still in the down, we knew +definitely why the Emperor has to nest in mid-winter. For if a June egg +was still without feathers in the beginning of January, the same egg +laid in the summer would leave its produce without practical covering for +the following winter. Thus the Emperor penguin is compelled to undertake +all kinds of hardships because his children insist on developing so +slowly, very much as we are tied in our human relationships for the same +reason. It is of interest that such a primitive bird should have so long +a childhood. + +But interesting as the life history of these birds must be, we had not +travelled for three weeks to see them sitting on their eggs. We wanted +the embryos, and we wanted them as young as possible, and fresh and +unfrozen that specialists at home might cut them into microscopic +sections and learn from them the previous history of birds throughout the +evolutionary ages. And so Bill and Birdie rapidly collected five eggs, +which we hoped to carry safely in our fur mitts to our igloo upon Mount +Terror, where we could pickle them in the alcohol we had brought for the +purpose. We also wanted oil for our blubber stove, and they killed and +skinned three birds--an Emperor weighs up to 6½ stones. + +The Ross Sea was frozen over, and there were no seal in sight. There were +only 100 Emperors as compared with 2000 in 1902 and 1903. Bill reckoned +that every fourth or fifth bird had an egg, but this was only a rough +estimate, for we did not want to disturb them unnecessarily. It is a +mystery why there should have been so few birds, but it certainly looked +as though the ice had not formed very long. Were these the first +arrivals? Had a previous rookery been blown out to sea and was this the +beginning of a second attempt? Is this bay of sea-ice becoming unsafe? + +Those who previously discovered the Emperors with their chicks saw the +penguins nursing dead and frozen chicks if they were unable to obtain a +live one. They also found decomposed eggs which they must have incubated +after they had been frozen. Now we found that these birds were so anxious +to sit on something that some of those which had no eggs were sitting on +ice! Several times Bill and Birdie picked up eggs to find them lumps of +ice, rounded and about the right size, dirty and hard. Once a bird +dropped an ice nest egg as they watched, and again a bird returned and +tucked another into itself, immediately forsaking it for a real one, +however, when one was offered. + +Meanwhile a whole procession of Emperors came round under the cliff on +which I stood. The light was already very bad and it was well that my +companions were quick in returning: we had to do everything in a great +hurry. I hauled up the eggs in their mitts (which we fastened together +round our necks with lampwick lanyards) and then the skins, but failed to +help Bill at all. "Pull," he cried, from the bottom: "I am pulling," I +said. "But the line's quite slack down here," he shouted. And when he had +reached the top by climbing up on Bowers' shoulders, and we were both +pulling all we knew Birdie's end of the rope was still slack in his +hands. Directly we put on a strain the rope cut into the ice edge and +jammed--a very common difficulty when working among crevasses. We tried +to run the rope over an ice-axe without success, and things began to look +serious when Birdie, who had been running about prospecting and had +meanwhile put one leg through a crack into the sea, found a place where +the cliff did not overhang. He cut steps for himself, we hauled, and at +last we were all together on the top--his foot being by now surrounded by +a solid mass of ice. + +We legged it back as hard as we could go: five eggs in our fur mitts, +Birdie with two skins tied to him and trailing behind, and myself with +one. We were roped up, and climbing the ridges and getting through the +holes was very difficult. In one place where there was a steep rubble and +snow slope down I left the ice-axe half way up; in another it was too +dark to see our former ice-axe footsteps, and I could see nothing, and so +just let myself go and trusted to luck. With infinite patience Bill said: +"Cherry, you _must_ learn how to use an ice-axe." For the rest of the +trip my wind-clothes were in rags. + +We found the sledge, and none too soon, and now had three eggs left, +more or less whole. Both mine had burst in my mitts: the first I emptied +out, the second I left in my mitt to put into the cooker; it never got +there, but on the return journey I had my mitts far more easily thawed +out than Birdie's (Bill had none) and I believe the grease in the egg did +them good. When we got into the hollows under the ridge where we had to +cross, it was too dark to do anything but feel our way. We did so over +many crevasses, found the ridge and crept over it. Higher up we could see +more, but to follow our tracks soon became impossible, and we plugged +straight ahead and luckily found the slope down which we had come. All +day it had been blowing a nasty cold wind with a temperature between -20° +and 30°, which we felt a good deal. Now it began to get worse. The +weather was getting thick and things did not look very nice when we +started up to find our tent. Soon it was blowing force 4, and soon we +missed our way entirely. We got right up above the patch of rocks which +marked our igloo and only found it after a good deal of search. + +I have heard tell of an English officer at the Dardanelles who was left, +blinded, in No Man's Land between the English and Turkish trenches. +Moving only at night, and having no sense to tell him which were his own +trenches, he was fired at by Turk and English alike as he groped his +ghastly way to and from them. Thus he spent days and nights until, one +night, he crawled towards the English trenches, to be fired at as usual. +"Oh God! what can I do!" some one heard him say, and he was brought in. + +Such extremity of suffering cannot be measured: madness or death may give +relief. But this I know: we on this journey were already beginning to +think of death as a friend. As we groped our way back that night, +sleepless, icy, and dog-tired in the dark and the wind and the drift, a +crevasse seemed almost a friendly gift. + +"Things must improve," said Bill next day, "I think we reached bed-rock +last night." We hadn't, by a long way. + +It was like this. + +We moved into the igloo for the first time, for we had to save oil by +using our blubber stove if we were to have any left to travel home with, +and we did not wish to cover our tent with the oily black filth which the +use of blubber necessitates. The blizzard blew all night, and we were +covered with drift which came in through hundreds of leaks: in this +wind-swept place we had found no soft snow with which we could pack our +hard snow blocks. As we flensed some blubber from one of our penguin +skins the powdery drift covered everything we had. + +Though uncomfortable this was nothing to worry about overmuch. Some of +the drift which the blizzard was bringing would collect to leeward of our +hut and the rocks below which it was built, and they could be used to +make our hut more weather-proof. Then with great difficulty we got the +blubber stove to start, and it spouted a blob of boiling oil into Bill's +eye. For the rest of the night he lay, quite unable to stifle his groans, +obviously in very great pain: he told us afterwards that he thought his +eye was gone. We managed to cook a meal somehow, and Birdie got the stove +going afterwards, but it was quite useless to try and warm the place. I +got out and cut the green canvas outside the door, so as to get the roof +cloth in under the stones, and then packed it down as well as I could +with snow, and so blocked most of the drift coming in. + +It is extraordinary how often angels and fools do the same thing in this +life, and I have never been able to settle which we were on this journey. +I never heard an angry word: once only (when this same day I could not +pull Bill up the cliff out of the penguin rookery) I heard an impatient +one: and these groans were the nearest approach to complaint. Most men +would have howled. "I think we reached bed-rock last night," was strong +language for Bill. "I was incapacitated for a short time," he says in his +report to Scott.[158] Endurance was tested on this journey under unique +circumstances, and always these two men with all the burden of +responsibility which did not fall upon myself, displayed that quality +which is perhaps the only one which may be said with certainty to make +for success, self-control. + +We spent the next day--it was July 21--in collecting every scrap of soft +snow we could find and packing it into the crevasses between our hard +snow blocks. It was a pitifully small amount but we could see no cracks +when we had finished. To counteract the lifting tendency the wind had on +our roof we cut some great flat hard snow blocks and laid them on the +canvas top to steady it against the sledge which formed the ridge +support. We also pitched our tent outside the igloo door. Both tent and +igloo were therefore eight or nine hundred feet up Terror: both were +below an outcrop of rocks from which the mountain fell steeply to the +Barrier behind us, and from this direction came the blizzards. In front +of us the slope fell for a mile or more down to the ice-cliffs, so +wind-swept that we had to wear crampons to walk upon it. Most of the tent +was in the lee of the igloo, but the cap of it came over the igloo roof, +while a segment of the tent itself jutted out beyond the igloo wall. + +That night we took much of our gear into the tent and lighted the blubber +stove. I always mistrusted that stove, and every moment I expected it to +flare up and burn the tent. But the heat it gave, as it burned furiously, +with the double lining of the tent to contain it, was considerable. + +It did not matter, except for a routine which we never managed to keep, +whether we started to thaw our way into our frozen sleeping-bags at 4 in +the morning or 4 in the afternoon. I think we must have turned in during +the afternoon of that Friday, leaving the cooker, our finnesko, a deal of +our foot-gear, Bowers' bag of personal gear, and many other things in the +tent. I expect we left the blubber stove there too, for it was quite +useless at present to try and warm the igloo. The tent floor-cloth was +under our sleeping-bags in the igloo. + +"Things must improve," said Bill. After all there was much for which to +be thankful. I don't think anybody could have made a better igloo with +the hard snow blocks and rocks which were all we had: we would get it +air-tight by degrees. The blubber stove was working, and we had fuel for +it: we had also found a way down to the penguins and had three complete, +though frozen eggs: the two which had been in my mitts smashed when I +fell about because I could not wear spectacles. Also the twilight given +by the sun below the horizon at noon was getting longer. + +But already we had been out twice as long in winter as the longest +previous journeys in spring. The men who made those journeys had daylight +where we had darkness, they had never had such low temperatures, +generally nothing approaching them, and they had seldom worked in such +difficult country. The nearest approach to healthy sleep we had had for +nearly a month was when during blizzards the temperature allowed the +warmth of our bodies to thaw some of the ice in our clothing and +sleeping-bags into water. The wear and tear on our minds was very great. +We were certainly weaker. We had a little more than a tin of oil to get +back on, and we knew the conditions we had to face on that journey across +the Barrier: even with fresh men and fresh gear it had been almost +unendurable. + +And so we spent half an hour or more getting into our bags. Cirrus cloud +was moving across the face of the stars from the north, it looked rather +hazy and thick to the south, but it is always difficult to judge weather +in the dark. There was little wind and the temperature was in the minus +twenties. We felt no particular uneasiness. Our tent was well dug in, and +was also held down by rocks and the heavy tank off the sledge which were +placed on the skirting as additional security. We felt that no power on +earth could move the thick walls of our igloo, nor drag the canvas roof +from the middle of the embankment into which it was packed and lashed. + +"Things must improve," said Bill. + +I do not know what time it was when I woke up. It was calm, with that +absolute silence which can be so soothing or so terrible as circumstances +dictate. Then there came a sob of wind, and all was still again. Ten +minutes and it was blowing as though the world was having a fit of +hysterics. The earth was torn in pieces: the indescribable fury and roar +of it all cannot be imagined. + +"Bill, Bill, the tent has gone," was the next I remember--from Bowers +shouting at us again and again through the door. It is always these early +morning shocks which hit one hardest: our slow minds suggested that this +might mean a peculiarly lingering form of death. Journey after journey +Birdie and I fought our way across the few yards which had separated the +tent from the igloo door. I have never understood why so much of our gear +which was in the tent remained, even in the lee of the igloo. The place +where the tent had been was littered with gear, and when we came to +reckon up afterwards we had everything except the bottom piece of the +cooker, and the top of the outer cooker. We never saw these again. The +most wonderful thing of all was that our finnesko were lying where they +were left, which happened to be on the ground in the part of the tent +which was under the lee of the igloo. Also Birdie's bag of personal gear +was there, and a tin of sweets. + +Birdie brought two tins of sweets away with him. One we had to celebrate +our arrival at the Knoll: this was the second, of which we knew nothing, +and which was for Bill's birthday, the next day. We started eating them +on Saturday, however, and the tin came in useful to Bill afterwards. + +To get that gear in we fought against solid walls of black snow which +flowed past us and tried to hurl us down the slope. Once started nothing +could have stopped us. I saw Birdie knocked over once, but he clawed his +way back just in time. Having passed everything we could find in to Bill, +we got back into the igloo, and started to collect things together, +including our very dishevelled minds. + +There was no doubt that we were in the devil of a mess, and it was not +altogether our fault. We had had to put our igloo more or less where we +could get rocks with which to build it. Very naturally we had given both +our tent and igloo all the shelter we could from the full force of the +wind, and now it seemed we were in danger not because they were in the +wind, but because they were not sufficiently in it. The main force of the +hurricane, deflected by the ridge behind, fled over our heads and +appeared to form by suction a vacuum below. Our tent had either been +sucked upwards into this, or had been blown away because some of it was +in the wind while some of it was not. The roof of our igloo was being +wrenched upwards and then dropped back with great crashes: the drift was +spouting in, not it seemed because it was blown in from outside, but +because it was sucked in from within: the lee, not the weather, wall was +the worst. Already everything was six or eight inches under snow. + +Very soon we began to be alarmed about the igloo. For some time the heavy +snow blocks we had heaved up on to the canvas roof kept it weighted down. +But it seemed that they were being gradually moved off by the hurricane. +The tension became well-nigh unendurable: the waiting in all that welter +of noise was maddening. Minute after minute, hour after hour--those snow +blocks were off now anyway, and the roof was smashed up and down--no +canvas ever made could stand it indefinitely. + +We got a meal that Saturday morning, our last for a very long time as it +happened. Oil being of such importance to us we tried to use the blubber +stove, but after several preliminary spasms it came to pieces in our +hands, some solder having melted; and a very good thing too, I thought, +for it was more dangerous than useful. We finished cooking our meal on +the primus. Two bits of the cooker having been blown away we had to +balance it on the primus as best we could. We then settled that in view +of the shortage of oil we would not have another meal for as long as +possible. As a matter of fact God settled that for us. + +We did all we could to stop up the places where the drift was coming in, +plugging the holes with our socks, mitts and other clothing. But it was +no real good. Our igloo was a vacuum which was filling itself up as soon +as possible: and when snow was not coming in a fine black moraine dust +took its place, covering us and everything. For twenty-four hours we +waited for the roof to go: things were so bad now that we dare not unlash +the door. + +Many hours ago Bill had told us that if the roof went he considered that +our best chance would be to roll over in our sleeping-bags until we were +lying on the openings, and get frozen and drifted in. + +Gradually the situation got more desperate. The distance between the +taut-sucked canvas and the sledge on which it should have been resting +became greater, and this must have been due to the stretching of the +canvas itself and the loss of the snow blocks on the top: it was not +drawing out of the walls. The crashes as it dropped and banged out again +were louder. There was more snow coming through the walls, though all our +loose mitts, socks and smaller clothing were stuffed into the worst +places: our pyjama jackets were stuffed between the roof and the rocks +over the door. The rocks were lifting and shaking here till we thought +they would fall. + +We talked by shouting, and long before this one of us proposed to try and +get the Alpine rope lashed down over the roof from outside. But Bowers +said it was an absolute impossibility in that wind. "You could never ask +men at sea to try such a thing," he said. He was up and out of his bag +continually, stopping up holes, pressing against bits of roof to try and +prevent the flapping and so forth. He was magnificent. + +And then it went. + +Birdie was over by the door, where the canvas which was bent over the +lintel board was working worse than anywhere else. Bill was practically +out of his bag pressing against some part with a long stick of some kind. +I don't know what I was doing but I was half out of and half in my bag. + +The top of the door opened in little slits and that green Willesden +canvas flapped into hundreds of little fragments in fewer seconds than it +takes to read this. The uproar of it all was indescribable. Even above +the savage thunder of that great wind on the mountain came the lash of +the canvas as it was whipped to little tiny strips. The highest rocks +which we had built into our walls fell upon us, and a sheet of drift came +in. + +Birdie dived for his sleeping-bag and eventually got in, together with a +terrible lot of drift. Bill also--but he was better off: I was already +half into mine and all right, so I turned to help Bill. "Get into your +own," he shouted, and when I continued to try and help him, he leaned +over until his mouth was against my ear. "_Please_, Cherry," he said, and +his voice was terribly anxious. I know he felt responsible: feared it was +he who had brought us to this ghastly end. + +The next I knew was Bowers' head across Bill's body. "We're all right," +he yelled, and we answered in the affirmative. Despite the fact that we +knew we only said so because we knew we were all wrong, this statement +was helpful. Then we turned our bags over as far as possible, so that the +bottom of the bag was uppermost and the flaps were more or less beneath +us. And we lay and thought, and sometimes we sang. + +I suppose, wrote Wilson, we were all revolving plans to get back without +a tent: and the one thing we had left was the floor-cloth upon which we +were actually lying. Of course we could not speak at present, but later +after the blizzard had stopped we discussed the possibility of digging a +hole in the snow each night and covering it over with the floor-cloth. I +do not think we had any idea that we could really get back in those +temperatures in our present state of ice by such means, but no one ever +hinted at such a thing. Birdie and Bill sang quite a lot of songs and +hymns, snatches of which reached me every now and then, and I chimed in, +somewhat feebly I suspect. Of course we were getting pretty badly drifted +up. "I was resolved to keep warm," wrote Bowers, "and beneath my debris +covering I paddled my feet and sang all the songs and hymns I knew to +pass the time. I could occasionally thump Bill, and as he still moved I +knew he was alive all right--what a birthday for him!" Birdie was more +drifted up than we, but at times we all had to hummock ourselves up to +heave the snow off our bags. By opening the flaps of our bags we could +get small pinches of soft drift which we pressed together and put into +our mouths to melt. When our hands warmed up again we got some more; so +we did not get very thirsty. A few ribbons of canvas still remained in +the wall over our heads, and these produced volleys of cracks like pistol +shots hour after hour. The canvas never drew out from the walls, not an +inch. The wind made just the same noise as an express train running fast +through a tunnel if you have both the windows down. + +I can well believe that neither of my companions gave up hope for an +instant. They must have been frightened but they were never disturbed. As +for me I never had any hope at all; and when the roof went I felt that +this was the end. What else could I think? We had spent days in reaching +this place through the darkness in cold such as had never been +experienced by human beings. We had been out for four weeks under +conditions in which no man had existed previously for more than a few +days, if that. During this time we had seldom slept except from sheer +physical exhaustion, as men sleep on the rack; and every minute of it we +had been fighting for the bed-rock necessaries of bare existence, and +always in the dark. We had kept ourselves going by enormous care of our +feet and hands and bodies, by burning oil, and by having plenty of hot +fatty food. Now we had no tent, one tin of oil left out of six, and only +part of our cooker. When we were lucky and not too cold we could almost +wring water from our clothes, and directly we got out of our +sleeping-bags we were frozen into solid sheets of armoured ice. In cold +temperatures with all the advantages of a tent over our heads we were +already taking more than an hour of fierce struggling and cramp to get +into our sleeping-bags--so frozen were they and so long did it take us to +thaw our way in. No! Without the tent we were dead men. + +[Illustration: MT. EREBUS] + +[Illustration: ICE PRESSURE AT A] + +And there seemed not one chance in a million that we should ever see our +tent again. We were 900 feet up on the mountain side, and the wind blew +about as hard as a wind can blow straight out to sea. First there was a +steep slope, so hard that a pick made little impression upon it, so +slippery that if you started down in finnesko you never could stop: this +ended in a great ice-cliff some hundreds of feet high, and then came +miles of pressure ridges, crevassed and tumbled, in which you might as +well look for a daisy as a tent: and after that the open sea. The +chances, however, were that the tent had just been taken up into the air +and dropped somewhere in this sea well on the way to New Zealand. +Obviously the tent was gone. + +Face to face with real death one does not think of the things that +torment the bad people in the tracts, and fill the good people with +bliss. I might have speculated on my chances of going to Heaven; but +candidly I did not care. I could not have wept if I had tried. I had no +wish to review the evils of my past. But the past did seem to have been a +bit wasted. The road to Hell may be paved with good intentions: the road +to Heaven is paved with lost opportunities. + +I wanted those years over again. What fun I would have with them: what +glorious fun! It was a pity. Well has the Persian said that when we come +to die we, remembering that God is merciful, will gnaw our elbows with +remorse for thinking of the things we have not done for fear of the Day +of Judgment. + +And I wanted peaches and syrup--badly. We had them at the hut, sweeter +and more luscious than you can imagine. And we had been without sugar for +a month. Yes--especially the syrup. + +Thus impiously I set out to die, making up my mind that I was not going +to try and keep warm, that it might not take too long, and thinking I +would try and get some morphia from the medical case if it got very bad. +Not a bit heroic, and entirely true! Yes! comfortable, warm reader. Men +do not fear death, they fear the pain of dying. + +And then quite naturally and no doubt disappointingly to those who would +like to read of my last agonies (for who would not give pleasure by his +death?) I fell asleep. I expect the temperature was pretty high during +this great blizzard, and anything near zero was very high to us. That +and the snow which drifted over us made a pleasant wet kind of snipe +marsh inside our sleeping-bags, and I am sure we all dozed a good bit. +There was so much to worry about that there was not the least use in +worrying; and we were so _very_ tired. We were hungry, for the last meal +we had had was in the morning of the day before, but hunger was not very +pressing. + +And so we lay, wet and quite fairly warm, hour after hour while the wind +roared round us, blowing storm force continually and rising in the gusts +to something indescribable. Storm force is force 11, and force 12 is the +biggest wind which can be logged: Bowers logged it force 11, but he was +always so afraid of overestimating that he was inclined to underrate. I +think it was blowing a full hurricane. Sometimes awake, sometimes dozing, +we had not a very uncomfortable time so far as I can remember. I knew +that parties which had come to Cape Crozier in the spring had experienced +blizzards which lasted eight or ten days. But this did not worry us as +much as I think it did Bill: I was numb. I vaguely called to mind that +Peary had survived a blizzard in the open: but wasn't that in the summer? + +It was in the early morning of Saturday (July 22) that we discovered the +loss of the tent. Some time during that morning we had had our last meal. +The roof went about noon on Sunday and we had had no meal in the interval +because our supply of oil was so low; nor could we move out of our bags +except as a last necessity. By Sunday night we had been without a meal +for some thirty-six hours. + +The rocks which fell upon us when the roof went did no damage, and though +we could not get out of our bags to move them, we could fit ourselves +into them without difficulty. More serious was the drift which began to +pile up all round and over us. It helped to keep us warm of course, but +at the same time in these comparatively high temperatures it saturated +our bags even worse than they were before. If we did not find the tent +(and its recovery would be a miracle) these bags and the floor-cloth of +the tent on which we were lying were all we had in that fight back +across the Barrier which could, I suppose, have only had one end. + +Meanwhile we had to wait. It was nearly 70 miles home and it had taken us +the best part of three weeks to come. In our less miserable moments we +tried to think out ways of getting back, but I do not remember very much +about that time. Sunday morning faded into Sunday afternoon,--into Sunday +night,--into Monday morning. Till then the blizzard had raged with +monstrous fury; the winds of the world were there, and they had all gone +mad. We had bad winds at Cape Evans this year, and we had far worse the +next winter when the open water was at our doors. But I have never heard +or felt or seen a wind like this. I wondered why it did not carry away +the earth. + +In the early hours of Monday there was an occasional hint of a lull. +Ordinarily in a big winter blizzard, when you have lived for several days +and nights with that turmoil in your ears, the lulls are more trying than +the noise: "the feel of not to feel it."[159] I do not remember noticing +that now. Seven or eight more hours passed, and though it was still +blowing we could make ourselves heard to one another without great +difficulty. It was two days and two nights since we had had a meal. + +We decided to get out of our bags and make a search for the tent. We did +so, bitterly cold and utterly miserable, though I do not think any of us +showed it. In the darkness we could see very little, and no trace +whatever of the tent. We returned against the wind, nursing our faces and +hands, and settled that we must try and cook a meal somehow. We managed +about the weirdest meal eaten north or south. We got the floor-cloth +wedged under our bags, then got into our bags and drew the floor-cloth +over our heads. Between us we got the primus alight somehow, and by hand +we balanced the cooker on top of it, minus the two members which had been +blown away. The flame flickered in the draughts. Very slowly the snow in +the cooker melted, we threw in a plentiful supply of pemmican, and the +smell of it was better than anything on earth. In time we got both tea +and pemmican, which was full of hairs from our bags, penguin feathers, +dirt and debris, but delicious. The blubber left in the cooker got burnt +and gave the tea a burnt taste. None of us ever forgot that meal: I +enjoyed it as much as such a meal could be enjoyed, and that burnt taste +will always bring back the memory. + +It was still dark and we lay down in our bags again, but soon a little +glow of light began to come up, and we turned out to have a further +search for the tent. Birdie went off before Bill and me. Clumsily I +dragged my eider-down out of my bag on my feet, all sopping wet: it was +impossible to get it back and I let it freeze: it was soon just like a +rock. The sky to the south was as black and sinister as it could possibly +be. It looked as though the blizzard would be on us again at any moment. + +I followed Bill down the slope. We could find nothing. But, as we +searched, we heard a shout somewhere below and to the right. We got on a +slope, slipped, and went sliding down quite unable to stop ourselves, and +came upon Birdie with the tent, the outer lining still on the bamboos. +Our lives had been taken away and given back to us. + +We were so thankful we said nothing. + +The tent must have been gripped up into the air, shutting as it rose. The +bamboos, with the inner lining lashed to them, had entangled the outer +cover, and the whole went up together like a shut umbrella. This was our +salvation. If it had opened in the air nothing could have prevented its +destruction. As it was, with all the accumulated ice upon it, it must +have weighed the best part of 100 lbs. It had been dropped about half a +mile away, at the bottom of a steep slope: and it fell in a hollow, still +shut up. The main force of the wind had passed over it, and there it was, +with the bamboos and fastenings wrenched and strained, and the ends of +two of the poles broken, but the silk untorn. + +If that tent went again we were going with it. We made our way back up +the slope with it, carrying it solemnly and reverently, precious as +though it were something not quite of the earth. And we dug it in as +tent was never dug in before; not by the igloo, but in the old place +farther down where we had first arrived. And while Bill was doing this +Birdie and I went back to the igloo and dug and scratched and shook away +the drift inside until we had found nearly all our gear. It is wonderful +how little we lost when the roof went. Most of our gear was hung on the +sledge, which was part of the roof, or was packed into the holes of the +hut to try and make it drift-proof, and the things must have been blown +inwards into the bottom of the hut by the wind from the south and the +back draught from the north. Then they were all drifted up. Of course a +certain number of mitts and socks were blown away and lost, but the only +important things were Bill's fur mitts, which were stuffed into a hole in +the rocks of the hut. We loaded up the sledge and pushed it down the +slope. I don't know how Birdie was feeling, but I felt so weak that it +was the greatest labour. The blizzard looked right on top of us. + +We had another meal, and we wanted it: and as the good hoosh ran down +into our feet and hands, and up into our cheeks and ears and brains, we +discussed what we would do next. Birdie was all for another go at the +Emperor penguins. Dear Birdie, he never would admit that he was beaten--I +don't know that he ever really was! "I think he (Wilson) thought he had +landed us in a bad corner and was determined to go straight home, though +I was for one other tap at the Rookery. However, I had placed myself +under his orders for this trip voluntarily, and so we started the next +day for home."[160] There could really be no common-sense doubt: we had +to go back, and we were already very doubtful whether we should ever +manage to get into our sleeping-bags in very low temperature, so ghastly +had they become. + +I don't know when it was, but I remember walking down that slope--I don't +know why, perhaps to try and find the bottom of the cooker--and thinking +that there was nothing on earth that a man under such circumstances +would not give for a good warm sleep. He would give everything he +possessed: he would give--how many--years of his life. One or two at any +rate--perhaps five? Yes--I would give five. I remember the sastrugi, the +view of the Knoll, the dim hazy black smudge of the sea far away below: +the tiny bits of green canvas that twittered in the wind on the surface +of the snow: the cold misery of it all, and the weakness which was biting +into my heart. + +For days Birdie had been urging me to use his eider-down lining--his +beautiful dry bag of the finest down--which he had never slipped into his +own fur bag. I had refused: I felt that I should be a beast to take it. + +We packed the tank ready for a start back in the morning and turned in, +utterly worn out. It was only -12° that night, but my left big toe was +frost-bitten in my bag which I was trying to use without an eider-down +lining, and my bag was always too big for me. It must have taken several +hours to get it back, by beating one foot against the other. When we got +up, as soon as we could, as we did every night, for our bags were nearly +impossible, it was blowing fairly hard and looked like blizzing. We had a +lot to do, two or three hours' work, packing sledges and making a depôt +of what we did not want, in a corner of the igloo. We left the second +sledge, and a note tied to the handle of the pickaxe. + +"We started down the slope in a wind which was rising all the time and +-15°. My job was to balance the sledge behind: I was so utterly done I +don't believe I could have pulled effectively. Birdie was much the +strongest of us. The strain and want of sleep was getting me in the neck, +and Bill looked very bad. At the bottom we turned our faces to the +Barrier, our backs to the penguins, but after doing about a mile it +looked so threatening in the south that we camped in a big wind, our +hands going one after the other. We had nothing but the hardest +wind-swept sastrugi, and it was a long business: there was only the +smallest amount of drift, and we were afraid the icy snow blocks would +chafe the tent. Birdie lashed the full biscuit tin to the door to +prevent its flapping, and also got what he called the tent downhaul round +the cap and then tied it about himself outside his bag: if the tent went +he was going too. + +"I was feeling as if I should crack, and accepted Birdie's eider-down. It +was wonderfully self-sacrificing of him: more than I can write. I felt a +brute to take it, but I was getting useless unless I got some sleep which +my big bag would not allow. Bill and Birdie kept on telling me to do +less: that I was doing more than my share of the work: but I think that I +was getting more and more weak. Birdie kept wonderfully strong: he slept +most of the night: the difficulty for him was to get into his bag without +going to sleep. He kept the meteorological log untiringly, but some of +these nights he had to give it up for the time because he could not keep +awake. He used to fall asleep with his pannikin in his hand and let it +fall: and sometimes he had the primus. + +"Bill's bag was getting hopeless: it was really too small for an +eider-down and was splitting all over the place: great long holes. He +never consciously slept for nights: he did sleep a bit, for we heard him. +Except for this night, and the next when Birdie's eider-down was still +fairly dry, I never consciously slept; except that I used to wake for +five or six nights running with the same nightmare--that we were drifted +up, and that Bill and Birdie were passing the gear into my bag, cutting +it open to do so, or some other variation,--I did not know that I had +been asleep at all."[161] + +"We had hardly reached the pit," wrote Bowers, "when a furious wind came +on again and we had to camp. All that night the tent flapped like the +noise of musketry, owing to two poles having been broken at the ends and +the fit spoilt. I thought it would end matters by going altogether and +lashed it down as much as I could, attaching the apex to a line round my +own bag. The wind abated after 1½ days and we set out, doing five or six +miles before we found ourselves among crevasses."[162] + +We had plugged ahead all that day (July 26) in a terrible light, +blundering in among pressure and up on to the slopes of Terror. The +temperature dropped from -21° to -45°. "Several times [we] stepped into +rotten-lidded crevasses in smooth wind-swept ice. We continued, however, +feeling our way along by keeping always off hard ice-slopes and on the +crustier deeper snow which characterizes the hollows of the pressure +ridges, which I believed we had once more fouled in the dark. We had no +light, and no landmarks to guide us, except vague and indistinct +silhouetted slopes ahead, which were always altering and whose distance +and character it was impossible to judge. We never knew whether we were +approaching a steep slope at close quarters or a long slope of Terror, +miles away, and eventually we travelled on by the ear, and by the feel of +the snow under our feet, for both the sound and the touch told one much +of the chances of crevasses or of safe going. We continued thus in the +dark in the hope that we were at any rate in the right direction."[163] +And then we camped after getting into a bunch of crevasses, completely +lost. Bill said, "At any rate I think we are well clear of the pressure." +But there were pressure pops all night, as though some one was whacking +an empty tub. + +It was Birdie's picture hat which made the trouble next day. "What do you +think of _that_ for a hat, sir?" I heard him say to Scott a few days +before we started, holding it out much as Lucille displays her latest +Paris model. Scott looked at it quietly for a time: "I'll tell you when +you come back, Birdie," he said. It was a complicated affair with all +kinds of nose-guards and buttons and lanyards: he thought he was going to +set it to suit the wind much as he would set the sails of a ship. We +spent a long time with our housewifes before this and other trips, for +everybody has their own ideas as to how to alter their clothing for the +best. When finished some looked neat, like Bill: others baggy, like Scott +or Seaman Evans: others rough and ready, like Oates and Bowers: a few +perhaps more rough than ready, and I will not mention names. Anyway +Birdie's hat became improper immediately it was well iced up. + +"When we got a little light in the morning we found we were a little +north of the two patches of moraine on Terror. Though we did not know it, +we were on the point where the pressure runs up against Terror, and we +could dimly see that we were right up against something. We started to +try and clear it, but soon had an enormous ridge, blotting out the +moraine and half Terror, rising like a great hill on our right. Bill said +the only thing was to go right on and hope it would lower; all the time, +however, there was a bad feeling that we might be putting any number of +ridges between us and the mountain. After a while we tried to cross this +one, but had to turn back for crevasses, both Bill and I putting a leg +down. We went on for about twenty minutes and found a lower place, and +turned to rise up it diagonally, and reached the top. Just over the top +Birdie went right down a crevasse, which was about wide enough to take +him. He was out of sight and out of reach from the surface, hanging in +his harness. Bill went for his harness, I went for the bow of the sledge: +Bill told me to get the Alpine rope and Birdie directed from below what +we could do. We could not possibly haul him up as he was, for the sides +of the crevasse were soft and he could not help himself."[164] + +"My helmet was so frozen up," wrote Bowers, "that my head was encased in +a solid block of ice, and I could not look down without inclining my +whole body. As a result Bill stumbled one foot into a crevasse and I +landed in it with both mine [even as I shouted a warning[165] ], the +bridge gave way and down I went. Fortunately our sledge harness is made +with a view to resisting this sort of thing, and there I hung with the +bottomless pit below and the ice-crusted sides alongside, so narrow that +to step over it would have been quite easy had I been able to see it. +Bill said, 'What do you want?' I asked for an Alpine rope with a bowline +for my foot: and taking up first the bowline and then my harness they got +me out."[166] Meanwhile on the surface I lay over the crevasse and gave +Birdie the bowline: he put it on his foot: then he raised his foot, +giving me some slack: I held the rope while he raised himself on his +foot, thus giving Bill some slack on the harness: Bill then held the +harness, allowing Birdie to raise his foot and give me some slack again. +We got him up inch by inch, our fingers getting bitten, for the +temperature was -46°. Afterwards we often used this way of getting people +out of crevasses, and it was a wonderful piece of presence of mind that +it was invented, so far as I know, on the spur of the moment by a frozen +man hanging in one himself. + +"In front of us we could see another ridge, and we did not know how many +lay beyond that. Things looked pretty bad. Bill took a long lead on the +Alpine rope and we got down our present difficulty all right. This method +of the leader being on a long trace in front we all agreed to be very +useful. From this moment our luck changed and everything went for us to +the end. When we went out on the sea-ice the whole experience was over in +a few days, Hut Point was always in sight, and there was daylight. I +always had the feeling that the whole series of events had been brought +about by an extraordinary run of accidents, and that after a certain +stage it was quite beyond our power to guide the course of them. When on +the way to Cape Crozier the moon suddenly came out of the cloud to show +us a great crevasse which would have taken us all with our sledge without +any difficulty, I felt that we were not to go under this trip after such +a deliverance. When we had lost our tent, and there was a very great +balance of probability that we should never find it again, and we were +lying out the blizzard in our bags, I saw that we were face to face with +a long fight against cold which we could not have survived. I cannot +write how helpless I believed we were to help ourselves, and how we were +brought out of a very terrible series of experiences. When we started +back I had a feeling that things were going to change for the better, and +this day I had a distinct idea that we were to have one more bad +experience and that after that we could hope for better things. + +[Illustration: DOWN A CREVASSE] + +"By running along the hollow we cleared the pressure ridges, and +continued all day up and down, but met no crevasses. Indeed, we met no +more crevasses and no more pressure. I think it was upon this day that a +wonderful glow stretched over the Barrier edge from Cape Crozier: at the +base it was the most vivid crimson it is possible to imagine, shading +upwards through every shade of red to light green, and so into a deep +blue sky. It is the most vivid red I have ever seen in the sky."[167] + +It was -49° in the night and we were away early in -47°. By mid-day we +were rising Terror Point, opening Erebus rapidly, and got the first +really light day, though the sun would not appear over the horizon for +another month. I cannot describe what a relief the light was to us. We +crossed the point outside our former track, and saw inside us the ridges +where we had been blizzed for three days on our outward journey. + +The minimum was -66° the next night and we were now back in the windless +bight of Barrier with its soft snow, low temperatures, fogs and mists, +and lingering settlements of the inside crusts. Saturday and Sunday, the +29th and 30th, we plugged on across this waste, iced up as usual but +always with Castle Rock getting bigger. Sometimes it looked like fog or +wind, but it always cleared away. We were getting weak, how weak we can +only realize now, but we got in good marches, though slow--days when we +did 4½, 7¼ 6¾, 6½, 7½ miles. On our outward journey we had been relaying +and getting forward about 4½ miles a day at this point. The surface which +we had dreaded so much was not so sandy or soft as when we had come out, +and the settlements were more marked. These are caused by a crust falling +under your feet. Generally the area involved is some twenty yards or so +round you, and the surface falls through an air space for two or three +inches with a soft 'crush' which may at first make you think there are +crevasses about. In the region where we now travelled they were much more +pronounced than elsewhere, and one day, when Bill was inside the tent +lighting the primus, I put my foot into a hole that I had dug. This +started a big settlement; sledge, tent and all of us dropped about a +foot, and the noise of it ran away for miles and miles: we listened to it +until we began to get too cold. It must have lasted a full three minutes. + +In the pauses of our marching we halted in our harnesses the ropes of +which lay slack in the powdery snow. We stood panting with our backs +against the mountainous mass of frozen gear which was our load. There was +no wind, at any rate no more than light airs: our breath crackled as it +froze. There was no unnecessary conversation: I don't know why our +tongues never got frozen, but all my teeth, the nerves of which had been +killed, split to pieces. We had been going perhaps three hours since +lunch. + +"How are your feet, Cherry?" from Bill. + +"Very cold." + +"That's all right; so are mine." We didn't worry to ask Birdie: he never +had a frost-bitten foot from start to finish. + +Half an hour later, as we marched, Bill would ask the same question. I +tell him that all feeling has gone: Bill still has some feeling in one of +his but the other is lost. He settled we had better camp: another ghastly +night ahead. We started to get out of our harnesses, while Bill, before +doing anything else, would take the fur mitts from his hands, carefully +shape any soft parts as they froze (generally, however, our mitts did not +thaw on our hands), and lay them on the snow in front of him--two dark +dots. His proper fur mitts were lost when the igloo roof went: these were +the delicate dog-skin linings we had in addition, beautiful things to +look at and to feel when new, excellent when dry to turn the screws of a +theodolite, but too dainty for straps and lanyards. Just now I don't know +what he could have done without them. + +Working with our woollen half-mitts and mitts on our hands all the time, +and our fur mitts over them when possible, we gradually got the buckles +undone, and spread the green canvas floor-cloth on the snow. This was +also fitted to be used as a sail, but we never could have rigged a sail +on this journey. The shovel and the bamboos, with a lining, itself lined +with ice, lashed to them, were packed on the top of the load and were now +put on the snow until wanted. Our next job was to lift our three +sleeping-bags one by one on to the floor-cloth: they covered it, bulging +over the sides--those obstinate coffins which were all our life to us.... +One of us is off by now to nurse his fingers back. The cooker was +unlashed from the top of the instrument box; some parts of it were put on +the bags with the primus, methylated spirit can, matches and so forth; +others left to be filled with snow later. Taking a pole in each hand we +three spread the bamboos over the whole. "All right? Down!" from Bill; +and we lowered them gently on to the soft snow, that they might not sink +too far. The ice on the inner lining of the tent was formed mostly from +the steam of the cooker. This we had been unable to beat or chip off in +the past, and we were now, truth to tell, past worrying about it. The +little ventilator in the top, made to let out this steam, had been tied +up in order to keep in all possible heat. Then over with the outer cover, +and for one of us the third worst job of the day was to begin. The worst +job was to get into our bags: the second or equal worst was to lie in +them for six hours (we had brought it down to six): this third worst was, +to get the primus lighted and a meal on the way. + +As cook of the day you took the broken metal framework, all that remained +of our candlestick, and got yourself with difficulty into the funnel +which formed the door. The enclosed space of the tent seemed much colder +than the outside air: you tried three or four match-boxes and no match +would strike: almost desperate, you asked for a new box to be given you +from the sledge and got a light from this because it had not yet been in +the warmth, so called, of the tent. The candle hung by a wire from the +cap of the tent. It would be tedious to tell of the times we had getting +the primus alight, and the lanyards of the weekly food bag unlashed. +Probably by now the other two men have dug in the tent; squared up +outside; filled and passed in the cooker; set the thermometer under the +sledge and so forth. There were always one or two odd jobs which wanted +doing as well: but you may be sure they came in as soon as possible when +they heard the primus hissing, and saw the glow of light inside. Birdie +made a bottom for the cooker out of an empty biscuit tin to take the +place of the part which was blown away. On the whole this was a success, +but we had to hold it steady--on Bill's sleeping-bag, for the flat frozen +bags spread all over the floor space. Cooking was a longer business now. +Some one whacked out the biscuit, and the cook put the ration of pemmican +into the inner cooker which was by now half full of water. As opportunity +offered we got out of our day, and into our night foot-gear--fleecy +camel-hair stockings and fur boots. In the dim light we examined our feet +for frost-bite. + +I do not think it took us less than an hour to get a hot meal to our +lips: pemmican followed by hot water in which we soaked our biscuits. For +lunch we had tea and biscuits: for breakfast, pemmican, biscuits and tea. +We could not have managed more food bags--three were bad enough, and the +lashings of everything were like wire. The lashing of the tent door, +however, was the worst, and it _had_ to be tied tightly, especially if it +was blowing. In the early days we took great pains to brush rime from the +tent before packing it up, but we were long past that now. + +The hoosh got down into our feet: we nursed back frost-bites: and we were +all the warmer for having got our dry foot-gear on before supper. Then we +started to get into our bags. + +[Illustration: PANORAMA AND MAP OF THE WINTER JOURNEY--Copied at Hut +Point by Apsley Cherry-Garrard from a drawing by E. A. Wilson] + +Birdie's bag fitted him beautifully, though perhaps it would have been a +little small with an eider-down inside. He must have had a greater heat +supply than other men; for he never had serious trouble with his feet, +while ours were constantly frost-bitten: he slept, I should be afraid to +say how much, longer than we did, even in these last days: it was a +pleasure, lying awake practically all night, to hear his snores. He +turned his bag inside out from fur to skin, and skin to fur, many times +during the journey, and thus got rid of a lot of moisture which came +out as snow or actual knobs of ice. When we did turn our bags the only +way was to do so directly we turned out, and even then you had to be +quick before the bag froze. Getting out of the tent at night it was quite +a race to get back to your bag before it hardened. Of course this was in +the lowest temperatures. + +We could not burn our bags and we tried putting the lighted primus into +them to thaw them out, but this was not very successful. Before this +time, when it was very cold, we lighted the primus in the morning while +we were still in our bags: and in the evening we kept it going until we +were just getting or had got the mouths of our bags levered open. But +returning we had no oil for such luxuries, until the last day or two. + +I do not believe that any man, however sick he is, has a much worse time +than we had in those bags, shaking with cold until our backs would almost +break. One of the added troubles which came to us on our return was the +sodden condition of our hands in our bags at night. We had to wear our +mitts and half-mitts, and they were as wet as they could be: when we got +up in the morning we had washer-women's hands--white, crinkled, sodden. +That was an unhealthy way to start the day's work. We really wanted some +bags of saennegrass for hands as well as feet; one of the blessings of +that kind of bag being that you can shake the moisture from it: but we +only had enough for our wretched feet. + +The horrors of that return journey are blurred to my memory and I know +they were blurred to my body at the time. I think this applies to all of +us, for we were much weakened and callous. The day we got down to the +penguins I had not cared whether I fell into a crevasse or not. We had +been through a great deal since then. I know that we slept on the march; +for I woke up when I bumped against Birdie, and Birdie woke when he +bumped against me. I think Bill steering out in front managed to keep +awake. I know we fell asleep if we waited in the comparatively warm tent +when the primus was alight--with our pannikins or the primus in our +hands. I know that our sleeping-bags were so full of ice that we did not +worry if we spilt water or hoosh over them as they lay on the +floor-cloth, when we cooked on them with our maimed cooker. They were so +bad that we never rolled them up in the usual way when we got out of them +in the morning: we opened their mouths as much as possible before they +froze, and hoisted them more or less flat on to the sledge. All three of +us helped to raise each bag, which looked rather like a squashed coffin +and was probably a good deal harder. I know that if it was only -40° when +we camped for the night we considered quite seriously that we were going +to have a warm one, and that when we got up in the morning if the +temperature was in the minus sixties we did not enquire what it was. The +day's march was bliss compared to the night's rest, and both were awful. +We were about as bad as men can be and do good travelling: but I never +heard a word of complaint, nor, I believe, an oath, and I saw +self-sacrifice standing every test. + +Always we were getting nearer home: and we were doing good marches. We +were going to pull through; it was only a matter of sticking this for a +few more days; six, five, four ... three perhaps now, if we were not +blizzed. Our main hut was behind that ridge where the mist was always +forming and blowing away, and there was Castle Rock: we might even see +Observation Hill to-morrow, and the Discovery Hut furnished and trim was +behind it, and they would have sent some dry sleeping-bags from Cape +Evans to greet us there. We reckoned our troubles over at the Barrier +edge, and assuredly it was not far away. "You've got it in the neck, +stick it, you've got it in the neck"--it was always running in my head. + +And we _did_ stick it. How good the memories of those days are. With +jokes about Birdie's picture hat: with songs we remembered off the +gramophone: with ready words of sympathy for frost-bitten feet: with +generous smiles for poor jests: with suggestions of happy beds to come. +We did not forget the Please and Thank you, which mean much in such +circumstances, and all the little links with decent civilization which +we could still keep going. I'll swear there was still a grace about us +when we staggered in. And we kept our tempers--even with God. + +We _might_ reach Hut Point to-night: we were burning more oil now, that +one-gallon tin had lasted us well: and burning more candle too; at one +time we feared they would give out. A hell of a morning we had: -57° in +our present state. But it was calm, and the Barrier edge could not be +much farther now. The surface was getting harder: there were a few +wind-blown furrows, the crust was coming up to us. The sledge was +dragging easier: we always suspected the Barrier sloped downwards +hereabouts. Now the hard snow was on the surface, peeping out like great +inverted basins on which we slipped, and our feet became warmer for not +sinking into soft snow. Suddenly we saw a gleam of light in a line of +darkness running across our course. It was the Barrier edge: we were all +right now. + +We ran the sledge off a snow-drift on to the sea-ice, with the same cold +stream of air flowing down it which wrecked my hands five weeks ago: +pushed out of this, camped and had a meal: the temperature had already +risen to -43°. We could almost feel it getting warmer as we went round +Cape Armitage on the last three miles. We managed to haul our sledge up +the ice foot, and dug the drift away from the door. The old hut struck us +as fairly warm. + +Bill was convinced that we ought not to go into the warm hut at Cape +Evans when we arrived there--to-morrow night! We ought to get back to +warmth gradually, live in a tent outside, or in the annexe for a day or +two. But I'm sure we never meant to do it. Just now Hut Point did not +prejudice us in favour of such abstinence. It was just as we had left it: +there was nothing sent down for us there--no sleeping-bags, nor sugar: +but there was plenty of oil. Inside the hut we pitched a dry tent left +there since Depôt Journey days, set two primuses going in it; sat dozing +on our bags; and drank cocoa without sugar so thick that next morning we +were gorged with it. We were very happy, falling asleep between each +mouthful, and after several hours discussed schemes of not getting into +our bags at all. But some one would have to keep the primus going to +prevent frost-bite, and we could not trust ourselves to keep awake. Bill +and I tried to sing a part-song. Finally we sopped our way into our bags. +We only stuck _them_ three hours, and thankfully turned out at 3 A.M., +and were ready to pack up when we heard the wind come away. It was no +good, so we sat in our tent and dozed again. The wind dropped at 9.30: we +were off at 11. We walked out into what seemed to us a blaze of light. It +was not until the following year that I understood that a great part of +such twilight as there is in the latter part of the winter was cut off +from us by the mountains under which we travelled. Now, with nothing +between us and the northern horizon below which lay the sun, we saw as we +had not seen for months, and the iridescent clouds that day were +beautiful. + +We just pulled for all we were worth and did nearly two miles an hour: +for two miles a baddish salt surface, then big undulating hard sastrugi +and good going. We slept as we walked. We had done eight miles by 4 P.M. +and were past Glacier Tongue. We lunched there. + +As we began to gather our gear together to pack up for the last time, +Bill said quietly, "I want to thank you two for what you have done. I +couldn't have found two better companions--and what is more I never +shall." + +I am proud of that. + +Antarctic exploration is seldom as bad as you imagine, seldom as bad as +it sounds. But this journey had beggared our language: no words could +express its horror. + +We trudged on for several more hours and it grew very dark. There was a +discussion as to where Cape Evans lay. We rounded it at last: it must +have been ten or eleven o'clock, and it was possible that some one might +see us as we pulled towards the hut. "Spread out well," said Bill, "and +they will be able to see that there are three men." But we pulled along +the cape, over the tide-crack, up the bank to the very door of the hut +without a sound. No noise from the stable, nor the bark of a dog from the +snowdrifts above us. We halted and stood there trying to get ourselves +and one another out of our frozen harnesses--the usual long job. The door +opened--"Good God! here is the Crozier Party," said a voice, and +disappeared. + +Thus ended the worst journey in the world. + +And now the reader will ask what became of the three penguins' eggs for +which three human lives had been risked three hundred times a day, and +three human frames strained to the utmost extremity of human endurance. + +Let us leave the Antarctic for a moment and conceive ourselves in the +year 1913 in the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. I had +written to say that I would bring the eggs at this time. Present, myself, +C.-G., the sole survivor of the three, with First or Doorstep Custodian +of the Sacred Eggs. I did not take a verbatim report of his welcome; but +the spirit of it may be dramatized as follows: + +FIRST CUSTODIAN. Who are you? What do you want? This ain't an egg-shop. +What call have you to come meddling with our eggs? Do you want me to put +the police on to you? Is it the crocodile's egg you're after? I don't +know nothing about 'no eggs. You'd best speak to Mr. Brown: it's him that +varnishes the eggs. + +I resort to Mr. Brown, who ushers me into the presence of the Chief +Custodian, a man of scientific aspect, with two manners: one, affably +courteous, for a Person of Importance (I guess a Naturalist Rothschild at +least) with whom he is conversing, and the other, extraordinarily +offensive even for an official man of science, for myself. + +I announce myself with becoming modesty as the bearer of the penguins' +eggs, and proffer them. The Chief Custodian takes them into custody +without a word of thanks, and turns to the Person of Importance to +discuss them. I wait. The temperature of my blood rises. The conversation +proceeds for what seems to me a considerable period. Suddenly the Chief +Custodian notices my presence and seems to resent it. + +CHIEF CUSTODIAN. You needn't wait. + +HEROIC EXPLORER. I should like to have a receipt for the eggs, if you +please. + +CHIEF CUSTODIAN. It is not necessary: it is all right. You needn't wait. + +HEROIC EXPLORER. I should like to have a receipt. + +But by this time the Chief Custodian's attention is again devoted wholly +to the Person of Importance. Feeling that to persist in overhearing their +conversation would be an indelicacy, the Heroic Explorer politely leaves +the room, and establishes himself on a chair in a gloomy passage outside, +where he wiles away the time by rehearsing in his imagination how he will +tell off the Chief Custodian when the Person of Importance retires. But +this the Person of Importance shows no sign of doing, and the Explorer's +thoughts and intentions become darker and darker. As the day wears on, +minor officials, passing to and from the Presence, look at him doubtfully +and ask his business. The reply is always the same, "I am waiting for a +receipt for some penguins' eggs." At last it becomes clear from the +Explorer's expression that what he is really waiting for is not to take a +receipt but to commit murder. Presumably this is reported to the destined +victim: at all events the receipt finally comes; and the Explorer goes +his way with it, feeling that he has behaved like a perfect gentleman, +but so very dissatisfied with that vapid consolation that for hours he +continues his imaginary rehearsals of what he would have liked to have +done to that Custodian (mostly with his boots) by way of teaching him +manners. + +Some time after this I visited the Natural History Museum with Captain +Scott's sister. After a slight preliminary skirmish in which we convinced +a minor custodian that the specimens brought by the expedition from the +Antarctic did not include the moths we found preying on some of them, +Miss Scott expressed a wish to see the penguins' eggs. Thereupon the +minor custodians flatly denied that any such eggs were in existence or in +their possession. Now Miss Scott was her brother's sister; and she showed +so little disposition to take this lying down that I was glad to get her +away with no worse consequences than a profanely emphasized threat on my +part that if we did not receive ample satisfaction in writing within +twenty-four hours as to the safety of the eggs England would reverberate +with the tale. + +The ultimatum was effectual; and due satisfaction was forthcoming in +time; but I was relieved when I learnt later on that they had been +entrusted to Professor Assheton for the necessary microscopic +examination. But he died before he could approach the task; and the eggs +passed into the hands of Professor Cossar Ewart of Edinburgh University. + +His report is as follows: + +FOOTNOTES: + + [150] See pp. xxxix-xlv. + + [151] A thermometer which registered -77° at the Winter Quarters + of H.M.S. Alert on March 4, 1876, is preserved by the Royal + Geographical Society. I do not know whether it was screened. + + [152] My own diary. + + [153] My own diary. + + [154] My own diary. + + [155] Ibid. + + [156] See Introduction, pp. xxxix-xlv. + + [157] See p. 82. + + [158] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. ii. p. 42. + + [159] Keats. + + [160] Bowers. + + [161] My own diary. + + [162] Bowers. + + [163] Wilson in _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. ii. p. 58. + + [164] My own diary. + + [165] Wilson. + + [166] Bowers. + + [167] My own diary. + + + + +APPENDIX + +PROFESSOR COSSAR EWART'S REPORT + + +"It was a great disappointment to Dr. Wilson that no Emperor Penguin +embryos were obtained during the cruise of the Discovery. But though +embryos were conspicuous by their absence in the Emperor eggs brought +home by the National Antarctic Expedition, it is well to bear in mind +that the naturalists on board the Discovery learned much about the +breeding habits of the largest living member of the ancient penguin +family. Amongst other things it was ascertained (1) that in the case of +the Emperor, as in the King Penguin, the egg during the period of +incubation rests on the upper surface of the feet protected and kept in +position by a fold of skin from the lower breast; and (2) that in the +case of the Emperor the whole process of incubation is carried out on sea +ice during the coldest and darkest months of the antarctic winter. + +"After devoting much time to the study of penguins Dr. Wilson came to the +conclusion that Emperor embryos would throw new light on the origin and +history of birds, and decided that if he again found his way to the +Antarctic he would make a supreme effort to visit an Emperor rookery +during the breeding season. When, and under what conditions, the Cape +Crozier rookery was eventually visited and Emperor eggs secured is +graphically told in The Winter Journey. The question now arises, Has 'the +weirdest bird's-nesting expedition that has ever been made' added +appreciably to our knowledge of birds? + +"It is admitted that birds are descended from bipedal reptiles which +flourished some millions of years ago--reptiles in build not unlike the +kangaroo. From Archaeopteryx of Jurassic times we know primeval birds had +teeth, three fingers with claws on each hand, and a long lizard-like tail +provided with nearly twenty pairs of well-formed true feathers. But +unfortunately neither this lizard-tailed bird, nor yet the fossil birds +found in America, throw any light on the origin of feathers. +Ornithologists and others who have devoted much time to the study of +birds have as a rule assumed that feathers were made out of scales, that +the scales along the margin of the hand and forearm and along each side +of the tail were elongated, frayed and otherwise modified to form the +wing and tail quills, and that later other scales were altered to provide +a coat capable of preventing loss of heat. But as it happens, a study of +the development of feathers affords no evidence that they were made out +of scales. There are neither rudiments of scales nor feathers in very +young bird embryos. In the youngest of the three Emperor embryos there +are, however, feather rudiments in the tail region,--the embryo was +probably seven or eight days old--but in the two older embryos there are +a countless number of feather rudiments, i.e. of minute pimples known +as papillae. + +"In penguins as in many other birds there are two distinct crops of +feather papillae, viz.: a crop of relatively large papillae which develop +into prepennae, the forerunners of true feathers (pennae), and a crop of +small papillae which develop into preplumulae, the forerunners of true +down feathers (plumulae). + +"In considering the origin of feathers we are not concerned with the true +feathers (pennae), but with the nestling feathers (prepennae), and more +especially with the papillae from which the prepennae are developed. What +we want to know is, Do the papillae which in birds develop into the +first generation of feathers correspond to the papillae which in lizards +develop into scales? + +"The late Professor Assheton, who undertook the examination of some of +the material brought home by the Terra Nova, made a special study of the +feather papillae of the Emperor Penguin embryos from Cape Crozier. +Drawings were made to indicate the number, size and time of appearance of +the feather papillae, but unfortunately in the notes left by the +distinguished embryologist there is no indication whether the feather +papillae were regarded as modified scale papillae or new creations +resulting from the appearance of special feather-forming factors in the +germ-plasm. + +"When eventually the three Emperor Penguin embryos reached me that their +feather rudiments might be compared with the feather rudiments of other +birds, I noticed that in Emperor embryos the feather papillae appeared +before the scale papillae. Evidence of this was especially afforded by +the largest embryo, which had reached about the same stage in its +development as a 16-days goose embryo. + +"In the largest Emperor embryo feather papillae occur all over the +hind-quarters and on the legs to within a short distance of the tarsal +joint. Beyond the tarsal joint even in the largest embryo no attempt had +been made to produce the papillae which in older penguin embryos +represent, and ultimately develop into, the scaly covering of the foot. +The absence of papillae on the foot implied either that the scale +papillae were fundamentally different from feather papillae or that for +some reason or other the development of the papillae destined to give +rise to the foot scales had been retarded. There is no evidence as far as +I can ascertain that in modern lizards the scale papillae above the +tarsal joint appear before the scale papillae beyond this joint. + +"The absence of papillae below the tarsal joint in Emperor embryos, +together with the fact that in many birds each large feather papilla is +accompanied by two or more very small feather papillae, led me to study +the papillae of the limbs of other birds. The most striking results were +obtained from the embryos of Chinese geese in which the legs are +relatively longer than in penguins. In a 13-days goose embryo the whole +of the skin below and for some distance above the tarsal joint is quite +smooth, whereas the skin of the rest of the leg is studded with feather +papillae. On the other hand, in an 18-days goose embryo in which the +feather papillae of the legs have developed into filaments, each +containing a fairly well-formed feather, scale papillae occur not only on +the foot below and for some distance above the tarsal joint but also +between the roots of the feather filaments between the tarsal and the +knee joints. More important still, in a 20-days goose embryo a number of +the papillae situated between the feather filaments of the leg were +actually developing into scales each of which overlapped the root +(calamus) of a feather just as scales overlap the foot feathers in grouse +and other feather-footed birds. + +"As in bird embryos there is no evidence that feather papillae ever +develop into scales or that scale papillae ever develop into feathers it +may be assumed that feather papillae are fundamentally different from +scale papillae, the difference presumably being due to the presence of +special factors in the germ-plasm. Just as in armadillos hairs are found +emerging from under the scales, in ancient birds as in the feet of some +modern birds the coat probably consisted of both feathers and scales. But +in course of time, owing perhaps to the growth of the scales being +arrested, the coat of the birds, instead of consisting throughout of +well-developed scales and small inconspicuous feathers, was almost +entirely made up of a countless number of downy feathers, well-developed +scales only persisting below the tarsal joint. + +"If the conclusions arrived at with the help of the Emperor Penguin +embryos about the origin of feathers are justified, the worst journey in +the world in the interest of science was not made in vain." + + * * * * * + +END OF VOLUME ONE + +_Printed in Great Britain by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh._ + + + + +[Illustration: A HALO ROUND THE MOON--E. A. Wilson, del.] + + + + +THE WORST JOURNEY + +IN THE WORLD + +ANTARCTIC + +1910-1913 + +BY + +APSLEY CHERRY-GARRARD + +WITH PANORAMAS, MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE LATE + +DOCTOR EDWARD A. WILSON AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION + +IN TWO VOLUMES + + +VOLUME TWO + +CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED + +LONDON BOMBAY SYDNEY + +_First published 1922_ + +PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN + + + + +CONTENTS + + PAGE +CHAPTER VIII SPRING 301 +CHAPTER IX THE POLAR JOURNEY. I. THE BARRIER STAGE 317 +CHAPTER X THE POLAR JOURNEY. II. THE BEARDMORE GLACIER 350 +CHAPTER XI THE POLAR JOURNEY. III. THE PLATEAU TO 87° 32´ S 368 +CHAPTER XII THE POLAR JOURNEY. IV. RETURNING PARTIES 380 +CHAPTER XIII SUSPENSE 408 +CHAPTER XIV THE LAST WINTER 436 +CHAPTER XV ANOTHER SPRING 459 +CHAPTER XVI THE SEARCH JOURNEY 472 +CHAPTER XVII THE POLAR JOURNEY. V. THE POLE AND AFTER 496 +CHAPTER XVIII THE POLAR JOURNEY. VI. FARTHEST SOUTH 527 +CHAPTER XIX NEVER AGAIN 543 +GLOSSARY 579 +INDEX 581 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + +A Halo round the Moon, showing vertical and horizontal shafts + and mock Moons. _Frontispiece_ + _From a water-colour drawing by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + + FACING PAGE + +Camp on the Barrier. November 22, 1911. A rough sketch + for future use. 322 + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Parhelia. For description, see text. November 14, 1911. A + rough sketch for future use. 332 + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +PLATE III. The Mountains which lie between the Barrier and + the Plateau as seen on December 1, 1911. 338 + _From sketches by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +A Pony Camp on the Barrier. 346 + +The Dog Teams leaving the Beardmore Glacier. Mount Hope + and the Gateway before them. 346 + _From photographs by C. S. Wright._ + +PLATE IV. Transit sketch for the Lower Glacier Depôt. + December 11, 1911. Showing the Pillar Rock, mainland + mountains, the Gateway or Gap, and the beginning of the + main Beardmore Glacier outlet on to the Barrier. 352 + _From sketches by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +PLATE V. Mount F. L. Smith and the land to the North-West. + December 12, 1911. 354 + _From sketches by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +PLATE VI. Mount Elizabeth, Mount Anne and Socks Glacier. + December 13, 1911. 356 + _From sketches by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Mount Patrick. December 16, 1911. 358 + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +PLATE VII. From Mount Deakin to Mount Kinsey, showing + the outlet of the Keltie Glacier, and Mount Usher in the + distance. December 19, 1911. 362 + _From sketches by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Our night Camp at the foot of the Buckley Island ice-falls. + December 20, 1911. Buckley Island in the background. + Note ablation pits in the snow. 364 + _From a photograph by C. S. Wright._ + +The Adams Mountains. 382 + +The First Return Party on the Beardmore Glacier. 382 + _From photographs by C. S. Wright._ + +Camp below the Cloudmaker. Note pressure ridges in the + middle distance. 390 + _From a photograph by C. S. Wright._ + +PLATE VIII. From Mount Kyffin to Mount Patrick. December + 14, 1911. 392 + _From sketches by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +View from Arrival Heights northwards to Cape Evans and the + Dellbridge Islands. 428 + +Cape Royds from Cape Barne, with the frozen McMurdo Sound. 428 + _From photographs by F. Debenham._ + +Cape Evans in Winter. This view is drawn when looking + northwards from under the Ramp. 440 + _From a water-colour drawing by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +North Bay and the snout of the Barne Glacier from Cape Evans. 448 + _From a photograph by F. Debenham._ + +The Mule Party leaves Cape Evans. October 29, 1912. 472 + _From a photograph by F. Debenham._ + +The Dog Party leaves Hut Point. November 1, 1912. 478 + _From a photograph by F. Debenham._ + +"Atch": E. L. Atkinson, commanding the Main Landing + Party after the death of Scott. 492 + +"Titus" Oates. 492 + _From photographs by C. S. Wright._ + +The Tent left by Amundsen at the South Pole (Polheim). 506 + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Buckley Island, where the fossils were found. 518 + _From a photograph by C. S. Wright._ + +PLATE IX. Buckley Island, sketched during the evening of + December 21, 1911. 522 + _From sketches by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Mount Kyffin, sketched on December 13, 1911. 524 + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Where Evans died, showing the Pillar Rock near which the + Lower Glacier Depôt was made. Sketched on December 11, 1911. 526 + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +Sledging in a high wind: the floor-cloth of the tent is the sail. 530 + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +PLATE X. Mount Longstaff, sketched on December 1, 1911. + See also PLATE III., p. 338 532 + _From sketches by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + +A Blizzard Camp: the half-buried sledge is in the foreground. 536 + _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._ + + +MAP + +The Polar Journey 542 + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SPRING + + +Inside was pandemonium. Most men had gone to bed, and I have a blurred +memory of men in pyjamas and dressing-gowns getting hold of me and trying +to get the chunks of armour which were my clothes to leave my body. +Finally they cut them off and threw them into an angular heap at the foot +of my bunk. Next morning they were a sodden mass weighing 24 lbs. Bread +and jam, and cocoa; showers of questions; "You know this is the hardest +journey ever made," from Scott; a broken record of George Robey on the +gramophone which started us laughing until in our weak state we found it +difficult to stop. I have no doubt that I had not stood the journey as +well as Wilson: my jaw had dropped when I came in, so they tell me. Then +into my warm blanket bag, and I managed to keep awake just long enough to +think that Paradise must feel something like this. + +We slept ten thousand thousand years, were wakened to find everybody at +breakfast, and passed a wonderful day, lazying about, half asleep and +wholly happy, listening to the news and answering questions. "We are +looked upon as beings who have come from another world. This afternoon I +had a shave after soaking my face in a hot sponge, and then a bath. +Lashly had already cut my hair. Bill looks very thin and we are all very +blear-eyed from want of sleep. I have not much appetite, my mouth is very +dry and throat sore with a troublesome hacking cough which I have had all +the journey. My taste is gone. We are getting badly spoiled, but our +beds are the height of all our pleasures."[168] + +But this did not last long: + +"Another very happy day doing nothing. After falling asleep two or three +times I went to bed, read Kim, and slept. About two hours after each meal +we all want another, and after a tremendous supper last night we had +another meal before turning in. I have my taste back but all our fingers +are impossible, they might be so many pieces of lead except for the pins +and needles feeling in them which we have also got in our feet. My toes +are very bulbous and some toe-nails are coming off. My left heel is one +big burst blister. Going straight out of a warm bed into a strong wind +outside nearly bowled me over. I felt quite faint, and pulled myself +together thinking it was all nerves: but it began to come on again and I +had to make for the hut as quickly as possible. Birdie is now full of +schemes for doing the trip again next year. Bill says it is too great a +risk in the darkness, and he will not consider it, though he thinks that +to go in August might be possible."[169] + +And again a day or two later: + +"I came in covered with a red rash which is rather ticklish. My ankles +and knees are a bit puffy, but my feet are not so painful as Bill's and +Birdie's. Hands itch a bit. We must be very weak and worn out, though I +think Birdie is the strongest of us. He seems to be picking up very +quickly. Bill is still very worn and rather haggard. The kindness of +everybody would spoil an angel."[170] + +I have put these personal experiences down from my diary because they are +the only contemporary record I possess. Scott's own diary at this time +contains the statement: "The Crozier party returned last night after +enduring for five weeks the hardest conditions on record. They looked +more weather-worn than any one I have yet seen. Their faces were scarred +and wrinkled, their eyes dull, their hands whitened and creased with the +constant exposure to damp and cold, yet the scars of frost-bite were +very few ... to-day after a night's rest our travellers are very +different in appearance and mental capacity."[171] + +"Atch has been lost in a blizzard," was the news which we got as soon as +we could grasp anything. Since then he has spent a year of war in the +North Sea, seen the Dardanelles campaign, and much fighting in France, +and has been blown up in a monitor. I doubt whether he does not reckon +that night the worst of the lot. He ought to have been blown into +hundreds of little bits, but always like some hardy indiarubber ball he +turns up again, a little dented, but with the same tough elasticity which +refuses to be hurt. And with the same quiet voice he volunteers for the +next, and tells you how splendid everybody was except himself. + +It was the blizzard of July 4, when we were lying in the windless bight +on our way to Cape Crozier, and we knew it must be blowing all round us. +At any rate it was blowing at Cape Evans, though it eased up in the +afternoon, and Atkinson and Taylor went up the Ramp to read the +thermometers there. They returned without great difficulty, and some +discussion seems to have arisen as to whether it was possible to read the +two screens on the sea-ice. Atkinson said he would go and read that in +North Bay: Gran said he was going to South Bay. They started +independently at 5.30 P.M. Gran returned an hour and a quarter +afterwards. He had gone about two hundred yards. + +Atkinson had not gone much farther when he decided that he had better +give it up, so he turned and faced the wind, steering by keeping it on +his cheek. We discovered afterwards that the wind does not blow quite in +the same direction at the end of the Cape as it does just where the hut +lies. Perhaps it was this, perhaps his left leg carried him a little +farther than his right, perhaps it was that the numbing effect of a +blizzard on a man's brain was already having its effect, certainly +Atkinson does not know himself, but instead of striking the Cape which +ran across his true front, he found himself by an old fish trap which he +knew was 200 yards out on the sea-ice. He made a great effort to steady +himself and make for the Cape, but any one who has stood in a blizzard +will understand how difficult that is. The snow was a blanket raging all +round him, and it was quite dark. He walked on, and found nothing. + +Everything else is vague. Hour after hour he staggered about: he got his +hand badly frost-bitten: he found pressure: he fell over it: he was +crawling in it, on his hands and knees. Stumbling, tumbling, tripping, +buffeted by the endless lash of the wind, sprawling through miles of +punishing snow, he still seems to have kept his brain working. He found +an island, thought it was Inaccessible, spent ages in coasting along it, +lost it, found more pressure, and crawled along it. He found another +island, and the same horrible, almost senseless, search went on. Under +the lee of some rocks he waited for a time. His clothing was thin though +he had his wind-clothes, and, a horrible thought if this was to go on, he +had boots on his feet instead of warm finnesko. Here also he kicked out a +hole in a drift where he might have more chance if he were forced to lie +down. For sleep is the end of men who get lost in blizzards. Though he +did not know it he must now have been out more than four hours. + +There was little chance for him if the blizzard continued, but hope +revived when the moon showed in a partial lull. It is wonderful that he +was sufficiently active to grasp the significance of this, and groping +back in his brain he found he could remember the bearing of the moon from +Cape Evans when he went to bed the night before. The hut must be +somewhere over there: this must be Inaccessible Island! He left the +island and made in that direction, but the blizzard came down again with +added force and the moon was blotted out. He tried to return to the +island and failed: then he stumbled on another island, perhaps the same +one, and waited. Again the lull came, and again he set off, and walked +and walked, until he recognized Inaccessible Island on his left. Clearly +he must have been under Great Razorback Island and this is some four +miles from Cape Evans. The moon still showed, and on he walked and then +at last he saw a flame. + +Atkinson's continued absence was not noticed at the hut until dinner was +nearly over at 7.15; that is, until he had been absent about two hours. +The wind at Cape Evans had dropped though it was thick all round, and no +great anxiety was felt: some went out and shouted, others went north with +a lantern, and Day arranged to light a paraffin flare on Wind Vane Hill. +Atkinson never experienced this lull, and having seen the way blizzards +will sweep down the Strait though the coastline is comparatively clear +and calm, I can understand how he was in the thick of it all the time. I +feel convinced that most of these blizzards are local affairs. The party +which had gone north returned at 9.30 without news, and Scott became +seriously alarmed. Between 9.30 and 10 six search parties started out. +But time was passing and Atkinson had been away more than six hours. + +The light which Atkinson had seen was a flare of tow soaked in petrol lit +by Day at Cape Evans. He corrected his course and before long was under +the rock upon which Day could be seen working like some lanky devil in +one of Dante's hells. Atkinson shouted again and again but could not +attract his attention, and finally walked almost into the hut before he +was found by two men searching the Cape. "It was all my own damned +fault," he said, "but Scott never slanged me at all." I really think we +should all have been as merciful! Wouldn't _you_? + +And that was that: but he had a beastly hand. + +Theoretically the sun returned to us on August 23. Practically there was +nothing to be seen except blinding drift. But we saw his upper limb two +days later. In Scott's words the daylight came "rushing" at us. Two +spring journeys were contemplated; and with preparations for the Polar +Journey, and the ordinary routine work of the station, everybody had as +much on his hands as he could get through. + +Lieutenant Evans, Gran and Forde volunteered to go out to Corner Camp and +dig out this depôt as well as that of Safety Camp. They started on +September 9 and camped on the sea-ice beyond Cape Armitage that night, +the minimum temperature being -45°. They dug out Safety Camp next +morning, and marched on towards Corner Camp. The minimum that night was +-62.3°. The next evening they made their night camp as a blizzard was +coming up, the temperature at the same time being -34.5° and minimum for +the night -40°. This is an extremely low temperature for a blizzard. They +made a start in a very cold wind the next afternoon (September 12) and +camped at 8.30 P.M. That night was bitterly cold and they found that the +minimum showed -73.3° for that night. Evans reports adversely on the use +of the eider-down bag and inner tent, but here none of our Winter Journey +men would agree with him.[172] Most of September 13th was spent in +digging out Corner Camp which they left at 5 P.M., intending to travel +back to Hut Point without stopping except for meals. They marched all +through that night with two halts for meals and arrived at Hut Point at 3 +P.M. on September 14, having covered a distance of 34.6 statute miles. +They reached Cape Evans the following day after an absence of 6½ +days.[173] + +During this journey Forde got his hand badly frost-bitten which +necessitated his return in the Terra Nova in March 1912. He owed a good +deal to the skilful treatment Atkinson gave it. + +Wilson was still looking grey and drawn some days, and I was not too fit, +but Bowers was indefatigable. Soon after we got in from Cape Crozier he +heard that Scott was going over to the Western Mountains: somehow or +other he persuaded Scott to take him, and they started with Seaman Evans +and Simpson on September 15 on what Scott calls "a remarkably pleasant +and instructive little spring journey,"[174] and what Bowers called a +jolly picnic. + +This picnic started from the hut in a -40° temperature, dragging 180 lbs. +per man, mainly composed of stores for the geological party of the +summer. They penetrated as far north as Dunlop Island and turned back +from there on September 24, reaching Cape Evans on September 29, marching +twenty-one miles (statute) into a blizzard wind with occasional storms of +drift and a temperature of -16°: and they marched a little too long; for +a storm of drift came against them and they had to camp. It is never very +easy pitching a tent on sea-ice because there is not very much snow on +the ice: on this occasion it was only after they had detached the inner +tent, which was fastened to the bamboos, that they could hold the +bamboos, and then it was only inch by inch that they got the outer cover +on. At 9 P.M. the drift took off though the wind was as strong as ever, +and they decided to make for Cape Evans. They arrived at 1.15 A.M. after +one of the most strenuous days which Scott could remember: and that meant +a good deal. Simpson's face was a sight! During his absence Griffith +Taylor became meteorologist-in-chief. He was a greedy scientist, and he +also wielded a fluent pen. Consequently his output during the year and a +half which he spent with us was large, and ranged from the results of the +two excellent scientific journeys which he led in the Western Mountains, +to this work during the latter half of September. He was a most valued +contributor to The South Polar Times, and his prose and poetry both had a +bite which was never equalled by any other of our amateur journalists. +When his pen was still, his tongue wagged, and the arguments he led were +legion. The hut was a merrier place for his presence. When the weather +was good he might be seen striding over the rocks with a complete +disregard of the effect on his clothes: he wore through a pair of boots +quicker than anybody I have ever known, and his socks had to be mended +with string. Ice movement and erosion were also of interest to him, and +almost every day he spent some time in studying the slopes and huge +ice-cliffs of the Barne Glacier, and other points of interest. With equal +ferocity he would throw himself into his curtained bunk because he was +bored, or emerge from it to take part in some argument which was +troubling the table. His diary must have been almost as long as the +reports he wrote for Scott of his geological explorations. He was a +demon note-taker, and he had a passion for being equipped so that he +could cope with any observation which might turn up. Thus Old Griff on a +sledge journey might have notebooks protruding from every pocket, and +hung about his person, a sundial, a prismatic compass, a sheath knife, a +pair of binoculars, a geological hammer, chronometer, pedometer, camera, +aneroid and other items of surveying gear, as well as his goggles and +mitts. And in his hand might be an ice-axe which he used as he went along +to the possible advancement of science, but the certain disorganization +of his companions. + +His gaunt, untamed appearance was atoned for by a halo of good-fellowship +which hovered about his head. I am sure he must have been an untidy +person to have in your tent: I feel equally sure that his tent-mates +would have been sorry to lose him. His gear took up more room than was +strictly his share, and his mind also filled up a considerable amount of +space. He always bulked large, and when he returned to the Australian +Government, which had lent him for the first two sledging seasons, he +left a noticeable gap in our company. + +From the time we returned from Cape Crozier until now Scott had been full +of buck. Our return had taken a weight off his mind: the return of the +daylight was stimulating to everybody: and to a man of his impatient and +impetuous temperament the end of the long period of waiting was a relief. +Also everything was going well. On September 10 he writes with a sigh of +relief that the detailed plans for the Southern Journey are finished at +last. "Every figure has been checked by Bowers, who has been an enormous +help to me. If the motors are successful, we shall have no difficulty in +getting to the Glacier, and if they fail, we shall still get there with +any ordinary degree of good fortune. To work three units of four men from +that point onwards requires no small provision, but with the proper +provision it should take a good deal to stop the attainment of our +object. I have tried to take every reasonable possibility of misfortune +into consideration, and to so organize the parties as to be prepared to +meet them. I fear to be too sanguine, yet taking everything into +consideration I feel that our chances ought to be good."[175] + +And again he writes: "Of hopeful signs for the future none are more +remarkable than the health and spirit of our people. It would be +impossible to imagine a more vigorous community, and there does not seem +to be a single weak spot in the twelve good men and true who are chosen +for the Southern advance. All are now experienced sledge travellers, knit +together with a bond of friendship that has never been equalled under +such circumstances. Thanks to these people, and more especially to Bowers +and Petty Officer Evans, there is not a single detail of our equipment +which is not arranged with the utmost care and in accordance with the +tests of experience."[176] + +Indeed Bowers had been of the very greatest use to Scott in the working +out of these plans. Not only had he all the details of stores at his +finger-tips, but he had studied polar clothing and polar food, was full +of plans and alternative plans, and, best of all, refused to be beaten by +any problem which presented itself. The actual distribution of weights +between dogs, motors and ponies, and between the different ponies, was +largely left in his hands. We had only to lead our ponies out on the day +of the start and we were sure to find our sledges ready, each with the +right load and weight. To the leader of an expedition such a man was +worth his weight in gold. + +But now Scott became worried and unhappy. We were running things on a +fine margin of transport, and during the month before we were due to +start mishap followed mishap in the most disgusting way. Three men were +more or less incapacitated: Forde with his frozen hand, Clissold who +concussed himself by a fall from a berg, and Debenham who hurt his knee +seriously when playing foot-ball. One of the ponies, Jehu, was such a +crock that at one time it was decided not to take him out at all: and +very bad opinions were also held of Chinaman. Another dog died of a +mysterious disease. "It is trying," writes Scott, "but I am past +despondency. Things must take their course."[177] And "if this waiting +were to continue it looks as though we should become a regular party of +'crocks.'"[178] + +Then on the top of all this came a bad accident to one of the motor axles +on the eve of departure. "To-night the motors were to be taken on to the +floe. The drifts made the road very uneven, and the first and best motor +overrode its chain; the chain was replaced and the machine proceeded, but +just short of the floe was thrust to a steep inclination by a ridge, and +the chain again overrode the sprockets; this time by ill fortune Day +slipped at the critical moment and without intention jammed the throttle +full on. The engine brought up, but there was an ominous trickle of oil +under the back axle, and investigation showed that the axle casing +(aluminium) had split. The casing had been stripped and brought into the +hut: we may be able to do something to it, but time presses. It all goes +to show that we want more experience and workshops. I am secretly +convinced that we shall not get much help from the motors, yet nothing +has ever happened to them that was unavoidable. A little more care and +foresight would make them splendid allies. The trouble is that if they +fail, no one will ever believe this."[179] + +In the meantime Meares and Dimitri ran out to Corner Camp from Hut Point +twice with the two dog-teams. The first time they journeyed out and back +in two days and a night, returning on October 15; and another very +similar run was made before the end of the month. + +The motor party was to start first, but was delayed until October 24. +They were to wait for us in latitude 80° 30´, man-hauling certain loads +on if the motors broke down. The two engineers were Day and Lashly, and +their two helpers, who steered by pulling on a rope in front, were +Lieutenant Evans and Hooper. Scott was "immensely eager that these +tractors should succeed, even though they may not be of great help to our +Southern advance. A small measure of success will be enough to show their +possibilities, their ability to revolutionize polar transport."[180] + +Lashly, as the reader may know by now, was a chief stoker in the Navy, +and accompanied Scott on his Plateau Journey in the Discovery days. The +following account of the motors' chequered career is from his diary, and +for permission to include here both it and the story of the adventures of +the Second Return Party, an extraordinarily vivid and simple narrative, I +cannot be too grateful. + +After the motors had been two days on the sea-ice on their way to Hut +Point Lashly writes on 26th October 1911: + +"Kicked off at 9.30; engine going well, surface much better, dropped one +can of petrol each and lubricating oil, lunched about two miles from Hut +Point. Captain Scott and supporting party came from Cape Evans to help us +over blue ice, but they were not required. Got away again after lunch but +was delayed by the other sledge not being able to get along, it is +beginning to dawn on me the sledges are not powerful enough for the work +as it is one continual drag over this sea-ice, perhaps it will improve on +the barrier, it seems we are going to be troubled with engine +overheating; after we have run about three-quarters to a mile it is +necessary to stop at least half an hour to cool the engine down, then we +have to close up for a few minutes to allow the carbrutta to warm up or +we can't get the petrol to vaporize; we are getting new experiences every +day. We arrived at Hut Point and proceeded to Cape Armitage it having +come on to snow pretty thickly, so we pitched our tent and waited for the +other car to come up, she has been delayed all the afternoon and not made +much headway. At 6.30 Mr. Bowers and Mr. Garrard came out to us and told +us to come back to Hut Point for the night, where we all enjoyed +ourselves with a good hoosh and a nice night with all hands. + + + "_27th October 1911._ + +"This morning being fine made our way out to the cars and got them going +after a bit of trouble, the temperature being a bit low. I got away in +good style, the surface seems to be improving, it is better for running +on but very rough and the overheating is not overcome nor likely to be as +far as I can see. Just before arriving at the Barrier my car began to +develop some strange knocking in the engine, but with the help of the +party with us I managed to get on the Barrier, the other car got up the +slope in fine style and waited for me to come up; as my engine is giving +trouble we decided to camp, have lunch and see what is the matter. On +opening the crank chamber we found the crank brasses broke into little +pieces, so there is nothing left to do but replace them with the spare +ones; of course this meant a cold job for Mr. Day and myself, as handling +metal on the Barrier is not a thing one looks forward to with pleasure. +Anyhow we set about it after Lieutenant Evans and Hooper had rigged up a +screen to shelter us a bit, and by 10 P.M. we were finished and ready to +proceed, but owing to a very low temperature we found it difficult to get +the engines to go, so we decided to camp for the night. + + + "_28th October 1911._ + +"Turned out and had another go at starting which took some little time +owing again to the low temperature. We got away but again the trouble is +always staring us in the face, overheating, and the surface is so bad and +the pull so heavy and constant that it looks we are in for a rough time. +We are continually waiting for one another to come up, and every time we +stop something has to be done, my fan got jammed and delayed us some +time, but have got it right again. Mr. Evans had to go back for his spare +gear owing to some one [not] bringing it out in mistake; he had a good +tramp as we were about 15 miles out from Hut Point. + + + "_29th October 1911._ + +"Again we got away, but did not get far before the other car began to +give trouble. I went back to see what was the matter, it seems the petrol +is dirty due perhaps to putting in a new drum, anyhow got her up and +camped for lunch. After lunch made a move, and all seemed to be going +well when Mr. Day's car gave out at the crank brasses the same as mine, +so we shall have to see what is the next best thing to do. + + + "_30th October 1911._ + +"This morning before getting the car on the way had to reconstruct our +loads as Mr. Day's car is finished and no more use for further service. +We have got all four of us with one car now, things seems to be going +fairly well, but we are still troubled with the overheating which means +to say half our time is wasted. We can see dawning on us the harness +before long. We covered seven miles and camped for the night. We are now +about six miles from Corner Camp. + + + "_31st October 1911._ + +"Got away with difficulty, and nearly reached Corner Camp, but the +weather was unkind and forced us to camp early. One thing we have been +able to bring along a good supply of pony food and most of the man food, +but so far the motor sledges have proved a failure. + + + "_1st November 1911._ + +"Started away with the usual amount of agony, and soon arrived at Corner +Camp where we left a note to Captain Scott explaining the cause of our +breakdown. I told Mr. Evans to say this sledge won't go much farther. +After getting about a mile past Corner Camp my engine gave out finally, +so here is an end to the motor sledges. I can't say I am sorry because I +am not, and the others are, I think, of the same opinion as myself. We +have had a heavy task pulling the heavy sledges up every time we stopped, +which was pretty frequent, even now we have to start man-hauling we shall +not be much more tired than we have already been at night when we had +finished. Now comes the man-hauling part of the show, after reorganizing +our sledge and taking aboard all the man food we can pull, we started +with 190 lbs. per man, a strong head wind made it a bit uncomfortable for +getting along, anyhow we made good about three miles and camped for the +night. The surface not being very good made the travelling a bit heavy. + +"After three days' man-hauling. + + + "_5th November 1911._ + +"Made good about 14½ miles, if the surface would only remain as it is +now we could get along pretty well. We are now thinking of the ponies +being on their way, hope they will get better luck than we had with the +motor sledges, but by what I can see they will have a tough time of it. + + + "_6th November 1911._ + +"To-day we have worked hard and covered a good distance 12 miles, surface +rough but slippery, all seems to be going pretty well, but we have +generally had enough by the time comes for us to camp. + + + "_7th November 1911._ + +"We have again made good progress, but the light was very trying, +sometimes we could not see at all where we were going. I tried to find +some of the Cairns that were built by the Depôt Party last year, came +upon one this afternoon which is about 20 miles from One Ton Depôt, so at +the rate we have been travelling we ought to reach there some time +to-morrow night. Temperature to-day was pretty low, but we are beginning +to get hardened into it now. + + + "_8th November 1911._ + +"Made a good start, but the surface is getting softer every day and makes +our legs ache; we arrived at One Ton Depôt and camped. Then proceeded to +dig out some of the provisions, we have to take on all the man food we +can, this is a wild-looking place no doubt, have not seen anything of the +ponies. + + + "_9th November 1911._ + +"To-day we have started on the second stage of our journey. Our orders +are to proceed one degree south of One Ton Depôt and wait for the ponies +and dogs to come up with us; as we have been making good distances each +day, the party will hardly overtake us, but we have found to-day the load +is much heavier to drag. We have just over 200 lbs. per man, and we have +been brought up on several occasions, and to start again required a +pretty good strain on the rope, anyhow we done 10½ miles, a pretty good +show considering all things. + + + "_10th November 1911._ + +"Again we started off with plenty of vim, but it was jolly tough work, +and it begins to tell on all of us; the surface to-day is covered with +soft crystals which don't improve things. To-night Hooper is pretty well +done up, but he have stuck it well and I hope he will, although he could +not tackle the food in the best of spirits, we know he wanted it. Mr. +Evans, Mr. Day and myself could eat more, as we are just beginning to +feel the tightening of the belt. Made good 11¼ miles and we are now +building cairns all the way, one about three miles: then again at lunch +and one in the afternoon and one at night. This will keep us employed. + + + "_11th November 1911._ + +"To-day it has been very heavy work. The surface is very bad and we are +pretty well full up, but not with food; man-hauling is no doubt the +hardest work one can do, no wonder the motor sledges could not stand it. +I have been thinking of the trials I witnessed of the motor engines in +Wolseley's works in Birmingham, they were pretty stiff but nothing +compared to the drag of a heavy load on the Barrier surface. + + + "_12th November 1911._ + +"To-day have been similar to the two previous days, but the light have +been bad and snow have been falling which do not improve the surface; we +have been doing 10 miles a day Geographical and quite enough too as we +have all had enough by time it goes Camp. + + + "_13th November 1911._ + +"The weather seems to be on the change. Should not be surprised if we +don't get a blizzard before long, but of course we don't want that. +Hooper seems a bit fagged but he sticks it pretty well. Mr. Day keeps on +plodding, his only complaint is should like a little more to eat. + + + "_14th November 1911._ + +"When we started this morning Mr. Evans said we had about 15 miles to go +to reach the required distance. The hauling have been about the same, +but the weather is somewhat finer and the blizzard gone off. We did 10 +miles and camped; have not seen anything of the main party yet but shall +not be surprised to see them at any time. + + + "_15th November 1911._ + +"We are camped after doing five miles where we are supposed to be [lat. +80° 32´]; now we have to wait the others coming up. Mr. Evans is quite +proud to think we have arrived before the others caught us, but we don't +expect they will be long although we have nothing to be ashamed of as our +daily distance have been good. We have built a large cairn this afternoon +before turning in. The weather is cold but excellent." + + * * * * * + +They waited there six days before the pony party arrived, when the Upper +Barrier Depôt (Mount Hooper) was left in the cairn. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [168] My own diary. + + [169] Ibid. + + [170] Ibid. + + [171] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 361. + + [172] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. ii. p. 293. + + [173] Ibid. pp. 291-297; written by Lieutenant Evans. + + [174] Ibid. vol. i. p. 409. + + [175] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 403. + + [176] Ibid. p. 404. + + [177] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 425. + + [178] Ibid. p. 437. + + [179] Ibid. p. 429. + + [180] Ibid. p. 438. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE POLAR JOURNEY + + Come, my friends, + 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. + Push off, and sitting well in order smite + The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds + To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths + Of all the western stars, until I die. + It may be that the gulfs will wash us down: + It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles, + And see the great Achilles, whom we knew. + Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho' + We are not now that strength which in old days + Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are; + One equal temper of heroic hearts, + Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will + To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. + TENNYSON, _Ulysses._ + + Take it all in all it is wonderful that the South Pole was + reached so soon after the North Pole had been conquered. From + Cape Columbia to the North Pole, straight going, is 413 + geographical miles, and Peary who took on his expedition 246 + dogs, covered this distance in 37 days. From Hut Point to the + South Pole and back is 1532 geographical or 1766 statute miles, + the distance to the top of the Beardmore Glacier alone being more + than 100 miles farther than Peary had to cover to the North Pole. + Scott travelled from Hut Point to the South Pole in 75 days, and + to the Pole and back to his last camp in 147 days, a period of + five months. A. C.-G. + +(All miles are geographical unless otherwise stated.) + + +I. THE BARRIER STAGE + +The departure from Cape Evans at 11 P.M. on November 1 is described by +Griffith Taylor, who started a few days later on the second Geological +Journey with his own party: + +"On the 31st October the pony parties started. Two weak ponies led by +Atkinson and Keohane were sent off first at 4.30, and I accompanied them +for about a mile. Keohane's pony rejoiced in the name of Jimmy Pigg, and +he stepped out much better than his fleeter-named mate Jehu. We heard +through the telephone of their safe arrival at Hut Point. + +"Next morning the Southern Party finished their mail, posting it in the +packing case on Atkinson's bunk, and then at 11 A.M. the last party were +ready for the Pole. They had packed the sledges overnight, and they took +20 lbs. personal baggage. The Owner had asked me what book he should +take. He wanted something fairly filling. I recommended Tyndall's +Glaciers--if he wouldn't find it 'coolish.' He didn't fancy this! So then +I said, 'Why not take Browning, as I'm doing?' And I believe that he did +so. + +"Wright's pony was the first harnessed to its sledge. Chinaman is Jehu's +rival for last place, and as some compensation is easy to harness. Seaman +Evans led Snatcher, who used to rush ahead and take the lead as soon as +he was harnessed. Cherry had Michael, a steady goer, and Wilson led +Nobby--the pony rescued from the killer whales in March. Scott led out +Snippets to the sledges, and harnessed him to the foremost, with little +Anton's help--only it turned out to be Bowers' sledge! However he +transferred in a few minutes and marched off rapidly to the south. +Christopher, as usual, behaved like a demon. First they had to trice his +front leg up tight under his shoulder, then it took five minutes to throw +him. The sledge was brought up and he was harnessed in while his head was +held down on the floe. Finally he rose up, still on three legs, and +started off galloping as well as he was able. After several violent kicks +his foreleg was released, and after more watch-spring flicks with his +hind legs he set off fairly steadily. Titus can't stop him when once he +has started, and will have to do the fifteen miles in one lap probably! + +"Dear old Titus--that was my last memory of him. Imperturbable as ever; +never hasty, never angry, but soothing that vicious animal, and +determined to get the best out of most unpromising material in his +endeavour to do his simple duty. + +"Bowers was last to leave. His pony, Victor, nervous but not vicious, was +soon in the traces. I ran to the end of the Cape and watched the little +cavalcade--already strung out into remote units--rapidly fade into the +lonely white waste to southward. + +"That evening I had a chat with Wilson over the telephone from the +Discovery Hut--my last communication with those five gallant +spirits."[181] + +All the ponies arrived at Hut Point by 4 P.M., just in time to escape a +stiff blow. Three of them were housed with ourselves inside the hut, the +rest being put into the verandah. The march showed that with their loads +the speed of the different ponies varied to such an extent that +individuals were soon separated by miles. "It reminded me of a regatta or +a somewhat disorganized fleet with ships of very unequal speed."[182] + +It was decided to change to night marching, and the following evening we +proceeded in the following order, which was the way of our going for the +present. The three slowest ponies started first, namely, Jehu with +Atkinson, Chinaman with Wright, James Pigg with Keohane. This party was +known as the Baltic Fleet. + +Two hours later Scott's party followed; Scott with Snippets, Wilson with +Nobby, and myself with Michael. + +Both these parties camped for lunch in the middle of the night's march. +After another hour the remaining four men set to work to get Christopher +into his sledge; when he was started they harnessed in their own ponies +as quickly as possible and followed, making a non-stop run right through +the night's march. It was bad for men and ponies, but it was impossible +to camp in the middle of the march owing to Christopher. The composition +of this party was, Oates with Christopher, Bowers with Victor, Seaman +Evans with Snatcher, Crean with Bones. + +Each of these three parties was self-contained with tent, cooker and +weekly bag, and the times of starting were so planned that the three +parties arrived at the end of the march about the same time. + +There was a strong head wind and low drift as we rounded Cape Armitage on +our way to the Barrier and the future. Probably there were few of us who +did not wonder when we should see the old familiar place again. + +Scott's party camped at Safety Camp as the Baltic fleet were getting +under weigh again. Soon afterwards Ponting appeared with a dog sledge and +a cinematograph,--how anomalous it seemed--which "was up in time to catch +the flying rearguard which came along in fine form, Snatcher leading and +being stopped every now and again--a wonderful little beast. Christopher +had given the usual trouble when harnessed, but was evidently subdued by +the Barrier Surface. However, it was not thought advisable to halt him, +and so the party fled through in the wake of the advance guard."[183] + +Immediately afterwards Scott's party packed up. "Good-bye and good luck," +from Ponting, a wave of the hand not holding in a frisky pony and we had +left the last link with the hut. "The future is in the lap of the gods; I +can think of nothing left undone to deserve success."[184] + +The general scheme was to average 10 miles (11.5 statute) a day from Hut +Point to One Ton Depôt with the ponies lightly laden. From One Ton to the +Gateway a daily average of 13 miles (15 statute) was necessary to carry +twenty-four weekly units of food for four men each to the bottom of the +glacier. This was the Barrier Stage of the journey, a distance of 369 +miles (425 statute) as actually run on our sledge-meter. The twenty-four +weekly units of food were to carry the Polar Party and two supporting +parties forward to their farthest point, and back again to the bottom of +the Beardmore, where three more units were to be left in a depôt.[185] + +All went well this first day on the Barrier, and encouraging messages +left on empty petrol drums told us that the motors were going well when +they passed. But the next day we passed five petrol drums which had been +dumped. This meant that there was trouble, and some 14 miles from Hut +Point we learned that the big end of the No. 2 cylinder of Day's motor +had broken, and half a mile beyond we found the motor itself, drifted up +with snow, and looking a mournful wreck. The next day's march (Sunday, +November 5, A.M.) brought us to Corner Camp. There were a few legs down +crevasses during the day but nothing to worry about. + +From here we could see to the South an ominous mark in the snow which we +hoped might not prove to be the second motor. It was: "the big end of No. +1 cylinder had cracked, the machine otherwise in good order. Evidently +the engines are not fitted to working in this climate, a fact that should +be certainly capable of correction. One thing is proved; the system of +propulsion is altogether satisfactory."[186] And again: "It is a +disappointment. I had hoped better of the machines once they got away on +the Barrier Surface."[187] + +Scott had set his heart upon the success of the motors. He had run them +in Norway and Switzerland; and everything was done that care and +forethought could suggest. At the back of his mind, I feel sure, was the +wish to abolish the cruelty which the use of ponies and dogs necessarily +entails. "A small measure of success will be enough to show their +possibilities, their ability to revolutionize polar transport. Seeing the +machines at work to-day [leaving Cape Evans] and remembering that every +defect so far shown is purely mechanical, it is impossible not to be +convinced of their value. But the trifling mechanical defects and lack of +experience show the risk of cutting out trials. A season of experiment +with a small workshop at hand may be all that stands between success and +failure."[188] I do not believe that Scott built high hopes on these +motors: but it was a chance to help those who followed him. Scott was +always trying to do that. + +Did they succeed or fail? They certainly did not help us much, the motor +which travelled farthest drawing a heavy load to just beyond Corner Camp. +But even so fifty statute miles is fifty miles, and that they did it at +all was an enormous advance. The distance travelled included hard and +soft surfaces, and we found later when the snow bridges fell in during +the summer that this car had crossed safely some broad crevasses. Also +they worked in temperatures down to -30° Fahr. All this was to the good, +for no motor-driven machine had travelled on the Barrier before. The +general design seemed to be right, all that was now wanted was +experience. As an experiment they were successful in the South, but Scott +never knew their true possibilities; for they were the direct ancestors +of the 'tanks' in France. + +Night-marching had its advantages and disadvantages. The ponies were +pulling in the colder part of the day and resting in the warm, which was +good. Their coats dried well in the sun, and after a few days to get +accustomed to the new conditions, they slept and fed in comparative +comfort. On the other hand the pulling surface was undoubtedly better +when the sun was high and the temperature warmer. Taking one thing with +another there was no doubt that night-marching was better for ponies, but +we seldom if ever tried it man-hauling. + +[Illustration: CAMP ON THE BARRIER--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +Just now there was an amazing difference between day and night +conditions. At midnight one was making short work of everything, nursing +fingers after doing up harness with minus temperatures and nasty cold +winds: by supper time the next morning we were sitting on our sledges +writing up our diaries or meteorological logs, and even dabbling our bare +toes in the snow, but not for long! Shades of darkness! How different all +this was from what we had been through. My personal impression of this +early summer sledging on the Barrier was one of constant wonder at its +comfort. One had forgotten that a tent could be warm and a sleeping-bag +dry: so deep were the contrary impressions that only actual experience +was convincing. "It is a sweltering day, the air breathless, the glare +intense--one loses sight of the fact that the temperature is low [-22°], +one's mind seeks comparison in hot sunlit streets and scorching +pavements, yet six hours ago my thumb was frost-bitten. All the +inconveniences of frozen footwear and damp clothes and sleeping-bags have +vanished entirely."[189] + +We could not expect to get through this windy area of Corner Camp without +some bad weather. The wind-blown surface improved, the ponies took their +heavier loads with ease, but as we came to our next camp it was banking +up to the S.E. and the breeze freshened almost immediately. We built pony +walls hurriedly and by the time we had finished supper it was blowing +force 5 (A.M. November 6, Camp 4). There was a moderate gale with some +drift all day which increased to force 8 with more drift at night. It was +impossible to march. The drift took off a bit the next morning, and +Meares and Dimitri with the two dog-teams appeared and camped astern of +us. This was according to previous plan by which the dog-teams were to +start after us and catch us up, since they travelled faster than the +ponies. "The snow and drift necessitated digging out ponies again and +again to keep them well sheltered from the wind. The walls made a +splendid lee, but some sledges at the extremities were buried altogether, +and our tent being rather close to windward of our wall got the back eddy +and was continually being snowed up above the door. After noon the snow +ceased except for surface drift. Snatcher knocked his section of the wall +over, and Jehu did so more than ever. All ponies looked pretty miserable, +as in spite of the shelter they were bunged up, eyes and all, in drift +which had become ice and could not be removed without considerable +difficulty."[190] + +Towards evening it ceased drifting altogether, but a wind, force 4, kept +up with disconcerting regularity. Eventually Atkinson's party got away at +midnight. "Castle Rock is still visible, but will be closed by the north +end of White Island in the next march--then good-bye to the old landmarks +for many a long day."[191] + +The next day (November 8-9) "started at midnight and had a very pleasant +march. Truly sledging in such weather is great. Mounts Discovery and +Morning, which we gradually closed, looked fine in the general panorama +of mountains. We are now nearly abreast the north end of the Bluff. We +all came up to camp together this morning: it looked like a meet of the +hounds, and Jehu ran away!!!"[192] + +The next march was just the opposite. Wind force 5 to 6 and falling snow. +"The surface was very slippery in parts and on the hard sastrugi it was a +case of falling or stumbling continually. The light got so bad that one +might have been walking in the clouds for all that could be discerned, +and yet it was only snowing slightly. The Bluff became completely +obscured, and the usual signs of a blizzard were accentuated. + +"At lunch camp Scott packed up and followed us. We overhauled Atkinson +about 1½ hours later, he having camped, and we were not sorry, as in +addition to marching against a fresh southerly breeze the light brought a +tremendous strain on the eyes in following tracks."[193] A little more +than eight miles for the day's total. + +We carried these depressing conditions for three more marches, that is +till the morning of November 13. The surface was wretched, the weather +horrid, the snow persistent, covering everything with soft downy flakes, +inch upon inch, and mile upon mile. There are glimpses of despondency in +the diaries. "If this should come as an exception, our luck will be truly +awful. The camp is very silent and cheerless, signs that things are going +awry."[194] "The weather was horrid, overcast, gloomy, snowy. One's +spirits became very low."[195] "I expected these marches to be a little +difficult, but not near so bad as to-day."[196] Indefinite conditions +always tried Scott most: positive disasters put him into more cheerful +spirits than most. In the big gale coming South when the ship nearly +sank, and when we lost one of the cherished motors through the sea-ice, +his was one of the few cheerful faces I saw. Even when the ship ran +aground off Cape Evans he was not despondent. But this kind of thing +irked him. Bowers wrote: "The unpleasant weather and bad surface, and +Chinaman's indisposition, combined to make the outlook unpleasant, and on +arrival [in camp] I was not surprised to find that Scott had a grievance. +He felt that in arranging the consumption of forage his own unit had not +been favoured with the same reduction as ours, in fact accused me of +putting upon his three horses to save my own. We went through the weights +in detail after our meal, and, after a certain amount of argument, +decided to carry on as we were going. I can quite understand his +feelings, and after our experience of last year a bad day like this makes +him fear our beasts are going to fail us. The Talent [i.e. the doctors] +examined Chinaman, who begins to show signs of wear. Poor ancient little +beggar, he ought to be a pensioner instead of finishing his days on a job +of this sort. Jehu looks pretty rocky too, but seeing that we did not +expect him to reach the Glacier Tongue, and that he has now done more +than 100 miles from Cape Evans, one really does not know what to expect +of these creatures. Certainly Titus thinks, as he has always said, that +they are the most unsuitable scrap-heap crowd of unfit creatures that +could possibly be got together."[197] + +"The weather was about as poisonous as one could wish; a fresh breeze and +driving snow from the E. with an awful surface. The recently fallen snow +thickly covered the ground with powdery stuff that the unfortunate ponies +fairly wallowed in. If it was only ourselves to consider I should not +mind a bit, but to see our best ponies being hit like this at the start +is most distressing. A single march like that of last night must shorten +their usefulness by days, and here we are a fortnight out, and barely +one-third of the distance to the glacier covered, with every pony showing +signs of wear. Victor looks a lean and lanky beast compared with his +condition two weeks ago."[198] + +But the ponies began to go better; and it was about this time that Jehu +was styled the Barrier Wonder, and Chinaman the Thunderbolt. "Our four +ponies have suffered most," writes Bowers. "I don't agree with Titus that +it is best to march them right through without a lunch camp. They were +undoubtedly pretty tired, and worst of all did not go their feeds +properly. It was a fine warm morning for them (Nov. 13); +15°, our +warmest temperature hitherto. In the afternoon it came on to snow in +large flakes like one would get at home. I have never seen such snow down +here before; it makes the surface very bad for the sledges. The ponies' +manes and rugs were covered in little knots of ice." + +The next march (November 13-14) was rather better, though the going was +very deep and heavy, and all the ponies were showing signs of wear and +tear. This was followed by a delightfully warm day, and all the animals +were standing drowsily in the sunshine. We could see the land far away +behind us, the first sight of land we had had for many days. On November +15 we reached One Ton Depôt, having travelled a hundred and thirty miles +from Hut Point. + +The two sledges left standing were still upright, and the tattered +remains of a flag flapped over the main cairn. In a salt tin lashed to +the bamboo flag-pole was a note from Lieutenant Evans to say that he had +gone on with the motor party five days before, and would continue +man-hauling to 80° 30´ S. and await us there. "He has done something over +30 miles in 2½ days--exceedingly good going."[199] We dug out the cairn, +which we found just as we had left it except that there was a big tongue +of drift, level with the top of the cairn to leeward, and running about +150 yards to N.E., showing that the prevailing wind here is S.W. Nine +months before we had sprinkled some oats on the surface of the snow +hoping to get a measurement of the accretion of snow during the winter. +Unfortunately we were unable to find the oats again, but other evidence +went to show that the snow deposit was very small. A minimum thermometer +which was lashed with great care to a framework registered -73°. After +the temperatures already experienced by us on the Barrier during the +winter and spring this was surprisingly high, especially as our minimum +temperatures were taken under the sledge, which means that the +thermometer is shaded from radiation, while this thermometer at One Ton +was left open to the sky. On the Winter Journey we found that a shaded +thermometer registered -69° when an unshaded one registered -75°, a +difference of 6°. All the provisions left here were found to be in +excellent condition. + +We then had a prolonged council of war. This meant that Scott called +Bowers, and perhaps Oates, into our tent after supper was finished in the +morning. Somehow these conferences were always rather serio-comic. On +this occasion, as was usually the case, the question was ponies. It was +decided to wait here one day and rest them, as there was ample food. The +main discussion centred round the amount of forage to be taken on from +here, while the state of the ponies, the amount they could pull and the +distance they could go had to be taken into consideration. + +"Oates thinks the ponies will get through, but that they have lost +condition quicker than he expected. Considering his usually pessimistic +attitude this must be thought a hopeful view. Personally I am much more +hopeful. I think that a good many of the beasts are actually in better +form than when they started, and that there is no need to be alarmed +about the remainder, always excepting the weak ones which we have always +regarded with doubt. Well, we must wait and see how things go."[200] + +The decision made was to take just enough food to get the ponies to the +glacier, allowing for the killing of some of them before that date. It +was obvious that Jehu and Chinaman could not go very much farther, and +it was also necessary that ponies should be killed in order to feed the +dogs. The two dog-teams were carrying about a week's pony food, but they +were unable to advance more than a fortnight from One Ton without killing +ponies. + +This decision practically meant that Scott abandoned the idea of taking +ponies up the glacier. This was a great relief, for the crevassed state +of the lower reaches of the glacier as described by Shackleton led us to +believe that the attempt was suicidal. All the winter our brains were +exercised to try and devise some method by which the ponies could be +driven from behind, and by which the connection between pony and sledge +could be loosed if the pony fell into a crevasse, but I confess that +there seemed little chance of this happening. From all we saw of the +glacier I am convinced that there is no reasonable chance of getting +ponies up it, and that dogs could only be driven down it if the way up +was most carefully surveyed and kept on the return. I am sure that in +this kind of uncertainty the mental strain on the leader of a party is +less than that on his men. The leader knows quite well what he thinks +worth while risking or not: in this case Scott probably was always of the +opinion that it would not be worth while taking ponies on to the glacier. +The pony leaders, however, only knew that the possibility was ahead of +them. I can remember now the relief with which we heard that it was not +intended that Wilson should take Nobby, the fittest of our ponies, +farther than the Gateway. + +Up to now Christopher had lived up to his reputation, as the following +extracts from Bowers' diary will show: "Three times we downed him, and he +got up and threw us about, with all four of us hanging on like grim +death. He nearly had me under him once; he seems fearfully strong, but it +is a pity he wastes so much good energy.... Christopher, as usual, was +strapped on three legs and then got down on his knees. He gets more +cunning each time, and if he does not succeed in biting or kicking one of +us before long it won't be his fault. He finds the soft snow does not +hurt his knees like the sea-ice, and so plunges about on them _ad lib_. +One's finnesko are so slippery that it is difficult to exert full +strength on him, and to-day he bowled Oates over and got away altogether. +Fortunately the lashing on his fourth leg held fast, and we were able to +secure him when he rejoined the other animals. Finally he lay down, and +thought he had defeated us, but we had the sledge connected up by that +time, and as he got up we rushed him forward before he had time to kick +over the traces.... Dimitri came and gave us a hand with Chris. Three of +us hung on to him while the other two connected up the sledge. We had a +struggle for over twenty minutes, and he managed to tread on me, but no +damage done.... Got Chris in by a dodge. Titus did away with his back +strap, and nearly had him away unaided before he realized that the hated +sledge was fast to him. Unfortunately he started off just too soon, and +bolted with only one trace fast. This pivoted him to starboard, and he +charged the line. I expected a mix-up, but he stopped at the wall between +Bones and Snatcher, and we cast off and cleared sledge before trying +again. By laying the traces down the side of the sledge instead of ahead +we got him off his guard again, and he was away before he knew what had +occurred.... We had a bad time with Chris again. He remembered having +been bluffed before, and could not be got near the sledge at all. Three +times he broke away, but fortunately he always ran back among the other +ponies, and not out on to the Barrier. Finally we had to down him, and he +was so tired with his recent struggles that after one abortive attempt we +got him fast and away." + +Meanwhile it was not so much the difficulties of sledging as the +depressing blank conditions in which our march was so often made, that +gave us such troubles as we had. The routine of a tent makes a lot of +difference. Scott's tent was a comfortable one to live in, and I was +always glad when I was told to join it, and sorry to leave. He was +himself extraordinarily quick, and no time was ever lost by his party in +camping or breaking camp. He was most careful, some said over-careful +but I do not think so, that everything should be neat and shipshape, and +there was a recognized place for everything. On the Depôt Journey we were +bidden to see that every particle of snow was beaten off our clothing and +finnesko before entering the tent: if it was drifting we had to do this +after entering and the snow was carefully cleared off the floor-cloth. +Afterwards each tent was supplied with a small brush with which to +perform this office. In addition to other obvious advantages this +materially helped to keep clothing, finnesko, and sleeping-bags dry, and +thus prolong the life of furs. "After all is said and done," said Wilson +one day after supper, "the best sledger is the man who sees what has to +be done, and does it--and says nothing about it." Scott agreed. And if +you were "sledging with the Owner" you had to keep your eyes wide open +for the little things which cropped up, and do them quickly, and say +nothing about them. There is nothing so irritating as the man who is +always coming in and informing all and sundry that he has repaired his +sledge, or built a wall, or filled the cooker, or mended his socks. + +I moved into Scott's tent for the first time in the middle of the Depôt +Journey, and was enormously impressed by the comfort which a careful +routine of this nature evoked. There was a homelike air about the tent at +supper time, and, though a lunch camp in the middle of the night is +always rather bleak, there was never anything slovenly. Another thing +which struck me even more forcibly was the cooking. We were of course on +just the same ration as the tent from which I had come. I was hungry and +said so. "Bad cooking," said Wilson shortly; and so it was. For in two or +three days the sharpest edge was off my hunger. Wilson and Scott had +learned many a cooking tip in the past, and, instead of the same old meal +day by day, the weekly ration was so manoeuvred by a clever cook that +it was seldom quite the same meal. Sometimes pemmican plain, or thicker +pemmican with some arrowroot mixed with it: at others we surrendered a +biscuit and a half apiece and had a dry hoosh, i.e. biscuit fried in +pemmican with a little water added, and a good big cup of cocoa to +follow. Dry hooshes also saved oil. There were cocoa and tea upon which +to ring the changes, or better still 'teaco' which combined the +stimulating qualities of tea with the food value of cocoa. Then much +could be done with the dessert-spoonful of raisins which was our daily +whack. They were good soaked in the tea, but best perhaps in with the +biscuits and pemmican as a dry hoosh. "You are going far to earn my +undying gratitude, Cherry," was a satisfied remark of Scott one evening +when, having saved, unbeknownst to my companions, some of their daily +ration of cocoa, arrowroot, sugar and raisins, I made a "chocolate +hoosh." But I am afraid he had indigestion next morning. There were meals +when we had interesting little talks, as when I find in my diary that: +"we had a jolly lunch meal, discussing authors. Barrie, Galsworthy and +others are personal friends of Scott. Some one told Max Beerbohm that he +was like Captain Scott, and immediately, so Scott assured us, he grew a +beard." + +But about three weeks out the topics of conversation became threadbare. +From then onwards it was often that whole days passed without +conversation beyond the routine Camp ho! All ready? Pack up. Spell ho. +The latter after some two hours' pulling. When man-hauling we used to +start pulling immediately we had the tent down, the sledge packed and our +harness over our bodies and ski on our feet. After about a quarter of an +hour the effects of the marching would be felt in the warming of hands +and feet and the consequent thawing of our mitts and finnesko. We then +halted long enough for everybody to adjust their ski and clothing: then +on, perhaps for two hours or more, before we halted again. + +Since it had been decided to lighten the ponies' weights, we left at +least 100 lbs. of pony forage behind when we started from One Ton on the +night of November 16-17 on our first 13-mile march. This was a distinct +saving, and instead of 695 lbs. each with which the six stronger ponies +left Corner Camp, they now pulled only 625 lbs. Jehu had only 455 lbs. +and Chinaman 448 lbs. The dog-teams had 860 lbs. of pony food between +them, and according to plan the two teams were to carry 1570 lbs. from +One Ton between them. These weights included the sledges, with straps and +fittings, which weighed about 45 lbs. + +Summer seemed long in coming for we marched into a considerable breeze +and the temperature was -18°. Oates and Seaman Evans had quite a crop of +frost-bites. I pointed out to Meares that his nose was gone; but he left +it, saying that he had got tired of it, and it would thaw out by and by. +The ponies were going better for their rest. The next day's march was +over crusty snow with a layer of loose powdery snow at the top, and a +temperature of -21° was chilly. Towards the end of it Scott got +frightened that the ponies were not going as well as they should. Another +council of war was held, and it was decided that an average of thirteen +miles a day must be done at all costs, and that another sack of forage +should be dumped here, putting the ponies on short rations later, if +necessary. Oates agreed, but said the ponies were going better than he +expected: that Jehu and Chinaman might go a week, and almost certainly +would go three days. Bowers was always against this dumping. Meanwhile +Scott wrote: "It's touch and go whether we scrape up to the glacier; +meanwhile we get along somehow."[201] + +[Illustration: PARHELIA--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +As a result of one of Christopher's tantrums Bowers records that his +sledge-meter was carried away this morning: "I took my sledge-meter into +the tent after breakfast and rigged up a fancy lashing with raw hide +thongs so as to give it the necessary play with security. A splendid +parhelia exhibition was caused by the ice-crystals. Round the sun was a +22° halo [that is a halo 22° from the sun's image], with four mock suns +in rainbow colours, and outside this another halo in complete rainbow +colours. Above the sun were the arcs of two other circles touching these +halos, and the arcs of the great all-round circle could be seen faintly +on either side. Below was a dome-shaped glare of white which contained an +exaggerated mock sun, which was as dazzling as the sun himself. +Altogether a fine example of a pretty common phenomenon down here." +And the next day: "We saw the party ahead in inverted mirage some +distance above their heads." + +In the next three marches we covered our daily 13 miles, for the most +part without very great difficulty. But poor Jehu was in a bad way, +stopping every few hundred yards. It was a funereal business for the +leaders of these crock ponies; and at this stage of the journey Atkinson, +Wright and Keohane had many more difficulties than most of us, and the +success of their ponies was largely due to their patience and care. +Incidentally big icicles formed upon the ponies' noses during the march +and Chinaman used Wright's windproof blouse as a handkerchief. During the +last of these marches, that is on the morning of November 21, we saw a +massive cairn ahead, and found there the motor party, consisting of +Lieutenant Evans, Day, Lashly and Hooper. The cairn was in 80° 32´, and +under the name Mount Hooper formed our Upper Barrier Depôt. We left there +three S (summit) rations, two cases of emergency biscuits and two cases +of oil, which constituted three weekly food units for the three parties +which were to advance from the bottom of the Beardmore Glacier. This food +was to take them back from 80° 32´ to One Ton Camp. We all camped for the +night 3 miles farther on: sixteen men, five tents, ten ponies, +twenty-three dogs and thirteen sledges. + +The man-hauling party had been waiting for six days; and, having expected +us before, were getting anxious about us. They declared that they were +very hungry, and Day, who was always long and thin, looked quite gaunt. +Some spare biscuits which we gave them from our tent were carried off +with gratitude. The rest of us who were driving dogs or leading ponies +still found our Barrier ration satisfying. + +We had now been out three weeks and had travelled 192 miles, and formed a +very good idea as to what the ponies could do. The crocks had done +wonderfully:--"We hope Jehu will last three days; he will then be +finished in any case and fed to the dogs. It is amusing to see Meares +looking eagerly for the chance of a feed for his animals; he has been +expecting it daily. On the other hand, Atkinson and Oates are eager to +get the poor animal beyond the point at which Shackleton killed his first +beast. Reports on Chinaman are very favourable, and it really looks as +though the ponies are going to do what is hoped of them."[202] From first +to last Nobby, who was rescued from the floe, was the strongest pony we +had, and was now drawing a heavier load than any other pony by 50 lbs. He +was a well-shaped, contented kind of animal, misnamed a pony. Indeed +several of our beasts were too large to fit this description. +Christopher, of course, was wearing himself out quicker than most, but +all of them had lost a lot of weight in spite of the fact that they had +all the oats and oil-cake they could eat. Bowers writes of his pony: + +"Victor, my pony, has taken to leading the line, like his opposite number +last season. He is a steady goer, and as gentle as a dear old sheep. I +can hardly realize the strenuous times I had with him only a month ago, +when it took about four of us to get him harnessed to a sledge, and two +of us every time with all our strength to keep him from bolting when in +it. Even at the start of the journey he was as nearly unmanageable as any +beast could be, and always liable to bolt from sheer excess of spirits. +He is more sober now after three weeks of featureless Barrier, but I +think I am more fond of him than ever. He has lost his rotundity, like +all the other horses, and is a long-legged, angular beast, very ugly as +horses go, but still I would not change him for any other." + +The ponies were fed by their leaders at the lunch and supper halts, and +by Oates and Bowers during the sleep halt about four hours before we +marched. Several of them developed a troublesome habit of swinging their +nosebags off, some as soon as they were put on, others in their anxiety +to reach the corn still left uneaten in the bottom of the bag. We had to +lash their bags on to their headstalls. "Victor got hold of his head rope +yesterday, and devoured it: not because he is hungry, as he won't eat all +his allowance even now."[203] + +The original intention was that Day and Hooper should return from 80° +30´, but it was now decided that their unit of four should remain intact +for a few days, and constitute a light man-hauling advance party to make +the track. + +The weather was much more pleasant and we saw the sun most days, while I +note only one temperature below -20° since leaving One Ton. The ponies +sank in a cruel distance some days, but we were certainly not overworking +them and they had as much food as they could eat. We knew the grim part +was to come, but we never realized how grim it was to be. From this +Northern Barrier Depôt the ponies were mostly drawing less than 500 lbs. +and we had hopes of getting through to the glacier without much +difficulty. All depended on the weather, and just now it was glorious, +and the ponies were going steadily together. Jehu, the crockiest of the +crocks, was led back along the track and shot on the evening of November +24, having reached a point at least 15 miles beyond that where Shackleton +shot his first pony. When it is considered that it was doubtful whether +he could start at all this must be conceded to have been a triumph of +horse-management in which both Oates and Atkinson shared, though neither +so much as Jehu himself, for he must have had a good spirit to have +dragged his poor body so far. "A year's care and good feeding, three +weeks' work with good treatment, a reasonable load and a good ration, and +then a painless end. If anybody can call that cruel I cannot either +understand it or agree with them." Thus Bowers, who continues: "The +midnight sun reflected from the snow has started to burn my face and +lips. I smear them with hazeline before turning in, and find it a good +thing. Wearing goggles has absolutely prevented any recurrence of +snow-blindness. Captain Scott says they make me see everything through +rose-coloured spectacles." + +We said good-bye to Day and Hooper next morning, and they set their faces +northwards and homewards.[204] Two-men parties on the Barrier are not +much fun. Day had certainly done his best about the motors and they had +helped us over a bad bit of initial surface. That night Scott wrote: +"Only a few more marches to feel safe in getting to our goal."[205] At +the lunch halt on November 26, in lat. 81° 35´, we left our Middle +Barrier Depôt, containing one week's provisions for each returning unit +as at Mount Hooper, a reduction of 200 lbs. in our weights. The march +that day was very trying. "It is always rather dismal work walking over +the great snow plain when sky and surface merge in one pall of dead +whiteness, but it is cheering to be in such good company with everything +going on steadily and well."[206] + +There was no doubt that the animals were tiring, and "a tired animal +makes a tired man, I find."[207] The next day (November 28) was no +better: "the most dismal start imaginable. Thick as a hedge, snow falling +and drifting with keen southerly wind."[208] + +Bowers notes: "We have now run down a whole degree of latitude without a +fine day, or anything but clouds, mist, and driving snow from the south." +We certainly did have some difficult marches, one of the worst effects of +which was that we knew we must be making a winding course and we had to +pick up our depôts on the return somehow. Here is a typical bad morning +from Bowers' diary: + +"The first four miles of the march were utter misery for me, as Victor, +either through lassitude or because he did not like having to plug into +the wind, went as slow as a funeral horse. The light was so bad that +wearing goggles was most necessary, and the driving snow filled them up +as fast as you cleared them. I dropped a long way astern of the +cavalcade, could hardly see them at times through the snow, but the fear +that Victor, of all the beasts, should give out was like a nightmare. I +have always been used to starting later than the others by a quarter of a +mile, and catching them up. At the four-mile cairn I was about fed up to +the neck with it, but I said very little as everybody was so disgusted +with the weather and things in general that I saw that I was not the only +one in tribulation. Victor turned up trumps after that. He stepped out +and led the line in his old place, and at a good swinging pace +considering the surface, my temper and spirits improving at every step. +In the afternoon he went splendidly again, and finished up by rolling in +the snow when I had taken his harness off, a thing he has not done for +ten or twelve days. It certainly does not look like exhaustion!" + +Indeed these days we were fighting for our marches, and Chinaman who was +killed this night seemed well out of it. He reached a point less than 90 +miles from the glacier, though this was small comfort to him. + +Stumbling and groping our way along as we had been during the last +blizzard we were totally unprepared for the sight which met us during our +next march on November 29. The great ramp of mountains which ran to the +west of us, and would soon bar our way to the South, partly cleared: and +right on top of us it seemed were the triple peaks of Mount Markham. +After some 300 miles of bleak, monotonous Barrier it was a wonderful +sight indeed. We camped at night in latitude 82° 21´ S., four miles +beyond Scott's previous Farthest South in 1902. Then they had the best of +luck in clear fine weather, which Shackleton has also recorded at this +stage of his southern journey. + +It is curious to see how depressed all our diaries become when this bad +weather obtained, and how quickly we must have cheered up whenever the +sun came out. There is no doubt that a similar effect was produced upon +the ponies. Truth to tell, the mental strain upon those responsible was +very great in these early days, and there is little of outside interest +to relieve the mind. The crystal surface which was an invisible carpet +yesterday becomes a shining glorious sheet of many colours to-day: the +irregularities which caused you so many falls are now quite clear and you +step on or over them without a thought: and when there is added some of +the most wonderful scenery in the world it is hard to recall in the +enjoyment of the present how irritable and weary you felt only twenty +hours ago. The whisper of the sledge, the hiss of the primus, the smell +of the hoosh and the soft folds of your sleeping-bag: how jolly they can +all be, and generally were. + + I would that I could once again + Around the cooker sit + And hearken to its soft refrain + And feel so jolly fit. + + Instead of home-life's silken chains, + The uneventful round, + I long to be mid snow-swept plains, + In harness, outward bound. + + With the pad, pad, pad, of fin'skoed feet, + With two hundred pounds per man, + Not enough hoosh or biscuit to eat, + Well done, lads! Up tent! Outspan. + (NELSON in _The South Polar Times._) + +Certainly as we skirted these mountains, range upon range, during the +next two marches (November 30 and December 1), we felt we could have +little cause for complaint. They brought us to lat. 82° 47´ S., and here +we left our last depôt on the Barrier, called the Southern Barrier Depôt, +with a week's ration for each returning party as usual. "The man food is +enough for one week for each returning unit of four men, the next depôt +beyond being the Middle Barrier Depôt, 73 miles north. As we ought easily +to do over 100 miles a week on the return journey, there is little +likelihood of our having to go on short commons if all goes well."[209] +And this was what we all felt--until we found the Polar Party. This was +our twenty-seventh camp, and we had been out a month. + +[Illustration: THE MOUNTAINS WHICH LIE BETWEEN THE BARRIER AND THE +PLATEAU AS SEEN ON DECEMBER 1, 1911--From the drawings by Dr. E. A. +Wilson, Emery Walker Limited, Collotypers.] + +It was important that we should have fine clear weather during the next +few days when we should be approaching the land. On his previous southern +journey Scott had been prevented from reaching the range of mountains +which ran along to our right by a huge chasm. This phenomenon is known to +geologists as a shear crack and is formed by the movement of a glacier +away from the land which bounds it. In this case a mass of many hundred +miles of Barrier has moved away from the mountains, and the disturbance +is correspondingly great. Shackleton has described how he approached the +Gateway, as he named the passage between Mount Hope and the mainland, by +means of which he passed through on to the Beardmore Glacier. As he and +his companions were exploring the way they came upon an enormous chasm, +80 feet wide and 300 feet deep, which barred their path. Moving along to +the right they found a place where the chasm was filled with snow, and +here they crossed to the land some miles ahead. At our Southern Barrier +Depôt we reckoned we were some forty-four miles from this Gateway and in +three more marches we hoped to be camped under this land. + +Christopher was shot at the depôt. He was the only pony who did not die +instantaneously. Perhaps Oates was not so calm as usual, for Chris was +his own horse though such a brute. Just as Oates fired he moved, and +charged into the camp with the bullet in his head. He was caught with +difficulty, nearly giving Keohane a bad bite, led back and finished. We +were well rid of him: while he was strong he fought, and once the Barrier +had tamed him, as we were not able to do, he never pulled a fair load. He +could have gone several more days, but there was not enough pony food to +take all the animals forward. We began to wonder if we had done right to +leave so much behind. Each pony provided at least four days' food for the +dog-teams, some of them more, and there was quite a lot of fat on +them--even on Jehu. This was comforting, as going to prove that their +hardships were not too great. Also we put the undercut into our own +hoosh, and it was very good, though we had little oil to cook it. + +We had been starting later each night, in order that the transition from +night to day marching might be gradual. For we intended to march by day +when we started pulling up the glacier, and there were no ponies to rest +when the sun was high. It may be said therefore that our next march was +on December 2. + +Before we started Scott walked over to Bowers. "I have come to a decision +which will shock you." Victor was to go at the end of the march, because +pony food was running so short. Birdie wrote at the end of the day:--He +"did a splendid march and kept ahead all day, and as usual marched into +camp first, pulling over 450 lbs. easily. It seemed an awful pity to have +to shoot a great strong animal, and it seemed like the irony of fate to +me, as I had been downed for over-provisioning the ponies with needless +excess of food, and the drastic reductions had been made against my +strenuous opposition up to the last. It is poor satisfaction to me to +know that I was right now that my horse is dead. Good old Victor! He has +always had a biscuit out of my ration, and he ate his last before the +bullet sent him to his rest. Here ends my second horse in 83° S., not +quite so tragically as my first when the sea-ice broke up, but none the +less I feel sorry for a beast that has been my constant companion and +care for so long. He has done his share in our undertaking anyhow, and +may I do my share as well when I get into harness myself. + +"The snow has started to fall over his bleak resting-place, and it looks +like a blizzard. The outlook is dark, stormy and threatening." + +Indeed it had been a dismal march into a blank white wall, and the ponies +were sinking badly in the snow, leaving holes a full foot deep. The +temperature was +17° and the flakes of snow melted when they lay on the +dark colours of the tents and our furs. After building the pony walls +water was running down our windproofs. + +I note "we are doing well on pony meat and go to bed very content." +Notwithstanding the fact that we could not do more than heat the meat by +throwing it into the pemmican we found it sweet and good, though tough. +The man-hauling party consisted of Lieut. Evans and Lashly who had lost +their motors, and Atkinson and Wright who had lost their ponies. They +were really quite hungry by now, and most of us pretty well looked +forward to our meals and kept a biscuit to eat in our bags if we could. +The pony meat therefore came as a relief. I think we ought to have +depôted more of it on the cairns. As it was, what we did not eat was +given to the dogs. With some tins of extra oil and a depôted pony the +Polar Party would probably have got home in safety. + +On December 3 we roused out at 2.30 A.M. It was thick and snowy. As we +breakfasted the blizzard started from the south-east, and was soon +blowing force 9, a full gale, with heavy drift. "The strongest wind I +have known here in summer."[210] It was impossible to start, but we +turned out and made up the pony walls in heavy drift, one of them being +blown down three times. By 1.30 P.M. the sun was shining, and the land +was clear. We started at 2, with what we thought was Mount Hope showing +up ahead, but soon great snow-clouds were banking up and in two hours we +were walking in a deep gloom which made it difficult to find the track +made by the man-hauling party ahead. By the time we reached the cairn, +which was always built at the end of the first four miles, it was blowing +hard from the N.N.W. of all the unlikely quarters of the compass. Bowers +and Scott were on ski. + +"I put on my windproof blouse and nosed out the track for two miles, when +we suddenly came upon the tent of the leading party. They had camped +owing to the difficulty of steering a course in such thick weather. The +ponies, however, with the wind abaft the beam were going along +splendidly, and Scott thought it worth while to shove on. We therefore +carried on another four miles, making ten in all, a good half march, +before we camped. On ski it was simply ripping, except for the inability +to see anything at all. With the wind behind, and the good sliding +surface made by the wind-hardened snow, one fairly slithered along. +Camping was less pleasant as it was blowing a gale by that time. We are +all in our bags again now, with a good hot meal inside one, and blow high +or blow low one might be in a worse place than a reindeer bag."[211] + +It was all right for the people on ski (and this in itself gave us a +certain sense of grievance), but things had not been so easy with the +ponies, who were sinking very deeply in places, while we ourselves were +sinking well over our ankles. This day we began to cross the great +undulations in the Barrier, with the crests some mile apart, which here +mark the approach to the land. We had built the walls to the north of the +ponies on camping, because the wind was from that direction, but by +breakfast on December 4 it was blowing a thick blizzard from the +south-east. We began to feel bewildered by these extraordinary weather +changes, and not a little exasperated too. Again we could not march, and +again we had to dig out the sledges and ponies, and to move them all +round to the other side of the walls which we had partly to rebuild. "Oh +for the simple man-hauling life!" was our thought, and "poor helpless +beasts--this is no country for live stock." By this time we could not see +the neighbouring tents for the drift. The situation was not improved by +the fact that our tent doors, the tents having been pitched for the +strong north wind then blowing, were now facing the blizzard, and sheets +of snow entered with each individual. The man-hauling party came up just +before the worst of the blizzard started. The dogs alone were +comfortable, buried deep beneath the drifted snow. The sailors began to +debate who was the Jonah. They said he was the cameras. The great +blizzard was brewing all about us. + +But at mid-day as though a curtain was rolled back, the thick snow fog +cleared off, while at the same time the wind fell calm, and a great +mountain appeared almost on the top of us. Far away to the south-east we +could distinguish, by looking very carefully, a break in the level +Barrier horizon--a new mountain which we reckoned must be at least in +latitude 86° and very high. Towards it the ranges stretched away, peak +upon peak, range upon range, as far as the eye could see. "The mountains +surpassed anything I have ever seen: beside the least of these giants Ben +Nevis would be a mere mound, and yet they are so immense as to dwarf each +other. They are intersected at every turn with mighty glaciers and +ice-falls and eternally ice-filled valleys that defy description. So +clear was everything that every rock seemed to stand out, and the effect +of the sun as he came round (between us and the mountains) was to make +the scene still more beautiful."[212] + +Altogether we marched eleven miles this day, and camped right in front of +the Gateway, which we reckoned to be some thirteen miles away. We saw no +crevasses but crossed ten or twelve very large undulations, and estimated +that the dips between them were twelve to fifteen feet. Mount Hope was +bigger than we expected, and beyond it, stretching out into the Barrier +as far as we could see, was a great white line of jagged edges, the chaos +of pressure which this vast glacier makes as it flows into the +comparatively stationary ice of the Barrier. + +My own pony Michael was shot after we came into camp. He was as +attractive a little beast as we had. His light weight helped him on soft +surfaces, but his small hoofs let him in farther than most and I notice +in Scott's diary that on November 19 the ponies were sinking half-way to +the hock, and Michael once or twice almost to the hock itself. A highly +strung, spirited animal, his off days took the form of fidgets, during +which he would be constantly trying to stop and eat snow, and then rush +forward to catch up the other ponies. Life was a constant source of +wonder to him, and no movement in the camp escaped his notice. Before we +had been long on the Barrier he developed mischievous habits and became a +rope eater and gnawer of other ponies' fringes, as we called the coloured +tassels we hung over their eyes to ward off snow-blindness. However, he +was by no means the only culprit, and he lost his own fringe to Nobby +quite early in the proceedings. It was not that he was hungry, for he +never quite finished his own feed. At any rate he enjoyed the few weeks +before he died, pricking up his ears and getting quite excited when +anything happened, and the arrival of the dog-teams each morning after he +had been tethered sent him to bed with much to dream of. And I must say +his master dreamed pretty regularly too. Michael was killed right in +front of the Gateway on December 4, just before the big blizzard, which, +though we did not know it, was on the point of breaking upon us, and he +was untying his cloth and chewing up everything he could reach to the +last. "It was decided after we camped, and he had his feed already on: +Meares reported that he had no more food for the dogs. He walked away, +and rolled in the snow on the way down, not having done so when we got +in. He was just like a naughty child all the way, and pulled all out. He +has been a good friend, and has a good record, 82° 23´ S. He was a bit +done to-day: the blizzard had knocked him. Gallant little Michael!"[213] + +As we got into our bags the mountain tops were fuzzy with drift. We +wanted one clear day to get across the chasm: one short march and the +ponies' task was done. Their food was nearly finished. Scott wrote that +night: "We are practically through with the first stage of our +journey."[214] + +"Tuesday, December 5. Camp 30. Noon. We awoke this morning to a raging +howling blizzard. The blows we have had hitherto have lacked the very +fine powdering snow, that especial feature of the blizzard. To-day we +have it fully developed. After a minute or two in the open one is covered +from head to foot. The temperature is high, so that what falls or drives +against one sticks. The ponies--heads, tails, legs and all parts not +protected by their rugs--are covered with ice; the animals are standing +deep in snow, the sledges are almost covered, and huge drifts above the +tents. We have had breakfast, rebuilt the walls, and are now again in our +bags. One cannot see the next tent, let alone the land. What on earth +does such weather mean at this time of year? It is more than our share of +ill-fortune, I think, but the luck may turn yet.... + +"11 P.M. It has blown hard all day with quite the greatest snowfall I +remember. The drifts about the tents are simply huge. The temperature was +-27° this forenoon, and rose to +31° in the afternoon, at which time the +snow melted as it fell on anything but the snow, and, as a consequence, +there are pools of water on everything, the tents are wet through, also +the wind-clothes, night-boots, etc.; water drips from the tent poles and +door, lies on the floor-cloth, soaks the sleeping-bags, and makes +everything pretty wretched. If a cold snap follows before we have had +time to dry our things, we shall be mighty uncomfortable. Yet after all +it would be humorous enough if it were not for the seriousness of +delay--we can't afford that, and it's real hard luck that it should come +at such a time. The wind shows signs of easing down, but the temperature +does not fall and the snow is as wet as ever, not promising signs of +abatement. + +"Wednesday, December 6. Camp 30. Noon. Miserable, utterly miserable. We +have camped in the 'Slough of Despond.' The tempest rages with unabated +violence. The temperature has gone to +33°; everything in the tent is +soaking. People returning from the outside look exactly as though they +had been in a heavy shower of rain. They drip pools on the floor-cloth. +The snow is steadily climbing higher about walls, ponies, tents and +sledges. The ponies look utterly desolate. Oh! But this is too crushing, +and we are only 12 miles from the glacier. A hopeless feeling descends on +one and is hard to fight off. What immense patience is needed for such +occasions!"[215] + +Bowers describes the situation as follows: + +"It is blowing a blizzard such as one might expect to be driven at us by +all the powers of darkness. It may be interesting to describe it, as it +is my first experience of a really warm blizzard, and I hope to be +troubled by cold ones only, or at least moderate ones only, in future as +regards temperature. + +"When I swung the thermometer this morning I looked and looked again, but +unmistakably the temperature was +33°F., above freezing point (out of the +sun's direct rays) for the first time since we came down here. What this +means to us nobody can conceive. We try to treat it as a huge joke, but +our wretched condition might be amusing to read of it later. We are wet +through, our tents are wet, our bags which are our life to us and the +objects of our greatest care, are wet; the poor ponies are soaked and +shivering far more than they would be ordinarily in a temperature fifty +degrees lower. Our sledges--the parts that are dug out--are wet, our food +is wet, everything on and around and about us is the same--wet as +ourselves and our cold, clammy clothes. Water trickles down the tent +poles and only forms icicles in contact with the snow floor. The warmth +of our bodies has formed a snow bath in the floor for each of us to lie +in. This is a nice little catchwater for stray streams to run into before +they freeze. This they cannot do while a warm human lies there, so they +remain liquid and the accommodating bag mops them up. When we go out to +do the duties of life, fill the cooker, etc., for the next meal, dig out +or feed the ponies, or anything else, we are bunged up with snow. Not the +driving, sandlike snow we are used to, but great slushy flakes that run +down in water immediately and stream off you. The drifts are tremendous, +the rest of the show is indescribable. I feel most for the unfortunate +animals and am thankful that poor old Victor is spared this. I mended a +pair of half mitts to-day, and we are having two meals instead of three. +This idleness when one is simply jumping to go on is bad enough for most, +but must be worse for Captain Scott. I feel glad that he has Dr. Bill +(Wilson) in his tent; there is something always so reassuring about Bill, +he comes out best in adversity."[216] + +"Thursday, December 7. Camp 30. The storm continues and the situation is +now serious. One small feed remains for the ponies after to-day, so that +we must either march to-morrow or sacrifice the animals. That is not the +worst; with the help of the dogs we could get on, without doubt. The +serious part is that we have this morning started our Summit +rations--that is to say, the food calculated from the Glacier Depôt has +been begun. The first supporting party can only go on a fortnight from +this date and so forth."[217] + +[Illustration: A PONY CAMP ON THE BARRIER] + +[Illustration: THE DOG TEAMS LEAVING THE BEARDMORE GLACIER] + +This day was just as warm, and wetter--much wetter. The temperature was ++35.5°, and our bags were like sponges. The huge drifts had covered +everything, including most of the tent, the pony walls and sledges. At +intervals we dug our way out and dug up the wretched ponies, and got them +on to the top again. "Henceforward our full ration will be 16 oz. +biscuit, 12 oz. pemmican, 2 oz. butter, 0.57 oz. cocoa, 3.0 oz. sugar and +0.86 oz. tea. This is the Summit ration, total 34.43 oz., with a little +onion powder and salt. I am all for this: Seaman Evans and others are +much regretting the loss of chocolate, raisins and cereals. For the first +week up the glacier we are to go one biscuit short to provision Meares on +the way back. The motors depôted too much and Meares has been brought on +far farther than his orders were originally bringing him. Originally he +was to be back at Hut Point on December 10. The dogs, however, are +getting all the horse that is good for them, and are very fit. He has to +average 24 miles a day going back. Michael is well out of this: we are +now eating him. He was in excellent condition and tastes very good, +though tough."[218] + +By this time there was little sleep left for us as we lay in our +sleeping-bags. Three days generally see these blizzards out, and we hoped +much from Friday, December 8. But when we breakfasted at 10 A.M. (we were +getting into day-marching routine) wind and snow were monotonously the +same. The temperature rose to +34.3°. These temperatures and those +recorded by Meares on his way home must be a record for the interior of +the Barrier. So far as we were concerned it did not much matter now +whether it was +40° or +34°. Things did look really gloomy that morning. + +But at noon there came a gleam of comfort. The wind dropped, and +immediately we were out plunging about, always up to our knees in soft +downy snow, and often much farther. First we shifted our tents, digging +them up with the greatest care that the shovel might not tear them. The +valances were encased in solid ice from the water which had run down. +Then we started to find our sledges which were about four feet down: they +were dragged out, and everything on them was wringing wet. There was a +gleam of sunshine, which soon gave place to snow and gloom, but we +started to make experiments in haulage. Four men on ski managed to move a +sledge with four others sitting upon it. Nobby was led out, but sank to +his belly. As for the drifts I saw Oates standing behind one, and only +his head appeared, and this was all loose snow. + +"We are all sitting round now after some tea--it is much better than +getting into the bags. I can hardly think that the ponies can pull on, +but Titus thinks they can pull to-morrow; all the food is finished, and +what they have had to-day was only what they would not eat out of their +last feed yesterday. It is a terrible end--driven to death on no more +food, to be then cut up, poor devils. I have swopped the Little Minister +with Silas Wright for Dante's Inferno!"[219] The steady patter of the +falling snow upon the tents was depressing as we turned in, but the +temperature was below freezing. + +The next morning (Saturday, December 9) we turned out to a cloudy snowy +day at 5.30 A.M. By 8.30 we had hauled the sledges some way out of the +camp and started to lead out the ponies. "The horses could hardly move, +sank up to their bellies, and finally lay down. They had to be driven, +lashed on. It was a grim business."[220] + +My impressions of that day are of groping our way, for Bowers and I were +pulling a light sledge ahead to make the track, through a vague white +wall. First a confused crowd of men behind us gathered round the leading +pony sledge, pushing it forward, the poor beast barely able to struggle +out of the holes it made as it plunged forward. The others were induced +to follow, and after a start had been made the regular man-hauling party +went back to fetch their load. There was not one man there who would +willingly have caused pain to a living thing. But what else was to be +done--we could not leave our pony depôt in that bog. Hour after hour we +plugged on: and we dare not halt for lunch, we knew we could never start +again. After crossing many waves huge pressure ridges suddenly showed +themselves all round, and we got on to a steep rise with the coastal +chasm on our right hand appearing as a great dip full of enormous +pressure. Scott was naturally worried about crevasses, and though we knew +there was a way through, the finding of it in the gloom was most +difficult. For two hours we zig-zagged about, getting forward it is true, +but much bewildered, and once at any rate almost bogged. Scott joined us, +and we took off our ski so as to find the crevasses, and if possible a +hard way through. Every step we sank about fifteen inches, and often +above our knees. Meanwhile Snatcher was saving the situation in +snow-shoes, and led the line of ponies. Snippets nearly fell back into a +big crevasse, into which his hind quarters fell: but they managed to +unharness him, and scramble him out. + +I do not know how long we had been going when Scott decided to follow the +chasm. We found a big dip with hard ice underneath, and it was probably +here that we made the crossing: we could now see the ring of pressure +behind us. Almost it was decided to make the depôt here, but the ponies +still plugged on in the most plucky way, though they had to be driven. +Scott settled to go as far as they could be induced to march, and they +did wonderfully. We had never thought that they would go a mile: but +painfully they marched for eleven hours without a long halt, and covered +a distance which we then estimated at seven miles. But our sledge-meters +were useless being clogged with the soft snow, and we afterwards came to +believe the distance was not so great: probably not more than five. When +we had reached a point some two miles from the top of the snow divide +which fills the Gateway we camped, thankful to rest, but more thankful +still that we need drive those weary ponies no more. Their rest was near. +It was a horrid business, and the place was known as Shambles Camp. + +Oates came up to Scott as he stood in the shadow of Mount Hope. "Well! I +congratulate you, Titus," said Wilson. "And _I_ thank you, Titus," said +Scott. + +And that was the end of the Barrier Stage. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [181] Taylor, with Scott, _The Silver Lining_, pp. 325-326. + + [182] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 448. + + [183] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 449. + + [184] Ibid. p. 446. + + [185] See pp. 350, 552-556. + + [186] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 453. + + [187] Ibid. p. 452. + + [188] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 438-439. + + [189] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 450. + + [190] Bowers. + + [191] Bowers. + + [192] My own diary. + + [193] Bowers. + + [194] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 463. + + [195] Ibid. p. 462. + + [196] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 461. + + [197] Bowers. + + [198] Bowers. + + [199] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 465. + + [200] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 465. + + [201] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 468. + + [202] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 470, 471. + + [203] Bowers. + + [204] A note to Cape Evans is as follows:--MY DEAR SIMPSON. This + goes with Day and Hooper now returning. We are making fair + progress and the ponies doing fairly well. I hope we shall + get through to the glacier without difficulty, but to make + sure I am carrying the dog-teams farther than I intended at + first--the teams may be late returning, unfit for further + work or non-existent....--R. SCOTT. + + [205] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 474. + + [206] Ibid. p. 475. + + [207] Ibid. p. 476. + + [208] Ibid. p. 476. + + [209] Bowers. + + [210] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 483. + + [211] Bowers. + + [212] Bowers. + + [213] My own diary. + + [214] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 486. + + [215] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 486-489. + + [216] Bowers. + + [217] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 489. + + [218] My own diary. + + [219] My own diary. + + [220] Ibid. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +THE POLAR JOURNEY (_continued_) + + The Southern Journey involves the most important object of the + Expedition.... One cannot affect to be blind to the situation: + the scientific public, as well as the more general public, will + gauge the result of the scientific work of the Expedition largely + in accordance with the success or failure of the main object. + With success all roads will be made easy, all work will receive + its proper consideration. With failure even the most brilliant + work may be neglected and forgotten, at least for a time.--SCOTT. + +II. THE BEARDMORE GLACIER + + +The ponies had dragged twenty-four weekly units of food for four men to +some five miles from the bottom of the glacier, but we were late. For +some days we had been eating the Summit ration, that is the food which +should not have been touched until the Glacier Depôt had been laid, and +we were still a day's run from the place where this was to be done: it +was of course the result of the blizzard which no one could have expected +in December, usually one of the two most settled months. Still more +serious was the deep snow which lay like down upon the surface, and into +which we sank commonly to our knees, our sledges digging themselves in +until the crosspieces were ploughing through the drift. Shackleton had +fine weather, and found blue ice in the bottom reaches of the glacier, +and Scott lamented what was unquestionably bad luck. + +It was noon of December 10 before we had made the readjustments necessary +for man-hauling. We left here pony meat for man and dog food, three +ten-foot sledges, one twelve-foot sledge, and a good many oddments of +clothing and pony gear. We started with three four-man teams, each +pulling for these first few miles about 500 lbs., as follows: (I) Scott, +Wilson, Oates, Seaman Evans: (II) Lieut. Evans, Atkinson, Wright, Lashly: +(III) Bowers, Cherry-Garrard, Crean, Keohane. The team numbered (II) had +been man-hauling together some days, and two members of it, Lieut. Evans +and Lashly, had already been man-hauling since the breakdown of the +second motor at Corner Camp; it was certainly not so fit as the other +two. In addition to these three sledges the two dog-teams, which had been +doing splendid work, were carrying 600 lbs. of our weight as well as the +provisions for the Lower Glacier Depôt, weighing 200 lbs. It began to +look as if Amundsen had chosen the right form of transport. + +The Gateway is a gap in the mountains, a side door, as it were, to the +great tumbled glacier. By lunch we were on the top of the divide, but it +took six hours of the hardest hauling to cover the mile which formed the +rise. As long as possible we stuck to ski, but we reached a point at +which we could not move the sledges on ski: once we had taken them off we +were up to our knees, and the sledges were ploughing the snow which would +not support them. But our gear was drying in the bright sunshine, our +bags were spread out at every opportunity, and the great jagged cliffs of +red granite were welcome to the eyes after 425 statute miles of snow. The +Gateway is filled by a giant snowdrift which has been formed between +Mount Hope on our left and the mainland on our right. From Shackleton's +book we gathered that the Beardmore was a very bad glacier indeed. Once +on the top of the divide we lunched, and we descended in the evening, +camping at midnight on the edge of the glacier, which we found, as we had +feared, covered with soft snow which was so deep as to give no indication +whatever of the hard ice which Shackleton found here. "We camped in +considerable drift and a blizzard wind, which is still blowing, and I +hope will go on, for every hour it is sweeping away inches of this soft +powdery snow into which we have been sinking all day."[221] + +Before setting out on December 11 we rigged up the Lower Glacier Depôt, +three weekly Summit units of provisions, two cases of emergency biscuit +which was the ration for three weekly units, and two cans of oil. These +provisions were calculated to carry the three returning parties as far as +the Southern Barrier Depôt. We also left one can of spirit, used for +lighting the primus, one bottle of medical brandy and certain spare and +personal gear not required. On the sledges themselves we stowed eighteen +weekly Summit units, besides the three ready bags containing the ration +for the current week, and the complement of biscuit, for this was ten +cases in addition to the three boxes of biscuit which the three parties +were using. Then there were eighteen cans of oil, with two cans of +lighting spirit and a little additional Christmas fare which Bowers had +packed. Every unit of food was worked out for four men for one week. + +[Illustration: TRANSIT SKETCH FOR THE LOWER GLACIER DEPÔT.--E. A. Wilson, +del. Emery Walker Limited, Collotypers.] + +During this time of deep snow the sledge-meters would not work and we +were compelled to estimate the distance marched each day. "It has been a +tremendous slog, but I think a most hopeful day. Before starting it took +us about two hours to make the depôt and then we got straight into the +midst of the big pressure. The dogs, with ten cases of biscuit, came +behind and pulled very well. We soon caught sight of a big boulder, and +Bill and I roped up and went over to it. It was a block of very coarse +granite, nearly gneiss, with large crystals of quartz in it, rusty +outside and quite pinkish when chipped, and with veins of quartz running +through it. It was a vast thing to be carried along on the ice, and +looked very typical of the rock round. Instead of keeping under the great +cliff where Shackleton made his depôt, we steered for Mount Kyffin, that +is towards the middle of the glacier, until lunch, when we had probably +done about two or three miles. There was a crevasse wherever we went, but +we managed to pull on ski and had no one down, and the deep snow saved +the dogs."[222] The dog-teams were certainly running very big risks that +morning. They turned back after lunch, having been brought on far +longer than had been originally intended, for, as I have said, they were +to have been back at Hut Point before now, and their provision allowance +would not allow of further advance. Perhaps we rather overestimated the +dogs' capacities when Bowers wrote: "The dogs are wonderfully fit and +will rush Meares and Dimitri back like the wind. I expect he will be +nearly back by Christmas, as they will do about thirty miles a day." But +Meares told us when we got back to the hut that the dogs had by no means +had an easy journey home. Now, however, "with a whirl and a rush they +were off on the homeward trail. I could not see them (being snow-blind), +but heard the familiar orders as the last of our animal transport left +us."[223] + +Our difficulties during the next four days were increased by the +snow-blindness of half the men. The evening we reached the glacier Bowers +wrote: "I am afraid I am going to pay dearly for not wearing goggles +yesterday when piloting the ponies. My right eye has gone bung, and my +left one is pretty dicky. If I am in for a dose of snow glare it will +take three or four days to leave me, and I am afraid I am in the ditch +this time. It is painful to look at this paper, and my eyes are fairly +burning as if some one had thrown sand into them." And then: "I have +missed my journal for four days, having been enduring the pains of hell +with my eyes as well as doing the most back-breaking work I have ever +come up against.... I was as blind as a bat, and so was Keohane in my +team. Cherry pulled alongside me, with Crean and Keohane behind. By +sticking plaster over my glasses except one small central spot I shut off +most light and could see the points of my ski, but the glasses were +always fogged with perspiration and my eyes kept on streaming water which +cannot be wiped off on the march as a ski stick is held in each hand; and +so heavy were our weights [we had now taken on the weights which had been +on the dog sledges] that if any of the pair slacked a hand even, the +sledge stopped. It was all we could do to keep the sledge moving for +short spells of a few hundred yards, the whole concern sinking so deeply +into the soft snow as to form a snow-plough. The starting was worse than +pulling as it required from ten to fifteen desperate jerks on the harness +to move the sledge at all." Many others were also snowblind, caused +partly by the strain of the last march of the ponies, partly by not +having realized that now that we were day-marching the sun was more +powerful and more precautions should be taken. The cocaine and zinc +sulphate tablets which we had were excellent, but we also found that our +tea leaves, which had been boiled twice and would otherwise have been +thrown away, relieved the pain if tied into some cotton and kept pressed +against the eyes. The tannic acid in the tea acted as an astringent. A +snowblind man can see practically nothing anyhow and so he is not much +worse off if a handkerchief is tied over his eyes. + +"_Beardmore Glacier._ Just a tiny note to be taken back by the dogs. +Things are not so rosy as they might be, but we keep our spirits up and +say the luck must turn. This is only to tell you that I find I can keep +up with the rest as well as of old."[224] + +[Illustration: MOUNT F. L. SMITH AND THE LAND TO THE NORTH-WEST--E. A. +Wilson, del. Emery Walker Limited, Collotypers.] + +Then for the first time we were left with our full loads of 800 lbs. a +sledge. Even Bowers asked Scott whether he was going to try it without +relaying. That night Scott's diary runs: + +"It was a very anxious business when we started after lunch, about 4.30. +Could we pull our full loads or not? My own party got away first, and, to +my joy, I found we could make fairly good headway. Every now and again +the sledge sank in a soft patch, which brought us up, but we learned to +treat such occasions with patience. We got sideways to the sledge and +hauled it out, Evans (P.O.) getting out of his ski to get better +purchase. The great thing is to keep the sledge moving, and for an hour +or more there were dozens of critical moments when it all but stopped, +and not a few when it brought up altogether. The latter were very trying +and tiring."[225] Altogether it was an encouraging day and we reckoned we +had made seven miles. Generally it was not Scott's team which made the +heaviest weather these days but on December 12 they were in greater +difficulties than any of us. It was indeed a gruelling day, for the +surface was worse than ever and many men were snow-blind. After five +hours' work in the morning we were about half a mile forward. We were in +a sea of pressure, the waves coming at us from our starboard bow, the +distance between the crests not being very great. We could not have +advanced at all had it not been for our ski: "on foot one sinks to the +knees, and if pulling on a sledge to half way between knee and +thigh."[226] + +On December 13, "the sledges sank in over twelve inches, and all the +gear, as well as the thwartship pieces, were acting as breaks. The tugs +and heaves we enjoyed, and the number of times we had to get out of our +ski to upright the sledge, were trifles compared with the strenuous +exertion of every muscle and nerve to keep the wretched drag from +stopping when once under weigh; and then it would stick, and all the +starting operations had to be gone through afresh. We did perhaps half a +mile in the forenoon. Anticipating a better surface in the afternoon we +got a shock. Teddy [Evans] led off half an hour earlier to pilot a way, +and Captain Scott tried some fake with his spare runners [he lashed them +under the sledge to prevent the cross-pieces ploughing the snow] that +involved about an hour's work. We had to continually turn our runners up +to scrape the ice off them, for in these temperatures they are liable to +get warm and melt the snow on them, and that freezes into knobs of ice +which act like sandpaper or spikes on a pair of skates. We bust off +second full of hope having done so well in the forenoon, but pride goeth +[before a fall]. We stuck ten yards from the camp, and nine hours later +found us little more than half a mile on. I have never seen a sledge sink +so. I have never pulled so hard, or so nearly crushed my inside into my +backbone by the everlasting jerking with all my strength on the canvas +band round my unfortunate tummy. We were all in the same boat however. + +"I saw Teddy struggling ahead and Scott astern, but we were the worst off +as the leading team had topped the rise and I was too blind to pick out a +better trail. We fairly played ourselves out that time, and finally had +to give it up and relay. Halving the load we went forward about a mile +with it, and, leaving that lot, went back for the remainder. So done were +my team that we could do little more than pull the half loads. Teddy's +team did the same, and though Scott's did not, we camped practically the +same time, having gone over our distance three times. Mount Kyffin was +still ahead of us to the left: we seemed as if we can never come up with +it. To-morrow Scott decided that if we could not move our full loads we +would start relaying systematically. It was a most depressing outlook +after such a day of strenuous labour."[227] We got soaked with +perspiration these days, though generally pulling in vest, pants, and +windproof trousers only. Directly we stopped we cooled quickly. Two skuas +appeared at lunch, attracted probably by the pony flesh below, but it was +a long way from the sea for them to come. On Thursday December 14, Scott +wrote: "Indigestion and the soggy condition of my clothes kept me awake +for some time last night, and the exceptional exercise gives bad attacks +of cramp. Our lips are getting raw and blistered. The eyes of the party +are improving, I am glad to say. We are just starting our march with no +very hopeful outlook." + +[Illustration: MOUNT ELIZABETH, MOUNT ANNE AND SOCKS GLACIER--E. A. +Wilson, del. Emery Walker Limited, Collotypers.] + +But we slogged along with much better results. "Once into the middle of +the glacier we had been steering more or less for the Cloudmaker and by +supper to-day were well past Mount Kyffin and were about 2000 feet up +after an estimated run of 11 or 12 statute miles. But the most cheering +sign was that the blue ice was gradually coming nearer the surface; at +lunch it was two feet down, and at our supper camp only one foot. In +pitching our tent Crean broke into a crevasse which ran about a foot in +front of the door and there was another at Scott's door. We threw an +empty oil can down and it echoed for a terribly long time."[228] We +spent the morning of December 15 crossing a maze of crevasses though they +were well bridged; I believe all these lower reaches of the glacier are +badly crevassed, but the thick snow and our ski kept us from tumbling in. +There was a great deal of competition between the teams which was perhaps +unavoidable but probably a pity. This day Bowers' diary records, "Did a +splendid bust off on ski, leaving Scott in the lurch, and eventually +overhauling the party which had left some time before us. All the morning +we kept up a steady, even swing which was quite a pleasure." But the same +day Scott wrote, "Evans' is now decidedly the slowest unit, though +Bowers' is not much faster. We keep up and overhaul either without +difficulty." Bowers' team considered themselves quite good, but both +teams were satisfied of their own superiority; as a matter of fact +Scott's was the faster, as it should have been for it was certainly the +heavier of the two. + +"It was a very bad light all day, but after lunch it began to get worse, +and by 5 o'clock it was snowing hard and we could see nothing. We went on +for nearly an hour, steering by the wind and any glimpse of sastrugi, and +then, very reluctantly, Scott camped. It looks better now. The surface is +much harder and more wind-swept, and as a rule the ice is only six inches +underneath. We are beginning to talk about Christmas. We get very thirsty +these days in the warm temperatures: we shall feel it farther up when the +cold gets into our open pores and sunburnt hands and cracked lips. I am +plastering some skin on mine to-night. Our routine now is: turn out 5.30, +lunch 1, and camp at 7, and we get a short 8 hours' sleep, but we are so +dead tired we could sleep half into the next day: we get about 9½ hours' +march. Tea at lunch a positive godsend. We are raising the land to the +south well, and are about 2500 feet up, latitude about 84° 8´ S."[229] + +The next day, December 16, Bowers wrote: "We have had a really enjoyable +day's march, except the latter end of the afternoon. At the outset in the +forenoon my sledge was a bit in the lurch, and Scott drew steadily away +from us. I knew I could ordinarily hold my own with him, but for the +first two hours we dropped till we were several hundred yards astern; try +as I would to rally up my team we could gain nothing. On examining the +runners however we soon discovered the cause by the presence of a thin +film of ice. After that we ran easily. The thing one must avoid doing is +to touch them with the hand or mitt, as anything damp will make ice on +them. We usually turn the sledge on its side and scrape one runner at a +time with the back of our knives so as to avoid any chance of cutting or +chipping them. In the afternoon either the tea or the butter we had at +lunch made us so strong that we fairly overran the other team."[230] + +"We must push on all we can, for we are now 6 days behind Shackleton, all +due to that wretched storm. So far, since we got among the disturbances +we have not seen such alarming crevasses as I had expected; certainly +dogs could have come up as far as this."[231] + +[Illustration: MOUNT PATRICK--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +"At lunch we could see big pressure ahead having done first over five +miles. Soon after lunch, having gone down a bit, we rose among very rough +stuff. We plugged on until 4.30, when ski became quite impossible, and we +put them on the sledges and started on foot. We immediately began putting +legs down: one step would be on blue ice and the next two feet down into +snow: very hard going. The pressure ahead seemed to stretch right into a +big glacier next the Keltie Glacier to the east, and so we altered course +for a small bluff point about two-thirds of the way along the base of the +Cloudmaker. We were to camp at 6, but did not do so until about 6.30, the +last 1½ hours in big pressure, crossing big and smaller waves, and +hundreds of crevasses which one of us generally found. We are now camped +in very big pressure, and with difficulty we found a patch big enough to +pitch the tent free from crevasses. We are pretty well past the Keltie +Glacier which is a vast tumbled mass: there is a long line of ice falls +ahead, and I think there is a hard day ahead of us to-morrow among +that pressure which must be enormous. We can't go farther inshore here, +being under the north end of the Cloudmaker, and a fine mountain it is, +rising precipitously above us.[232] + +"Sunday, December 17. Nearly 11 miles. Temp. 12.5°. 3500 feet. We have +had an exciting day--this morning was just like the scenic railway at +Earl's Court. We got straight on to the big pressure waves, and headed +for the humpy rock at the base of the Cloudmaker. It was a hard plug up +the waves, very often standing pulls, and all that we could do for a +course was a very varied direction. Going down the other side was the +exciting part: all we could do was to set the sledge straight, hang on to +the straps, give her a little push and rush down the slope, which was +sometimes so sheer that the sledge was in the air. Sometimes there was no +chance to brake the sledge, and we all had to get on to the top, and we +rushed down with the wind whistling in our ears. After three hours of +this it levelled out again a bit, and we took the top of a wave, and ran +south along it on blue ice: enormous pressure to our right, largely I +think caused by the Keltie Glacier. Then we ascended a rise, snowy and +crevassed, and camped after doing just under five miles, with big +pressure ahead."[233] + +"In the afternoon we had a hard surface. Scott started off at a great +speed, Teddy [Evans] and I following. There was something wrong with my +team or my sledge, as we had a desperate job to keep up at first. We did +keep up all right, but were heartily glad when after about 2½ hours Scott +stopped for a spell. I rearranged our harness, putting Cherry and myself +on the long span again, which we had temporarily discarded in the +morning. We were both winded and felt wronged. The rearrangement was a +success however, and the remainder of the march was a pleasure instead of +a desperate struggle. It finished up on fields of blue rippled ice with +sharp knife edges, and snow patches few and far between. We are all +camped on a small snow patch in the middle of a pale blue rippled sea, +about 3600 feet above sea level and past the Cloudmaker, which means +that we are half way up the Glacier."[234] We had done 12½ miles +(statute). + +The Beardmore Glacier is twice as large as the Malaspina in Alaska, which +was the largest known glacier until Shackleton discovered the Beardmore. +Those who knew the Ferrar Glacier professed to find the Beardmore +unattractive, but to me at any rate it was grand. Its very vastness, +however, tends to dwarf its surroundings, and great tributary glaciers +and tumbled ice-falls, which anywhere else would have aroused admiration, +were almost unnoticed in a stream which stretched in places forty miles +from bank to bank. It was only when the theodolite was levelled that we +realized how vast were the mountains which surrounded us: one of which we +reckoned to be well over twenty thousand feet in height, and many of the +others must have approached that measurement. Lieutenant Evans and Bowers +were surveying whenever the opportunity offered, whilst Wilson sat on the +sledge or on his sleeping-bag, and sketched. + +Before leaving on the morning of December 18 we bagged off three +half-weekly units and made a depôt marked by a red flag on a bamboo which +was stuck into a small mound. Unfortunately it began to snow in the night +and no bearings were taken until the following morning when only the base +of the mountains on the west side was visible. We knew we might have +difficulty in picking up this depôt again, and certainly we all did. + +"It was thick, with low stratus clouds in the morning, and snow was +falling in large crystals. Our socks and finnesko, hung out to dry, were +covered with most beautiful feathery crystals. In the warm weather one +gets fairly saturated with perspiration on the march, and foot-gear is +always wet, except the outside covering which is as a rule more or less +frozen according to existing temperature. On camping at night I shift to +night foot-gear as soon as ever the tent is pitched, and generally slip +on my windproof blouse, as one cools down like smoke after the exertion +of man-hauling a heavy sledge for hours. At lunch camp one's feet often +get pretty cold, but this goes off as soon as some hot tea is got into +the system. As a rule, even when snowing, one's socks, etc., will dry if +there is a bit of a breeze. They are always frozen stiff in the morning +and can best be thawed out by bundling the lot [under one's] jersey +during breakfast. They can then be put on tolerably warm even if wet. + +"We started off on a hard rippled blue surface like a sea frozen intact +while the wind was playing on it. It soon got worse and we had to have +one and sometimes two hands back to keep the sledge from skidding. Of +course it was easy enough stuff to pull on, but the ground was very +uneven, and sledges constantly capsized. It did not improve the runners +either. There were few crevasses. + +"All day we went on in dull cloudy weather with hardly any land visible, +and the glacier to be seen only for a short distance. In the afternoon +the clouds lifted somewhat and showed us the Adam Mountains. The surface +was better for the sledges but worse for us, as there were countless +cracks and small crevasses, into which we constantly trod, barking our +shins. As the afternoon sun came round the perspiration fairly streamed +down, and it was impossible to keep goggles clear. The surface was so +slippery and uneven that it was difficult to keep one's foothold. However +we did 12½ miles, and felt that we had really done a good day's work when +we camped. It was not clear enough to survey in the evening, so I took +the sledge-meter in hand and worked at it half the night to repair +Christopher's damage.[235] I ended up by making a fixing of which I was +very proud, but did not dare to look at the time, so I don't know how +much sleep I missed. + +"There is no doubt that Scott knows where to aim for in a glacier, as it +was just here that Shackleton had two or three of his worst days' work, +in such a maze of crevasses that he said that often a slip meant death +for the whole party. He avoids the sides of the glacier and goes nowhere +near the snow: he often heads straight for apparent chaos and somehow, +when we appear to have reached a cul-de-sac, we find it an open +road."[236] However, we all found the trouble on our way back. + +"On our right we have now a pretty good view of the Adam, Marshall and +Wild Mountains, and their very curious horizontal stratification. Wright +has found, amongst bits of wind-blown débris, an undoubted bit of +sandstone and a bit of black basalt. We must get to know more of the +geology before leaving the glacier finally."[237] + +December 19, +7°. Total height 5800 feet. "Things are certainly looking +up, seeing that we have risen 1100 feet, and marched 17 to 18 statute +miles during the day, whereas Shackleton's last march was 13 statute. It +was still thick when we turned out at 5.45, but it soon cleared with a +fresh southerly wind, and we could see Buckley Island and the land at the +head of the glacier just rising. We started late for Birdie wanted to get +our sledge-meter dished up: it has been quite a job to-day getting it on, +but it rode well this afternoon. We started over the same crevassed +stuff, but soon got on to blue ice, and for two hours had a most pleasant +pull, and then up a steepish rise sometimes on blue ice and sometimes on +snow. After the pleasantest morning we have had, we completed 8½ miles. + +[Illustration: FROM MOUNT DEAKIN TO MOUNT KINSEY--E. A. Wilson, del. +Emery Walker Limited, Collotypers.] + +"Angles and observations were taken at lunch, and quite a lot of work was +done. There is a general getting squared up with gear, for we know that +those going on will not have many more days of warm temperatures. At one +time to-day I think Scott meant trying the right hand of the island or +nunatak, but as we rose this was obviously impossible, for there is a +huge mass of pressure coming down there. From here the Dominion Range +also looks as if it were a nunatak. Some of these mountains, which don't +look very big, are huge (since the six thousand feet which we have risen +have to be added on to them), and many of them are very grand indeed. The +Mill Glacier is a vast thing, with big pressure across it. There also +seems to be a big series of ice-falls between Buckley Island and the +Dominion Range, for the centre of which Scott is going to-morrow. A +pretty hard plug this afternoon, but no disturbance, and gradually we +have left the bare ice, and are mostly travelling on _névé_. Much of the +ice is white. I have been writing down angles and times for Birdie, and +writing this in the intervals. Scott's heel is troubling him again. ['I +have bad bruises on knee and thigh'],[238] and generally there has been a +run on the medical cases for chafes, and minor ailments. There is now a +keen southerly wind blowing. It gets a little colder each day, and we are +already beginning to feel it on our sunburnt faces and hands."[239] + +Of the crevasses met in the morning Bowers wrote: "So far nobody has +dropped down the length of his harness, as I did on the Cape Crozier +journey. On this blue ice they are pretty conspicuous, and as they are +mostly snow-bridged one is well advised to step over any line of snow. +With my short legs this was strenuous work, especially as the weight of +the sledge would often stop me with a jerk just before my leading foot +quite cleared a crevasse, and the next minute one would be struggling out +so as to keep the sledge on the move. It is fatal to stop the sledge as +nobody waits for stragglers, and you have to pick up your lost ground by +strenuous hurry. Of course some one often gets so far down a hole that it +is necessary to stop and help him out." + +December 20. "To-day has been a great march--over two miles an hour, and +on the whole rising a lot. Soon after starting we got on to the most +beautiful icy surface, smooth except for cracks and only patches of snow, +most of which we could avoid. We came along at a great rate. + +"The most interesting thing to see was that the Mill Glacier is not, as +was supposed, a tributary, but probably is an outlet falling from this +glacier, and a great size. However it was soon covered up with dense +black cloud, and there were billows of cloud behind us and below. + +"At lunch Birdie made the disastrous discovery that the registering dial +of his sledge-meter was off. A screw had shaken out on the bumpy ice, +and the clockwork had fallen off. This is serious for it means that one +of the three returning parties will have to go without, and their +navigation will be much more difficult. Birdie is very upset, especially +after all the trouble he has taken with it, and the hours which he has +sat up. After lunch he and Bill walked back near two miles in the tracks, +but could not see it. It was then getting very thick, coming over from +the north."[240] "It appeared to be blizzing down the glacier, though +clear to the south. The northerly wind drove up a back-draught of snow, +and very soon fogged us completely. However we found our way back to camp +by the crampon tracks on the blue ice and then packed up to leave."[241] + +"We started, making a course to hit the east side of the island where +there seems to be the only break in the ice-falls which stretch right +across. The weather lifted, and we are now camped with the island just to +our right, the long strata of coal showing plainly in it, and just in +front of us is this steep bit up through the falls. We have done nearly +23 statute miles to-day, pulling 160 lbs. a man. + +"This evening has been rather a shock. As I was getting my finnesko on to +the top of my ski beyond the tent Scott came up to me, and said that he +was afraid he had rather a blow for me. Of course I knew what he was +going to say, but could hardly grasp that I was going back--to-morrow +night. The returning party is to be Atch, Silas, Keohane and self. + +[Illustration: NIGHT CAMP. BUCKLEY ISLAND--December 20, 1911] + +"Scott was very put about, said he had been thinking a lot about it but +had come to the conclusion that the seamen with their special knowledge, +would be needed: to rebuild the sledge, I suppose. Wilson told me it was +a toss-up whether Titus or I should go on: that being so I think Titus +will help him more than I can. I said all I could think of--he seemed so +cut up about it, saying 'I think, somehow, it is specially hard on you.' +I said I hoped I had not disappointed him, and he caught hold of me and +said 'No--no--No,' so if that is the case all is well. He told me that at +the bottom of the glacier he was hardly expecting to go on himself: I +don't know what the trouble is, but his foot is troubling him, and also, +I think, indigestion."[242] + +Scott just says in his diary, "I dreaded this necessity of +choosing--nothing could be more heartrending." And then he goes on to sum +up the situation, "I calculated our programme to start from 85° 10´ with +12 units of food and eight men. We ought to be in this position to-morrow +night, less one day's food. After all our harassing trouble one cannot +but be satisfied with such a prospect."[243] + +December 21. Upper Glacier Depôt. "Started off with a nippy S.Wly. wind +in our faces, but bright sunshine. One's nose and lips being chapped and +much skinned with alternate heat and cold, a breeze in the face is +absolute agony until you warm up. This does not take long, however, when +pulling a sledge, so after the first quarter of an hour more or less one +is comfortable unless the wind is very strong. + +"We made towards the only place where it seemed possible to cross the +mass of pressure ice caused by the junction of the plateau with the +glacier, and congested between the nunatak [Buckley Island] and the +Dominion Range. Scott had considered at one time going up to westward of +the nunatak, but this appeared more chaotic than the other side. We made +for a slope close to the end of the island or nunatak, where Shackleton +must have got up also; it is obviously the only place when you look at it +from a commanding rise. We did not go quite so close to the land as +Shackleton did, and therefore, as had been the case with us all the way +up the glacier, found less difficulties than he met with. Scott is quite +wonderful in his selections of route, as we have escaped excessive +dangers and difficulties all along. In this case we had fairly good +going, but got into a perfect mass of crevasses into which we all +continually fell; mostly one foot, but often two, and occasionally we +went down altogether, some to the length of their harness to be hauled +out with the Alpine rope. Most of them could be seen by the strip of snow +on the blue ice. They were often too wide to jump though, and the only +thing was to plant your feet on the bridge and try not to tread heavily. +As a rule the centre of a bridged crevasse is the safest place, the +rotten places are at the edges. We had to go over dozens by hopping right +on to the bridge and then over on to the ice. It is a bit of a jar when +it gives way under you, but the friendly harness is made to trust one's +life to. The Lord only knows how deep these vast chasms go down, they +seem to extend into blue black nothingness thousands of feet below. + +"Before reaching the rise we had to go up and down many steep slopes, and +on the one side the sledges were overrunning us, and on the other it +fairly took the juice out of you to reach the top. We saw the +stratification on the nunatak which Shackleton supposed to be coal: there +was also much sandstone and red granite. I should like to have scratched +round these rocks: we may get a chance on our return journey. As we +topped each rise we found another one beyond it, and so on. + +"About noon some clouds settled in a fog round us, and being fairly in a +trough of crevasses we could not get on. Fortunately we found a snow +patch to pitch the tents on, but even there were crevasses under us. +However, we enjoyed a hearty lunch, and I improved the shining hour by +preparing my rations for the Upper Glacier Depôt. + +"At 3 P.M. it cleared, and Mount Darwin, a nunatak to the S.W. of the +others, could be seen. This we made for, and some two miles on exchanged +blue ice for the new snow which was much harder pulling. Scott was fairly +wound up, and he went on and on. Every rise topped seemed to fire him +with a desire to top the next, and every rise had another beyond and +above it. We camped at 8 P.M., all pretty weary, having come up nearly +1500 feet, and done over eleven miles in a S.W. direction. We were south +of Mount Darwin in 85° 7´ S., and our corrected altitude proved to be +7000 feet above the Barrier. I worked up till a very late hour getting +the depôt stores ready, and also weighing out and arranging allowances +for the returning party, and arranging the stores and distribution of +weights of the two parties going on. The temperature was down to zero +to-day, the lowest it has been for some time this summer weather."[244] + +"There is a very mournful air to-night--those going on and those turning +back. Bill came in while I was cooking, to say good-bye. He told me he +fully expected to come back with the next party: that he could see Scott +was going to take on the strongest fellows, perhaps three seamen. It +would be a great disappointment if Bill did not go on."[245] + +We gave away any gear which we could spare to those going on, and I find +the following in my diary: + +"I have been trying to give away my spare gear where it may be most +acceptable: finnesko to Birdie, pyjama trousers to Bill, and a bag of +baccy for Bill to give Scott on Christmas Day, some baccy to Titus, +jaeger socks and half my scarf to Crean, and a bit of handkerchief to +Birdie. Very tired to-night." + +Scott wrote: "We are struggling on, considering all things against odds. +The weather is a constant anxiety, otherwise arrangements are working +exactly as planned. + +"Here we are practically on the summit and up to date in the provision +line. We ought to get through."[246] + +FOOTNOTES: + + [221] My own diary. + + [222] My own diary. + + [223] Bowers. + + [224] Scott. + + [225] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 497. + + [226] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 499. + + [227] Bowers. + + [228] My own diary. + + [229] Ibid. + + [230] Bowers. + + [231] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 506. + + [232] My own diary. + + [233] Ibid. + + [234] Bowers. + + [235] See p. 332. + + [236] Bowers. + + [237] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 509. + + [238] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 510. + + [239] My own diary. + + [240] My own diary. + + [241] Bowers. + + [242] My own diary. + + [243] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 511-512. + + [244] Bowers. + + [245] My own diary. + + [246] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 513. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE POLAR JOURNEY (_continued_) + + People, perhaps, still exist who believe that it is of no + importance to explore the unknown polar regions. This, of course, + shows ignorance. It is hardly necessary to mention here of what + scientific importance it is that these regions should be + thoroughly explored. The history of the human race is a continual + struggle from darkness towards light. It is, therefore, to no + purpose to discuss the use of knowledge; man wants to know, and + when he ceases to do so, he is no longer man.--NANSEN. + +III. THE PLATEAU FROM MOUNT DARWIN TO LAT. 87° 32´ S. + + +_First Sledge_ _Second Sledge_ +SCOTT LIEUT. EVANS +WILSON BOWERS +OATES LASHLY +SEAMAN EVANS CREAN + +For the first week on the plateau Bowers wrote a full diary, which I give +below. After December 28 there are little more than fragmentary notes +until January 19, the day the party started to return from the Pole. From +then until January 25, he wrote fully; nothing after that until January +29, followed by more fragments to "February 3rd (I suppose)." That is the +last entry he made. + +But this is not surprising, even in a man of Bowers' energy. The time a +man can give to writing under such conditions is limited, and Bowers had +a great deal of it to do before he could think of a diary--the +meteorological log; sights for position as well as rating sights for +time; and all the routine work of weights, provisions and depôts. He +wrote no diary at the Pole, but he made a very full meteorological report +while there in addition to working out sights. The wonder is that he kept +a diary at all. + + * * * * * + +_From Bowers' Diary_ + +December 22. _Midsummer Day._ We have had a brilliant day with a +temperature about zero and no wind, altogether charming conditions. I +rigged up the Upper Glacier Depôt after breakfast. We depôted two +half-weekly units for return of the two parties, also all crampons and +glacier gear, such as ice-axes, crowbar, spare Alpine rope, etc., +personal gear, medical, and in fact everything we could dispense with. I +left my old finnesko, wind trousers and some other spare gear in a bag +for going back. + +The two advance parties' weights amounted to 190 lbs. per man. They +consisted of the permanent weights, twelve weeks' food and oil, spare +sledge runners, etc. We said good-bye and sent back messages and photo +films with the First Returning Party, which consisted of Atch, Cherry, +Silas and Keohane. It was quite touching saying farewell to our good +pals--they wished us luck, and Cherry, Atch and Silas quite overwhelmed +me. + +We went forward, the Owner's team as before consisting of Dr. Bill, Titus +and [Seaman] Evans, and [Lieut.] Teddy Evans and Lashly coming over to my +sledge and tent to join up with Crean and myself. We all left the depôt +cairn marked with two spare 10-feet sledge runners and a large black flag +on one. Our morning march was not so long as usual owing to making up the +depôt, but we did five miles uphill, hauling our heavier loads more +easily than the lighter ones yesterday. A fall in the temperature had +improved the surface. We had also sandpapered our runners after the +tearing up they had had on the glacier; this made a tremendous +difference. The afternoon march brought our total up to 10.6 miles for +the day on a S.W. course. + +We are steering S.W. with a view to avoiding ice-falls which Shackleton +met with. We came across very few crevasses; the few we found were as +broad as a street, and crossing them the whole party, sledge and all, +would be on the bridge at once. They only gave way at the edges, and we +did nothing worse than put our feet through now and then. The surface is +all snow now, névé and hard sastrugi, which seem to point to a strong +prevalent S.S.E. wind here. + +We are well clear of the land now, and it is a beautiful evening. I have +just taken six photographs of the Dominion Range. We can see many new +mountains. Our position by observation is 85° 13´ 29" S., 161° 54´ 45" +E., variation being 175° 45´. + +December 23. Turned out at usual time, 5.45 A.M. I am cook this week in +our tent. After breakfast built two cairns to mark spot and shoved off at +quarter to eight. + +We started up a big slope on a S.W. course to avoid the pressure which +lay across our track to the southward. It was a pretty useful slog up the +rise, at one time it seemed as if we would never top the slope. We +stopped for five minutes to look round after 2½ hours' hard plugging and +about 1½ hours later reached the top, from which we could see the distant +mountains which have so recently been our companions. They are beginning +to look pretty magnificent. The top of the great pressure ridge was +running roughly S.E. and N.W.: it was one of a succession of ridges which +probably cover an area of fifty or sixty square miles. In this +neighbourhood Shackleton met them almost to 86½° south. At the top of the +ridge were vast crevasses into which we could have dropped the Terra Nova +easily. The bridges were firm, however, except at the sides, though we +had frequent stumbles into the conservatory roof, so to speak. The +sledges were rushed over them without mishap. We had to head farther west +to clear disturbances, and at one time were going W.N.W. + +At lunch camp we had done 8½ miles, and in the afternoon we completed +fifteen on a S.W. course over improved ground. Our routine is to actually +haul our sledges for nine hours a day; five in the morning, 7.15 A.M. +till 1 P.M.; and four in the afternoon, 2.30 P.M.-6.30 P.M. We turn out +at 5.45 A.M. just now. The loads are still pretty heavy, but the surface +is remarkably good considering all things. One gets pretty weary towards +the end of the day; all my muscles have had their turn at being +[stiffened] up. These hills are giving my back ones a reminder, but they +will ache less to-morrow and finally cease to do so, as is the case with +legs, etc., which had their turn first. + +December 24. _Christmas Eve._ We started off heading due south this +morning, as we are many miles to the westward of Shackleton's course and +should if anywhere be clear of the ice-falls and pressure. Of course no +mortals having been here, one can only conjecture; as a matter of fact, +we found later in the day that we were not clear by any means, and had to +do a bit of dodging about to avoid disturbances, as well as mount vast +ridges with the tops of them a chaos of crevasses. The tops are pretty +hard ice-snow, over which the sledges run easily; it is quite a holiday +after slogging up the slopes on the softer surface with our heavy loads, +which amount to over 190 lbs. per man. + +We mark our night camp by two cairns and our lunch camp by single ones. +It is doubtful, however, among these ridges, if we will ever pick them up +again, and it does not really matter, as we have excellent land for the +Upper Glacier Depôt. We completed fourteen miles and turned in as usual +pretty tired. + +December 25. _Christmas Day._ A strange and strenuous Christmas for me, +with plenty of snow to look at and very little else. The breeze that had +blown in our faces all yesterday blew more freshly to-day, with surface +drift. It fairly nipped one's nose and face starting off--until one got +warmed up. We had to pull in wind blouses, as though one's body kept warm +enough on the march the arms got numbed with the penetrating wind no +matter how vigorously they were swung. Another thing is that one cannot +stop the team on the march to get clothes on and off, so it is better to +go the whole hog and be too hot than cause delays. We had the addition of +a little pony meat for breakfast to celebrate the day. I am the cook of +our tent this week. + +We steered south again and struck our friends the crevasses and climbed +ridges again. About the middle of the morning we were all falling in +continually, but Lashly in my team had the worst drop. He fell to the +length of his harness and the trace. I was glad that having noticed his +rope rather worn, I had given him a new one a few days before. He jerked +Crean and me off our feet backwards, and Crean's harness being jammed +under the sledge, which was half across an eight-feet bridge, he could do +nothing. I was a little afraid of sledge and all going down, but +fortunately the crevasse ran diagonally. We could not see Lashly, for a +great overhanging piece of ice was over him. Teddy Evans and I cleared +Crean and we all three got Lashly up with the Alpine rope cut into the +snow sides which overhung the hole. We then got the sledge into safety. + +To-day is Lashly's birthday; he is married and has a family; is 44 years +of age, and due for his pension from the service. He is as strong as most +and is an undefeated old sportsman. Being a chief stoker, R.N., his +original job was charge of one of the ill-fated motor sledges. + +[The following is Lashly's own account: + +"Christmas Day and a good one. We have done 15 miles over a very changing +surface. First of all it was very much crevassed and pretty rotten; we +were often in difficulties as to which way we should tackle it. I had the +misfortune to drop clean through, but was stopped with a jerk when at the +end of my harness. It was not of course a very nice sensation, especially +on Christmas Day, and being my birthday as well. While spinning round in +space like I was it took me a few seconds to gather together my thoughts +and see what kind of a place I was in. It certainly was not a fairy's +place. When I had collected myself I heard some one calling from above, +'Are you all right, Lashly?' I was all right it is true, but I did not +care to be dangling in the air on a piece of rope, especially when I +looked round and saw what kind of a place it was. It seemed about 50 feet +deep and 8 feet wide, and 120 feet long. This information I had ample +time to gain while dangling there. I could measure the width with my ski +sticks, as I had them on my wrists. It seemed a long time before I saw +the rope come down alongside me with a bowline in it for me to put my +foot in and get dragged out. It was not a job I should care to have to go +through often, as by being in the crevasse I had got cold and a bit +frost-bitten on the hands and face, which made it more difficult for me +to help myself. Anyhow Mr. Evans, Bowers and Crean hauled me out and +Crean wished me many happy returns of the day, and of course I thanked +him politely and the others laughed, but all were pleased I was not hurt +bar a bit of a shake. It was funny although they called to the other team +to stop they did not hear, but went trudging on and did not know until +they looked round just in time to see me arrive on top again. They then +waited for us to come up with them. The Captain asked if I was all right +and could go on again, which I could honestly say 'Yes' to, and at night +when we stopped for dinner I felt I could do two dinners in. Anyhow we +had a pretty good tuck-in. Dinner consisted of pemmican, biscuits, +chocolate éclair, pony meat, plum pudding and crystallized ginger and +four caramels each. We none of us could hardly move."[247]] + +We had done over eight miles at lunch. I had managed to scrape together +from the Barrier rations enough extra food to allow us a stick of +chocolate each for lunch, with two spoonfuls of raisins each in our tea. +In the afternoon we got clear of crevasses pretty soon, but towards the +end of the afternoon Captain Scott got fairly wound up and went on and +on. The breeze died down and my breath kept fogging my glasses, and our +windproofs got oppressively warm and altogether things were pretty +rotten. At last he stopped and we found we had done 14¾ miles. He said, +"What about fifteen miles for Christmas Day?" so we gladly went +on--anything definite is better than indefinite trudging. + +We had a great feed which I had kept hidden and out of the official +weights since our departure from Winter Quarters. It consisted of a good +fat hoosh with pony meat and ground biscuit; a chocolate hoosh made of +water, cocoa, sugar, biscuit, raisins, and thickened with a spoonful of +arrowroot. (This is the most satisfying stuff imaginable.) Then came 2½ +square inches of plum-duff each, and a good mug of cocoa washed down the +whole. In addition to this we had four caramels each and four squares of +crystallized ginger. I positively could not eat all mine, and turned in +feeling as if I had made a beast of myself. I wrote up my journal--in +fact I should have liked somebody to put me to bed. + +December 26. We have seen many new ranges of mountains extending to the +S.E. of the Dominion Range. They are very distant, however, and must +evidently be the top of those bounding the Barrier. They could only be +seen from the tops of the ridges as waves up which we are continually +mounting. Our height yesterday morning by hypsometer was 8000 feet. That +is our last hypsometer record, as I had the misfortune to break the +thermometer. The hypsometer was one of my chief delights, and nobody +could have been more disgusted than myself at its breaking. However, we +have the aneroid to check the height. We are going gradually up and up. +As one would expect, a considerable amount of lassitude was felt over +breakfast after our feed last night. The last thing on earth I wanted to +do was to ship the harness round my poor tummy when we started. As usual +a stiff breeze from the south and a temperature of -7° blew in our faces. +Strange to say, however, we don't get frost-bitten. I suppose it is the +open-air life. + +I could not tell if I had a frost-bite on my face now, as it is all +scales, so are my lips and nose. A considerable amount of red hair is +endeavouring to cover up matters. We crossed several ridges, and after +the effects of over-feeding had worn off did a pretty good march of +thirteen miles. + +[No more Christmas Days, so no more big hooshes.[248]] + +December 27. There is something the matter with our sledge or our team, +as we have an awful slog to keep up with the others. I asked Dr. Bill and +he said their sledge ran very easily. Ours is nothing but a desperate +drag with constant rallies to keep up. We certainly manage to do so, but +I am sure we cannot keep this up for long. We are all pretty well done up +to-night after doing 13.3 miles. + +Our salvation is on the summits of the ridges, where hard névé and +sastrugi obtain, and we skip over this slippery stuff and make up lost +ground easily. In soft snow the other team draw steadily ahead, and it is +fairly heart-breaking to know you are putting your life out hour after +hour while they go along with little apparent effort. + +December 28. The last few days have been absolutely cloudless, with +unbroken sunshine for twenty-four hours. It sounds very nice, but the +temperature never comes above zero and what Shackleton called "the +pitiless increasing wind" of the great plateau continues to blow at all +times from the south. It never ceases, and all night it whistles round +the tents, all day it blows in our faces. Sometimes it is S.S.E., or S.E. +to S., and sometimes even S. to W., but always southerly, chiefly +accompanied by low drift which at night forms quite a deposit round the +sledges. We expected this wind, so we must not growl at getting it. It +will be great fun sailing the sledges back before it. As far as weather +is concerned we have had remarkably fine days up here on this limitless +snow plain. I should like to know what there is beneath us--mountains and +valleys simply levelled off to the top with ice? We constantly come +across disturbances which I can only imagine are caused by the peaks of +ice-covered mountains, and no doubt some of the ice-falls and crevasses +are accountable to the same source. Our coming west has not cleared them, +as we have seen more disturbances to the west, many miles away. However, +they are getting less and less, and are now nothing but featureless rises +with apparently no crevasses. Our first two hours' pulling to-day.... + + * * * * * + +_From Lashly's Diary_ + +December 29, 1911. A nasty head wind all day and low drift which +accumulates in patches and makes it the deuce of a job to get along. We +have got to put in long days to do the distance. + +December 30, 1911. Sledges going heavy, surface and wind the same as +yesterday. We depôted our ski to-night, that is the party returning +_to-morrow_, when we march in the forenoon and camp to change our sledge +runners into 10 feet. Done 11 miles but a bit stiff. + +December 31, 1911. After doing 7 miles we camped and done the sledges +which took us until 11 P.M., and we had to dig out to get them done by +then, made a depôt and saw the old year out and the new year in. We all +wondered where we should be next New Year. It was so still and quiet; the +weather was dull and overcast all night, in fact we have not seen much of +the sun lately; it would be so nice if we could sometimes get a glimpse +of it, the sun is always cheering. + +January 1912. _New Year's Day._ We pushed on as usual, but were rather +late getting away, 9.10--something unusual for us to be as late. The +temperature and wind is still very troublesome. We are now ahead of +Shackleton's dates and have passed the 87th parallel, so it is only 180 +miles to the Pole. + +January 2, 1912. The dragging is still very heavy and we seem to be +always climbing higher. We are now over 10,000 feet above sea level. It +makes it bad as we don't get enough heat in our food and the tea is not +strong enough to run out of the pot. Everything gets cold so quickly, the +water boils at about 196° F. + + * * * * * + +Scott's own diary of this first fortnight on the plateau shows the +immense shove of the man: he was getting every inch out of the miles, +every ounce out of his companions. Also he was in a hurry, he always was. +That blizzard which had delayed him just before the Gateway, and the +resulting surfaces which had delayed him in the lower reaches of the +glacier! One can feel the averages running through his brain: so many +miles to-day: so many more to-morrow. When shall we come to an end of +this pressure? Can we go straight or must we go more west? And then the +great undulating waves with troughs eight miles wide, and the buried +mountains, causing whirlpools in the ice--how immense, and how annoying. +The monotonous march: the necessity to keep the mind concentrated to +steer amongst disturbances: the relief of a steady plod when the +disturbances cease for a time: then more pressure and more crevasses. +Always slog on, slog on. Always a fraction of a mile more.... On December +30 he writes, "We have caught up Shackleton's dates."[249] + +They made wonderful marches, averaging nearly fifteen statute miles (13 +geog.) a day for the whole-day marches until the Second Return Party +turned back on January 4. Scott writes on December 26, "It seems +astonishing to be disappointed with a march of 15 (statute) miles when I +had contemplated doing little more than 10 with full loads."[250] + +The Last Returning Party came back with the news that Scott must reach +the Pole with the greatest ease. This seemed almost a certainty: and yet +it was, as we know now, a false impression. Scott's plans were based on +Shackleton's averages over the same country. The blizzard came and put +him badly behind: but despite this he caught Shackleton up. No doubt the +general idea then was that Scott was going to have a much easier time +than he had expected. We certainly did not realize then, and I do not +think Scott himself had any notion of, the price which had been paid. + +Of the three teams of four men each which started from the bottom of the +Beardmore, Scott's team was a very long way the strongest: it was the +team which, with one addition, went to the Pole. Lieutenant Evans' team +had mostly done a lot of man-hauling already: it was hungry and I think a +bit stale. Bowers' team was fresh and managed to keep up for the most +part, but it was very done at the end of the day. Scott's own team went +along with comparative ease. From the top of the glacier two teams went +on during the last fortnight of which we have been speaking. The first of +them was Scott's unit complete, just as it had pulled up the glacier. The +second team consisted, I believe, of the men whom Scott considered to be +the strongest; two from Evans' team, and two from Bowers'. All Scott's +team were fresh to the extent that they had done no man-hauling until we +started up the glacier. But two of the other team, Lieutenant Evans and +Lashly, had been man-hauling since the breakdown of the second motor on +November 1. They had man-hauled four hundred statute miles farther than +the rest. Indeed Lashly's man-hauling journey from Corner Camp to beyond +87° 32´ S., and back, is one of the great feats of polar travelling. + +Surely and not very slowly, Scott's team began to wear down the other +team. They were going easily when the others were making heavy weather +and were sometimes far behind. During the fortnight they rose, according +to the corrected observations, from 7151 feet (Upper Glacier Depôt) to +9392 feet above sea level (Three Degree Depôt). The rarefied air of the +Plateau with its cold winds and lower temperatures, just now about -10° +to -12° at night and -3° during the day, were having their effect on the +second team, as well as the forced marches. This is quite clear from +Scott's diary, and from the other diaries also. What did not appear until +after the Last Returning Party had turned homewards was that the first +team was getting worn out too. This team which had gone so strong up the +glacier, which had done those amazingly good marches on the plateau, +broke up unexpectedly and in some respects rapidly from the 88th parallel +onwards. + +Seaman Evans was the first man to crack. He was the heaviest, largest, +most muscular man we had, and that was probably one of the main reasons: +for his allowance of food was the same as the others. But one mishap +which contributed to his collapse seems to have happened during this +first fortnight on the plateau. On December 31 the 12-feet sledges were +turned into 10-feet ones by stripping off the old scratched runners which +had come up the glacier and shipping new 10-feet ones which had been +brought for the purpose. This job was done by the seamen, and Evans +appears to have had some accident to his hand, which is mentioned several +times afterwards. + +Meanwhile Scott had to decide whom he was going to take on with him to +the Pole,--for it was becoming clear that in all probability he _would_ +reach the Pole: "What castles one builds now hopefully that the Pole is +ours," he wrote the day after the supporting party left him. The final +advance to the Pole was, according to plan, to have been made by four +men. We were organized in four-man units: our rations were made up for +four men for a week: our tents held four men: our cookers held four mugs, +four pannikins and four spoons. Four days before the Supporting Party +turned, Scott ordered the second sledge of four men to depôt their ski. +It is clear, I suppose, that at this time he meant the Polar Party to +consist of four men. I think there can be no doubt that he meant one of +those men to be himself: "for your own ear also, I am exceedingly fit and +can go with the best of them," he wrote from the top of the glacier.[251] + +He changed his mind and went forward a party of five: Scott, Wilson, +Bowers, Oates and Seaman Evans. I am sure he wished to take as many men +as possible to the Pole. He sent three men back: Lieutenant Evans in +charge, and two seamen, Lashly and Crean. It is the vivid story of those +three men, who turned on January 4 in latitude 87° 32´, which is told by +Lashly in the next chapter. Scott wrote home: "A last note from a hopeful +position. I think it's going to be all right. We have a fine party going +forward and arrangements are all going well."[252] + +Ten months afterwards we found their bodies. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [247] Lashly's diary. + + [248] Lashly's diary. + + [249] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 525. + + [250] Ibid. p. 521. + + [251] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 513. + + [252] Ibid. p. 529. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE POLAR JOURNEY (_continued_) + + THE DEVIL. And these are the creatures in whom you discover what + you call a Life Force! + + DON JUAN. Yes; for now comes the most surprising part of the + whole business. + + THE STATUE. What's that? + + DON JUAN. Why, that you can make any of these cowards brave by + simply putting an idea into his head. + + THE STATUE. Stuff! As an old soldier I admit the cowardice: it's + as universal as sea sickness, and matters just as little. But + that about putting an idea into a man's head is stuff and + nonsense. In a battle all you need to make you fight is a little + hot blood and the knowledge that it's more dangerous to lose than + to win. + + DON JUAN. That is perhaps why battles are so useless. But men + never really overcome fear until they imagine they are fighting + to further a universal purpose--fighting for an idea, as they + call it. + + BERNARD SHAW, _Man and Superman._ + +IV. RETURNING PARTIES + + +Two Dog Teams (Meares and Dimitri) turned back from the bottom of the +Beardmore Glacier on December 11, 1911. They reached Hut Point on January +4, 1912. + +First Supporting Party (Atkinson, Cherry-Garrard, Wright, Keohane) turned +back in lat. 85° 15´ on December 22, 1911. They reached Hut Point January +26, 1912. + +Last Supporting Party (Lieut. Evans, Lashly, Crean) turned back in lat. +87° 32´ on January 4, 1912. They reached Hut Point February 22, 1912. + +Of the three teams which started up the Beardmore Glacier the first to +return, a fortnight after starting the Summit Rations, was known as the +First Supporting Party: the second to return, a month after starting the +Summit Rations, was known as the Last Supporting Party. Of the two +dog-teams under Meares, which had already turned homewards at the bottom +of the glacier after having been brought forward farther than had been +intended, I will speak later.[253] + +I am going to say very little about the First Return Party, which +consisted of Atkinson, Wright, Keohane and myself. Atkinson was in +command, and before we left Scott told him to bring the dog-teams out to +meet the Polar Party if, as seemed likely, Meares returned home. Atkinson +is a naval surgeon and you will find this party referred to in Lashly's +diary as "the Doctor's." + +"It was a sad job saying good-bye. It was thick, snowing and drifting +clouds when we started back after making the depôt, and the last we saw +of them as we swung the sledge north was a black dot just disappearing +over the next ridge and a big white pressure wave ahead of them.... Scott +said some nice things when we said good-bye. Anyway he has only to +average seven miles a day to get to the Pole on full rations--it's +practically a cert for him. I do hope he takes Bill and Birdie. The view +over the ice-falls and pressure by the Mill Glacier from the top of the +ice-falls is one of the finest things I have ever seen. Atch is doing us +proud."[254] + +No five hundred mile journey down the Beardmore and across the Barrier +can be uneventful, even in midsummer. We had the same dreary drag, the +same thick weather, fears and anxieties which other parties have had. A +touch of the same dysentery and sickness: the same tumbles and crevasses: +the same Christmas comforts, a layer of plum pudding at the bottom of our +cocoa, and some rocks collected from a moraine under the Cloudmaker: the +same groping for tracks: the same cairns lost and found, the same +snow-blindness and weariness, nightmares, food dreams.... Why repeat? +Comparatively speaking it was a very little journey: and yet the distance +from Cape Evans to the top of the Beardmore Glacier and back is 1164 +statute miles. Scott's Southern Journey of 1902-3 was 950 statute miles. + +One day only is worth recalling. We got into the same big pressure above +the Cloudmaker which both the other parties experienced. But where the +other two parties made east to get out of it, we went west at Wright's +suggestion: west was right. The day really lives in my memory because of +the troubles of Keohane. He fell into crevasses to the full length of his +harness eight times in twenty-five minutes. Little wonder he looked a bit +dazed. And Atkinson went down into one chasm head foremost: the worst +crevasse fall I've ever seen. But luckily the shoulder straps of his +harness stood the strain and we pulled him up little the worse. + +All three parties off the plateau owed a good deal to Meares, who, on his +return with the two dog-teams, built up the cairns which had been +obliterated by the big blizzard of December 5-8. The ponies' walls were +drifted level with the surface, and Meares himself had an anxious time +finding his way home. The dog tracks also helped us a good deal: the dogs +were sinking deeply and making heavy weather of it. + +[Illustration: ADAMS MOUNTAINS] + +[Illustration: Cherry-Garrard. Keohane. Atkinson--FIRST RETURN PARTY] + +At the Barrier Depôts we found rather despondent notes from Meares about +his progress. To the Southern Barrier Depôt he had uncomfortably high +temperatures and a very soft surface, and found the cairns drifted up and +hard to see. At the Middle Barrier Depôt we found a note from him dated +December 20. "Thick weather and blizzards had delayed him, and once he +had got right off the tracks and had been out from his camp hunting for +them. They were quite well: a little eye strain from searching for +cairns. He was taking a little butter from each bag [of the three depôted +weekly units], and with this would have enough to the next depôt on short +rations."[255] At the Upper Glacier Depôt [Mount Hooper] the news from +Meares was dated Christmas Eve, in the evening: "The dogs were going +slowly but steadily in very soft stuff, especially his last two days. +He was running short of food, having only biscuit crumbs, tea, some +cornflour, and half a cup of pemmican. He was therefore taking fifty +biscuits, and a day's provisions for two men from each of our units. He +had killed one American dog some camps back: if he killed more he was +going to kill Krisravitza who he said was the fattest and laziest. We +shall take on thirty biscuits short."[256] Meares was to have turned +homewards with the two dog-teams in lat. 81° 15´. Scott took him on to +approximately 83° 35´. The dogs had the ponies on which to feed: to make +up the deficiency of man-food we went one biscuit a day short when going +up the Beardmore: but the dogs went back slower than was estimated and +his provisions were insufficient. It was evident that the dog-teams would +arrive too late and be too done to take out the food which had still to +be sledged to One Ton for the three parties returning from the plateau. +It was uncertain whether a man-hauling party with such of this food as +they could drag would arrive at the depôt before us.[257] We might have +to travel the 130 geographical miles from One Ton to Hut Point on the +little food which was already at that depôt and we were saving food by +going on short rations to meet this contingency if it arose. Judge +therefore our joy when we reached One Ton in the evening of January 15 to +find three of the five XS rations which were necessary for the three +parties. A man-hauling party consisting of Day, Nelson, Hooper and +Clissold had brought out this food; they left a note saying the crevasses +near Corner Camp were bad and open. Day and Hooper had reached Cape Evans +from the Barrier[258] on December 21: they started out again on this +depôt-laying trip on December 26. + +It is a common experience for men who have been hungry to be ill after +reaching plenty of food. Atkinson was not at all well during our journey +in to Hut Point, which we reached without difficulty on January 26. + +When I was looking for data concerning the return of the Last Supporting +Party of which no account has been published, I wrote to Lashly and asked +him to meet and tell me all he could remember. He was very willing, and +added that somewhere or other he had a diary which he had written: +perhaps it might be of use? I asked him to send it me, and was sent some +dirty thumbed sheets of paper. And this is what I read: + + _3rd January 1912._ + +Very heavy going to-day. This will be our last night together, as we are +to return to-morrow after going on in the forenoon with the party chosen +for the Pole, that is Capt. Scott, Dr. Wilson, Capt. Oates, Lieut. Bowers +and Taff Evans. The Captain said he was satisfied we were all in good +condition, fit to do the journey, but only so many could go on, so it was +his wish Mr. Evans, Crean and myself should return. He was quite aware we +should have a very stiff job, but we told him we did not mind that, +providing he thought they could reach the Pole with the assistance we had +been able to give them. The first time I have heard we were having mules +coming down to assist us next year. I was offering to remain at Hut +Point, to be there if any help was needed, but the Captain said it was +his and also Capt. Oates' wish if the mules arrived I was to take charge +of and look after them until their return; but if they did not arrive +there was no reason why I should not come to Hut Point and wait their +return. We had a long talk with the owner [Scott] in our tent about +things in general and he seemed pretty confident of success. He seemed a +bit afraid of us getting hung up, but as he said we had a splendid +navigator, who he was sure he could trust to pull us through. He also +thanked us all heartily for the way we had assisted in the Journey and he +should be sorry when we parted. We are of course taking the mail, but +what a time before we get back to send it. We are nearly as far as +Shackleton was on his Journey. I shall not write more to-night, it is too +cold. + + _4th January 1912._ + +We accompanied the Pole party for about five miles and everything seemed +to be going pretty well and Capt. Scott said they felt confident they +could pull the load quite well, so there was no more need for us to go +on farther; so we stopped and did all the talking we could in a short +time. We wished them every success and a safe return, and asked each one +if there was anything we could do for them when we got back, but they +were all satisfied they had left nothing undone, so the time came for the +last handshake and good-bye. I think we all felt it very much. They then +wished us a speedy return and safe, and then they moved off. We gave them +three cheers, and watched them for a while until we began to feel cold. +Then we turned and started for home. We soon lost sight of each other. We +travelled a long time so as to make the best of it while the weather was +suitable, as we have to keep up a good pace on the food allowance. It +wont do to lay up much. One thing since we left Mt. Darwin, we have had +weather we could travel in, although we have not seen the sun much of +late. We did 13 miles as near as we can guess by the cairns we have +passed. We have not got a sledge meter so shall have to go by guess all +the way home. + +[Owing to the loss of a sledge meter on the Beardmore Glacier one of the +three parties had to return without one. A sledge meter gives the +navigator his dead reckoning, indicating the miles travelled, like the +log of a ship. To be deprived of it in a wilderness of snow without +landmarks adds enormously to the difficulties and anxieties of a sledge +party.] + + _5th January 1912._ + +We were up and off this morning, the weather being fine but the surface +is about the same, the temperature keeps low. We have got to change our +pulling billets. Crean has become snow-blind to-day through being leader, +so I shall have the job to-morrow, as Mr. Evans seems to get blind rather +quickly, so if I lead and he directs me from behind we ought to get along +pretty well. I hope my eyes will keep alright. We made good 17 miles and +camped. + + _6th January 1912._ + +We are making good progress on the surface we have to contend with. We +picked up the 3 Degree Depôt soon after noon, which puts us up to time. +We took our provision for a week. We have got to reach Mt. Darwin Depôt, +a distance of 120 miles, with 7 days' provisions. We picked up our ski +and camped for the night. We have been wondering if the others have got +the same wind as us. If so it is right in their face, whereas it is at +our back, a treat to what it is facing it. Crean's eyes are pretty bad +to-night. Snow-blindness is an awful complaint, and no one I can assure +you looks forward with pleasure when it begins to attack. + + _7th January 1912._ + +We have had a very good day as far as travelling goes, the wind has been +behind us and is a great help to us. We have been on ski all day for the +first time. It seems a good change to footing it, the one thing day after +day gets on one's nerves. Crean's eyes are a bit better to-day, but far +from being well. The temperature is pretty low, which dont improve the +surface for hauling, but we seem to be getting along pretty well. We have +no sledge meter so we have to go by guess. Mr. Evans says we done 17½ +miles, but I say 16½. I am not going to over-estimate our day's run, as I +am taking charge of the biscuits so that we dont over-step the mark. This +we have all agreed to so that we should exactly know how we stand, from +day to day. I am still leading, not very nice as the light is bad. We +caught a glimpse of the land to the east of us, but could only have been +a mirage. + + _8th January 1912._ + +On turning out this morning we found it was blowing a bliz. so it was +almost a case of having to remain in camp, but on second thoughts we +thought it best to kick off as we cant afford to lay up on account of +food, so thought it best to push on. I wonder if the Pole Party have +experienced this. If so they could not travel as it would be in their +face, where we have got it at our back. We have lost the outward bound +track, so have decided to make a straight line to Mt. Darwin, which will +be on Shackleton's course according to his and Wild's Diary. + +[Each of the three parties which went forward up the Beardmore Glacier +carried extracts from the above diaries. Wild was Shackleton's right-hand +man in his Southern Journey in 1908.] + + _9th January 1912._ + +Travelling is very difficult, bad light and still blizzing; it would have +been impossible to keep in touch with the cairns in this weather. I am +giving 12 miles to-night. The weather have moderated a bit and looks a +bit more promising. Can see land at times. + + _10th January 1912._ + +The light is still very bad, with a good deal of drift, but we must push +on as we are a long way from our depôt, but we hope to reach it before +our provisions run out. I am keeping a good eye on them. Crean's eyes +have got alright again now. + + _11th January 1912._ + +Things are a bit better to-day. Could see the land alright and where to +steer for. It is so nice to have something to look at, but I am thinking +we shall all have our work cut out to reach the depôt before our +provisions run short. I am deducting a small portion each meal so that we +shall not have to go without altogether if we don't bring up at the +proper time. Have done about 14 miles. + + _12th January 1912._ + +The day has been full of adventure. At first we got into some very rough +stuff, with plenty of crevasses. Had to get rid of the ski and put our +thinking cap on, as we had not got under way long before we were at the +top of some ice-falls; these probably are what Shackleton spoke of. We +could see it meant a descent of 600/700 feet, or make a big circuit, +which meant a lot of time and a big delay, and this we cant afford just +now, so we decided on the descent into the valley. This proved a +difficult task, as we had no crampons, having left them at Mt. Darwin +Depôt; but we managed after a time by getting hold of the sledge each +side and allowing her to run into a big lump of pressure which was we +knew a risky thing to do. It took us up to lunch time to reach the +valley, where we camped for lunch, where we all felt greatly relieved, +having accomplished the thing safely, no damage to ourselves or the +sledge, but we lost one of Crean's ski sticks. Some of the crevasses we +crossed were 100 to 200 feet wide, but well bridged in the centre, but +the edges were very dangerous indeed. This is where the snow and ice +begins to roll down the glacier. After starting on our way again we found +we had to climb the hill. Things dont look very nice ahead again +to-night. We dont seem to be more than a day's run from the depôt, but it +will surprise me if we reach it by to-morrow night; if not we shall have +to go on short rations, as our supply is nearly run out, and we have not +lost any time, but we knew on starting we had to average 15½ miles per +day to reach it in time. + + _13th January 1912._ + +This has been a very bad day for us, what with ice-falls and crevasses. +We feel all full up to-night. The strain is tremendous some days. We are +camped, but not at the depôt, but we hope to pick it up some time +to-morrow. We shall be glad to get off the Summit, as the temperature is +very low. We expected the party would have reached the Pole yesterday, +providing they had anything of luck. + +[Scott reached the Pole on January 17.] + + _14th January 1912._ + +Sunday, we reached the Mt. Darwin Depôt at 2 P.M. and camped for lunch. +We had just enough now for our meal; this is cutting it a bit fine. We +have now taken our 3½ days' allowance, which has got to take us another +57 miles to the Cloudmaker Depôt. This we shall do if we all keep as fit +as we seem just now. We left a note at the depôt to inform the Captain of +our safe arrival, wishing them the best of a journey home. We are quite +cheerful here to-night, after having put things right at the depôt, where +we found the sugar exposed to the sun; it had commenced to melt, but we +put everything alright before we left, and picked up our crampons and +got away as soon as we could. We know there is not much time to spare. We +are now beginning to descend rapidly. To-night it is quite warm, and our +tea and food is warmer. Things are going pretty favourable. We are +looking forward to making good runs down the glacier. We have had some +very heavy dragging lately [up] the sharp rises we found on the outward +journey. After a sharp rise we found a long gradual run down, two and +three miles in length. We noticed this on our outward journey and +remarked on it, but coming back the long uphill drag we found out was +pretty heavy work. + + _15th January 1912._ + +Had a good run to-day but the ice was very rough and very much crevassed, +but with crampons on we made splendid progress. We did not like to stop, +but we thought it would not be advisable to overdo our strength as it is +a long way to go yet. + + _16th January 1912._ + +We made good headway again to-day, but to-night we camped in some very +rough ice and pressure ridges. We are under the impression we are +slightly out of our proper course, but Mr. Evans thinks we cant be very +far out either way, and Crean and I are of the same opinion according to +the marks on the land. Anyhow we hope to get out of it in the morning and +make the Cloudmaker Depôt by night. We shall then feel safe, but the +weather dont look over promising again to-night, I am thinking. So far we +have not had to stop for weather. We have wondered if the Pole Party have +been as lucky with the weather as we have. They ought by now to be +homeward bound. We have more chance now of writing as the temperature is +much better down here. To-night we have been discussing how the dogs got +home, and also the progress made by the Doctor's [Atkinson] Party. They +ought to be nearing home. We have thought of the time it will take us to +reach it at the rate we are getting along now. + + _17th January 1912._ + +We have to-day experienced what we none of us ever wants to be our lot +again. I cannot describe the maze we got into and the hairbreadth escapes +we have had to pass through to-day. This day we shall remember all our +lives. The more we tried to get clear the worse the pressure got; at +times it seemed almost impossible for us to get along, and when we had +got over the places it was more than we could face to try and retreat; so +we struggled on for hours to try and free ourselves, but everything +seemed against us. I was leading with a long trace so that I could get +across some of the ridges when we thought it possible to get the sledge +over without being dashed down into the fathomless pits each side of us +which were too numerous to think of. Often and often we saw openings +where it was possible to drop the biggest ship afloat in and loose her. +This is what we have travelled over all day. It has been a great strain +on us all, and Mr. Evans is rather down and thinks he has led us into +such a hole, but as we have told him it is no fault of his, as it is +impossible for anyone coming down the glacier to see what is ahead of +them, so we must be thankful that we are so far safe. To-night we seem to +be in a better place. We have camped not being able to reach the depôt, +which we are certain is not far off. Dont want many days like this. + +[Illustration: BELOW THE CLOUDMAKER] + + _18th January 1912._ + +We started off all in good spirits trusting we should be able to reach +the depôt all in good time, but we had not got far before we came into +pressure far worse than we were in yesterday. My God! what a day this +have been for us all. I cannot describe what we really have to-day come +through, no one could believe that we came through with safety, if we had +only had a camera we could have obtained some photographs that would have +surprised anyone living. We travelled all day with very little food, as +we are a day and a half overdue, but when we got clear, I can say "clear" +now because I am dotting down this at the depôt where we have arrived. I +had managed to keep behind just a small amount of biscuit and a drop of +tea to liven us up to try and reach the depôt, which we reached at 11 +P.M. after one of the most trying days of my life. Shall have reason to +never forget the 17 and 18 of January, 1912. To-night Mr. Evans is +complaining of his eyes, more trouble ahead! + + _19th January 1912._ + +After putting the depôt in order and re-arranging things, we kicked off +again for D. [Lower Glacier] Depôt. Mr. Evans' eyes were very bad on +starting this morning, but we made a pretty good start. I picked some +rock to-day which I intend to try and get back with, as it is the only +chance we have had of getting any up to the present, and it seemed a +funny thing: the rock I got some pieces of looked as if someone before me +had been chipping some off. I wonder if it was the Doctor's party, but we +could not see any trace of their sledge, but we could account for that, +as it was all blue ice and not likely to leave any marks behind. After +travelling for some distance we got on the same ridge as we ran along on +the outward Journey and passed what we took to be the Doctor's Xmas Camp. +We had not gone far past before we got into soft snow, so we decided to +camp for lunch. Mr. Evans' eyes being very bad indeed, we are travelling +now on our own, I am leading and telling him the course I am steering, +that is the different marks on the mountains, but we shall keep on this +ridge for some distance yet. After lunch to-day we did not proceed far +before we decided to camp, the surface being so bad and Mr. Evans' eyes +so bad, we thought it would do us all good to have a rest. Last night we +left a note for Capt. Scott, but did not say much about our difficulties +just above the Cloudmaker, as it would be better to tell him when we see +him. + + _20th January 1912._ + +We did not get away very smart to-day, but as we found the surface very +soft, we decided to go on ski. Mr. Evans is still suffering with his eyes +and badly, after getting his ski on we tied him on to the trace so that +he could help to drag a bit, when we were troubling about the ridges we +came over on our outward Journey, but strange to say we never +encountered any ridges at all and the surface, although very soft, was +the best I have ever sledged over ever since I have been at it. We +fancied on our left or to the west we saw what we took to be the ridges +what we seem to have missed altogether, although Mr. Evans have been +blind and could not see anything at all we have made splendid progress +and covered at least 20 miles, as near as we can guess. We passed to-day +one of the Doctor's homeward bound camps, and kept on their track for +some time, but finally lost it. We are camped to-night and we all feel +confident we shall, if the weather remains good, reach the depôt +to-morrow night. + + _21st January 1912._ + +Sunday: We started off as usual, again on ski, the weather again being +favourable. Mr. Evans' eyes is still bad, but improving. It will be a +good job when they are better. I picked up our outward bound course soon +after we started this morning and asked Mr. Evans if I should try and +keep it, as it will save him the trouble of directing me, and another +thing we came out without going through any crevasses and I have noticed +a good many crevasses to-day what seems to be very dangerous ones, and on +two occasions where our sledges [on the outward journey] had gone over, +two of the crevasses had fallen through. We accomplished the journey from +the Cloudmaker to this depôt in three days. We all feel quite proud of +our performance. Mr. Evans is a lot better to-night and old Tom is giving +us a song while he is covering up the tent with snow. We have re-arranged +the depôt and left our usual note for Capt. Scott, wishing them a speedy +return. To-morrow we hope to see and reach the Barrier, and be clear of +the Beardmore for ever. We none of us minds the struggle we have been +through to attain the amount of success so far reached. It is all for the +good of science, as Crean says. We reached the depôt at 6.45 P.M. + +[Illustration: FROM MOUNT KYFFIN TO MOUNT PATRICK--E. A. Wilson, del. +Emery Walker Limited, Collotypers.] + + _22nd January 1912._ + +We made a good start this morning and Mr. Evans' eyes is got pretty well +alright again, so things looks a bit brighter. After starting we soon +got round the corner from the Granite Pillars to between the mainland and +Mt. Hope, on rising up on the slope between the mountain and the +mainland, as soon as we sighted the Barrier, Crean let go one huge yell +enough to frighten the ponies out of their graves of snow, and no more +Beardmore for me after this. When we began to descend on to the Barrier +it only required one of us to drag the sledge down to within a mile of +the pony and sledge depôt, after exchanging our sledge as arranged, +picking up a small amount of pony meat, and fitted up bamboo for mast so +that we shall be able to fix up a sail when favourable, we proceeded on +our way to cross the Barrier. We have now 360 miles to travel +geographically to get to Hut Point. Mr. Evans complained to me while +outside the tent that he had a stiffness at the back of his legs behind +the knees. I asked him what he thought it was, and he said could not +account for it, so if he dont soon get rid of it I am to have a look and +see if anything is the matter with him, as I know from what I have seen +and been told before the symptoms of scurvy is pains and swelling behind +the knee round the ankle and loosening of the teeth, ulcerated gums. +To-night I watched to see his gums, and I am convinced he is on the point +of something anyhow, and this I have spoken to Crean about, but he dont +seem to realise it. But I have asked him to wait developments for a time. +It seems we are in for more trouble now, but lets hope for the best. + + _23rd January 1912._ + +We got away pretty well and did a good journey, having covered about 14 +miles over a fairly good surface. We have passed the Blizzard Camp and +glad of it too, again to-day we saw in several places where the bridges +on the crevasses had fallen through. A good job they none of them fell +through when we were going over them as the width would have taken all +through with them, and in every case where they had fallen through was +where we had gone over, as the mark of the sledge was very distinct in +each case. Mr. Evans seems better to-day. + + _24th January 1912._ + +Did a good run to-day over a good surface. The weather have been very +warm, not much to write to-night as everything is going well. + + _25th January 1912._ + +Started off in very thick weather, the temperature is very high and the +snow is wet and clogging all day on our ski, which made dragging heavy, +and towards evening it got worse. After lunch we got a good breeze for an +hour, when it changed to a blizzard and almost rained. We saw the depôt +ahead sometimes, so we tried to reach it as we thought we might be in for +another few days like we had near the land on our outward journey. Anyhow +we reached it after a tremendous struggle owing to the wet and bad light. +I took off my ski and carried them on my shoulder to finish up the last +half a mile. The blizzard died down after we had camped and turned in for +the night. Looked at the thermometer which showed 34. + + _26th January 1912._ + +This have been a most wonderful day for surface. This morning when we +started the thermometer stood at 34, much too high for sledging. We were +on ski or we might have been on stilts for the amount of snow clogging on +our ski, dont know how we should have got on without our ski, as the snow +was so very soft we sank right in when we tried to go on foot, but we +were fortunate to get the wind behind us and able to make use of the +sail. We made a very good day of it, did 13 miles: 8 of this after lunch. +I did not feel well outside the tent this morning. I came over quite +giddy and faint, but it passed off quickly and have felt no more of it +all day. + + _27th January 1912._ + +We had a good run to-day with the sail up. It only required one of us to +keep it straight, no need whatever to pull, but it was very hot, anyone +could take off all their clothes and march. It is really too hot for this +part of the world, but I daresay we shall soon get it a bit colder. Did +14½ miles, it is nice to be able to see the tracks and cairns of our +outward journey. We feel satisfied when we have done a good day and in +good time. Mr. Evans is now suffering from looseness of the bowels. Crean +had a touch of it a few days ago, but he is quite alright again. + + _28th January 1912._ + +To-day it have been a very heavy drag. The snow is still very soft and +the sun very hot, it fairly scorches anyone's face. We are almost black +now and our hair is long and getting white through being exposed to the +light, it gets bleached. I am glad to say it is cooler to-night, +generally. We got over 12½ miles again to-day. Mr. Evans is still very +loose in his bowels. This, of course, hinders us, as we have had to stop +several times. Only another few more Sundays and we hope to be safely +housed at Hut Point, or Cape Evans. We have now been out 97 days. + + _29th January 1912._ + +Another good day was helped by the sail all day. One man could again +manage for about two hours. The weather is still very warm, plus 20 +again. Did 16½ miles, only 14 to the next depôt. Mr. Evans is still +suffering from the same complaint: have come to the conclusion to stop +his pemmican, as I feel that it have got something to do with him being +out of sorts. Anyhow we are going to try it. Gave him a little brandy and +he is taking some chalk and opium pills to try and stop it. His legs are +getting worse and we are quite certain he is suffering from scurvy, at +least he is turning black and blue and several other colours as well. + + _30th January 1912._ + +Very bad light but fair wind, picked up the depôt this evening. Did the +14 miles quite in good time, after taking our food we found a shortage of +oil and have taken what we think will take us to the next depôt. There +seems to have been some leakage in the one can, but how we could not +account for that we have left a note telling Capt. Scott how we found it, +but they will have sufficient to carry them on to the next depôt, but we +all know the amount of oil allowed on the Journey is enough, but if any +waste takes place it means extra precautions in the handling of it. Mr. +Evans is still without pemmican and seems to have somewhat recovered from +the looseness, but things are not by a long way with him as they should +be. Only two more depôts now to pick up. + + _31st January 1912._ + +Another very good run to-day but the light being very bad we had to +continually stop and steer by compass. This a difficult task, especially +as there was no wind to help keep on the course, but it have cleared +again to-night, the temperature is plus 20 in the day and 10 at night +just now. Did 13 miles. Mr. Evans is allowed a little pemmican as the +work is hard and it wants a little warm food to put life into anyone in +this part of the world. + + + _1st February 1912._ + +We had a very fine day but a very heavy pull, but we did 13 miles. Mr. +Evans and myself have been out 100 days to-day. I have had to change my +shirt again. This is the last clean side I have got. I have been wearing +two shirts and each side will now have done duty next the skin, as I have +changed round each month, and I have certainly found the benefit of it, +and on the point we all three agree. Mr. Evans is still gradually worse: +it is no good closing our eyes to the fact. We must push on as we have a +long way to go yet. + + _2nd February 1912._ + +A very bad light again to-day: could not make much progress, only did 11 +miles, but we must think ourselves lucky we have not had to lay up and +get delayed, but we have had the wind and more behind us, otherwise we +should have had to stop. Mr. Evans is no better but seems to be in great +pain, but he keeps quite cheerful we are pleased to say. + + _3rd February 1912._ + +This morning we were forced to put Mr. Evans on his ski and strap him on, +as he could not lift his legs. I looked at them again and found they are +rapidly getting worse, things are looking serious on his part, but we +have been trying to pump him up he will get through alright, but he +begins to think different himself, but if we get to One Ton and can get a +change of food it may relieve him. He is a brick, there is plenty of +pluck: one cannot but admire such pluck. The light have been dreadful all +day and I seemed to have got a bit depressed at times, not being able to +see anything to know where I was on the course or not and not getting a +word from Mr. Evans. I deliberately went off the course to see if anyone +was taking notice but to my surprise I was quickly told I was off the +course. This I thought, but wanted to know if he was looking out, which +he was. It came on to bliz after we camped, we ought to reach Mt. Hooper +to-morrow night. + + _4th February 1912._ + +Started in splendid weather, but the surface was bad and dragging was +very heavy, but it improved as the day went on, and we arrived at the +depôt at 7.40 P.M. We are now 180 miles from Hut Point, and this Sunday +night we hope to be only two more Sundays on the Barrier. No improvement +in Mr. Evans, much worse. We have taken out our food and left nearly all +the pemmican as we dont require it on account of none of us caring for +it, therefore we are leaving it behind for the others. They may require +it. We have left our note and wished them every success on their way, but +we have decided it is best not to say anything about Mr. Evans being ill +or suffering from scurvy. This old cairn have stood the weather and is +still a huge thing. + + _5th February 1912._ + +Had a very fine day and a good light all day, which makes things much +more cheerful. Did not get away before 9 o'clock but we did 11½ miles, it +is gradually getting colder. Mr. Evans is still getting worse, to-day he +is suffering from looseness in the bowels: shall have to stop his +pemmican. + + _6th February 1912._ + +Another fine day but sun was very hot and caused us to sweat a good deal, +but we dont mind as we are pretty used to such changes. We shall soon be +looking for land ahead, which will be Mt. Discovery or Mt. Erebus, we +have 155 miles to go to Hut Point: done alright again 13½ miles, we do +wonderfully well especially as Mr. Evans have got to go very slowly first +off after stopping until he gets the stiffness out of his legs, but he is +suffering a good deal and in silence, he never complains, but he dont get +much sleep. We shall all be glad when we arrive at One Ton, where there +is a change of food for us all. The pemmican is too much, especially when +the weather is warm. + + _7th February 1912._ + +A very fine day but heavy going. We are bringing the land in sight. The +day have been simply lovely, did 12 miles. No better luck with our +patient, he gets along without a murmur. We have got to help him in and +out of the tent, but we have consulted on the matter and he is determined +to go to the last, which we know is not far off, as it is difficult for +him to stand, but he is the essence of a brick to keep it up, but we +shall have to drag him on the sledge when he cant go any further. + + _8th February 1912._ + +To-day have been very favourable and fine, we had a good breeze and set +sail after lunch. If we get a good day to-morrow we hope to reach One +Ton. Mr. Evans have passed a good deal of blood to-day, which makes +things look a lot worse. I have to do nearly everything for him now. + + _9th February 1912._ + +A very fine day and quite warm. Reached the depôt at 5.5 P.M. and we all +had a good feed of oatmeal. Oh, what a God-send to get a change of food! +We have taken enough food for 9 days, which if we still keep up our +present rate of progress it ought to take us in to Hut Point. We cannot +take too heavy a load, as there is only the two of us pulling now, and +this our last port of call before we reach Hut Point, but things are not +looking any too favourable for us, as our leader is gradually getting +lower every day. It is almost impossible for him to get along, and we +are still 120 miles from Hut Point. + + _10th February 1912._ + +We did a good march, in very thick weather. To-night we are camped and I +am sorry to say Mr. Evans is in a very bad state. If this is scurvy I am +sorry for anyone it attacks. We shall do our utmost to get him back +alive, although he is so ill, he is very cheerful, which is very good and +tries to do anything to help us along. We are thinking the food, now we +have got a change, may improve things. I am very pleased to say Crean and +myself are in the best of health, which we are thankful for. + + _11th February 1912._ + +To-day we built a cairn and left all our gear we could do without, as it +is impossible for us to drag the load now, and Mr. Evans we think is +doing well as long as he can keep on his legs. We have had a very bad +light all day, and to-night we have a bliz on us, so we had to camp +early. Our day's run has been 11 miles. We are now about 99 miles from +our base. + + _12th February 1912._ + +We did not get away until 10 o'clock on account of bad weather, but after +we put Mr. Evans on his ski he went on slowly. It is against our wish to +have to send him on a little in advance, but it is best as we shall have +to drag him out of this we are certain. He has fainted on two or three +occasions, but after a drop of brandy he has been able to proceed, but it +is very awkward, especially as the temperature is so low. We are afraid +of his getting frost-bitten. Our progress is very slow, the light is very +bad, and it is seldom we see the land. + + _13th February 1912._ + +We got away in good time, but progress was slow, and Mr. Evans could not +go, and we consulted awhile and came to the conclusion it would be best +to put him on the sledge, otherwise he may not pull through, so we +stopped and camped, and decided to drop everything we can possibly do +without, so we have only got our sleeping bags, cooker, and what little +food and oil we have left. Our load is not much, but Mr. Evans on the +sledge makes it pretty heavy work for us both, but he says he is +comfortable now. This morning he wished us to leave him, but this we +could not think of. We shall stand by him to the end one way or other, so +we are the masters to-day. He has got to do as we wish and we hope to +pull him through. This morning when we depôted all our gear I changed my +socks and got my foot badly frostbitten, and the only way was to fetch it +round. So although Mr. Evans was so bad he proposed to stuff it on his +stomach to try and get it right again. I did not like to risk such a +thing as he is certainly very weak, but we tried it, and it succeeded in +bringing it round, thanks to his thoughtfulness, and I shall never forget +the kindness bestowed on me at a critical time in our travels, but I +think we could go to any length of trouble to assist one another; in such +time and such a place we must trust in a higher power to pull us through. +When we pack up now and have to move off we have to get everything ready +before we attempt to move the tent, as it is impossible for our leader +now to stand, therefore it is necessary to get him ready before we start. +We then pull the sledge alongside his bag and lift him on to it and strap +him on. It is a painful piece of work and he takes it pretty well, but we +can't help hurting him, as it is very awkward to lift him, the snow being +soft and the light so bad, but he dont complain. The only thing we hear +him grind his teeth. + + _14th February 1912._ + +Another good start after the usual preparation, we have not got much to +pack, but it takes us some time, to get our invalid ready, the surface is +very bad and our progress is very slow, but we have proposed to go longer +hours and try to cover the distance, that is if we can stick it +ourselves. + + _15th February 1912._ + +We started in fine weather this morning, but it soon came over thick and +progress became slow. We had to continually consult the compass, as we +have had no wind to assist us, but after awhile the sun peeped out and +the wind sprang up and we were able to set sail, which helped us put in +a good march. + + _16th February 1912._ + +To-day it have been a very heavy drag all day, and the light is very bad, +but we had the pleasure of seeing Castle Rock and Observation Hill. We +uncovered Mr. Evans to let him have a look and we have reduced our ration +now to one half as it is impossible for us to reach Hut Point under four +days, that is if everything goes favourable with us. + + _17th February 1912._ + +To-day it has been thick, this morning soon after we started we saw what +we thought was the dog tent [the two dog-teams going out to meet the +Polar Party], a thing we had been looking for to try and get relief, but +when we came up to it we found it was only a piece of biscuit box stuck +on an old camp for a guide. It shows how deceiving the things here are. I +can tell you our hopes were raised, but on reaching it they dropped again +considerably. We were able to see the land occasionally, and during one +of the breaks this afternoon we spotted the motor. Oh, what joy! We again +uncovered Mr. Evans to let him have a look and after trudging along for +another three hours we brought up alongside it and camped for the night. +We are now only a little over 30 miles from Hut Point: if we could only +see the dogs approaching us, but they, we think, may have passed us while +the weather have been thick. Mr. Evans is getting worse every day, we are +almost afraid to sleep at night as he seems very weak. If the temperature +goes much lower it will be a job to keep him warm. We have found some +biscuits here at the motor but nothing else, but that will assist greatly +on our way. The slogging have been heavy all day. We are pretty tired +to-night. I dont think we have got the go in us we had, but we must try +and push on. + + _18th February 1912._ + +I started to move Mr. Evans this morning, but he completely collapsed and +fainted away. Crean was very upset and almost cried, but I told him it +was no good to create a scene but put up a bold front and try to assist. +I really think he thought Mr. Evans had gone, but we managed to pull him +through. We used the last drop of brandy. After awhile we got him on the +sledge and proceeded as usual, but finding the surface very bad and we +were unable to make less than a mile an hour, we stopped and decided to +camp. We told Mr. Evans of our plans, which were: Crean should proceed, +it being a splendid day, on foot to Hut Point to obtain relief if +possible. This we had agreed to between ourselves. I offered to do the +Journey and Crean remain behind, but Tom said he would much rather I +stayed with the invalid and look after him, so I thought it best I should +remain, and these plans were agreed to by all of us, so after we had +camped the next thing was the food problem. We had about a day's +provisions with extra biscuit taken from the motor, and a little extra +oil taken from the same place, so we gave Crean what he thought he could +manage to accomplish the Journey of 30 miles geographical on, which was a +little chocolate and biscuits. We put him up a little drink, but he would +not carry it. What a pity we did not have some ski, but we dumped them to +save weight. So Crean sailed away in splendid weather for a try to bring +relief. I was in a bit of a sweat all day and remained up to watch the +weather till long after midnight. I was afraid of the weather, but it +kept clear and I thought he might have reached or got within easy +distance of Hut Point; but there was the possibility of his dropping down +a crevasse, but that we had to leave to chance, but none the more it was +anxious moments as if it comes on to drift the weather is very +treacherous in these parts. After Crean left I left Mr. Evans and +proceeded to Corner Camp which was about a mile away, to see if there was +any provisions left there that would be of use to us. I found a little +butter, a little cheese, and a little treacle that had been brought there +for the ponies. I also went back to the motor and got a little more oil +while the weather was fine. I also got a large piece of burbery and tied +on a long bamboo and stuck up a big flag on our sledge so that anyone +could not pass our way without seeing us or our flag. I found a note left +at Corner Camp by Mr. Day saying there was a lot of very bad crevasses +between there and the sea ice, especially off White Island. This put me +in a bit of a fix, as I, of course, at once thought of Crean. He being on +foot was more likely to go down than he would had he been on ski. I did +not tell Mr. Evans anything about the crevasses, as I certainly thought +it would be best kept from him. I just told him the note was there and +all was well. + + _19th February 1912._ + +To-day Mr. Evans seems a bit better and more cheerful, the rest will do +him good and assist in getting a little strength. We have been wondering +when relief will reach us, but we cannot expect it for at least a day or +two yet at the earliest. It was very thick this morning and also very +cold. The temperature is dropping rapidly. Our tent was all covered in +frost rime to-day, a sure sign of colder weather. It was very thick this +morning but cleared as the day advanced, but we could not see Hut Point. +I wonder if poor old Tom reached alright. We have very little food now +except biscuit, but oil is better. We have got ½ gallon and if relief +dont come for some time we shall be able to have hot water when all other +things are gone. I have thought out a plan for the future, in case of no +relief coming, but of course we took all things into consideration in +case of failure, but we must hope for the best. Of course I know it is no +use thinking of Mr. Evans being able to move any further as he cant stand +at all, the only thing is, we may have missed the dogs, if so there is +still a chance of someone being at Hut Point. I am cold now and cannot +write more to-night. We lose the sun at midnight now. If all had went +well we should have been home by now. + + _20th February 1912._ + +Tuesday not a nice day. A low drift all the morning and increased to a +blizzard at times. Have had to remain in the tent all day to try and keep +warm. Have not got much food except biscuits. Mr. Evans is about the same +but quite cheerful. We have had whole journey over and over: it have +passed these three days away. We have wondered how they are getting on +behind us; we have worked it out and they ought to be on the Barrier now, +with anything of luck. We have been gambling on the condition of the ice +and the possibility of the open water at Hut Point at any time now, and +also about what news of home, although home is one of the foremost +thoughts we hardly ever mention it, only what we are going to have to eat +when we do arrive there. I think we have got everything that is good down +on our list. Of course New Zealand have got to be answerable for a good +deal: plenty of apples we are going to have and some nice home-made cake, +not too rich, as we think we can eat more. I wonder if the mules will +have arrived, as I am to look after them till Capt. Oates returns, as +Anton will be gone home, or at least going soon. We shall have to hurry +up as the ship is to leave again on the 2nd of March, as it is not safe +to remain longer in these regions. I am now too cold to write, and I dont +seem settled at all and the weather is still pretty bad outside, so we +are not going to look for anything to come along to-night. "Hark!" from +us both. "Yes, it is the dogs near. Relief at last. Who is there?" I did +not stay to think more before I was outside the tent. "Yes, sir, it is +alright." The Doctor and Dimitri. "How did you see us?" "The flag Lash," +says Dimitri. The Doctor, "How is Mr. Evans?" "Alright, but low." But +this had a good effect on him. After the first few minutes we got their +tent pitched and the food they brought us I was soon on the way preparing +a meal for us all, but Mr. Evans cannot have pemmican, but the Doctor +have brought everything that will do him good, some onions to boil and +several other things. Dimitri brought along a good lump of cake: we are +in clover. To-night after the Doctor had examined my patient and we got +through a good deal of talk about everything we could think of, +especially home news and the return parties and the ship and those in +her. We were sorry to hear she had not been able to get very near, and +that the mules had arrived, and I dont know what, we now settled down for +a good night. It seems to me we are in a new world, a weight is off my +mind and I can once more see a bright spot in the sky for us all, the +gloom is now removed. The bliz is bad outside, and Doctor and Dimitri is +gone and turned in, so will [I] once more, but sleep is out of the +question. + + _21st February 1912._ + +The day have been very bad and we are obliged to remain until it clears. +We are going to move off as soon as it clears, the day have been very +cold, so we have had to remain in our bags, but things are alright and we +have got plenty to eat now. We have all retired for the night as the bliz +is still raging outside. + + _22nd February 1912._ + +The wind went down about 9 P.M., so we began to move and were ready to +kick off at 10, and proposed to do the journey in two stages. It was +fearful heavy going for the poor dogs, we arranged so that Mr. Evans was +on Dimitri's sledge and Doctor and myself was on the other. We have done +about half the journey and are now camped for a rest for the dogs and +ourselves. We had a stiff 16 miles: the Doctor and myself, we took turns +in riding on the sledge and walking and running to keep up to the dogs. +Sometimes we sank in up to the knees, but we struggled through it. My +legs is the most powerful part of me now, but I am tired and shall be +glad when it is over. I must lie down now, as we are starting again soon +for Hut Point, but the surface is getting better as we have passed White +Island and can see so plainly the land. Castle Rock and good old Erebus +look so stately with the smoke rolling out. It is so clear and calm and +peaceful. What a change in our surroundings of a few days ago and also +our prospects. Doctor and Dimitri have done everything they could for us. + + _22nd February 1912._ + +We started off after a rest for the dogs and reached here at Hut Point at +1 P.M. where we can rest in peace for a time. Dimitri and Crean are going +to Cape Evans: the ship is nowhere in sight. Have had to get some seal +meat and ice and prepare a meal. Mr. Evans is alright and asleep. We are +looking for a mail now. How funny we should always be looking for +something else, now we are safe. + +[End of Lashly's Diary.] + + * * * * * + +Crean has told me the story of his walk as follows: + +He started at 10 on Sunday morning and "the surface was good, very good +surface indeed," and he went about sixteen miles before he stopped. Good +clear weather. He had three biscuits and two sticks of chocolate. He +stopped about five minutes, sitting on the snow, and ate two biscuits and +the chocolate, and put one biscuit back in his pocket. He was quite warm +and not sleepy. + +He carried on just the same and passed Safety Camp on his right some five +hours later, and thinks it was about twelve-thirty on Monday morning that +he reached the edge of the Barrier, tired, getting cold in the back and +the weather coming on thick. It was bright behind him but it was coming +over the Bluff, and White Island was obscured though he could still see +Cape Armitage and Castle Rock. He slipped a lot on the sea-ice, having +several falls on to his back and it was getting thicker all the time. At +the Barrier edge there was a light wind, now it was blowing a strong +wind, drifting and snowing. He made for the Gap and could not get up at +first. To avoid taking a lot out of himself he started to go round Cape +Armitage; but soon felt slush coming through his finnesko (he had no +crampons) and made back for the Gap. He climbed up to the left of the Gap +and climbed along the side of Observation Hill to avoid the slippery ice. +When he got to the top it was still clear enough to see vaguely the +outline of Hut Point, but he could see no sledges nor dogs. He sat down +under the lee of Observation Hill, and finished his biscuit with a bit of +ice: "I was very dry,"--slid down the side of Observation Hill and +thought at this time there was open water below, for he had no goggles on +the march and his eyes were strained. But on getting near the ice-foot he +found it was polished sea-ice and made his way round to the hut under the +ice-foot. When he got close he saw the dogs and sledges on the sea-ice, +and it was now blowing very hard with drift. He walked in and found the +Doctor and Dimitri inside. "He gave me a tot first, and then a feed of +porridge--but I couldn't keep it down: thats the first time in my life +that ever it happened, and it was the brandy that did it." + +FOOTNOTES: + + [253] See pp. 382, 383, 410, 412. + + [254] My own diary, December 22, 1911. + + [255] My own diary. + + [256] My own diary. + + [257] See p. 412. + + [258] See p. 335. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +SUSPENSE + + All the past we leave behind; + We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world; + Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labour and the march, + Pioneers! O pioneers! + + We detachments steady throwing, + Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains steep, + Conquering, holding, daring, venturing, as we go, the unknown ways, + Pioneers! O pioneers! + + WALT WHITMAN. + + +Let us come back to Cape Evans after the return of the First Supporting +Party. + +Hitherto our ways had always been happy: for the most part they had been +pleasant. Scott was going to reach the Pole, probably without great +difficulty, for when we left him on the edge of the plateau he had only +to average seven miles a day to go there on full rations. We ourselves +had averaged 14.2 geographical miles a day on our way home to One Ton +Depôt, and there seemed no reason to suppose that the other two parties +would not do likewise, and the food was not only sufficient but abundant +if such marches were made. Thus we were content as we wandered over the +cape, or sat upon some rock warmed by the sun and watched the penguins +bathing in the lake which had formed in the sea-ice between us and +Inaccessible Island. All round us were the cries of the skua gulls as +they squabbled among themselves, and we heard the swish of their wings as +they swooped down upon a man who wandered too near their nests. Out upon +the sea-ice, which was soggy and dangerous, lay several seal, and the +bubblings and whistlings and gurglings which came from their throats +chimed musically in contrast to the hoarse aak, aak, of the Adélie +penguins: the tide crack was sighing and groaning all the time: it was +very restful after the Barrier silence. + +Meanwhile the Terra Nova had been seen in the distance, but the state of +the sea-ice prevented her approach. It was not until February 4 that +communication was opened with her and we got our welcome mails and news +of the world during the last year. We heard that Campbell's party had +been picked up at Cape Adare and landed at Evans Coves. We started +unloading on February 9, and this work was continued until February 14: +there was about three miles of ice between the ship and the shore and we +were doing more than twenty miles a day. In the case of men who had been +sledging much, and who might be wanted to sledge again, this was a +mistake. Latterly the ice began to break up, and the ship left on the +15th, to pick up the Geological Party on the western side of McMurdo +Sound. But she met great obstacles, and her record near the coasts this +year is one of continual fights against pack-ice, while the winds +experienced as the season advanced were very strong. On January 13 the +fast ice at the mouth of McMurdo Sound extended as far as the southern +end of the Bird Peninsula: ten days later they found fast ice extending +for thirty miles from the head of Granite Harbour. Later in the season +the most determined efforts were made again and again to penetrate into +Evans Coves in order to pick up Campbell and his men, until the ice was +freezing all round them, and many times the propeller was brought up dead +against blocks of ice.[259] + +The expedition was originally formed for two years from the date of +leaving England. But before the ship left after landing us at Cape Evans +in January 1911 the possibility of a third year was considered, and +certain requests for additional transport and orders for stores were sent +home. Thus it came about that the ship now landed not only new sledges +and sledging stores but also fourteen dogs from Kamchatka and seven +mules, with their food and equipment. The dogs were big and fat, but the +only ones which proved of much service for sledging were Snowy, a nice +white dog, and Bullett. It was Oates' idea that mules might prove a +better form of transport on the Barrier than ponies. Scott therefore +wrote to Sir Douglas Haig, then C.-in-C. in India, that if he failed to +reach the Pole in the summer of 1911-12, "it is my intention to make a +second attempt in the following season provided fresh transport can be +brought down: the circumstances making it necessary to plan to sacrifice +the transport animals used in any attempt. + +"Before directing more ponies to be sent down I have thoroughly discussed +the situation with Captain Oates, and he has suggested that mules would +be better than ponies for our work and that trained Indian Transport +Mules would be ideal. It is evident already that our ponies have not a +uniform walking pace and that in other small ways they will be +troublesome to us although they are handy little beasts." + +The Indian Government not only sent seven mules but when they arrived we +found that they had been most carefully trained and equipped. In India +they were in the charge of Lieutenant George Pulleyn, and the care and +thought which had been spent upon them could not have been exceeded: the +equipment was also extremely good and well adapted to the conditions, +while most of the improvements made by us as the result of a year's +experience were already foreseen and provided. The mules themselves, by +name Lal Khan, Gulab, Begum, Ranee, Abdullah, Pyaree and Khan Sahib, were +beautiful animals. + +Atkinson would soon have to start on his travels again. Before we left +Scott at the top of the Beardmore he gave him orders to take the two +dog-teams South in the event of Meares having to return home, as seemed +likely. This was not meant in any way to be a relief journey. Scott said +that he was not relying upon the dogs; and that in view of the sledging +in the following year, the dogs were not to be risked. Although it was +settled that some members of the expedition would stay, while others +returned to New Zealand, Scott and several of his companions had left +undecided until the last moment the question of whether they would +themselves remain in the South for another year. In the event of Scott +deciding to return home the dog-teams might make the difference between +catching or missing the ship. I had discussed this question with Wilson +more than once, and he was of opinion that the business affairs of the +expedition demanded Scott's return if possible: Wilson himself inclined +to the view that he himself would stay if Scott stayed, and return if +Scott returned. I think that Oates meant to return, and am sure that +Bowers meant to stay: indeed he welcomed the idea of one more year in a +way which I do not think was equalled by any other member of the +expedition. For the most part we felt that we had joined up for two +years, but that if there was to be a third year we would rather see the +thing through than return home. + +I hope I have made clear that the primary object of this journey with the +dog-teams was to hurry Scott and his companions home so that they might +be in time to catch the ship if possible, before she was compelled by the +close of the season to leave McMurdo Sound. Another thing which made +Scott anxious to communicate with the ship if possible before the season +forced her to leave the Sound was his desire to send back news. From many +remarks which he made, and also from the discussions in the hut during +the winter, it was obvious that he considered it was of the first +importance that the news of reaching the Pole, if it should be reached, +be communicated to the world without the delay of another year. Of course +he would also wish to send news of the safe return of his party to wives +and relations as soon as possible. It is necessary to emphasize the fact +that the dog-teams were intended to hasten the return of the Polar Party, +but that they were never meant to form a relief journey. + +But now Atkinson was left in a rather difficult position. I note in my +diary, after we had reached the hut, that "Scott was to have sent back +instructions for the dog party with us, but these have, it would seem, +been forgotten"; but it may be that Scott considered that he had given +these instructions in a conversation he had with Atkinson at the top of +the Beardmore Glacier, when Scott said, "with the depôt [of dog-food] +which has been laid come as far as you can." + +According to the plans for the Polar Journey the food necessary to bring +the three advance parties of man-haulers back from One Ton Depôt to Hut +Point was to be taken out to One Ton during the absence of these parties. +This food consisted of five weekly units of what were known as XS +rations. It was also arranged that if possible a depôt of dog-biscuit +should be taken out at the same time: this was the depôt referred to +above by Scott. In the event of the return of the dog-teams in the first +half of December, which was the original plan, the five units of food and +the dog-biscuit would have been run out by them to One Ton. If the +dog-teams did not return in time to do this a man-hauling party from Cape +Evans was to take out three of the five units of food. + +It has been shown that the dog-teams were taken farther on the Polar +Journey than was originally intended,[260] indeed they were taken from +81° 15´, where they were to have turned back, as far as 83° 35´. Nor were +they able to make the return journey in the fast time which had been +expected of them, and the dog-drivers were running very short of food and +were compelled to encroach to some extent upon the supplies left to +provide for the wants of those who were following in their tracks.[261] +The dog-teams did not arrive back at Cape Evans until January 4. + +Meanwhile a man-hauling party from Cape Evans, consisting of Day, Nelson, +Clissold and Hooper, had already, according to plan, taken out three of +the five XS rations for the returning parties. The weights of the +man-hauling party did not allow for the transport of the remaining two XS +rations, nor for any of the dog-food. Thus it was that when Atkinson came +to make his plans to go South with the dogs he found that there was no +dog-food south of Corner Camp, and that the rations for the return of the +Polar Party from One Ton Depôt had still to be taken out. That is to say, +the depôt of dog-food spoken of by Scott did not exist. There was, +however, enough food already at One Ton to allow the Polar Party to come +in on reduced rations. This meant that what the dog-teams could do was +limited, and was much less than it might have been had it been possible +to take out the depôt of dog-food to One Ton. Also the man-food for the +Polar Party had to be added to the weights taken by the dogs. + +To estimate even approximately at what date a party will reach a given +point after a journey of this length when the weather conditions are +always uncertain and the number of travelling days unknown, was a most +difficult task. The only guide was the average marches per diem made by +our own return party, and the average of the second return party if it +should return before the dog party set out. A week one way or the other +was certainly not a large margin. A couple of blizzards might make this +much difference. + +In the plan of the Southern Journey Scott, working on Shackleton's +averages, mentions March 27 as a possible date of return to Hut Point, +allowing seven days in from One Ton. Whilst on the outward journey I +heard Scott discuss the possibility of returning in April; and the Polar +Party had enough food to allow them to do this on full rations. + +Atkinson and Dimitri with the two dog-teams left Cape Evans for Hut Point +on February 13 because the sea-ice, which was our only means of +communication between these places, and so to the Barrier, was beginning +to break up. Atkinson intended to leave Hut Point for the Barrier in +about a week's time. At 3.30 A.M. on February 19 Crean arrived with the +astounding news that Lieutenant Evans, still alive but at his last gasp, +was lying out near Corner Camp, and that Lashly was nursing him; that the +Last Supporting Party had consisted of three men only, a possibility +which had never been considered; and that they had left Scott, +travelling rapidly and making good averages, only 148 geographical miles +from the Pole. Scott was so well advanced that it seemed that he would be +home much earlier than had been anticipated. + +A blizzard which had been threatening on the Barrier, and actually +blowing at Hut Point, during Crean's solitary journey, but which had +lulled as he arrived, now broke with full force, and nothing could be +done for Evans until it took off sufficiently for the dog-teams to +travel. But in the meantime Crean urgently wanted food and rest and +warmth. As these were supplied to him Atkinson learned bit by bit the +story of the saving of Evans' life, told so graphically in Lashly's diary +which is given in the preceding chapter, and pieced together the details +of Crean's solitary walk of thirty-five statute miles. This effort was +made, it should be remembered, at the end of a journey of three and a +half months, and over ground rendered especially perilous by crevasses, +from which a man travelling alone had no chance of rescue in case of +accident. Crean was walking for eighteen hours, and it was lucky for him, +as also for his companions, that the blizzard which broke half an hour +after his arrival did not come a little sooner, for no power on earth +could have saved him then, and the news of Evans' plight would not have +been brought. + +The blizzard raged all that day, and the next night and morning, and +nothing could be done. But during the afternoon of the 20th the +conditions improved, and at 4.30 P.M. Atkinson and Dimitri started with +the two dog-teams, though it was still blowing hard and very thick. They +travelled, with one rest for the dogs, until 4.30 P.M. the next day, but +had a very hazy idea where they were most of the time, owing to the vile +weather: once at any rate they seem to have got right in under White +Island. When they camped the second time they thought they were in the +neighbourhood of Lashly's tent, and in a temporary clearance they saw the +flag which Lashly had put up on the sledge. Evans was still alive, and +Atkinson was able to give him immediately the fresh vegetables, fruit, +and seal meat which his body wanted. Atkinson has never been able to +express adequately the admiration he feels for Lashly's care and +nursing. + +All that night and the next day the blizzard continued and made a start +impossible, and it was not until 3 A.M. on the morning of the 22nd that +they could start for Hut Point, Evans being carried in his sleeping-bag +on the sledge. Lashly has told how they got home. + +At Cape Evans we knew nothing of these events, which had made +reorganization inevitable. It was clear that Atkinson, being the only +doctor available, would have to stay with Evans, who was very seriously +ill: indeed Atkinson told me that another day, or at the most two, would +have finished him. In fact he says that when he first saw him he thought +he must die. It was a considerable surprise then when Dimitri with Crean +and one dog-team reached Cape Evans about mid-day on February 23 with a +note from Atkinson, who said that he thought he had better stay with +Lieutenant Evans and that some one else should take out the dogs. He +suggested that Wright or myself should take them. This was our first +intimation that the dogs had not already gone South. + +Wright and I started for Hut Point by 2 P.M. the same day and on our +arrival it was decided by Atkinson that I was to take out the dogs. Owing +to the early departure of our meteorologist, Simpson, Wright, who had +special qualifications for this important work, was to remain at Cape +Evans. Dimitri having rested his dog-team overnight at Cape Evans arrived +at Hut Point on the morning of the 24th. + +Now the daily distance which every 4-man party had to average from Hut +Point to its turning-point and back to Hut Point, so as to be on full +rations all the way, was only 8.4 geographical miles. From Hut Point to +the latitude in which he was last seen, 87° 32´ S., Scott had averaged +more than ten geographical miles a day. + +Taking into consideration the advanced latitude, 87° 32´ S., at which the +Second Return Party had left Scott, and the extremely good daily averages +these two parties had marched on the plateau up to this point, namely +12.3 geographical miles a day; seeing also that the First Return Party +had averaged 14.2 geographical miles on their return from 85° 3´ S. to +One Ton Depôt; and the Second Return Party had averaged 11.2 geographical +miles on their return from 87° 32´ S. to the same place, although one of +the three men was seriously ill; it was supposed that all the previous +estimates made for the return of the Polar Party were too late, and that +the opportunity to reach One Ton Camp before them had been lost. +Meanwhile the full rations for their return over the 140 miles (statute) +from One Ton to Hut Point were still at Hut Point. + +My orders were given me by Atkinson, and were verbal, as follows: + + 1. To take 24 days' food for the two men, and 21 + days' food for the two dog-teams, together with the food + for the Polar Party. + + 2. To travel to One Ton Depôt as fast as possible and + leave the food there. + + 3. If Scott had not arrived at One Ton Depôt before + me I was to judge what to do. + + 4. That Scott was not in any way dependent on the + dogs for his return. + + 5. That Scott had given particular instructions that the + dogs were not to be risked in view of the sledging plans + for next season. + +Since it had proved impossible to take the depôt of dog-food, together +with the full Polar Party rations, to One Ton before this; considering +the unforeseen circumstances which had arisen; and seeing that this +journey of the dog-teams was not indispensable, being simply meant to +bring the last party home more speedily, I do not believe that better +instructions could have been given than these of Atkinson. + +I was eager to start as soon as the team which had come back from Cape +Evans was rested, but a blizzard prevented this. On the morning of the +25th it was thick as a hedge, but it cleared enough to pack sledges in +the afternoon, and when we turned into our bags we could see Observation +Hill. We started at 2 A.M. that night. + +I confess I had my misgivings. I had never driven one dog, let alone a +team of them; I knew nothing of navigation; and One Ton was a hundred and +thirty miles away, out in the middle of the Barrier and away from +landmarks. And so as we pushed our way out through the wind and drift +that night I felt there was a good deal to be hoped for, rather than to +be expected. But we got along very well, Dimitri driving his team in +front, as he did most of this journey, and picking up marks very +helpfully with his sharp eyes. In the low temperatures we met, the +glasses which I must wear are almost impossible, because of fogging. We +took three boxes of dog-biscuit from Safety Camp and another three boxes +from a point sixteen miles from Hut Point. Here we rested the dogs for a +few hours, and started again at 6 P.M. All day the light was appalling, +and the wind strong, but to my great relief we found Corner Camp after +four hours' more travelling, the flag showing plainly, though the cairn +itself was invisible when a hundred yards away. This was the last place +where there was any dog-food on the route, and the dogs got a good feed +after doing thirty-four miles (statute) for the day's run. This was more +than we had hoped: the only disquieting fact was that both the +sledge-meters which we had were working wrong: the better of the two +seemed however to be marking the total mileage fairly correctly at +present, though the hands which indicated more detailed information were +quite at sea. We had no minimum thermometer, but the present temperature +was -4°. + +"_February 27._ Mount Terror has proved our friend to-day, for the slope +just above the Knoll has remained clear when everything else was covered, +and we have steered by that--behind us. It seemed, when we started in low +drift, that we should pick up nothing, but by good luck, or good I don't +know what, we have got everything: first the motor, then pony walls at 10 +miles, where we stopped and had a cup of tea. I wanted to do 15 miles, +but we have done 18½ miles on the best running surface I have ever seen. +After lunch we got a cairn which we could not see twenty yards away after +we had reached it, but which we could see for a long way on the southern +horizon, against a thin strip of blue sky. We camped just in time to get +the tent pitched before a line of drift we saw coming out of the sky hit +us. It is now blowing a mild blizzard and drifting. Forty-eight miles in +two days is more than I expected: may our luck continue. Dogs pulling +very fit and not done up. + +"_February 28._ I had my first upset just after starting, the sledge +capsizing on a great sastrugus like the Ramp. Dimitri was a long way +ahead and all behind was very thick. I had to unload the sledge for I +could not right it alone. Just as I righted it the team took charge. I +missed the driving-stick but got on to the sledge with no hope of +stopping them, and I was carried a mile to the south, leaving four boxes +of dog-food, the weekly bag, cooker, and tent poles on the ground. The +team stopped when they reached Dimitri's team, and by then the gear was +out of sight. We went back for it, and made good 16¾ miles for the day on +a splendid surface. The sun went down at 11.15 (10.15 A.T.), miraged +quite flat on top. After he had gone down a great bonfire seemed to blaze +out from the horizon. Now -22° and we use a candle for the first time. + +"_February 29. Bluff Depôt._ If anybody had told me we could reach Bluff +Depôt, nearly ninety miles, in four days, I would not have believed it. +We have had a good clear day with much mirage. Dogs a bit tired."[262] + +The next three days' run took us to One Ton. On the day we left Bluff +Depôt, which had been made a little more than a year ago, when certain of +the ponies were sent home on the Depôt Journey,[263] but which no longer +contained any provisions, we travelled 12 miles; there was a good light +and it was as warm as could be expected in March. The next day (March 2) +we did 9 miles after a cold and sleepless night, -24° and a mild blizzard +from N.W. and quite thick. On the night of March 3 we reached One Ton, +heading into a strongish wind with a temperature of -24°. These were the +first two days on which we had cold weather, but it was nothing to worry +about for us, and was certainly not colder than one could ordinarily have +expected at this time of year. + +Arrived at One Ton my first feeling was one of relief that the Polar +Party had not been to the Depôt and that therefore we had got their +provisions out in time. The question of what we were to do in the +immediate future was settled for us; for four days out of the six during +which we were at One Ton the weather made travelling southwards, that is +against the wind, either entirely impossible or such that the chance of +seeing another party at any distance was nil. On the two remaining days I +could have run a day farther South and back again, with the possibility +of missing the party on the way. I decided to remain at the Depôt where +we were certain to meet. + +On the day after we arrived at One Ton (March 4) Dimitri came to me and +said that the dogs ought to be given more food, since they were getting +done and were losing their coats: they had, of course, done a great deal +of sledging already this year. Dimitri had long experience of dog-driving +and I had none. I thought and I still think he was right. I increased the +dog ration therefore, and this left us with thirteen more days' dog-food, +including that for March 4. + +The weather was bad when we were at One Ton, for when it was blowing the +temperature often remained comparatively low, and when it was not blowing +it dropped considerably, and I find readings in my diary of -34° and -37° +at 8 P.M. Having no minimum thermometer we did not know the night +temperatures. On the other hand I find an entry: "To-day is the first +real good one we have had, only about -10° and the sun shining,--and we +have shifted the tent, dried our bags and gear a lot, and been pottering +about all day." At this time, however, when we were at One Ton I looked +upon these conditions as being a temporary cold snap: there was no reason +then to suppose these were normal March conditions in the middle of the +Barrier, where no one had ever been at this time of year. I believe now +they are normal: on the other hand, in our meteorological report Simpson +argues that they were abnormal for the Barrier at this time of year.[264] + +Since there was no depôt of dog-food at One Ton it was not possible to go +farther South (except for the one day mentioned above) without killing +dogs. My orders on this point were perfectly explicit; I saw no reason +for disobeying them, and indeed it appeared that we had been wrong to +hurry out so soon, before the time that Scott had reckoned that he would +return, and that the Polar Party would really come in at the time Scott +had calculated before starting rather than at the time we had reckoned +from the data brought back by the Last Return Party. + +From the particulars already given it will be seen that I had no reason +to suspect that the Polar Party could be in want of food. The Polar Party +of five men had according to our rations plenty of food either on their +sledge or in the depôts. In addition they had a lot of pony meat depôted +at Middle Glacier Depôt and onwards from there. Though we did not know +it, the death of Evans at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier provided an +additional amount of food for the four men who were then left. The full +amount of oil for this food had been left in the depôts; but we know now +what we did not know then, that some of it had evaporated. These matters +are discussed in greater detail in the account of the return of the Polar +Party and after.[265] + +Thus I felt little anxiety for the Polar Party. But I was getting anxious +about my companion. Soon after arrival at One Ton it was clear that +Dimitri was feeling the cold. He complained of his head; then his right +arm and side were affected; and from this time onwards he found that he +could do less and less with his right side. Still I did not worry much +about it, and my decision as to our movements was not affected by this +complication. I decided to allow eight days' food for our return, which +meant that we must start on March 10. + +"_March 10._ Pretty cold night: -33° when we turned out at 8 A.M. +Getting our gear together, and the dogs more or less into order after +their six days was cold work, and we started in minus thirties and a head +wind. The dogs were mad,--stark, staring lunatics. Dimitri's team wrecked +my sledge-meter, and I left it lying on the ground a mile from One Ton. +All we could do was to hang on to the sledge and let them go: there +wasn't a chance to go back, turn them or steer them. Dimitri broke his +driving-stick: my team fought as they went: once I was dragged with my +foot pinned under my driving-stick, which was itself jammed in the +grummet: several times I only managed to catch on anywhere: this went on +for six or seven miles, and then they got better."[266] + +Our remaining sledge-meter was quite unreliable, but following our +outward tracks (for it became thick and overcast), and judging by our old +camping sites, we reckoned that we had done an excellent run of 23 to 24 +miles (statute) for the day. The temperature when we camped was only +-14°. However it became much colder in the night, and when we turned out +it was so thick that I decided we must wait. At 2 P.M. on March 11 there +was one small patch of blue sky showing, and we started to steer by this: +soon it was blowing a mild blizzard, and we stopped after doing what I +reckoned was eight miles, steering by trying to keep the wind on my ear: +but I think we were turning circles much of the time. It blew hard and +was very cold during the night, and we turned out on the morning of March +12 to a blizzard with a temperature of -33°: this gradually took off, and +at 10 A.M. Dimitri said he could see the Bluff, and we were right into +the land, and therefore the pressure. This was startling, but later it +cleared enough to reassure me, though Dimitri was so certain that during +the first part of our run that day I steered east a lot. We did 25 to 30 +miles this day in drift and a temperature of -28°. + +By now I was becoming really alarmed and anxious about Dimitri, who +seemed to be getting much worse, and to be able to do less and less. +Sitting on a sledge the next day with a head wind and the temperature +-30° was cold. The land was clear when we turned out and I could see that +we must be far outside our course, but almost immediately it became +foggy. We made in towards the land a good deal, and made a good run, but +owing to the sledge-meter being useless and the bad weather generally +during the last few days, I had a very hazy idea indeed where we were +when we camped, having been steering for some time by the faint gleam of +the sun through the mist. Just after camping Dimitri suddenly pointed to +a black spot which seemed to wave to and fro: we decided that it was the +flag of the derelict motor near Corner Camp which up to that time I +thought was ten to fifteen miles away: this was a great relief, and we +debated packing up again and going to it, but decided to stay where we +were. + +It was fairly clear on the morning of March 14, which was lucky, for it +was now obvious that we were miles from Corner Camp and much too near the +land. The flag we had seen must have been a miraged piece of pressure, +and it was providential that we had not made for it, and found worse +trouble than we actually experienced. Try all I could that morning, my +team, which was leading, insisted on edging westwards. At last I saw what +I thought was a cairn, but found out just in time that it was a haycock +or mound of ice formed by pressure: by its side was a large open +crevasse, of which about fifty yards of snow-bridge had fallen in. For +several miles we knew that we were crossing big crevasses by the hollow +sound, and it was with considerable relief that I sighted the motor and +then Corner Camp some two or three miles to the east of us. "Dimitri had +left his Alpine rope there, and also I should have liked to have brought +in Evans' sledge, but it would have meant about five miles extra, and I +left it. I hope Scott, finding no note, will not think we are lost."[267] + +Dimitri seemed to be getting worse, and we pushed on until we camped that +night only fifteen miles from Hut Point. My main anxiety was whether the +sea-ice between us and Hut Point was in, because I felt that the job of +getting the teams up on to the Peninsula and along it and down the other +side would be almost more than we could do: there was an ominous +open-water sky ahead. + +On March 15 we were held up all day by a strong blizzard. But by 8 A.M. +the next morning we could see just the outline of White Island. I was +very anxious, for Dimitri said that he had nearly fainted, and I felt +that we must get on somehow, and chance the sea-ice being in. He stayed +inside the tent as long as possible, and my spirits rose as the land +began to clear all round while I was packing up both sledges. From Safety +Camp the mirage at the edge of the Barrier was alarming, but as we +approached the edge to my very great relief I found that the sea-ice was +still in, and that what we had taken for frost smoke was only drift over +Cape Armitage. + +Pushing into the drift round the corner I found Atkinson on the sea-ice, +and Keohane in the hut behind. In a few minutes we had the gist of one +another's news. The ship had made attempt after attempt to reach Campbell +and his five men, but they had not been taken off from Evans Coves when +she finally left McMurdo Sound on March 4: she would make another effort +on her way to New Zealand. Evans was better and was being taken home. +Meanwhile there were four of us at Hut Point and we could not communicate +with our companions at Cape Evans until the Sound froze over, for the +open sea was washing the feet of Vince's Cross. + + * * * * * + +We were not unduly alarmed about the Polar Party at present, but began to +make arrangements for further sledging if necessary. It was useless to +think of taking the dogs again for they were thoroughly done. The mules +and the new dogs were at Cape Evans. "In four or five days Atkinson +wishes to start South again to see what we can do man-hauling, if the +Polar Party is not in. I agree with him that to try and go west to meet +Campbell is useless just now. If we can go north, they can come south, +and to put two parties there on the new sea-ice is to double the risk." + +"_March 17._ A blizzard day but only about force 5-6. I think they will +have been able to travel all right on the Barrier. Atkinson thinks of +starting on the 22nd: my view is that allowing three weeks and four days +for the Summit, and ten days for being hung up by weather, we can give +them five weeks after the Last Return Party (i.e. to March 26) to get +in, having been quite safe and sound all the way. We feel anxious now, +but I do not think there is need for alarm till then, and they might get +in well after that, and be all right. + +"Now our only real chance of finding them, if we go out, is from here to +ten miles south of Corner Camp. After that we shall do all we can, but it +would be no good, because there is no very definite route. Therefore I +would start out on March 27, when we would travel that part with most +chance of meeting them there if they have any trouble. I have put this to +Atkinson and will willingly do what he decides. I am feeling pretty done +up, and have rested. The prospect of what will be a hard journey, feeling +as I do, is rather bad. I don't think there is really cause for alarm." + +"_March 18 and 19._ We are very anxious, though the Pole Party could not +be in yet. Also I am very done, and more so than I at first thought: I am +afraid it is a bit doubtful whether I can get out again yet, but to-day I +feel better and have been for a short walk. I am taking all the rest I +can." + +"_March 20._ Last night a very strong blizzard blew, wind force 9 and big +snowfall and drift. This morning the doors and windows are all drifted +up, and we could hardly get out: a lot of snow had got inside the hut +also: I was feeling rotten, and thought that to go out and clear the +window and door would do me good. This I did, but came back in a big +squall, passing Atkinson as I came in. Then I felt myself going faint, +and remember pushing the door to get in if possible. I knew no more until +I came to on the floor just inside the door, having broken some tendons +in my right hand in falling."[268] + +Two days afterwards the dogs sang at breakfast-time: they often did this +when a party was approaching, even when it was still far away, and they +had done so when Crean came in on his walk from Corner Camp. We were +cheered by the noise. But no party arrived, and the singing of the dogs +was explained later by some seal appearing on the new ice in Arrival Bay. +Atkinson decided to go out on to the Barrier man-hauling with Keohane on +the 26th. It was obvious that I could not go with them: he told me +afterwards that when I came in with the dog-teams he was sure I could not +go out again. + +"_March 25._ The wind came away yesterday evening, first S.W. and then +S.E. but not bad, though very thick. It was a surprise to find we could +see the Western Mountains this morning, and I believe it has been a good +day on the Barrier, though it is still blowing with low drift this +evening. We are now on the days when I expect the Polar Party in: pray +God I may be right. Atkinson and I look at one another, and he looks, and +I feel, quite haggard with anxiety. He says he does not think they have +scurvy. We both, I think, feel quite comfortable, in comparison, about +Campbell: he only wants to exercise care, and his great care was almost a +byword on the ship. They are fresh and they have plenty of seal.[269] He +discussed with Pennell both the possibility of shipwreck and that of the +ship being unable to get to him, and for this reason landed an extra +month's rations as a depôt; also he contemplated the idea of living on +seal. He knows of the Butter Point Depôt, and knows that a party has been +sledging in that neighbourhood: though he does not know of the depôts +they left at Cape Roberts and Cape Bernacchi, they are right out on the +Points and Taylor says he could not miss them on his way down the +coast."[270] + +This day Atkinson thought he saw Campbell's party coming in, and the next +day Keohane and Dimitri came in great excitement and said they could see +them, and we were out on the Point and on the sea-ice in the drift for +quite a long time. "Last night we had turned in about two hours when five +or six knocks were hit on the little window over our heads. Atkinson +shouted 'Hullo!' and cried, 'Cherry, they're in.' Keohane said, 'Who's +cook?' Some one lit a candle and left it in the far corner of the hut to +give them light, and we all rushed out. But there was no one there. It +was the nearest approach to ghost work that I have ever heard, and it +must have been a dog which sleeps in that window. He must have shaken +himself, hitting the window with his tail. Atkinson thought he heard +footsteps!"[271] + +On Wednesday, March 27, Atkinson started out on to the Barrier with one +companion, Keohane. During the whole of this trip the temperatures were +low, and both men obtained but little sleep, finding of course that a +tent occupied by two men only is a very cold place. The first two days +they made nine miles each day, on March 29 they pushed on in thick +weather for eleven miles, when the weather cleared enough to show them +that they had got into the White Island pressure. On March 30 they +reached a point south of Corner Camp, when "taking into consideration the +weather, and temperatures, and the time of the year, and the hopelessness +of finding the party except at any definite point like a depôt, I decided +to return from here. We depôted the major portion of a week's provisions +to enable them to communicate with Hut Point in case they should reach +this point. At this date in my own mind I was morally certain that the +party had perished, and in fact on March 29 Captain Scott, 11 miles south +of One Ton Depôt, made the last entry in his diary."[272] + +"They arrived back on April 1. Yesterday evening at 6.30 P.M. Atkinson +and Keohane arrived. It was pretty thick here and blowing too, but they +had had a fair day on the Barrier. They had been out to Corner Camp and +eight miles farther. Their bags were bad, their clothes very bad after +six days: they must have had minus forties constantly. It is a moral +certainty that to go farther south would serve no purpose, and for two +men would be a useless risk. They did quite right to come back. They are +much in want of sleep, poor devils, and I do hope Atkinson will allow +himself to rest: he looks as though he might knock up. Keohane did well, +and is very fit. They came in over fifteen miles yesterday, and have +brought in the sledge of the Second Return Party, the one they took out +being very heavy pulling. They had no day on which they could not travel. +Here it has been blowing and drifting half the time he has been absent," +and a few days later, "We have got to face it now. The Pole Party will +not in all probability ever get back. And there is no more that we can +do. The next step must be to get to Cape Evans as soon as it is possible. +There are fresh men there: at any rate fresh compared to us."[273] + + * * * * * + +Atkinson was the senior officer left, and unless Campbell and his party +came in, the command of the Main Party devolved upon him. It was not a +position which any one could envy even if he had been fresh and fit. +Amidst all his anxieties and responsibilities he looked after me with the +greatest patience and care. I was so weak that sometimes I could only +keep on my legs with difficulty: the glands of my throat were swollen so +that I could hardly speak or swallow: my heart was strained and I had +considerable pain. At such a time I was only a nuisance, but nothing +could have exceeded his kindness and his skill with the few drugs which +we possessed. + +Again and again in these days some one would see one or other of the +missing parties coming in. It always proved to be mirage, a seal or +pressure or I do not know what, but never could we quite persuade +ourselves that these excitements might not have something in them, and +every time hope sprang up anew. Meanwhile the matter of serious +importance was the state of the ice in the bays between us and Cape +Evans: we _must_ get help. All the ice in the middle of the Sound was +swept out by the winds of March 30 to April 2, and on the following day +Atkinson climbed Arrival Heights to see how the remaining ice looked. The +view over the Sound from here is shown in the frontispiece to this book. +"The ice in the two bays to Cape Evans is quite new--formed this morning, +I suppose, with the rest that is in the Sound. There are open leads +between Glacier Tongue and Cape Evans, inside the line joining the ends +of the two. There is a big berg in between Glacier Tongue and the +Islands, and also a flat one off Cape Evans."[274] + +We had some good freezing days after this, and on April 5 "we tried the +ice this afternoon. It is naturally slushy and salt, but some hundred +yards from the old ice it is six inches thick: probably it averages about +this thickness all over the Sound."[275] Then we had a hard blizzard, on +the fourth day of which it was possible to get up the Heights again and +see for some distance. As far as could be judged the ice in the two bays +had remained firm: these bays are those formed on either side of Glacier +Tongue, by the Hut Point Peninsula on the south, and by Cape Evans and +the islands on the north. + +On April 10 Atkinson, Keohane and Dimitri started for Cape Evans, meaning +to travel along the Peninsula to the Hutton Cliffs, and thence to cross +the sea-ice in these bays, if it proved to be practicable. The amount of +daylight was now very restricted, and the sun would disappear for the +winter a week hence. Arrived at the Hutton Cliffs, where it was blowing +as usual, they lost no time in lowering themselves and their sledge on to +the sea-ice, and were then pleasantly surprised to find how slippery it +was. "We set sail before a strong following breeze and, all sitting on +the sledge, had reached the Glacier Tongue in twenty minutes. We +clambered over the Tongue, and, our luck and the breeze still holding, we +reached Cape Evans, completing the last seven miles, all sitting on the +sledge, in an hour." + +[Illustration: CAPE EVANS FROM ARRIVAL HEIGHTS] + +[Illustration: CAPE ROYDS FROM CAPE BARNE] + +"There I called together all the members and explained the situation, +telling them what had been done, and what I then proposed to do; also +asking them for their advice in this trying time. The opinion was almost +unanimous that all that was possible had been already done. Owing to +the lateness of the year, and the likelihood of our being unable to make +our way up the coast to Campbell, one or two members suggested that +another journey might be made to Corner Camp. Knowing the conditions +which had lately prevailed on the Barrier, I took it upon myself to +decide the uselessness of this."[276] + +All was well at Cape Evans. Winds and temperatures had both been high, +the latter being in marked contrast to the low temperatures we had +experienced at Hut Point, which averaged as much as 15° lower than those +that were recorded in the previous year. The seven mules were well, but +three of the new dogs had died: we were always being troubled by that +mysterious disease. + +Before she left for New Zealand the following members of our company +joined the ship: Simpson, who had to return to his work in India; +Griffith Taylor, who had been lent to us by the Australian Government for +only one year; Ponting, whose photographic work was done; Day, whose work +with the motors was done; Meares, who was recalled by family affairs; +Forde, whose hand had never recovered the effects of frost-bite during +the spring; Clissold, who fell off a berg and concussed himself; and +Anton, whose work with the ponies was done. Lieutenant Evans was +invalided home. + +Archer had been landed to take Clissold's place as cook; another seaman, +Williamson, was landed to take Forde's place, and of our sledging +companions he was the only fresh man. Wright was probably the most fit +after him, and otherwise we had no one who, under ordinary circumstances, +would have been considered fit to go out sledging again this season, +especially at a time when the sun was just leaving us for the winter. We +were sledged out. + +The next few days were occupied in making preparations for a further +sledge journey, and on April 13 a party started to return to Hut Point by +the Hutton Cliffs. Atkinson, Wright, Keohane and Williamson were to try +and sledge up the western coast to help Campbell: Gran and Dimitri were +to stay with me at Hut Point. The surface of the sea-ice was now +extremely slushy and bad for pulling; the ice had begun to extrude its +salt. A blizzard started in their faces, and they ran for shelter to the +lee of Little Razorback Island. The weather clearing they pushed on to +the Glacier Tongue, and camped there for the night somewhat frost-bitten. +Some difficulty was experienced the next morning in climbing the +ice-cliff on to the Peninsula, but Atkinson, using his knife as a +purchase, and the sledge held at arm's-length by four men as a ladder, +succeeded eventually in getting a foothold. + +Meanwhile I was left alone at Hut Point, where blizzards raged +periodically with the usual creakings and groanings of the old hut. +Foolishly I accompanied my companions, when they started for Cape Evans, +as far as the bottom of Ski Slope. When I left them I found I could not +keep my feet on the slippery snow and ice patches, and I had several +nasty falls, in one of which I gave my shoulder a twist. It was this +shaking combined with the rather desperate conditions which caused a more +acute state of illness and sickness than I had experienced for some time. +Some of those days I remained alone at Hut Point I was too weak to do +more than crawl on my hands and knees about the hut. I had to get blubber +from the door to feed the fire, and chop up seal-meat to eat, to cook, +and to tend the dogs, some of whom were loose, while most of them were +tied in the verandah, or between the hut door and Vince's Cross. The hut +was bitterly cold with only one man in it: had there not been some +morphia among the stores brought down from Cape Evans I do not know what +I should have done. + +The dogs realized that they could take liberties which they would not +have dared to do in different circumstances. They whined and growled, and +squabbled amongst themselves all the time, day and night. Seven or eight +times one day I crawled across the floor to try and lay my hands upon one +dog who was the ringleader. I was sure it was Dyk, but never detected him +in the act, and though I thrashed him with difficulty as a speculation, +the result was not encouraging. I would willingly have killed the lot of +them just then, I am ashamed to say. I lay in my sleeping-bag with the +floor of the hut falling from me, or its walls disappearing in the +distance and coming back: and roused myself at intervals to feed blubber +to the stove. I felt as though I had been delivered out of hell when the +relief party arrived on the night of April 14. I had been alone four +days, and I think a few more days would have sent me off my head. Not the +least welcome of the things they had brought me were my letters, copies +of the Weekly Times, a pair of felt shoes and a comb! + +Atkinson's plan was to start on April 7 over the old sea-ice which lay to +the south and south-west of us: he was to take with him Wright, Keohane +and Williamson, and they wanted to reach Butter Point, and thence to +sledge up the western coast. If the sea-ice was in, and Campbell was +sledging down upon it, they hoped to meet him and might be of the +greatest assistance to him. Even if they did not meet him they could mark +more obviously certain depôts, of which he had no knowledge, left by our +own geological parties on the route he must follow. As I have already +mentioned, these were on Cape Roberts, off Granite Harbour, and on Cape +Bernacchi, north of New Harbour: there was also a depôt at Butter Point, +but Campbell already knew of this. They could also leave instructions to +this effect at points where he would be likely to see them. There was no +question that there was grave risk in this journey. Not only was the +winter approaching, and the daylight limited, but the sea-ice over which +they must march was most dangerous. Sea-ice is always forming and being +blown out to sea, or just floating away on the tide at this time of year. +The amount of old ice which had remained during the summer was certain to +be limited: the new ice was thin and might take them out with it at any +time. However, what could be done had to be done. + +Before they left certain signals by means of rockets and Véry lights were +arranged, to be sent up by us at Hut Point if Campbell arrived: signals +had also been arranged between Hut Point and Cape Evans in view of +certain events. We did not have, but I think we ought to have had some +form of portable heliograph for communications between Hut Point and Cape +Evans when the sun was up and some kind of lamp signal apparatus to use +during the winter. + +They started at 10.30 A.M. on Wednesday, April 17. The sun was now only +just peeping over the northern horizon at mid-day, and would disappear +entirely in six more days, though of course there was a long twilight as +yet. For fresh men on old sea-ice it would not have been an easy venture: +for worn-out men on a coast where the ice was probably freezing and +blowing out at odd times it was very brave. + +They had hard pulling their first two days, and the minimum temperature +for the corresponding nights was -43° and -45°. Consequently they soon +began to be iced up. On the other hand they found old sea-ice and made +good some 25 miles, camping on the evening of the 18th about four miles +from the Eskers. Next morning they had to venture upon newly frozen ice, +and a blizzard wind was blowing. They crossed the four miles from their +night camp to the Eskers, glad enough to reach land the other side +without the ice going to sea with them. They then turned towards the +Butter Point Depôt, but were compelled to camp owing to the blizzard +which came on with full force. The rise in temperature to zero caused a +general thaw of sleeping-bags and clothing which dried but little when +the sun had no power. On the following morning they reached the Butter +Point Depôt, which they found with difficulty, for there was no flag +standing. Even as they struck their camp they saw the ice to the north of +them breaking up and going out to sea. There was nothing to do but to +turn back, for neither could they go north to Campbell nor could Campbell +come south to them. Wright now told Atkinson how much he had been opposed +to this journey all along: "he had come on this trip fully believing that +there was every possibility of the party being lost, but had never +demurred and never offered a contrary opinion, and one cannot be thankful +enough to such men."[277] They made up the Butter Point Depôt, marked it +as well as they could in case Campbell should arrive there, and left two +weeks' provisions for him. They could do no more. + +They got back to the Eskers that same day and anxiously awaited the +twilight of the morning to reveal the state of the new sea-ice which they +had crossed on their outward journey. To their joy some of it remained +and they started to do the four miles between them and the old sea-ice. +For two miles they ran with the sail set: then they had a hard pull, and +some Emperor penguins whom they could see led them to suppose that there +was open water ahead. But they got through all right, and did ten miles +for the day. On Monday 22, "blizzard in morning, so started late, and +made for end of Pinnacled Ice. We found our little bay of sea-ice all +gone out. Luckily there was a sort of ice-foot around the Pinnacled Ice +and we completed seven miles and got through."[278] + +_Tuesday, April 23._ "Atkinson and his party got in about 7 P.M. after a +long pull all day in very bad weather. They are just in the state of a +party which has been out on a very cold spring journey: clothes and +sleeping-bags very wet, sweaters, pyjama coats and so forth full of snow. +Atkinson looks quite done up, his cheeks are fallen in and his throat +shows thin. Wright is also a good deal done up, and the whole party has +evidently had little sleep. They have had a difficult and dangerous trip, +and it is a good thing they are in, and they are fortunate to have had no +mishaps, for the sea-ice is constantly going out over there, and when +they were on it they never knew that they might not find themselves cut +off from the shore. Big leads were constantly opening, even in ice over a +foot thick and with little wind. But even if the ice had been in I do not +believe that they could have gone many days."[279] + +That same day the sun appeared for the last time for four months. + +April 28 seemed to be a quite good day when we woke, and Wright, Keohane +and Gran started back for Cape Evans before 10 A.M. We could then see the +outline of Inaccessible Island, and the ice in the Sound looked fairly +firm. So they determined to go by the way of the sea-ice under Castle +Rock instead of going along the Peninsula to the Hutton Cliffs. Soon +after they started it came up thick, and by 11.30 it was blowing a mild +blizzard with a low temperature. We felt considerable anxiety, especially +when a full blizzard set in with a temperature down to -31°, and we could +not see how the ice was standing it. Two days later it cleared, and that +night a flare was lit at Cape Evans at a pre-arranged time, by which +signal we knew that they had arrived safely. We heard afterwards that +when it came up thick they decided to follow the land which was the only +thing that they could see. They soon found that the ice was not nearly so +good as was supposed: there were open pools of water, and some of the ice +was moving up and down with their weight as they crossed it: Gran put his +foot in. Then Wright went ahead with the Alpine rope, the ice being blue, +the pulling easy, and the wind force 4-5. As far as Turtleback Island the +ice was newly frozen, but after that they knew they were on oldish ice. +They were lost on Cape Evans in the blizzard for some time, but +eventually found the hut safely. One of the lessons of this expedition is +that too little care was taken in travelling on sea-ice. + +Atkinson, Dimitri and I left for Cape Evans with the two dog-teams on May +1. Directly we started it was evident that the surface was very bad: even +the ice near Hut Point, which had been frozen for a long time, was hard +pulling for the dogs, and when after less than a mile we got on to ice +which had frozen quite lately the sledges were running on snow which in +turn lay on salt sleet. It seemed a long time before we got abreast of +Castle Rock, following close along the land for the weather was very +thick: when we started we could just see the outline of Inaccessible +Island, but by now the horizon was lost in the dusk and haze. We decided +to push on to Turtleback Island and go over Glacier Tongue in order to +get on to the older ice as soon as possible. The dogs began to get very +done: Manuki Noogis, who had been harnessed in as leader (for Rabchick +had deserted in the night), gave in completely, lay down and refused to +be persuaded to go on: we had to cast him off and hope that he would +follow. After a time Turtleback Island was visible in the gloom, but it +was all we could do, pushing and pulling the sledges to help the dogs, to +get them so far. We were now on the older ice: our way was easier and we +reached Cape Evans without further incident. We found Rabchick on +arrival, but no Manuki Noogis, who never reappeared. + +As we neared the Cape Atkinson turned to me: "Would you go for Campbell +or the Polar Party next year?" he said. "Campbell," I answered: just then +it seemed to me unthinkable that we should leave live men to search for +those who were dead. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [259] See Introduction, pp. l, lii-lix. + + [260] See pp. 353, 383. + + [261] See pp. 382, 383. + + [262] My own diary. + + [263] See p. 115. + + [264] _British Antarctic Expedition, 1910-1913_, "Meteorology," by + G. C. Simpson, vol. i. pp. 28-30. + + [265] See pp. 550-556. + + [266] My own diary. + + [267] My own diary. + + [268] My own diary. + + [269] As a matter of fact this was not the case. + + [270] My own diary. + + [271] My own diary. + + [272] Atkinson in _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. ii. p. 309. + + [273] My own diary. + + [274] My own diary. + + [275] Ibid. + + [276] Atkinson in _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. ii. p. 31. + + [277] Atkinson in _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. ii. p. 314. + + [278] Atkinson's diary. + + [279] My own diary. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE LAST WINTER + + Ordinary people snuggle up to God as a lost leveret in a freezing + wilderness might snuggle up to a Siberian tiger....--H. G. WELLS. + + + (I) _5 men dead._ (III) _2 men landed._ + +SCOTT OATES ARCHER WILLIAMSON +WILSON SEAMAN EVANS +BOWERS + (IV) _13 men at Cape Evans for third year._ + +(II) _9 men gone home._ ATKINSON CREAN + CHERRY-GARRARD KEOHANE +LIEUT. EVANS DAY WRIGHT DIMITRI +SIMPSON FORDE DEBENHAM HOOPER +MEARES CLISSOLD GRAN WILLIAMSON +TAYLOR ANTON NELSON ARCHER +PONTING LASHLY + +A quite disproportionately small part of Scott's Last Expedition was +given to Atkinson's account of the last and worst year any of us +survivors spent: some one should have compelled him to write, for he will +not do so if he can help it. The problems which presented themselves were +unique in the history of Arctic travel, the weather conditions which had +to be faced during this last winter were such as had never been met in +McMurdo Sound! The sledging personnel had lately undergone journeys, in +one case no less than four journeys, of major importance, until they were +absolutely worn out. The successful issue of the party was a triumph of +good management and good fellowship. The saving clause was that as +regards hut, food, heat, clothing and the domestic life generally we were +splendidly found. To the north of us, some hundreds of miles away, +Campbell's party of six men must be fighting for their lives against +these same conditions, or worse--unless indeed they had already perished +on their way south. We knew they must be in desperate plight, but +probably they were alive: the point in their favour was that they were +fresh men. To the south of us, anywhere between us and the Pole, were +five men. We knew _they_ must be dead. + +The immediate problem which presented itself was how best to use the +resources which were left to us. Our numbers were much reduced. Nine men +had gone home before any hint of tragedy reached them. Two men had been +landed from the ship. We were thirteen men for this last year. Of these +thirteen it was almost certain that Debenham would be unable to go out +sledging again owing to an injury to his knee: Archer had come to cook +and not to sledge: and it was also doubtful about myself. As a matter of +fact our sledging numbers for the last summer totalled eleven, five +officers and six men. + +We were well provided with transport, having the seven mules sent down by +the Indian Government, which were excellent animals, as well as our +original two dog-teams: the additional dogs brought down by the ship were +with two exceptions of no real sledging value. Our dog-teams had, +however, already travelled some 1500 miles on the Barrier alone, not +counting the work they had done between Hut Point and Cape Evans; and, +though we did not realize it at this time, they were sick of it and never +worked again with that dash which we had come to expect of them. + +The first thing which we settled about the winter which lay ahead of us +was that, so far as possible, everything should go on as usual. The +scientific work must of course be continued, and there were the dogs and +mules to be looked after: a night-watch to be kept and the meteorological +observations and auroral notes to be taken. Owing to our reduced numbers +we should need the help of the seamen for this purpose. We were also to +bring out another volume of the South Polar Times on Mid-winter Day. The +importance of not allowing any sense of depression to become a part of +the atmosphere of our life was clear to all. This was all the more +necessary when, as we shall see, the constant blizzards confined us week +after week to our hut. Even when we did get a fine day we were almost +entirely confined to the rocky cape for our exercise and walks. When +there was sea-ice it was most unsafe. + +Atkinson was in command: in addition, he and Dimitri took over the care +of the dogs. Many of these, both those which had been out sledging and +those just arrived, were in a very poor state, and a dog hospital was +soon built. At this date we had 24 dogs left from the last year, and 11 +dogs brought down recently by the ship: three of the new dogs had already +died. Lashly was in charge of the seven mules, which were allotted to +seven men for exercise: Nelson was to continue his marine biological +work: Wright was to be meteorologist as well as chemist and physicist: +Gran was in charge of stores, and would help Wright in the meteorological +observations: Debenham was geologist and photographer. I was ordered to +take a long rest, but could do the zoological work, the South Polar +Times, and keep the Official Account of the Expedition from day to day. +Crean was in charge of sledging stores and equipment. Archer was cook. +Hooper, our domestic, took over in addition the working of the acetylene +plant. There was plenty of work for our other two seamen, Keohane and +Williamson, in the daily life of the camp and in preparations for the +sledging season to come. + +The blizzard which threatened us all the way from Hut Point on May 1 +broke soon after we got in. The ice in North Bay, which had been frozen +for some time, was taken out on the first day of this blizzard, with the +exception of a small strip running close along the shore. The rest +followed the next afternoon, when the wind was still rising, and blew in +the gusts up to 89 miles an hour. The curious thing was that all this +time the air had been quite clear. + +This was the second day of the blizzard. The wind continued in violence +as the night wore on, and it began to snow, becoming very thick. From 3 +A.M. to 4 A.M. the wind was so strong that there was a continuous rattle +of sand and stones up against the wall of the hut. The greater part of +the time the anemometer head was choked by the drifting snow, and +Debenham, whose night-watch it was, had a bad time in clearing it at 4 +A.M. During the period when it was working it registered a gust of over +91 miles an hour. While it was not working there came a gust which woke +most people up, and which was a far more powerful one, making a regular +hail of stones against the wall. The next morning the wind was found to +be averaging 104 miles an hour when the anemometer on the hill was +checked for three minutes. Later it was averaging 78 miles an hour. This +blizzard continued to rage all this day and the next, but on May 6, which +was one of those clear beautiful days when it is hard to believe that it +can ever blow again, we could see something of the damage to the sea-ice. +The centre of the Sound was clear of ice, and the open water stretched to +the S. W. of us as far back as Tent Island. We were to have many worse +blizzards during this winter, but this particular blow was important +because it came at a critical time in the freezing over of the sea, and, +once it had been dispersed, the winds of the future never allowed the ice +to form again sufficiently thick to withstand the wind forces which +obtained. + +Thus I find in my diary of May 8: "Up to the present we have never +considered the possibility of the sea in this neighbourhood, and the +Sound out to the west of us, not freezing over permanently in the winter. +But here there is still open water, and it seems quite possible that +there may not be any permanent freezing this year, at any rate to the +north of Inaccessible Island and this cape. Though North Bay is now +frozen over, the ice in it was blown away during the night, and, having +been blown back again, is now only joined to the ice-foot by newly frozen +ice." + +During this winter the ice formed in North Bay was constantly moving away +from the ice-foot, quite independently of wind. I watched it carefully as +far as it was possible to do so in the dark. Sometimes at any rate the +southern side of the sea-ice moved out not only northwards from the land, +but also slightly westwards from the glacier face. To the north-east the +ice was sometimes pressed closely up against the glacier. It seemed that +the whole sheet was subject to a screw movement, the origin of which was +somewhere out by Inaccessible Island. The result was that we often had a +series of leads of newly frozen ice stretching out for some forty yards +to an older piece of ice, each lead being of a different age. It was an +interesting study in the formation of sea-ice, covered at times by very +beautiful ice-flowers. But it was dangerous for the dogs, who sometimes +did not realize that these leads were not strong enough to bear them. +Vaida went in one day, but managed to scramble out on the far side. He +was induced to return to the land with difficulty, just before the whole +sheet of ice upon which he stood floated out to sea. Noogis, Dimitri's +good leader, wandered away several times during the winter: once at any +rate he seems to have been carried off on a piece of ice, and to have +managed to swim to land, for when he arrived in camp his coat was full of +icy slush: finally he disappeared altogether, all search for him was in +vain, and we never found out what had happened. + +[Illustration: CAPE EVANS IN WINTER--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +Vaida was a short-tempered strong animal, who must have about doubled his +weight since we came in from One Ton, and he became quite a house-dog +this winter, waiting at the door to be patted by men as they went out, +and coming in sometimes during the night-watch. But he did not like to be +turned out in the morning, and for my part I did not like the job, for he +could prove very nasty. We allowed a good many of the dogs to be loose +this year, and sometimes, when standing quietly upon a rock on the cape, +three or four of the dogs passed like shadows in the darkness, busily +hunting the ice-foot for seals: this was the trouble of giving them their +freedom, and I regret to say we found many carcasses of seal and Emperor +penguins. There was one new dog, Lion, who accompanied me sometimes to +the top of the Ramp to see how the ice lay out in the Sound. He seemed as +interested in it as I was, and while I was using night-glasses would sit +and gaze out over the sea which according to its age lay white or black +at our feet. Of course we had a dog called Peary, and another one +called Cooke. Peary was killed on the Barrier because he would not pull. +Cooke, however, was still with us, and seemed to have been ostracized by +his fellows, a position which in some lop-sided way he enjoyed. Loose +dogs chased him at sight, and when Cooke appeared, and others were about, +a regular steeplechase started. He also came up the Ramp with me one day: +half-way up he suddenly turned and fled for the hut as hard as he could +go: three other dogs came round the rocks in full chase, and they all +gave the impression of thoroughly enjoying themselves. + +The question of what ought to be done for the best during the coming +sledging season must have been in the minds of all of us. Which of the +two missing parties were we to try and find? A winter journey to relieve +Campbell and his five men was out of the question. I doubt the +possibility of such a journey to Evans Coves with fit men: to us at any +rate it was unthinkable. Also if we could do the double journey up and +down, Campbell could certainly do the single journey down. Add to this +that there was every sign of open water under the Western Mountains, +though this did not influence us much when the decision was made. The +problem as it presented itself to us was much as follows: + +Campbell's Party _might_ have been picked up by the Terra Nova. Pennell +meant to have another try to reach him on his way north, and it was +probable that the ship would not be able to communicate again with Cape +Evans owing to ice: on the other hand it was likely that the ship had +_not_ been able to relieve him. It also seemed that he could not have +travelled down the coast at this time, owing to the state of the sea-ice. +The danger to him and his men was primarily during the winter: every day +after the winter his danger was lessened. If we started in the end of +October to relieve Campbell, estimating the probable date of arrival of +the ship, we judged that we could reach him only five or six weeks before +the ship relieved him. All the same Campbell and his men might be alive, +and, having lived through the winter, the arrival of help might make the +difference between life and death. + +On the other hand we knew that the Polar Party must be dead. They might +be anywhere between Hut Point and the Pole, drifted over by snow, or +lying at the bottom of a crevasse, which seemed the most likely thing to +have happened. From the Upper Glacier Depôt in 85° 5´ S. to the Pole, +that is the whole distance of the Plateau Journey, we did not know the +courses they had steered nor the position of their depôts, for Lieutenant +Evans, who brought back the Last Return Party, was invalided home and +neither of the seamen who remained of this party knew the courses. + +After the experience of both the supporting parties on their way down the +Beardmore Glacier, when we all got into frightfully crevassed areas, it +was the general opinion that the Polar Party must have fallen down a +crevasse; the weight of five men, as compared with the four men and three +men of the other return parties, supported this theory. Lashly was +inclined to think they had had scurvy. The true solution never once +occurred to us, for they had full rations for a very much longer period +of time than, according to their averages to 87° 32´, they were likely to +be out. + +The first object of the expedition had been the Pole. If some record was +not found, their success or failure would for ever remain uncertain. Was +it due not only to the men and their relatives, but also to the +expedition, to ascertain their fate if possible? + +The chance of finding the remains of the Southern Party did not seem very +great. At the same time Scott was strict about leaving notes at depôts, +and it seemed likely that he would have left some record at the Upper +Glacier Depôt before starting to descend the Beardmore Glacier: it would +be interesting to know whether he did so. If we went south we must be +prepared to reach this depôt: farther than that, I have explained, we +could not track him. On the other hand, if we went south prepared to go +to the Upper Glacier Depôt, the number of sledging men necessary, in view +of the fact that we had no depôts, would not allow of our sending a +second party to relieve Campbell. + +It was with all this in our minds that we sat down one evening in the hut +to decide what was to be done. The problem was a hard one. On the one +hand we might go south, fail entirely to find any trace of the Polar +Party, and while we were fruitlessly travelling all the summer Campbell's +men might die for want of help. On the other hand we might go north, to +find that Campbell's men were safe, and as a consequence the fate of the +Polar Party and the result of their efforts might remain for ever +unknown. Were we to forsake men who might be alive to look for those whom +we knew were dead? + +These were the points put by Atkinson to the meeting of the whole party. +He expressed his own conviction that we should go south, and then each +member was asked what he thought. No one was for going north: one member +only did not vote for going south, and he preferred not to give an +opinion. Considering the complexity of the question, I was surprised by +this unanimity. We prepared for another Southern Journey. + +It is impossible to express and almost impossible to imagine how +difficult it was to make this decision. Then we knew nothing: now we know +all. And nothing is harder than to realize in the light of facts the +doubts which others have experienced in the fog of uncertainty. + +Our winter routine worked very smoothly. Inside the hut we had a good +deal more room than we needed, but this allowed of certain work being +done in its shelter which would otherwise have had to be done outside. +For instance we cut a hole through the floor of the dark-room, and +sledged in some heavy boulders of kenyte lava: these were frozen solidly +into the rock upon which the hut was built by the simple method of +pouring hot water over them, and the pedestal so formed was used by +Wright for his pendulum observations. I was able to skin a number of +birds in the hut; which, incidentally, was a very much colder place in +consequence of the reduction in our numbers. + +The wind was most turbulent during this winter. The mean velocity of the +wind, in miles per hour, for the month of May was 24.6 m.p.h.; for June +30.9 m.p.h.; and for July 29.5 m.p.h. The percentage of hours when the +wind was blowing over fresh gale strength (42 m.p.h. on the Beaufort +scale) for the month of May was 24.5, for June 35, and for July 33 per +cent of the whole. + +These figures speak for themselves: after May we lived surrounded by an +atmosphere of raging winds and blinding drift, and the sea at our door +was never allowed to freeze permanently. + +After the blizzard in the beginning of May which I have already +described, the ice round the point of Cape Evans and that in North Bay +formed to a considerable thickness. We put a thermometer screen out upon +it, and Atkinson started a fish-trap through a hole in it. There was a +good deal of competition over this trap: the seamen started a rival one, +which was to have been a very large affair, though it narrowed down to a +less ambitious business before it was finished. There was a sound of +cheering one morning, and Crean came in triumph from his fish-trap with a +catch of 25. Atkinson's last catch had numbered one, but the seals had +found his fishing-holes: a new hole caught fish until a seal found it. +One of these fish, a Tremasome, had a parasitic growth over the dorsal +sheath. External parasites are not common in the Antarctic, and this was +an interesting find. + +On June 1 Dimitri and Hooper went with a team of nine dogs to and from +Hut Point, to see if they could find Noogis, the dog which had left us on +our return on May 1. There was plenty of food for him to pick up there. +No trace of him could be found. The party reported a bad running surface, +no pressure in the ice, as was the case the former year, but a large open +working crack running from Great Razorback to Tent Island. There were big +snowdrifts at Hut Point, as indeed was already the case at Cape Evans. +During the first days of June we got down into the minus thirties, and +our spirits rose as the thermometer dropped: we wanted permanent +sea-ice. + +"_Saturday, June 8._ The weather changes since the night before last have +been, luckily for us, uncommon. Thursday evening a strong northerly wind +started with some drift, and this increased during the night until it +blew over forty miles an hour, the temperature being -22°. A strong wind +from the north is rare, and generally is the prelude of a blizzard. This +northerly wind fell towards morning, and the day was calm and clear, the +temperature falling until it was -33° at 4 P.M. The barometer had been +abnormally low during the day, being only 28.24 at noon. Then at 8 P.M. +with the temperature at -36°, this blizzard broke, and at the same time +there was a big upward jump of the barometer, which seemed to mark the +beginning of the blizzard much more than the thermometer, which did not +rise much. The wind during the night was very high, blowing 72 and 66 +miles an hour, for hours at a time, and has not yet shown any sign of +diminishing. Now, after lunch, the hut is straining and creaking, while a +shower of stones rattles at intervals against it: the drift is generally +very heavy." + +"_Sunday, June 9._ The temperature has been higher, about zero, during +the day, and the blizzard shows no signs of falling yet. The gusts are +still of a very high velocity. A large quantity of ice to the north seems +to have gone out: at any rate our narrow strip along the front, which is +so valuable to us, will probably be permanent now." + +"_Monday, June 10._ A most turbulent day. It is very hard to settle down +to do anything, read or write, with such a turmoil outside, the hut +shaking until we begin to wonder how long it will stand such winds. Most +of the time the wind is averaging about sixty miles an hour, but the +gusts are far greater, and at times it seems that something must go. Just +before lunch I was racking my brains to write an Editorial for the South +Polar Times, and had congratulated ourselves on having the sea-ice which +is still in North Bay. As we were having lunch Nelson came in and said, +'The thermometers have gone!' All the ice in North Bay has gone. The part +immediately next to the shore, which has now been in so long, and which +was over two feet thick, we had considered sure to stay. On it has gone +out the North Bay thermometer screen with its instruments, which was +placed 400 yards out, the fish-trap, some shovels and a sledge with a +crowbar. The gusts were exceptionally strong at lunch, and the ice must +have gone out very quickly. There was no sign of it afterwards, though it +was not drifting much and we could see some distance. To lose this ice in +North Bay is a great disappointment, for it means so much to us here +whether we have ice or water at our doors. We are now pretty well +confined to the cape both for our own exercise and that of the mules, and +in the dark it is very rough walking. But if the ice in South Bay were to +follow, it would be a calamity, cutting us off entirely from the south +and all sledging next year. Let us hope we shall be spared this." + +This blizzard lasted for eight days, up till then the longest blizzard we +had experienced: "It died as it had lived, blowing hard to the last, +averaging 68 miles an hour from the south, and then 56 miles an hour from +the north, finally back to the south, and so to calm. To sit here with no +noise of wind whistling in the ventilator, calm and starlight outside, +and North Bay freezing over once more, is a very great relief."[280] + +It is noteworthy that this clearance of the ice, as also that in the +beginning of May, coincided roughly with the maximum declination of the +moon, and therefore with a run of spring tides. + +It would be tedious to give any detailed account of the winds and drift +which followed, night and day. There were few days which did not produce +their blizzard, but in contrast the hours of bright starlight were very +beautiful. "Walking home over the cape in the darkness this afternoon I +saw an eruption of Erebus which, compared with anything we have seen here +before, was very big. It looked as though a great mass of flame shot up +some thousands of feet into the air, and, as suddenly as it rose, fell +again, rising again to about half the height, and then disappearing. +There was then a great column of steam rising from the crater, and +probably, so Debenham asserts, it was not a flame which appeared, but the +reflection from a big bubble breaking in the crater. Afterwards the smoke +cloud stretched away southwards, and we could not see the end of +it."[281] + +Blizzard followed blizzard, and at the beginning of July we had four days +which were the thickest I have ever seen. Generally when you go out into +a blizzard the drift is blown from your face and clothes, and though you +cannot see your stretched-out hand, especially on a dark winter day, the +wind prevents you being smothered. The wind also prevents the land, +tents, hut and cases from being covered. But during this blizzard the +drift drove at you in such blankets of snow, that your person was +immediately blotted out, your face covered and your eyes plugged up. Gran +lost himself for some time on the hill when taking the 8 A.M. +observations, and Wright had difficulty in getting back from the magnetic +cave. Men had narrow escapes of losing themselves, though they were but a +few feet from the hut. + +When this blizzard cleared the camp was buried, and even on unobstructed +surfaces the snowdrifts averaged four feet of additional depth. Two +enormous drifts ran down to the sea from either end of the hut. I do not +think we ever found some of our stores again, but the larger part we +carried up to the higher ground behind us where they remained fairly +clear. About this time I began to notice large sheets of anchor ice off +the end of Cape Evans, that is to say, ice forming and remaining on the +bottom of the open sea. Now also the open water was extending round the +cape into the South Bay behind us: but it was too dark to get any +reliable idea of the distribution of ice in the Sound. We were afraid +that we were cut off from Hut Point, but I do not believe that this was +the case; though the open water must have stretched many miles to the +south in the middle of the Sound. The days when it was clear enough even +to potter about outside the hut were exceptional. God was very angry. + +"_Sunday, July 14._ A blizzard during the night, and after breakfast it +was drifting a lot. While we were having service some of the men went +over the camp to get ice for water. The sea-ice had been blown out of +North Bay, and the men supposed that the sea was open, and would look +black, but Crean tells me that they nearly walked over the ice-foot, and, +when it cleared later, we saw the sea as white as the ice-foot itself. A +strip of ice which was lying out in the Bay last night must have been +brought in by the tide, even against a wind of some forty miles an hour. +This shows what an influence the tides and currents have in comparison +with the winds, for just at this time we are having very big tides. It +was blowing and drifting all the morning, and the tide was flowing in, +pressing the ice in under the ice-foot to such an extent that later it +remained there, though the tide was ebbing and a strong southerly was +blowing."[282] Incidentally the bergs which were grounded in our +neighbourhood were shifted and broken about considerably by these high +winds: also the meteorological screen placed on the Ramp the year before +was broken from its upright, which had snapped in the middle, and must +have been taken up into the air and so out to sea, for there was no trace +of it to be found: Wright lost two doors placed over the entrance to the +magnetic cave: when he lifted them they were taken out of his hands by +the wind, and disappeared into the air and were never seen again. + +[Illustration: NORTH BAY AND THE BARNE GLACIER] + +So ready was the sea to freeze that there can be little doubt that it +already contained large numbers of ice crystals, and time and again I +have stood upon the ice-foot watching the tongues of the winds licking up +the waters as they roared their way out to sea. Then, with no warning, +there would come, suddenly and completely, a lull. And there would be a +film of ice, covering the surface of the sea, come so quickly that all +you could say was that it was not there before and it was there now. And +then down would come the wind again and it was gone. Once when the winter +had gone and daylight had returned I stood upon the end of the cape, the +air all calm around me, and there, half-a-mile away, a full blizzard was +blowing: the islands, and even the berg between Inaccessible Island +and the cape, were totally obscured in the thickest drift: the top of the +drift, which was very distinct, thinned to show dimly the crest of +Inaccessible Island: Turk's Head was visible and Erebus quite clear. In +fact I was just on the edge of a thick blizzard, blowing down the Strait, +the side showing as a perpendicular wall about 500 feet high and +travelling, I should say, about 40 miles an hour. A roar came out from it +of the wind and waves. + +The weather conditions were extraordinarily local, as another experience +will show. Atkinson and Dimitri were off to Hut Point with the dogs, +carrying biscuit and pemmican for the coming Search Journey: I went with +them some way, and then left them to place a flag upon the end of Glacier +Tongue for surveying purposes. It was clear and bright, and it was easy +to get a sketch of the bearings of the islands from this position, which +showed how great a portion of the Tongue must have broken off in the +autumn of 1911. I anticipated a pleasant walk home, but was somewhat +alarmed when heavy wind and drift came down from the direction of the +Hutton Cliffs. Wearing spectacles, and being unable to see without them, +I managed to steer with difficulty by the sun which still showed dimly +through the drift. It was amazing suddenly to walk out of the wall of +drift into light airs at Little Razorback Island. One minute it was +blowing and drifting hard and I could see almost nothing, the next it was +calm, save for little whirlwinds of snow formed by eddies of air drawn in +from the north. In another three hundred yards the wind was blowing from +the north. On this day Atkinson found wind force 8 and temperature -17° +at Hut Point: at Cape Evans the temperature was zero and men were sitting +on the rocks and smoking in the sun. Many instances might be given to +show how local our weather conditions often were. + +There was a morning some time in the middle of the winter when we awoke +to one of our usual tearing blizzards. We had had some days of calm, and +the ice had frozen sufficiently for the fish-trap to be lowered again. +But that it would not stand much of this wind was obvious, and after +breakfast Atkinson stuck out his jaw and said he wasn't going to lose +another trap for any dash blizzard. He and Keohane sallied forth on to +the ice, lost to our sight immediately in the darkness and drift. They +got it, but arrived on the cape in quite a different place, and we were +glad to see them back. Soon afterwards the ice blew out. + +Much credit is due to the mule leaders that they were able to exercise +their animals without hurt. Cape Evans in the dark, strewn with great +boulders, with the open sea at your feet, is no easy place to manage a +very high-spirited and excitable mule, just out of a warm stable, +especially if this is his first outing for several days and the wind is +blowing fresh, and you are not sure if your face is frost-bitten, and you +are quite sure that your hands are. But the exercise was carried out +without mishap. The mules themselves were most anxious to go out, and +when Pyaree developed a housemaid's knee and was kept in, she revenged +herself upon her more fortunate companions by biting each one hard as it +passed her head on its way to and from the door. Gulab was the biggest +handful, and Williamson managed him with skill: some of them, especially +Lal Khan, were very playful, running round and round their leaders and +stopping to paw the ground: Khan Sahib, on the other hand, was bored, +yawning continually: it was suggested that he was suffering from polar +ennui! Altogether they reflected the greatest credit upon Lashly, who +groomed them every day and took the greatest care of them. They were +subject to the most violent fits of jealousy, being much disturbed if a +rival got undue attention. The dog Vaida, however, was good friends with +them all, going down the line and rubbing noses with them in their +stalls. + +The food of the mules was based upon that given by Oates to the ponies +the year before, and the results were successful. + +The accommodation given to the dogs in the Terra Nova on the way south is +open to criticism. As the reader may remember, they were chained on the +top of the deck cargo on the main deck, and of course had a horrible +time during the gale, and any subsequent bad weather, which did not +however last very long. But it was quite impossible to put them anywhere +else, for every square inch between decks was so packed that even our +personal belongings for more than two years were reduced to one small +uniform case. Any seaman will easily understand that to build houses or +shelters on deck over and above what we had already was out of the +question. As a matter of fact I doubt whether the dogs had a worse time +than we during that gale. In good weather at sea, and at all times in the +pack, they were comfortable enough. But future explorers might consider +whether they can give their dogs more shelter during the winter than we +were able to do. Amundsen, whose Winter Quarters were on the Barrier +itself, and who experienced lower temperatures and very much less wind +than was our lot at Cape Evans, had his dogs in tents, and let them run +loose in the camp during the day. Tents would have gone in the winds we +experienced, and I have explained that we had no snow in which we could +make houses, as was done by Amundsen in the Barrier. + +Our more peaceable dogs were allowed to run loose, especially during this +last winter, at the beginning of which we also built a dog hospital. We +should have liked to loose them all, but if we did so they immediately +flew at one another's throats. We might perhaps have let them loose if we +had first taken the precaution Amundsen took, and muzzled all of them +before doing so. The sport of fighting, so his dogs discovered, lost all +its charm when they found they could not taste blood, and they gave it +up, and ran about unmuzzled and happy. But the slaughter among the seals +and penguins would have been horrible with us, and many dogs might have +been carried away on the breaking sea-ice. The tied-up ones lay under the +lee of a line of cases, each in his own hole. They curled up quite snugly +buried in the snowdrift when blizzards were blowing, and lay exactly in +the same way when sledging on the Barrier, the first duty of the +dog-driver after pitching his own tent being to dig holes for each of his +dogs. It may be that these conditions are more natural to them than any +other, and that they are warmer when covered by the drifted snow than +they would be in any unwarmed shelter: but this I doubt. At any rate they +throve exceedingly under these rigorous conditions, soon becoming fat and +healthy after the hardest sledge journeys, and their sledging record is a +very fine one. We could not have built them a hut; as it was, we left our +magnetic hut, a far smaller affair, in New Zealand, for there was no room +to stow it on the ship. I would not advise housing dogs in a hut built +with a lean-to roof as an annexe to the main living-hut, but this would +be one way of doing it if you are prepared to stand the noise and smell. + +The dog-biscuits, provided by Spratt, weighed 8 oz. each, and their +sledging ration was 1½ lbs. a day, given to them after they reached the +night camp. We made seal pemmican for them and tried this when sledging, +as an occasional variation on biscuit, but they did not thrive on this +diet. The oil in the biscuits caused purgation, as also did the pemmican: +the fat was partly undigested and the excreta were eaten. The ponies also +ate their excreta at times. Certain dogs were confirmed leather eaters, +and we carried chains for them: on camping, these dogs were taken out of +their canvas and raw-hide harnesses, and attached to the sledge by the +chains, care being taken that they could not get at the food on the +sledge. When sledging, Amundsen gave his dogs pemmican but I do not know +what else: he also fed dog to dog: I do not know whether we could have +fed dog to dog, for ours were Siberian dogs which, I am told, will not +eat one another. At Amundsen's winter quarters he gave them seal's flesh +and blubber one day, and dried fish the next.[283] On the long voyage +south in the Fram, he fed his dogs on dried fish, and three times a week +gave them a porridge of dried fish, tallow, and maize meal boiled +together.[284] At Cape Evans or at Hut Point our dogs were given plenty +of biscuit some evenings, and plenty of fresh frozen seal at other times. + +Our worst trouble with the dogs came from far away--probably from Asia. +There are references in Scott's diary to four dogs as attacked by a +mysterious disease during our first year in the South: one of these dogs +died within two minutes. We lost many more dogs the last year, and +Atkinson has given me the following memorandum upon the parasite, a +nematode worm, which was discovered later to be the cause of the trouble: + +"_Filaria immitis._--A certain proportion of the dogs became infected +with this nematode, and it was the cause of their death, mainly in the +second year. It was present at the time the expedition started (1910) all +down the Pacific side of Asia and Papua, and there was an examination +microscopically of all dogs imported at this time into New Zealand. The +secondary host is the mosquito Culex. + +"The symptoms varied. The onset was usually with intense pain, during +which the animal yelled and groaned: this was cardiac in origin and +referable to the presence of the mature form in the beast. There was +marked haematuria, and the animals were anaemic from actual loss of +haemoglobins. In nearly all cases there was paralysis affecting the +hindquarters during the later stages, which tended to spread upwards and +finally ended in death. + +"The probable place of infection was Vladivostok before the dogs were put +on board ship and deported to New Zealand. The only method of coping with +the disease is prevention of infection in infected areas. It is probable +that the mosquitoes would not bite after the dog's coat had been rubbed +with paraffin: or mosquito netting might be placed over the kennels, +especially at night time. The larval forms were found microscopically in +the blood, and one mature form in the heart." + +We were too careful about killing animals. I have explained how +Campbell's party was landed at Evans Coves. Some of the party wanted to +kill some seals on the off chance of the ship not turning up to relieve +them. This was before they were in any way alarmed. But it was decided +that life might be taken unnecessarily if they did this--and that winter +this party nearly died of starvation. And yet this country has allowed +penguins to be killed by the million every year for Commerce and a +farthing's worth of blubber. + +We never killed unless it was necessary, and what we had to kill was used +to the utmost both for food and for the scientific work in hand. The +first Emperor penguin we ever saw at Cape Evans was captured after an +exciting chase outside the hut in the middle of a blizzard. He kept us +busy for days: the zoologist got a museum skin, showing some variation +from the usual coloration, a skeleton, and some useful observation on the +digestive glands: the parasitologist got a new tape-worm: we all had a +change of diet. Many a pheasant has died for less. + +There were plenty of Weddell seal round us this winter, but they kept out +of the wind and in the water for the most part. The sea is the warm place +of the Antarctic, for the temperature never falls below about 29° Fahr., +and a seal which has been lying out on the ice in a minus thirty +temperature, and perhaps some wind, must feel, as he slips into the sea, +much the same sensations as occur to us when we walk out of a cold +English winter day into a heated conservatory. On the other hand, a +seaman went out into North Bay to bathe from a boat, in the full sun of a +mid-summer day, and he was out almost as soon as he was in. One of the +most beautiful sights of this winter was to see the seals, outlined in +phosphorescent light, swimming and hunting in the dark water. + +We had lectures, but not as many as during the previous winter when they +became rather excessive: and we included outside subjects. We read in +many a polar book of the depressions and trials of the long polar night; +but thanks to gramophones, pianolas, variety of food, and some study of +the needs both of mind and body, we suffered very little from the first +year's months of darkness. There is quite a store of novelty in living in +the dark: most of us I think thoroughly enjoyed it. But a second winter, +with some of your best friends dead, and others in great difficulties, +perhaps dying, when all is unknown and every one is sledged to a +standstill, and blizzards blow all day and all night, is a ghastly +experience. This year there was not one of our company who did not +welcome the return of the sun with thankfulness: all the more so since he +came back to a land of blizzards and made many of our difficulties more +easy to tackle. Those who got little outside exercise were more affected +by the darkness than others. This last year, of course, the difficulties +of getting sufficient outdoor exercise were much increased. Variety is +important to the man who travels in polar regions: at all events those +who went away on sledging expeditions stood the life more successfully +than those whose duties tied them to the neighbourhood of the hut. + +Other things being equal, the men with the greatest store of nervous +energy came best through this expedition. Having more imagination, they +have a worse time than their more phlegmatic companions; but they get +things done. And when the worst came to the worst, their strength of mind +triumphed over their weakness of body. If you want a good polar traveller +get a man without too much muscle, with good physical tone, and let his +mind be on wires--of steel. And if you can't get both, sacrifice physique +and bank on will. + + * * * * * + +NOTE + +A lecture given at this time by Wright on Barrier Surfaces is especially +interesting with relation to the Winter Journey and the tragedy of the +Polar Party. The general tend of friction set up by a sledge-runner upon +snow of ordinary temperature may be called true _sliding_ friction: it is +probable that the runners melt to an infinitesimal degree the millions of +crystal points over which they glide: the sledge is running upon water. +Crystals in such temperatures are larger and softer than those +encountered in low temperatures. It is now that halos may be seen in the +snow, almost reaching to your feet as you pull, and moving forward with +you: we steered sometimes by keeping these halos at a certain angle to +us. My experience is that the best pulling surface is at an air +temperature of about +17° Fahr.: Wright's experience is that below +5° +during summer temperatures on the Barrier the surface is fairly good, +that between +5° and +15° less good, and between +15° and +25° best. The +worst is from +25° upwards, the worst of all being round about freezing +point. + +As the temperature became high the amount of ice melted by this sliding +friction was excessive. It was then that we found ice forming upon the +runners, often in almost microscopic amounts, but nevertheless causing +the sledges to drag seriously. Thus on the Beardmore we took enormous +care to keep our runners free from ice, by scraping them at every halt +with the back of our knives. This ice is perhaps formed when the runners +sink into the snow to an unusual depth, at which the temperature of the +snow is sufficiently low to freeze the water previously formed by +friction or radiation from the sun on to a dark runner. + +In very low temperatures the snow crystals become very small and very +hard, so hard that they will scratch the runners. The friction set up by +runners in such temperatures may be known as _rolling_ friction, and the +effect, as experienced by us during the Winter Journey and elsewhere, is +much like pulling a sledge over sand. This rolling friction is that of +snow crystal against snow crystal. + +If the barometer is rising you get flat crystals on the ice, if it is +falling you get mirage and a blizzard. When you get mirage the air is +actually coming out of the Barrier. Thus far Wright's lecture. + +Since we returned I have had a talk with Nansen about the sledge-runners +which he recommends to the future explorer. The ideal sledge-runner +combines lightness and strength. He tells me that he would always have +metal runners in high temperatures in which they will run better than +wood. In cold temperatures wood is necessary. Metal is stronger than wood +with same weight. He has never used, but he suggests the possible use of, +aluminium or magnesium for the metal. And he would also have wooden +runners with metal runners attached, to be used alternately, if needed. + +The Discovery Expedition used German silver, and it failed: Nansen +suggests that the failure was due to the fact that these runners were +fitted at home. The effect of this is that the wood shrinks and the +German silver is not quite flat: the fitting should be done on the spot. +Nansen did this himself on the Fram, and the result was excellent. [I +believe that these Discovery runners were not a continuous strip of metal +but were built up in strips, which tore at the points of junction.] +Before it is fitted, German silver should be heated red hot and allowed +to cool. This makes it more ductile, like lead, and therefore less +springy: the metal should be as thin as possible. + +As runners melt the crystals and so run on water, metal is unsuitable for +cold snow. For low temperatures, therefore, Nansen would have wooden +runners under the metal, the metal being taken off when cold conditions +obtained. He would choose such wood as is the best conductor of heat. He +tried birch wood in the first crossing of Greenland, but would not +recommend it as being too easily broken. In the use of oak, ash, maple, +and doubtless also hickory, for runners, the rings of growth of the tree +should be as far apart as possible: that is to say, they should be fast +growing. Ash with narrow rings breaks. There is ash and ash: American ash +is no good for this purpose; some Norwegian ash is useful, and some not. +Our own sledges with ash runners varied enormously. The runners of a +sledge should curve slightly, the centre being nearest to the snow. The +runners of ski should curve also slightly, in this case upwards in the +centre, i.e. from the snow. This is done by the way the wood is cut. +Wood always dries with the curve from the heart towards the outside of +the tree. + +During our last year we had six new Norwegian sledges twelve feet long, +brought down by the ship, with tapered runners of hickory which were 3¾ +inches broad in the fore part and 2¼ inches only at the stern. I believe +that this was an idea of Scott, who considered that the broad runner in +front would press down a path for the tapered part which followed, the +total area of friction being much less. We took one of them into South +Bay one morning and tried it against an ordinary sledge, putting 490 lbs. +on each of them. The surface included fairly soft as well as harder and +more rubbly going. There was no difference of opinion that the sledge +with the tapered runners pulled easier, and later we used these sledges +on the Barrier with great success. + +If some instrument could be devised to test sledges in this way it would +be of very great service. No team of men can make an exact estimate of +the run of their own sledge, let alone the sledge which your pony or your +dogs are pulling. Yet sledges vary enormously, and it would be an +excellent thing for a leader to be able to test his sledges before buying +them, and also to be able to pick out the best for his more important +sledge journeys. I believe it can be done by attaching some kind of +balance between the sledge and the men pulling it. + +Other points mentioned by Nansen are as follows: + +Tarred ski are good: the snow does not stick so much. [This probably +refers to the Norwegian compound known as Fahrt.] But he does not +recommend tarred runners for sledges. Having had experience of a tent of +Chinese silk which would go into his pocket but was very cold, he +recommends a double tent, the inner lining being detached so that ice +could be shaken from both coverings. He suggests the possibility of a +woollen lining being warmer than cotton or silk or linen. I am, however, +of opinion that wool would collect more moisture from the cooker, and it +certainly would be far more difficult to shake off the ice. For four men +he would have two two-men sleeping-bags and a central pole coming down +between them, and the floor-cloth made in one piece with the tent. For +three men a three-man sleeping-bag: e.g. for such a journey as our +Winter Journey. He would not brush rime, formed upon the tent by the +steam from the cooker and breath, from the inside of tent before striking +camp. The more of it the warmer. He considers that two- or three-men +sleeping-bags are infinitely warmer than single bags: objections of +discomfort are overcome, for you are so tired you go to sleep anyway. I +would, however, recommend the explorer to read Scott's remarks upon the +same subject before making up his mind.[285] + +FOOTNOTES: + + [280] My own diary. + + [281] My own diary. + + [282] My own diary. + + [283] See Amundsen, _The South Pole_, vol. i. p. 264. + + [284] Ibid. vol. i. p. 119. + + [285] Scott, _Voyage of the Discovery_, vol. i. pp. 480-487. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +ANOTHER SPRING + + O to dream, O to awake and wander + There, and with delight to take and render, + Through the trance of silence, + Quiet breath; + Lo! for there among the flowers and grasses, + Only the mightier movement sounds and passes; + Only winds and rivers, + Life and death. + + +The flowers were of snow, the rivers of ice, and if Stevenson had been to +the Antarctic he would have made them so. + +God sent His daylight to scatter the nightmares of the darkness. I can +remember now the joy of an August day when the sun looked over the rim of +the Barne Glacier, and my shadow lay clear-cut upon the snow. It was +wonderful what a friendly thing that ice-slope became. We put the first +trace upon the sunshine recorder; there was talk of expeditions to Cape +Royds and Hut Point, and survey parties; and we ate our luncheon by the +daylight which shone through the newly cleared window. + +The coming Search Journey was organized to reach the Upper Glacier Depôt, +and the plans were modelled upon the Polar Journey of the year before. +But now we had no extensive depôts on the Barrier. It was intended that +the dogs should run two trips out to Corner Camp during this spring. It +was hoped that two parties of four men each might be able to ascend the +Beardmore, one of them remaining about half-way up and doing geological +and other scientific work while the other went up to the top. + +In our inmost thoughts we were full of doubts and fears. "I had a long +talk with Lashly, who asked me what I candidly thought had happened to +the Southern Party. I told him a crevasse. He says he does not think so: +he thinks it is scurvy. Talking about crevasses he says that, on the +return of the Second Return Party, they came right over the ice-falls +south of Mount Darwin,--descending about 2000 feet into a great valley, +down which they travelled towards the west, and so to the Upper Glacier +Depôt. I believe Scott told Evans (Lieut.) that he meant to come back +this same way." + +"Then the stuff they got into above the Cloudmaker must have been +horrible. 'Why, there are places there you could put St. Paul's into, and +that's no exaggeration, neither,' and they spent two nights in it. All +the way down to the Gateway he says there were crevasses, great big +fellows thirty feet across, which we of the First Return Party had +crossed both going and coming back and which we never saw. But then much +of the snow had gone and they were visible. Lieut. Evans was very badly +snowblind most of this time. Then outside the Gateway, on the Barrier, +they crossed many crevasses, and some had fallen in where we had passed +over them." + +"This makes one think. Is the state of affairs in which we found the +glacier an extraordinary one, the snow being a special phenomenon due to +that great blizzard and snowfall? Are we going to find blue ice this year +where we found thick soft snow last? Well! I have got a regular bad +needle again, just as I have had before. But somehow the needle has +always worked off when we get right into it. What a blessing it is that +things are seldom as bad in the reality as you expect they are going to +be in your imagination: though I must say the Winter Journey was worse +even than I had imagined. I remember that this time last year the thought +of the Beardmore was very terrible: but the reality was never very bad." + +"Lashly thinks it would be practically impossible for five men to +disappear down a crevasse. Where three men got through (and he said it +would be impossible to get worse stuff than they came through), five men +would be still better off. This is not my view, however. I think that the +extra weight of one man might make all the difference in crossing a big +crevasse: and if several men fell through one of those great bridges when +sledge and men were all on it, I do not think the bridge would hold the +sledge."[286] + +Several trips were made to Cape Royds over the Barne Glacier, and then by +portaging over the rocks to Shackleton's old hut. The sea was open here, +except for small niches of ice, and the hut and the cape were +comparatively free from drifts; probably the open water had swallowed the +drifting snow. Not so Hut Point, which was surrounded by huge drifts: the +verandah which we had built up as a stable was filled from floor to roof: +there was no ice-foot to be seen, only a long snow-slope from the door to +the sea-level. The hut itself, when we had dug our way into it, was +clear. We took down stores for the Search Journey, and brought back with +us the only surviving sledge-meter. + +These instruments, which indicate by a clockwork arrangement the distance +travelled in miles and yards, are actuated by a wheel which runs behind +the sledge. They are of the greatest possible use, especially when +sledging out of sight of land on the Barrier or Plateau, and we bitterly +regretted that we had no more. They do not have an easy time on a +glacier, and we lost the mechanism of one of our three Polar Journey +meters when on the Beardmore. Dog-driving is hard on them; and +pony-driving when the ponies are like Christopher plays the very deuce. +Anyway we found we had only one left for this year, and this was more or +less a dud. It was mended so far as possible but was never really +reliable, and latterly was useless. A lot of trouble was taken by Lashly +to make another with a bicycle wheel from one of our experimental trucks, +the revolutions of which were marked on a counter which was almost +exactly similar to one of our anemometer registers. A bicycle wheel of +course stood much higher than our proper sledge-meters, and a difficulty +rose in fixing it to the sledge so as to prevent its wobbling and at the +same time allow it the necessary amount of play. + +Meanwhile the mules were being brought on in condition. With daylight and +improved weather they were exercised with loaded sledges on the sea-ice +which still remained in South Bay. They went like lambs, and were +evidently used to the work. Gulab was a troublesome little animal: he had +no objection to pulling a sledge, but was just ultra-timid. Again and +again he was got into position for having his traces hitched on, and each +time some little thing, the flapping of a mitt, the touch of the trace, +or the feel of the bow of the sledge, frightened him and he was off, and +the same performance had to be repeated. Once harnessed he was very good. +The breast harness sent down for them by the Indian Government was used: +it was excellent; though Oates, I believe, had an idea that collars were +better. However, we had not got the collars. The mules themselves looked +very fit and strong: our only doubt was whether their small hoofs would +sink into soft snow even farther than the ponies had done. + +No record of this expedition would be complete without some mention of +the cases of fire which occurred. The first was in the lazarette of the +ship on the voyage to Cape Town: it was caused by an overturned lamp and +easily extinguished. The second was during our first winter in the +Antarctic, when there was a fire in the motor shed, which was formed by +full petrol cases built up round the motors, and roofed with a tarpaulin. +This threatened to be more serious, but was also put out without much +difficulty. The third and fourth cases were during the winter which had +just passed, and were both inside Winter Quarters. + +Wright wanted a lamp to heat a shed which he was building out of cases +and tarpaulins for certain of his work. He brought a lamp (not a primus) +into the hut, and tried to make it work. He spent some time in the +morning on this, and after lunch Nelson joined him. The lamp was fitted +with an indicator to show the pressure obtained by pumping. Nelson was +pumping, kneeling at the end of the table next the bulkhead which divided +the officers' and men's quarters: his head was level with the lamp, and +the indicator was not showing a high pressure. Wright was standing close +by. Suddenly the lamp burst, a rent three inches long appearing in the +join where the bottom of the oil reservoir is fitted to the rest of the +bowl. Twenty places were alight immediately, clothing, bedding, papers +and patches of burning oil were all over the table and floor. Luckily +everybody was in the hut, for it was blowing a blizzard and minus twenty +outside. They were very quick, and every outbreak was stopped. + +On September 5 it was blowing as if it would rip your wind-clothes off +you. We were bagging pemmican in the hut when some one said, "Can you +smell burning?" At first we could not see anything wrong, and Gran said +it must be some brown paper he had burnt; but after three or four +minutes, looking upwards, we saw that the top of the chimney piping was +red hot where it went out through the roof, as was also a large +ventilator trap which entered the flue at this point. We put salt down +from outside, and the fire seemed to die down, but shortly afterwards the +ventilator trap fell on to the table, leaving a cake of burning soot +exposed. This luckily did not fall, and we raked it down into buckets. +About a quarter of an hour afterwards all the chimney started blazing +again, the flames shooting up into the blizzard outside. We got this out +by pushing snow in at the top, and holding baths and buckets below to +catch the débris. We then did what we ought to have done at the beginning +of the winter--took the piping down and cleaned it all out. + +Our last fire was a little business. Debenham and I were at Hut Point. I +noticed that the place was full of smoke, which was quite usual with a +blubber fire, but afterwards we found that the old hut was alight between +the two roofs. The inner roof was too shaky to allow one to walk on it, +and so, at Debenham's suggestion, we bent a tube which was lying about +and syphoned some water up with complete success. Our more usual fire +extinguishers were Minimax, and they left nothing to be desired: indeed, +all they left were the acid stains on the material touched. + +From such grim considerations it is a pleasure to turn to the out-of-door +life we now led. Emperor penguins began to visit us in companies up to +forty in number: probably they were birds whose maternal or paternal +instincts had been thwarted at Cape Crozier and had now taken to a +vagrant life. They suffered, I am afraid, from the loose dogs, and on one +occasion Debenham was out on the sea-ice with a team of those dogs of +ours which were useless for serious sledging. He had taken them in hand +and formed a team which was very creditable to him, if not to themselves. +On this occasion he had managed with great difficulty to restrain them +from joining a company of Emperors. The dogs were frantic, the Emperors +undisturbed. Unable to go himself, one dog called Little Ginger +unselfishly bit through the harness which restrained two of his +companions, and Debenham, helplessly holding the straining sledge, could +only witness the slaughter, which followed. + +The first skua gull arrived on October 24, and we knew they would soon +breed on any level gravel or rock free from snow; and we should see the +Antarctic petrels again, and perhaps a rare snowy petrel; and the first +whales would be finding their way into McMurdo Sound. Also the Weddells, +the common coastal seals of the Antarctic, were now, in the beginning of +October, leaving the open water and lying out on the ice. They were +nearly all females, and getting ready to give birth to their young. + +The Weddell seal is black on top, and splashed with silver in other +places. He measures up to 10 feet from nose to tail, eats fish, is +corpulent and hulking. He sometimes carries four inches of blubber. On +the ice he is one of the most sluggish of God's creatures, he sleeps +continually, digests huge meals, and grunts, gurgles, pipes, trills and +whistles in the most engaging way. In the sea he is transformed into one +of the most elastic and lithe of beasts, catching his fish and swallowing +them whole. As you stand over his blow-hole his head appears, and he +snorts at you with surprise but no fear, opening and shutting his +nostrils the while as he takes in a supply of fresh air. It is clear that +they travel for many miles beneath the ice, and I expect they find their +way from air-hole to air-hole by listening to the noise made by other +seals. Some of the air-holes are exit and entrance holes as well, and I +found at least one seal which appeared to have died owing to its opening +freezing up. They may be heard at times grinding these holes open with +their teeth (Ponting took some patient cinematographs showing the process +of sawing the openings to these wells) and their teeth are naturally much +worn by the time they become old. Wilson states that they are liable to +kidney trouble: their skin is often irritable, which may be due to the +drying salt from the sea; and I have seen one seal which was covered with +a suppurating rash. Their spleens are sometimes enormously enlarged when +they first come out of the sea on to the ice, which is interesting +because no one seems to know much about spleens. Speculation was caused +amongst us by the fact that some of these air-holes had as it were a +trap-door above them. One day I was on the ice-foot at Cape Evans at a +time when North Bay was frozen over with about an inch or more of ice. A +seal suddenly poked his nose up through this ice to get air, and when he +disappeared a slab which had been raised by his head fell back into this +trap position. Clearly this was the origin of the door. + +Weddell seals and the Hut Point life are inextricably mixed up in my +recollections of October. Atkinson, Debenham, Dimitri and I went down to +Hut Point on the 12th, with the two dog-teams. We were to run two depôts +out on to the Barrier, and Debenham, whose leg prevented his further +sledging, was to do geological work and a plane table survey. Those of us +who had borne the brunt of the travelling of the two previous sledge +seasons were sick of sledging. For my own part I confess I viewed the +whole proceedings with distaste, and I have no doubt the others did too; +but the job had to be done if possible, and there was no good in saying +we were sick of it. From beginning to end of this year men not only +laboured willingly, but put their hearts and souls into the work. To have +to do another three months' journey seemed bad enough, and to leave our +comfortable Winter Quarters three weeks before we started on that journey +was an additional irritation. We ran down in surface drift: it was thick +to the south, the wind bit our faces and hands; we could see nothing by +the time we got in, and the snow was falling heavily. The stable was full +of beastly snow, the hut was cold and cheerless, and there was no blubber +for the stove. And if we had only taken the ship and gone home when the +period for which we had joined was passed, we might have been in London +for the last six months! + +But then the snow stopped, the wind went down, and the mountain tops +appeared in all their glorious beauty. We were in the middle of a perfect +summer afternoon, with a warm sun beating on the rocks as we walked round +to Pram Point. There were many seals here already, and it was clear that +the place would form a jolly nursery this year, for there must have been +a lot of movement on the Barrier and the sea-ice was seamed with pressure +ridges up to twenty feet in height. The hollows were buckled until the +sea water came up and formed frozen ponds which would thaw later into +lovely baths. Sheltered from the wind the children could chase their +ridiculous tails to their hearts' content: their mothers would lie and +sleep, awakening every now and then to scratch themselves with their long +finger-nails. Not quite yet, but they were not far away: Lappy, one of +our dogs who always looked more like a spaniel than anything else, heard +one under the ice and started to burrow down to him! + +Nearly three weeks later I paid several more visits to this delightful +place. It was thick with seals, big seals and little seals, hairy seals +and woolly seals: every day added appreciably to the number of babies, +and to the baaings and bleatings which made the place sound like a great +sheepfold. In every case where I approached, the mothers opened their +mouths and bellowed at me to keep away, but they did not come for me +though I actually stroked one baby. Often when the mother bellowed the +little one would also open his mouth, producing just the ghost of a +bellow: not because he seemed afraid of us, but rather because he +thought it was the right thing to do: as indeed it probably was. One old +cow was marked with hoops all round her body, like an advertisement of +Michelin tyres: only the hoops were but an inch apart from one another, +and seemed to be formed by darker and longer bands of hair: probably +something to do with the summer moult. Two cows, which scrambled out of +the same hole one after the other, were fighting, the hinder one biting +the other savagely as she made an ungainly entrance. The first was not in +calf, the aggressor, however, was: this may have had something to do with +it. They were both much cut about and bleeding. + +A seal is never so pretty as when he is a baby. With his grey woolly +coat, which he keeps for a fortnight, his comparatively long flippers and +tail, and his big dark eyes, he looks very clean and pussy-like. I +watched one running round and round after his tail, putting his flipper +under his head as a pillow, and scratching himself, seemingly as happy as +possible: yet it was pretty cold with some wind. + +Little is known of the lighter side of a Weddell's life. It seems +probable that their courtship is a ponderous affair. About October 26 +Atkinson found an embryo of about a fortnight old, which is an +interesting stage, and this was preserved with many others we found, but +all of them were too old to be of any real value. I think there is a good +deal of variation in the size of the calves at birth. There is certainly +much difference between the care of individual mothers, some of which are +most concerned when you approach, while others take little notice or lop +away from you, leaving their calf to look after itself, or to find +another mother. Sometimes they are none too careful not to roll or lie on +their calves. + +One afternoon I drove a bull seal towards a cow with a calf. The cow went +for him bald-headed, with open mouth, bellowing and most disturbed. The +bull defended himself as best he might but absolutely refused to take the +offensive. The calf imitated his mother as best he could. + +Meanwhile Atkinson and Dimitri took some mule-fodder and dog-biscuit to a +point twelve miles south of Corner Camp. They started on October 14 with +the two dog-teams and found a most terrible surface on the Barrier, the +sledges sometimes sinking as far as the 'fore-and-afters'; the minimum +temperatures the first two nights were -39° and -25°; strong blizzard at +Corner Camp; a lie-up for a day and a half, before they could push on in +wind and drift and lay the depôt. The dogs ran back from Corner Camp to +Hut Point on October 19, a distance of thirty miles. Three miles from +Corner Camp three dogs of Atkinson's team fell into a crevasse, one of +them falling right down to the length of his harness. The rest of the +team, however, pulled on, and dragged the three dogs out as they went. +Atkinson lost his driving-stick, which was left standing in the snow and +served to mark a place to be avoided. Altogether a rather lucky escape: +two men out alone with two dog-teams are somewhat helpless in case of +emergency. + +On October 25 Dimitri and I started to take a further depôt out to Corner +Camp with the two dog-teams, pulling about 600 lbs. each. We found a much +better surface than that experienced by Atkinson; in places really smooth +and hard. "It is good to be out again in such weather, and it has been a +very pleasant day." The minimum was only -24° that night, and we reached +Corner Camp on the afternoon of the next day, following the old tracks +where possible, and halting occasionally to hunt when we lost them. "Here +we made the depôt and the dogs had a rest of 3½ hours, and two biscuits. +It was quaint to see them waiting for more food, for they knew they had +not had their full whack."[287] + +There was plenty of evidence that the Barrier had moved a long way during +the last year. It had buckled up the sea-ice at Pram Point; there were at +least three new and well-marked undulations before reaching Corner Camp; +and the camp itself had moved visibly, judged by the bearings and +sketches we possessed. I believe the annual movement had not been less +than half a mile. + +Corner Camp is a well-known trap for blizzards on the line of their exit +at Cape Crozier, and it was clouding up, the barometer falling, and the +temperature rising rapidly. "So we decided to come back some way, and +have in the end come right back to the Biscuit Depôt, since it looked +very threatening to the east. Here the temperature is lower (-15°) and it +is clearing. Ross Island has been largely obscured, but the clouds are +opening on Terror. We had a very good run and the dogs pulled splendidly, +making light work of it: 29 miles for the day, half of it with loaded +sledges! Lappy's feet are bleeding a good bit, owing to the snow balling +in between his toes where the hair is unusually long. Bullet, who is fat +and did not pull, celebrated his arrival in camp by going for Bielchik +who had pulled splendidly all day! There is much mirage, and Observation +Hill and Castle Rock are reversed."[288] We reached Hut Point the next +day. Lappy's feet were still bad, and Dimitri wrapped him in his +windproof blouse and strapped him on to the sledge. All went well until +we got on to the sea-ice, when Lappy escaped and arrived an easy first. + +Dog-driving is the devil! Before I started, my language would not have +shamed a Sunday School, and now--if it were not Sunday I would tell you +more about it. It takes all kinds to make a world and a dog-team. We had +aristocrats like Osman, and Bolsheviks like Krisravitza, and lunatics +like Hol-hol. The present-day employer of labour might stand amazed when +he saw a crowd of prospective workmen go mad with joy at the sight of +their driver approaching them with a harness in his hands. The most +ardent trade unionist might boil with rage at the sight of eleven or +thirteen huskies dragging a heavy load, including their idle master, over +the floe with every appearance of intense joy. But truth to tell there +were signs that they were getting rather sick of it, and within a few +days we were to learn that dogs can chuck their paws in as well as many +another. They had their king, of course: Osman was that. They combined +readily and with immense effect against any companion who did not pull +his weight, or against one who pulled too much. Dyk was unpopular among +them, for when the team of which he was a member was halted he +constantly whined and tugged at his harness in his eagerness to go on: +this did not allow the rest of the team to rest, and they were +justifiably resentful. Sometimes a team got a down upon a dog without our +being able to discover their doggy reason. In any case we had to watch +carefully to prevent them carrying out their intentions, their method of +punishment always being the same and ending, if unchecked, in what they +probably called justice, and we called murder. + +I have referred to the crusts on the Barrier, where the snow lies in +layers with an air-space, perhaps a quarter of an inch, or more, between +them. These will subside as you pass over them, giving the inexperienced +polar traveller some nasty moments until he learns that they are not +crevasses. But the dogs thought they were rabbits, and pounced, time +after time. There was a little dog called Mukaka, who got dragged under +the sledge in one of the mad penguin rushes the dog-teams made when we +were landing stores from the Terra Nova: his back was hurt and afterwards +he died. "He is paired with a fat, lazy and very greedy black dog, Noogis +by name, and in every march this sprightly little Mukaka will once or +twice notice that Noogis is not pulling and will jump over the trace, +bite Noogis like a snap, and be back again in his own place before the +fat dog knows what has happened."[289] + +Then there was Stareek (which is the Russian for old man, starouka being +old woman). "He is quite a ridiculous 'old man,' and quite the nicest, +quietest, cleverest old dog I have ever come across. He looks in face as +though he knew all the wickedness of all the world and all its cares, and +as if he were bored to death by them."[290] He was the leader of Wilson's +team on the Depôt Journey, but decided that he was not going out again. +Thereafter when he thought there was no one looking he walked naturally; +but if he saw you looking at him he immediately had a frost-bitten paw, +limped painfully over the snow, and looked so pitiful that only brutes +like us could think of putting him to pull a sledge. We tried but he +refused to work, and his final victory was complete. + +One more story: Dimitri is telling us how a "funny old Stareek" at Sydney +came and objected to his treatment of the dogs (which were more than half +wolves and would eat you without provocation). "He says to me, 'You not +whip'--I say, 'What ho!' He go and fetch Mr. Meares--he try put me in +choky. Then he go to Anton--give Anton cigarette and match--he say--'How +old that horse?' pointing to Hackenschmidt--Anton say, very young--he not +believe--he go try see Hackenschmidt's teeth--and old Starouka too--and +Hackenschmidt he draw back and he rush forward and bite old Stareek +twice, and he fall backwards over case--and ole woman pick him up. He +very white beard which went so--I not see him again." + +FOOTNOTES: + + [286] My own diary. + + [287] My own diary. + + [288] My own diary. + + [289] Wilson's Journal, _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 616. + + [290] Ibid. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE SEARCH JOURNEY + +From my own diary + + Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas, + Ease after warre, death after life, does greatly please. + SPENSER, _The Faerie Queen._ + + +_October 28. Hut Point._ A beautiful day. We finished digging out the +stable for the mules this morning and brought in some blubber this +afternoon. The Bluff has its cap on, but otherwise the sky is nearly +clear: there is a little cumulus between White Island and the Bluff, the +first I have seen this year on the Barrier. It is most noticeable how +much snow has disappeared off the rocks and shingle here. + +_October 29. Hut Point._ The mule party, under Wright, consisting of +Gran, Nelson, Crean, Hooper, Williamson, Keohane and Lashly, left Cape +Evans at 10.30 and arrived here at 5 P.M. after a good march in perfect +weather. They leave Debenham and Archer at the hut, and I am afraid it +will be dull work for them the next three months. Archer turned out early +and made some cakes which they have brought with them. They camped for +lunch seven miles from Cape Evans. + +[Illustration: THE MULE PARTY LEAVES CAPE EVANS--October 29, 1912] + +This is the start of the Search Journey. Everything which forethought can +do has been done, and to a point twelve miles south of Corner Camp the +mules will be travelling light owing to the depôts which have been laid. +The barometer has been falling the last few days and is now low, while +the Bluff is overcast. Yet it does not look like blizzard to come. Two +Adélie penguins, the first, came to Cape Evans yesterday, and a skua was +seen there on the 24th: so summer is really here. + +_October 30. Hut Point._ It is now 8 P.M., and the mules are just off, +looking very fit, keeping well together, and giving no trouble at the +start. Their leaders turned in this afternoon, and to-night begins the +new routine of night marching, just the same as last year. It did look +thick on the Barrier this afternoon, and it was quite a question whether +it was advisable for them to start. But it is rolling away now, being +apparently only fog, which is now disappearing before some wind, or +perhaps because the sun is losing its power. I think they will have a +good march. + +_November 2_, 5 A.M. _Biscuit Depôt._ Atkinson, Dimitri and I, with two +dog-teams, left Hut Point last night at 8.30. We have had a coldish +night's run, -21° when we left after lunch, -17° now. The surface was +very heavy for the dogs, there being a soft coating of snow over +everything since we last came this way, due no doubt to the foggy days we +have been having lately. The sledge-meter makes it nearly 16 miles. + +The mule party has two days' start on us, and their programme is to do +twelve miles a day to One Ton Depôt. Their tracks are fairly clear, but +there has been some drift from the east since they passed. We picked up +our cairns well. We are pretty wet, having been running nearly all the +way. + +_November 3._ Early morning. 14½ miles. We are here at Corner Camp, but +not without a struggle. We left the Biscuit Depôt at 6.30 P.M. yesterday, +and it is now 4 A.M. The last six miles took us four hours, which is very +bad going for dogs, and we have all been running most of the way. The +surface was very bad, crusty and also soft: it was blowing with some low +drift, and overcast and snowing. We followed the drifted-up mule tracks +with difficulty and are lucky to have got so far. The temperature has +been a constant zero. + +There is a note here from Wright about the mules, which left here last +night. They only saw two small crevasses on the way, but Khan Sahib got +into the tide-crack at the edge of the Barrier, and had to be hauled out +with a rope. The mules are going fast over the first part of the day, but +show a tendency to stop towards the end: they keep well together except +Khan Sahib, who is a slower mule than the others. It is now blowing with +some drift, but nothing bad, and beyond the Bluff it seems to be clear. +We are all pretty tired. + +_November 4. Early morning._ Well! this has been a disappointing day, but +we must hope that all will turn out well. We turned out at 2 A.M. +yesterday and then it was clearing all round, a mild blizzard having been +blowing since we camped. We started at five in some wind and low drift. +It was good travelling weather, and except for the first three miles the +surface has been fair to good, and the last part very good. Yet the dogs +could not manage their load, which according to programme should go up a +further 150 lbs. each team here at Dimitri Depôt. One of our dogs, Kusoi, +gave out, but we managed to get him along tied to the stern of the +sledge, because the team behind tried to get at him and he realized he +had better mend his ways. We camped for lunch when Tresor also was pretty +well done. We were then on a very good surface, but were often pushing +the sledge to get it along. The mule party were gone when we started +again, and probably did not see us. We came on to the depôt, but we +cannot hope to get along far on bad surfaces if we cannot get along on +good ones. The note left by Wright states that their sledge-meter has +proved useless, and this leaves all three parties of us with only one, +which is not very reliable now. + +So it has been decided that the dogs must return from 80° 30´, or 81° at +the farthest, and instead of four mules, as was intended, going on from +there, five must go on instead. The dogs can therefore now leave behind +much of their own weights and take on the mules' weights instead. And +this is the part where the mules' weights are so heavy. Perhaps the new +scheme is the best, but it puts everything on the mules from 80° 30´: if +they will do it all is well: if they won't we have nothing to fall back +on. + +_Midnight, November 4-5._ It has been blowing and drifting all day. We +turned out again at mid-day on the 4th, and re-made the depôt with what +we were to leave owing to the new programme. This is all rather sad, but +it can't be helped. It was then blowing a summer blizzard, and we were +getting frost-bitten when we started, following the mule tracks. There +were plenty of cairns for us to pick up, and with the lighter loads and a +very good surface we came along much better. Lunching at eight miles we +arrived just as the mule party had finished their hoosh preparatory to +starting, and it has been decided that the mules are not to go on +to-night, but we will all start marching together to-morrow. + +The news from this party is on the whole good, not the least good being +that the sledge-meter is working again, though not very reliably. They +are marching well, and at a great pace, except for Khan Sahib. Gulab, +however, is terribly chafed both by his collar and by his breast harness, +both of which have been tried. He has a great raw place where this fits +on one side, and is chafed, but not so badly, on the other side. Lal Khan +is pulling well, but is eating very little. Pyaree is doing very well, +but has some difficulty in lifting her leg when in soft snow. Abdullah +seems to be considered the best mule at present. On the whole good +hearing. + +Wright's sleeping-bag is bad, letting in light through cracks in a good +many places. But he makes very little of it and does not seem to be +cold--saying it is good ventilation. The mule cloths, which have a rough +lining to their outside canvas, are collecting a lot of snow, and all the +mules are matted with cakes of snow. They are terrible rope-eaters, +cloth-eaters, anything to eat, though they are not hungry. And they have +even learnt to pull their picketing buckles undone, and go walking about +the camp. Indeed Nelson says that the only time when Khan Sahib does not +cast himself adrift is when he is ready to start on the march. + +_November 6. Early morning._ We had a really good lie-in yesterday, and +after the hard slogging with the dogs during the last few days I for one +was very glad of it. We came on behind, and in sight of the mules this +last march, and the change in the dogs was wonderful. Where it had been a +job to urge them on over quite as good a surface yesterday, to-day for +some time we could not get off the sledge except for short runs: although +we had taken 312 lbs. weight off the mules and loaded it on to the dogs. + +We had a most glorious night for marching, and it is now bright sunlight, +and the animals' fur is quite warm where the sun strikes it. We have just +had a bit of a fight over the dog-food, Vaida going for Dyk, and now the +others are somewhat excited, and there are constant growlings and +murmurings. + +The camp makes more of a mark than last year, for the mules are dark +while the ponies were white or grey, and the cloths are brown instead of +light green. The consequence is that the camp shows up from a long +distance off. We are building cairns at regular distances, and there +should be no difficulty in keeping on the course in fair weather at any +rate. Now in the land of big sastrugi: Erebus is beginning to look small, +but we could see an unusually big smoke from the crater all day. + +_November 7. Early morning._ Not an easy day. It was -9° and overcast +when we turned out, and the wind was then dying down, but it had been +blowing up to force 5, with surface drift during the day. We started in a +bad light and the surface, which was the usual hard surface common here, +with big sastrugi, was covered by a thin layer of crystals which were +then falling. This naturally made it very much harder pulling: we with +the dogs have been running nearly all the twelve miles, and I for one am +tired. At lunch Atkinson thought he saw a tent away to our right,--the +very thought of it came as a shock,--but it proved to be a false alarm. +We have been keeping a sharp look-out for the gear which was left about +this part by the Last Return Party, but have seen no sign of it. + +It is now -14°, but the sun is shining brightly in a clear sky, and it +feels beautifully warm. It seems a very regular thing for the sky to +cloud over as the sun gets low towards nightfall--and directly the sun +begins to rise again the clouds disappear in a most wonderful way. + +_November 8. Early morning._ Last night's twelve miles was quite cold for +the time of year, being -23° at lunch and now -18°. But it is calm, with +bright sun, and this temperature feels warm. However, there are some +frost-bites as a result, both Nelson and Hooper having swollen faces. The +same powder and crystals have been on the surface, but we have carried +the good Bluff surface so far, being now four miles beyond Bluff Depôt. +This is fortunate, and to the best of my recollection we were already +getting on to a soft surface at this point last summer. If so there must +have been more wind here this year than last, which, according to the +winter we have had, seems probable. + +We made up the Bluff Depôt after lunch, putting up a new flag and +building up the cairn, leaving two cases of dog-biscuit for the returning +dog-teams. It is curious that the drift to leeward of the cairn, that is +N.N.E., was quite soft, the snow all round and the drifts on either side +being hard--exceptionally hard in fact. Why this drift should remain soft +when a drift in the same place is usually hard is difficult to explain. +All is happy in the mule camp. They have given Lal a drink of water and +he has started to eat, which is good news. Some of the mules seem +snow-blind, and they are now all wearing their blinkers. I have just +heard that Gran swung the thermometer at four this morning and found it +-29°. Nelson's face is a sight--his nose a mere swollen lump, +frost-bitten cheeks, and his goggles have frosted him where the rims +touched his face. Poor Marie! + +_November 9. Early morning._ Twelve more miles to the good, and we must +consider ourselves fortunate in still carrying on the same good surface, +which is almost if not quite as good as that of yesterday. This is the +only time I have ever seen a hard surface here, not more than fifteen +miles from One Ton, and it looks as if there had been much higher winds. +The sastrugi, which have been facing S.W., are now beginning to run a +little more westerly. I believe this to be quite a different wind +circulation from Ross Island, which as a whole gets its wind from the +Bluff. The Bluff is, I believe, the dividing line, though big general +blizzards sweep over the whole, irrespective of local areas of +circulation. This was amply corroborated by our journey out here last +autumn. Well, this is better than then--just round here we had a full +blizzard and -33°. + +_November 10. Early morning._ A perfect night for marching, but about +-20° and chilly for waiting about. The mules are going well, but Lal Khan +is thinning down a lot: Abdullah and Khan Sahib are also off their feed. +Their original allowance of 11 lbs. oats and oilcake has been reduced to +9 lbs., and they are not eating this. The dogs took another 300 lbs. off +them to-day, and pulled it very well. The surface has been splendidly +hard, which is most surprising. Wright does not think that there has been +an abnormal deposition of snow the last winter; he says it is about 1½ +feet, which is much the same as last year. The mules are generally not +sinking in more than two inches, but in places, especially latterly, they +have been in five, or six. This is the first we have had this year of +crusts, and some of them to-day have been exceptionally big: two at lunch +must have lasted several seconds. The dogs seem to think the devil is +after them when one of these goes off, and put on a terrific spurt. It is +interesting to watch them snuffing in the hoof-marks of the mules, where +there is evidently some scent left. In these temperatures they are always +kicking their legs about at the halts. As the sun gained power this +morning a thick fog came up very suddenly. I believe this is a sign of +good weather. + +[Illustration: THE DOG PARTY LEAVES HUT POINT--November 1, 1912] + +_November 11. Early morning. One Ton Depôt._ Wright got a latitude sight +yesterday putting us six miles from One Ton, and our sledge-meter shows +5¾, and here we are. More frost-bite this morning, and it was pretty cold +starting in a fair wind and -7° temperature. We have continued this +really splendid surface, and now the sastrugi are pointing a little more +to the south of S.W. While there are not such big mounds, the surface +does not yet show any signs of getting bad. There were the most beautiful +cloud-effects as we came along--a deep black to the west, shading into +long lines of grey and lemon yellow round the sun, with a vertical shaft +through them, and a bright orange horizon. Now there is a brilliant +parhelion. Given sun, two days here are never alike. Whatever the +monotony of the Barrier may be, there is endless variety in the sky, and +I do not believe that anywhere in the world such beautiful colours are to +be seen. + +I had a fair panic as we came up to the depôt. I did not see that one +body of the ponies had gone ahead of the others and camped, but ahead of +the travelling ponies was the depôt, looking very black, and I thought +that there was a tent. It would be too terrible to find that, though one +knew that we had done all that we could, if we had done something +different we could have saved them. + +And then we find that the provisions we left here for them in the tank +are soaked with paraffin. How this has happened is a mystery, but I think +that the oil in the XS tin, which was very full, must have forced its way +out in a sudden rise of temperature in a winter blizzard, and though the +tin was not touching the tank, it has found its way in. + +Altogether things seemed rather dismal, but a visit to the mules is +cheering, for they seem very fit as a whole and their leaders are +cheerful. There are three sacks of oats here--had we known it would have +saved a lot of weight--but we didn't, and we have plenty with what we +have brought, so they will be of little use to us. There is no compressed +fodder, which would have been very useful, for the animals which are +refusing the oats would probably eat it. + +Gulab has a very bad chafe, but he is otherwise fit--and it does not seem +possible in this life to kill a mule because of chafing. It is a great +deal to know that he does not seem to be hurt by it, and pulls away +gallantly. Crean says he had to run a mile this morning with Rani. Marie +says he is inventing some new ways of walking, one step forward and one +hop back, in order to keep warm when leading Khan Sahib. Up to date we +cannot say that the Fates have been unkind to us. + +_November 12. Early morning. Lunch_ 2.30 A.M. I am afraid our +sledge-meters do not agree over this morning's march. The programme is to +do thirteen miles a day if possible from here: that is 7½ before lunch +and 5½ afterwards. We could see two cairns of last year on our right as +we came along. We have got on to a softer surface now and there is bad +news of Lal Khan, and it will depend on this after-lunch march whether he +must be shot this evening or not. It was intended to shoot a mule two +marches from One Ton, but till just lately it had not been thought that +it must be Lal Khan. He is getting very slow, and came into camp with +Khan Sahib: the trouble of course is that he will not eat: he has hardly +eaten, they say, a day's ration since he left Hut Point, and he can't +work on nothing. It is now -16°, with a slight southerly wind. + +_Nearly mid-day. 11-12 miles south of One Ton._ We have found them--to +say it has been a ghastly day cannot express it--it is too bad for words. +The tent was there, about half-a-mile to the west of our course, and +close to a drifted-up cairn of last year. It was covered with snow and +looked just like a cairn, only an extra gathering of snow showing where +the ventilator was, and so we found the door. + +It was drifted up some 2-3 feet to windward. Just by the side two pairs +of ski sticks, or the topmost half of them, appeared over the snow, and a +bamboo which proved to be the mast of the sledge. + +Their story I am not going to try and put down. They got to this point on +March 21, and on the 29th all was over. + +Nor will I try and put down what there was in that tent. Scott lay in the +centre, Bill on his left, with his head towards the door, and Birdie on +his right, lying with his feet towards the door. + +Bill especially had died very quietly with his hands folded over his +chest. Birdie also quietly. + +Oates' death was a very fine one. We go on to-morrow to try and find his +body. He was glad that his regiment would be proud of him. + +They reached the Pole a month after Amundsen. + +We have everything--records, diaries, etc. They have among other things +several rolls of photographs, a meteorological log kept up to March 13, +and, considering all things, a great many geological specimens. _And they +have stuck to everything._ It is magnificent that men in such case should +go on pulling everything that they have died to gain. I think they +realized their coming end a long time before. By Scott's head was +tobacco: there is also a bag of tea. + +Atkinson gathered every one together and read to them the account of +Oates' death given in Scott's Diary: Scott expressly states that he +wished it known. His (Scott's) last words are: + +"For God's sake take care of our people." + +Then Atkinson read the lesson from the Burial Service from Corinthians. +Perhaps it has never been read in a more magnificent cathedral and under +more impressive circumstances--for it is a grave which kings must envy. +Then some prayers from the Burial Service: and there with the floor-cloth +under them and the tent above we buried them in their sleeping-bags--and +surely their work has not been in vain.[291] + +That scene can never leave my memory. We with the dogs had seen Wright +turn away from the course by himself and the mule party swerve +right-handed ahead of us. He had seen what he thought was a cairn, and +then something looking black by its side. A vague kind of wonder +gradually gave way to a real alarm. We came up to them all halted. Wright +came across to us. 'It is the tent.' I do not know how he knew. Just a +waste of snow: to our right the remains of one of last year's cairns, a +mere mound: and then three feet of bamboo sticking quite alone out of the +snow: and then another mound, of snow, perhaps a trifle more pointed. We +walked up to it. I do not think we quite realized--not for very long--but +some one reached up to a projection of snow, and brushed it away. The +green flap of the ventilator of the tent appeared, and we knew that the +door was below. + +Two of us entered, through the funnel of the outer tent, and through the +bamboos on which was stretched the lining of the inner tent. There was +some snow--not much--between the two linings. But inside we could see +nothing--the snow had drifted out the light. There was nothing to do but +to dig the tent out. Soon we could see the outlines. There were three men +here. + +Bowers and Wilson were sleeping in their bags. Scott had thrown back the +flaps of his bag at the end. His left hand was stretched over Wilson, his +lifelong friend. Beneath the head of his bag, between the bag and the +floor-cloth, was the green wallet in which he carried his diary. The +brown books of diary were inside: and on the floor-cloth were some +letters. + +Everything was tidy. The tent had been pitched as well as ever, with the +door facing down the sastrugi, the bamboos with a good spread, the tent +itself taut and shipshape. There was no snow inside the inner lining. +There were some loose pannikins from the cooker, the ordinary tent gear, +the personal belongings and a few more letters and records--personal and +scientific. Near Scott was a lamp formed from a tin and some lamp wick +off a finnesko. It had been used to burn the little methylated spirit +which remained. I think that Scott had used it to help him to write up to +the end. I feel sure that he had died last--and once I had thought that +he would not go so far as some of the others. We never realized how +strong that man was, mentally and physically, until now. + +We sorted out the gear, records, papers, diaries, spare clothing, +letters, chronometers, finnesko, socks, a flag. There was even a book +which I had lent Bill for the journey--and he had brought it back. +Somehow we learnt that Amundsen had been to the Pole, and that they too +had been to the Pole, and both items of news seemed to be of no +importance whatever. There was a letter there from Amundsen to King +Haakon. There were the personal chatty little notes we had left for them +on the Beardmore--how much more important to us than all the royal +letters in the world. + +We dug down the bamboo which had brought us to this place. It led to the +sledge, many feet down, and had been rigged there as a mast. And on the +sledge were some more odds and ends--a piece of paper from the biscuit +box: Bowers' meteorological log: and the geological specimens, thirty +pounds of them, all of the first importance. Drifted over also were the +harnesses, ski and ski-sticks. + +Hour after hour, so it seemed to me, Atkinson sat in our tent and read. +The finder was to read the diary and then it was to be brought +home--these were Scott's instructions written on the cover. But Atkinson +said he was only going to read sufficient to know what had happened--and +after that they were brought home unopened and unread. When he had the +outline we all gathered together and he read to us the Message to the +Public, and the account of Oates' death, which Scott had expressly wished +to be known. + +We never moved them. We took the bamboos of the tent away, and the tent +itself covered them. And over them we built the cairn. + +I do not know how long we were there, but when all was finished, and the +chapter of Corinthians had been read, it was midnight of some day. The +sun was dipping low above the Pole, the Barrier was almost in shadow. And +the sky was blazing--sheets and sheets of iridescent clouds. The cairn +and Cross stood dark against a glory of burnished gold. + + * * * * * + +_Copy of Note left at the Cairn, over the Bodies_ + + _November 12th, 1912._ + Lat. 79° 50´ S. + + This Cross and Cairn are erected over the bodies of Capt. Scott, + C.V.O., R.N.; Dr. E. A. Wilson, M.B., B.A. Cantab.; Lt. H. R. + Bowers, Royal Indian Marines. A slight token to perpetuate their + gallant and successful attempt to reach the Pole. This they did + on the 17th January 1912 after the Norwegian expedition had + already done so. Inclement weather and lack of fuel was the cause + of their death. + + Also to commemorate their two gallant comrades, Capt. L. E. G. + Oates of the Inniskilling Dragoons, who walked to his death in a + blizzard to save his comrades, about 18 miles south of this + position; also of Seaman Edgar Evans, who died at the foot of the + Beardmore Glacier. + + The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of + the Lord. + + Relief Expedition. + (Signed by all members of the party.) + +My diary goes on: + +_Midnight, November 12-13._ I cannot think that anything which could be +done to give these three great men--for great they were--a fitting grave +has been left undone. + +A great cairn has been built over them, a mark which must last for many +years. That we can make anything that will be permanent on this Barrier +is impossible, but as far as a lasting mark can be made it has been done. +On this a cross has been fixed, made out of ski. On either side are the +two sledges, fixed upright and dug in. + +The whole is very simple and most impressive. + +On a bamboo standing by itself is left the record which I have copied +into this book, and which has been signed by us all. + +We shall leave some provisions here, and go on lightly laden to see if we +can find Titus Oates' body: and so give it what burial we can. + +We start in about an hour, and I for one shall be glad to leave this +place. + +I am very very sorry that this question of the shortage of oil has +arisen. We in the First Return Party were most careful with our +measurement--having a ruler of Wright's and a piece of bamboo with which +we did it: measuring the total height of oil in each case, and then +dividing up the stick accordingly with the ruler: and we were _always_ +careful to take _a little less than we were entitled to_, which was +stated to me, and stated by Birdie in his depôt notes, to be one-third of +everything in the depôt. + +How the shortage arose is a mystery. And they eleven miles from One Ton +and plenty! + +Titus did not show his foot till about three days before he died. The +foot was then a great size, and almost every night it would be +frost-bitten again. Then the last day at lunch he said he could go on no +more--but they said he must: he wanted them to leave him behind in his +bag. That night he turned in, hoping never to wake: but he woke, and then +he asked their advice: they said they must all go on together. A thick +blizzard was blowing, and he said, after a bit, "Well, I am just going +outside, and I may be some time." They searched for him but could not +find him. + +They had a terrible time from 80° 30´ on to their last camp. There Bill +was very bad, and Birdie and the Owner had to do the camping. + +And then, eleven miles from plenty, they had _nine days of blizzard, and +that was the end._ + +They had a good spread on their tent, and their ski-sticks were standing, +but their ski were drifted up on the ground. + +The tent was in excellent condition--only down some of the poles there +were some chafes. + +They had been trying a spirit lamp when all the oil was gone. + +At 88° or so they were getting temperatures from -20° to -30°. At 82°, +10,000 feet lower, it was regularly down to -47° in the night-time, and +-30° during the day: for no explainable reason. + +Bill's and Birdie's feet got bad--the Owner's feet got bad last. + +It is all too horrible--I am almost afraid to go to sleep now. + +_November 13. Early morning._ We came on just under seven miles with a +very cold moist wind hurting our faces all the way. We have left most of +the provisions to pick up again. We purpose going on thirteen miles +to-morrow and search for Oates' body, and then turn back and get the +provisions back to Hut Point and see what can be done over in the west to +get up that coast. + +We hope to get two mules back to Hut Point. If possible, we want to +communicate with Cape Evans. + +Atkinson has been quite splendid in this very trying time. + +_November 14. Early morning._ It has been a miserable march. We had to +wait some time after hoosh to let the mules get ahead. Then we went on in +a cold raw fog and some head wind, with constant frost-bites. The surface +has been very bad all day for the thirteen miles: if we had been walking +in arrowroot it would have been much like this was. At lunch the +temperature was -14.7°. + +Then on when it was drifting with the wind in our faces and in a bad +light. What we took to be the mule party ahead proved to be the old pony +walls 26 miles from One Ton. There was here a bit of sacking on the +cairn, and Oates' bag. Inside the bag was the theodolite, and his +finnesko and socks. One of the finnesko was slit down the front as far as +the leather beckets, evidently to get his bad foot into it. This was +fifteen miles from the last camp, and I suppose they had brought on his +bag for three or four miles in case they might find him still alive. +Half-a-mile from our last camp there was a very large and quite +unmistakable undulation, one-quarter to one-third of a mile from crest to +crest: the pony walls behind us disappeared almost as soon as we started +to go down, and reappeared again on the other side. There were, I feel +sure, other rolls, but this was the largest. We have seen no sign of +Oates' body. + +About half an hour ago it started to blow a blizzard, and it is now +thick, but the wind is not strong. The mules, which came along well +considering the surface, are off their feed, and this may be the reason. + +Dimitri saw the Cairn with the Cross more than eight miles away this +morning, and in a good light it would be seen from much farther off. + +_November 15. Early morning._ We built a cairn to mark the spot near +which Oates walked out to his death, and we placed a cross on it. Lashed +to the cross is a record, as follows: + + Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman, Captain L. E. G. Oates + of the Inniskilling Dragoons. In March 1912, returning from the + Pole, he walked willingly to his death in a blizzard to try and + save his comrades, beset by hardship. This note is left by the + Relief Expedition. 1912. + +This was signed by Atkinson and myself. + +We saw the cairn for a long way in a bad light as we came back to-day. + +The original plan with which we started from Cape Evans was, if the Party +was found where we could still bear out sufficiently to the eastward to +have a good chance of missing the pressure caused by the Beardmore, to go +on and do what we could to survey the land south of the Beardmore: for +this was the original plan of Captain Scott for this year's sledging. But +as things are I do not think there can be much doubt that we are doing +right in losing no time in going over to the west of McMurdo Sound to see +whether we can go up to Evans Coves, and help Campbell and his party. + +We brought on Oates' bag. The theodolite was inside. + +A thickish blizzard blew all day yesterday, but it was clear and there +was only surface drift when we turned out for the night march. Then again +as we came along, the sky became overcast--all except over the land, +which remains clear these nights when everything else is obscured. We +noticed the same thing last year. Now the wind, which had largely +dropped, has started again and it is drifting. We have had wind and drift +on four out of the last five days. + +_November 16. Early morning._ When we were ready to start with the dogs +it was blowing a thick blizzard, but the mules had already started some +time, when it was not thick. We had to wait until nearly 4 A.M. before we +could start, and came along following tracks. It is very warm and the +surface is covered with loose snow, but the slide in it seems good. We +found the mules here at the Cairn and Cross, having been able to find +their way partly by the old tracks. + +I have been trying to draw the grave. Of all the fine monuments in the +world none seems to me more fitting; and it is also most impressive. + +_November 17. Early morning._ I think we are all going crazy together--at +any rate things are pretty difficult. The latest scheme is to try and +find a way over the plateau to Evans Coves, trying to strike the top of a +glacier and go down it. There can be no good in it: if ever men did it, +they would arrive about the time the ship arrived there too, and their +labour would be in vain. If they got there and the ship did not arrive, +there is another party stranded. They would have to wait till February 15 +or 20 to see if the ship was coming, and then there would be no +travelling back over the plateau: even if we could do it those men there +could not. + +It was almost oppressively hot yesterday--but I'll never grumble about +heat again. It has now cleared a lot and we came along on the cairns +easily--but on a very soft downy surface, and the travelling has not been +fast. We bring with us the Southern Party's gear. The sledge, which was +the 10-foot which they brought on from the bottom of the glacier, has +been left. + +_November 18. Early morning._ I am thankful to say that the plateau +journey idea has been given up. + +Once more we have come along in thick, snowy weather. If we had not men +on ski to steer we could never keep much of a course, but Wright is +steering us very straight, keeping a check on the course by watching the +man behind, and so far we have been picking up all the cairns. This +morning we passed the pony walls made on November 10. And yet they were +nearly level with the ground; so they are not much of a mark. Yank has +just had a disagreement with Kusoi--for Kusoi objected to his trying to +get at the meat on the sledge. The mules have been sinking in a long way, +and are marching very slowly. Pyaree eats the tea-leaves after meals: +Rani and Abdullah divide a rope between them at the halts; and they have +eaten the best part of a trace since our last camp. These animals eat +anything but their proper food, and this some of them will hardly touch. + +It cleared a bit for our second march, and we have done our 13 miles, but +it was very slow travelling. Now it is drifting as much as ever. Yank, +that redoubtable puller, has just eaten himself loose for the third time +since hoosh. This time I had to go down to the pony walls to get him. + +We have had onions for the first time to-night in our hoosh--they are +most excellent. Also we have been having some Nestlé's condensed milk +from One Ton Depôt--which I do not want to see again, the depôt I mean. +Peary must know what he is about, taking milk as a ration: the sweetness +is a great thing, but it would be heavy: we have been having it with +temperature down to -14°, when it was quite manageable, but I don't know +what it would be like in colder temperatures. + +_November 19. Early morning._ We have done our 13 miles to-day and have +got on to a much better surface. By what we and others have seen before, +it seems that last winter must have generally been an exceptional one. +There have been many parties out here: we have never before seen this +wind-swept surface, on which it is often too slippery to walk +comfortably. I do not know what temperatures the Discovery had in April, +but it was much colder last April than it was the year before. And then +nothing had been experienced down here to compare with the winds last +winter. + +There was a high wind and a lot of drift yesterday during the day, and +now it is blowing and drifting as usual. During the last nine days there +has only been one, the day we found the tent, when it has not been +drifting during all or part of the day. It is all right for travelling +north, but we should be having very uncomfortable marches if we were +marching the other way. + +_November 20. Early morning._ To-day we have seemed to be walking in +circles through space. Wright, by dint of having a man behind to give him +a fixed point to steer upon, has steered us quite straight, and we have +picked up every cairn. The pony party camped for lunch by two cairns, but +they never knew the two cairns were there until a piece of paper blew +away and had to be fetched: and it was caught against one of the cairns. +They left a flag there to guide us, and though we saw and brought along +the flag, we never saw the cairns. The temperature is -22.5°, and it is +now blowing a full blizzard. All this snow has hitherto been lying on the +ground and making a very soft surface, for though the wind has always +been blowing it has never been very strong. This snow and wind, which +have now persisted for nine out of the last ten days, make most +dispiriting marches; for there is nothing to see, and finding tracks or +steering is a constant strain. We are certainly lucky to have been able +to march as we have. + +_Note on Mules._--The most ardent admirer of mules could not say that +they were a success. The question is whether they might be made so. There +was really only one thing against them but that is a very important +one--they would not eat on the Barrier. From the time they went away to +the day they returned (those that did return, poor things) they starved +themselves, and yet they pulled biggish loads for 30 days. + +If they would have eaten they would have been a huge success. They +travelled faster than the ponies and, with one exception, kept together +better than the ponies. If both were eating their ration it is +questionable whether a good mule or a good pony is to be preferred. Our +mules were of the best, and they were beautifully trained and equipped by +the Indian Government: yet on November 13, a fortnight from the start, +Wright records, "mules are a poor substitute for ponies. Not many will +see Hut Point again, I think. Doubt if any would have got much farther +than this if surfaces had been as bad this year as last."[292] + +Though they would not eat oats, compressed fodder and oil-cake, they were +quite willing to eat all kinds of other things. If we could have arrived +at the mule equivalent to a vegetarian diet they might have pulled to the +Beardmore without stopping. The nearest to this diet at which we could +arrive was saennegrass, tea-leaves, tobacco ash and rope--all of which +were eaten with gusto. But supplies were very limited. They ate +dog-biscuit as long as they thought we were not looking--but as soon as +they realized they were meant to eat it they went on hunger-strike again. +But during halts at cairns Rani and Pyaree would stand solemnly chewing +the same piece of rope from different ends. Abdullah always led the line, +and followed Wright's ski tracks faithfully, so that if another man was +ahead and Wright turned aside Abdullah always turned too. It was quite a +manoeuvre for Wright to read the sledge-meter at the back of the +sledge. As for Begum: "Got Begum out of a soft patch by rolling her +over."[293] + +On the whole the mules failed to adapt themselves to this life, and as +such must at present be considered to be a failure for Antarctic work. +Certainly those of our ponies which had the best chance to adapt +themselves went farthest, such as Nobby and Jimmy Pigg, both of whom had +experience of Barrier sledging before they started on the Polar Journey. + +_November 21. Early morning._ It has cleared at last, the disturbance +rolling away to the east during our first march. The surface was very bad +and the mules were not going well. At this time last year many of the +ponies were still quite difficult to make stand just before starting. But +these mules start off now most dolefully. I am afraid they will not all +get back to Hut Point. + +Two and a half miles after lunch, i.e. just over forty miles from the +depôt, we turned out to the eastward and found the gear left by the +Second Return Party, when Evans was so ill. The theodolite, which +belonged to Evans, is I believe there, but though we dug all round we +were unable to find it. The ski were all upright, drifted to within six +inches of the shoes. Most of the gear was clothing, which we have left, +with the skis, in the tank. We brought on a roll of Birdie's photographs, +taken on the plateau, and three geological specimens: deep-seated rocks I +think. This was all of importance that there was there. + +The N Ration, which we have now come to, consists of about 40 oz. of +food. At present, doing the work we are doing, and with these high +temperatures, -23° when we started, for instance, and -17° now, the men +do not want it. For what it was intended for, hard man-hauling, it would +probably be an excellent ration, and very satisfying. + +_November 22. Early morning._ We could not have had a more perfect night +to march. Yesterday at 4 P.M., holding the thermometer in the sun, the +spirit rose to 30°: it was almost too warm in the tent. The cairns show +very plainly--in such weather navigation of this kind would be dead easy. +But they are already being eaten away and toppling. The pony walls are +drifted level--huge drifts, quite hard, running up to windward and down +to lee. + +The dogs are getting more hungry, and want to get at the mules, which +makes them go better. They went very well to-day, but too fast once, for +we had a general mix-up: Bieliglass under the sledge and the rest all +tangled up and ready for a fight at the first chance. How one of the +front pair of dogs got under the sledge is a mystery. + +Among the Polar Party's gear is a letter to the King of Norway. It was +left by the Norwegians for Scott to take back. It is wrapped in a piece +of thin windcloth with one dark check line in it. Coarser and rougher +and, I should say, heavier than our Mandelbergs. + +_November 23. Early morning._ We were to make Dimitri Depôt this morning, +but we came on in a fog, and the mule party camped after running down the +distance. Wright came back and said, "If we have passed it, it's over +there"--and as he pointed the depôt showed--not more than 200 yards away. +So that is all right. We, the dog party, go on in advance to-morrow, so +that no time may be lost, and if the ice is still good, Atkinson will get +over to Cape Evans. + +[Illustration: 'ATCH'] + +[Illustration: TITUS OATES] + +_November 24. Early morning._ A glut of foot-walloping in soft snow and +breaking crusts. We have done between 17 and 18 miles to-day. We saw no +crevasses, and have marked the course well, building up the cairns and +leaving two flags--so the mule party should be all right. The dogs were +going well behind the ponies, but directly we went ahead they seemed to +lose heart. I think they are tired of the Barrier: a cairn now awakens +little interest: they know it is only a mark and it does not mean a +camp: they are all well fed, and fairly fat and in good condition. With a +large number of dogs I suppose one team can go ahead when it is going +well--changing places with another--each keeping the others going. But I +do not think that these dogs now will do much more; but they have already +done as much as any dogs of which we have any record. + +The land is clearing gradually. I have never seen such contrasts of black +rock and white snow, and White Island was capped with great ranges of +black cumulus, over which rose the pure white peaks of the Royal Society +Range in a blue sky. The Barrier itself was quite a deep grey, making a +beautiful picture. And now Observation Hill and Castle Rock are in front. +I don't suppose I shall ever see this view again: but it is associated +with many memories of returning to home and plenty after some long and +hard journeys: in some ways I feel sorry--but I have seen it often +enough. + +_November 25. Early morning._ We came in 24 miles with our loads, to find +the best possible news--Campbell's Party, all well, are at Cape Evans. +They arrived here on November 6, starting from Evans Coves on September +30. What a relief it is, and how different things seem now! It is the +first real bit of good news since February last--it seems an age. We mean +to get over the sea-ice, if possible, as soon as we can, and then we +shall hear their story. + +_November 26. Early morning._ Starting from Hut Point about 6.45 P.M. +last evening, we came through by about 9 P.M., and sat up talking and +hearing all the splendid news till past 2 A.M. this morning. + +All the Northern Party look very fat and fit, and they are most cheerful +about the time they have had, and make light of all the anxious days they +must have spent and their hard times. + +I cannot write all their story. When the ship was battling with the pack +to try and get in to them they had open water in Terra Nova Bay to the +horizon, as seen from 200 feet high. They prepared for the winter, +digging their hut into a big snowdrift a mile from where they were +landed. They thought that the ship had been wrecked--or that every one +had been taken off from here, and that then the ship had been blown north +by a succession of furious gales which they had and could not get back. +They never considered seriously the possibility of sledging down the +coast before the winter. They got settled in and were very warm--so warm +that in August they did away with one door, of which they had three, of +biscuit boxes and sacking. + +Their stove was the bottom of an oil tin, and they cooked by dripping +blubber on to seal bones, which became soaked with the blubber, and +Campbell tells me they cooked almost as quickly as a primus. Of course +they were filthy. Their main difficulty was dysentery and ptomaine +poisoning. + +Their stories of the winter are most amusing--of "Placing the Plug, or +Sports in the Antarctic"; of lectures; of how dirty they were; of their +books, of which they had four, including David Copperfield. They had a +spare tent, which was lucky, for the bamboos of one of theirs were blown +in during a big wind, and the men inside it crept along the piedmont on +hands and knees to the igloo and slept two in a bag. How the seal seemed +as if they would give out, and they were on half rations and very hungry: +and they were thinking they would have to come down in the winter, when +they got two seals: of the fish they got from the stomach of a seal--"the +best feed they had"--the blubber they have eaten. + +But they were buried deep in the snow and quite warm. Big winds all the +time from the W.S.W., cold winds off the plateau--in the igloo they could +hear almost nothing outside--how they just had a biscuit a day at times, +sugar on Sundays, etc. + +And so all is well in this direction, and we have done right in going +south, and we have at least succeeded in getting all records. I suppose +any news is better than no news. + +_Evening._ The Pole Party photos of themselves at the Pole and at the +Norwegian cairn (a Norwegian tent, post and two flags) are very good +indeed--one film is unused, one used on these two subjects: taken with +Birdie's camera. All the party look fit and well, and their clothes are +not iced up. It was calm at the time: the surface looks rather soft. + +Atkinson and Campbell have gone to Hut Point with one dog-team, and we +are all to forgather here. The ice still seems good from here to Hut +Point: all else open water as far as can be seen. + +A steady southerly wind has been blowing here for three days now. The +mules should get into Hut Point to-day. + +It is the happiest day for nearly a year--almost the only happy one. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [291] My own diary. + + [292] Wright's diary. + + [293] Wright's diary. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE POLAR JOURNEY + + DON JUAN. This creature Man, who in his own selfish affairs is a + coward to the backbone, will fight for an idea like a hero. He + may be abject as a citizen; but he is dangerous as a fanatic. He + can only be enslaved while he is spiritually weak enough to + listen to reason. I tell you, gentlemen, if you can show a man a + piece of what he now calls God's work to do, and what he will + later on call by many new names, you can make him entirely + reckless of the consequences to himself personally.... + + DON JUAN. Every idea for which Man will die will be a Catholic + idea. When the Spaniard learns at last that he is no better than + the Saracen, and his prophet no better than Mahomet, he will + arise, more Catholic than ever, and die on a barricade across the + filthy slum he starves in, for universal liberty and equality. + + THE STATUE. Bosh! + + DON JUAN. What you call bosh is the only thing men dare die for. + Later on, Liberty will not be Catholic enough: men will die for + human perfection, to which they will sacrifice all their liberty + gladly. + + BERNARD SHAW, _Man and Superman._ + + +V. THE POLE AND AFTER + + +_The Polar Party._ _Depôts._ + +SCOTT One Ton [79° 29´]. +WILSON Upper Barrier or Mount Hooper [80° 32´]. +BOWERS Middle Barrier [81° 35´]. +OATES Lower Barrier [82° 47´]. +Seaman EVANS Shambles Camp [N. of Gateway]. + Lower Glacier [S. of Gateway]. + Middle Glacier [Cloudmaker]. + Upper Glacier [Mt. Darwin]. + Three Degree [86° 56´]. + 1½ Degree [88° 29´]. + Last Depôt [89° 32´]. + +Scott returned from the Discovery Expedition impressed by the value of +youth in polar work; but the five who went forward from 87° 32´ were all +grown men, chosen from a body which was largely recruited on a basis of +youth. Four of them were men who were accustomed to take responsibility +and to lead others. Four of them had wide sledging experience and were +accustomed to cold temperatures. They were none of them likely to get +flurried in emergency, to panic under any circumstances, or to wear +themselves out by loss of nervous control. Scott and Wilson were the most +highly strung of the party: I believe that the anxiety which Scott +suffered served as a stimulus against mental monotony rather than as a +drain upon his energy. Scott was 43, Wilson 39, Evans 37, Oates 32, and +Bowers 28 years old. Bowers was exceptionally old for his age. + +In the event of one man crocking a five-man party may be better able to +cope with the situation, but with this doubtful exception Scott had +nothing to gain and a good deal to lose by taking an extra man to the +Pole. That he did so means, I think, that he considered his position a +very good one at this time. He was anxious to take as many men with him +as possible. I have an impression that he wanted the army represented as +well as the navy. Be that as it may, he took five men: he decided to take +the extra man at the last moment, and in doing so he added one more link +to a chain. But he was content; and four days after the Last Return Party +left them, as he lay out a blizzard, quite warm in his sleeping-bag +though the mid-day temperature was -20°, he wrote a long diary praising +his companions very highly indeed "so our five people are perhaps as +happily selected as it is possible to imagine."[294] He speaks of Seaman +Evans as being a giant worker with a really remarkable headpiece. There +is no mention of the party feeling the cold, though they were now at the +greatest height of their journey; the food satisfied them thoroughly. +There is no shadow of trouble here: only Evans has got a nasty cut on his +hand! + +There were more disadvantages in this five-man party than you might +think. There was 5½ weeks' food for four men: five men would eat this in +about four weeks. In addition to the extra risk of breakdown, there was +a certain amount of discomfort involved, for everything was arranged for +four men as I have already explained; the tent was a four-man tent, and +an inner lining had been lashed to the bamboos making it smaller still: +when stretched out for the night the sleeping-bags of the two outside men +must have been partly off the floor-cloth, and probably on the snow: +their bags must have been touching the inner tent and collecting the rime +which was formed there: cooking for five took about half an hour longer +in the day than cooking for four--half an hour off your sleep, or half an +hour off your march? I do not believe that five men on the lid of a +crevasse are as safe as four. Wilson writes that the stow of the sledge +with five sleeping-bags was pretty high: this makes it top-heavy and +liable to capsize in rough country. + +But what would have paralysed anybody except Bowers was the fact that +they had only four pairs of ski between the five of them. To slog along +on foot, in soft snow, in the middle of four men pulling rhythmically on +ski, must have been tiring and even painful; and Birdie's legs were very +short. No steady swing for him, and little chance of getting his mind off +the job in hand. Scott could never have meant to take on five men when he +told his supporting team to leave their ski behind, only four days before +he reorganized. + +"May I be there!" wrote Wilson of the men chosen to travel the ice-cap to +the Pole. "About this time next year may I be there or thereabouts! With +so many young bloods in the heyday of youth and strength beyond my own I +feel there will be a most difficult task in making choice towards the +end." "I should like to have Bill to hold my hand when we get to the +Pole," said Scott. + +Wilson _was_ there and his diary is that of an artist, watching the +clouds and mountains, of a scientist observing ice and rock and snow, of +a doctor, and above all of a man with good judgment. You will understand +that the thing which really interested him in this journey was the +acquisition of knowledge. It is a restrained, and for the most part a +simple, record of facts. There is seldom any comment, and when there is +you feel that, for this very reason, it carries more weight. Just about +this time: "December 24. Very promising, thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon +march": "Christmas Day, and a real good and happy one with a very long +march": "January 1, 1912. We had only 6 hours' sleep last night by a +mistake, but I had mine solid in one piece, actually waking in exactly +the same position as I fell asleep in 6 hours before--never moved": +"January 2. We were surprised to-day by seeing a Skua gull flying over +us--evidently hungry but not weak. Its droppings, however, were clear +mucus, nothing in them at all. It appeared in the afternoon and +disappeared again about ½ hour after." And then on January 3: "Last night +Scott told us what the plans were for the South Pole. Scott, Oates, +Bowers, Petty Officer Evans and I are to go to the Pole. Teddie Evans is +to return from here to-morrow with Crean and Lashly. Scott finished his +week's cooking to-night and I begin mine to-morrow." Just that. + +The next day Bowers wrote: "I had my farewell breakfast in the tent with +Teddy Evans, Crean and Lashly. After so little sleep the previous night I +rather dreaded the march. We gave our various notes, messages and letters +to the returning party and started off. They accompanied us for about a +mile before returning, to see that all was going well. Our party were on +ski with the exception of myself: I first made fast to the central span, +but afterwards connected up to the toggle of the sledge, pulling in the +centre between the inner ends of Captain Scott's and Dr. Wilson's traces. +This was found to be the best place, as I had to go my own step. + +"Teddy and party gave us three cheers, and Crean was half in tears. They +have a feather-weight sledge to go back with of course, and ought to run +down their distance easily.[295] We found we could manage our load +easily, and did 6.3 miles before lunch, completing 12.5 by 7.15 P.M. Our +marching hours are nine per day. It is a long slog with a well-loaded +sledge, and more tiring for me than the others, as I have no ski. +However, as long as I can do my share all day and keep fit it does not +matter much one way or the other. + +"We had our first northerly wind on the plateau to-day, and a deposit of +snow crystals made the surface like sand latterly on the march. The +sledge dragged like lead. In the evening it fell calm, and although the +temperature was -16° it was positively pleasant to stand about outside +the tent and bask in the sun's rays. It was our first calm since we +reached the summit too. Our socks and other damp articles which we hang +out to dry at night become immediately covered with long feathery +crystals exactly like plumes. Socks, mitts and finnesko dry splendidly up +here during the night. We have little trouble with them compared with +spring and winter journeys. I generally spread my bag out in the sun +during the 1½ hours of lunch time, which gives the reindeer hair a chance +to get rid of the damage done by the deposit of breath and any +perspiration during the night."[296] + +Plenty of sun, heavy surfaces, iridescent clouds ... the worst windcut +sastrugi I have seen, covered with bunches of crystals like gorse ... ice +blink all round ... hairy faces and mouths dreadfully iced up on the +march ... hot and sweaty days' work, but sometimes cold hands in the +loops of the ski sticks ... windy streaky cirrus in every direction, all +thin and filmy and scrappy ... horizon clouds all being wafted about.... +These are some of the impressions here and there in Wilson's diary during +the first ten days of the party's solitary march. On the whole he is +enjoying himself, I think. + +You should read Scott's diary yourself and form your own opinions, but I +think that after the Last Return Party left him there is a load off his +mind. The thing had worked so far, it was up to _them_ now: that great +mass of figures and weights and averages, those years of preparation, +those months of anxiety--no one of them had been in vain. They were up +to date in distance, and there was a very good amount of food, probably +more than was necessary to see them to the Pole and off the plateau on +full rations. Best thought of all, perhaps, the motors with their +uncertainties, the ponies with their suffering, the glacier with its +possibilities of disaster, all were behind: and the two main supporting +parties were safely on their way home. Here with him was a fine party, +tested and strong, and only 148 miles from the Pole. + +I can see them, working with a business-like air, with no fuss and no +unnecessary talk, each man knowing his job and doing it: pitching the +tent: finishing the camp work and sitting round on their sleeping-bags +while their meal was cooked: warming their hands on their mugs: saving a +biscuit to eat when they woke in the night: packing the sledge with a +good neat stow: marching with a solid swing--we have seen them do it so +often, and they did it jolly well. + +And the conditions did not seem so bad. "To-night it is flat calm; the +sun so warm that in spite of the temperature we can stand about outside +in the greatest comfort. It is amusing to stand thus and remember the +constant horrors of our situation as they were painted for us: the sun is +melting the snow on the ski, etc. The plateau is now very flat, but we +are still ascending slowly. The sastrugi are getting more confused, +predominant from the S.E. I wonder what is in store for us. At present +everything seems to be going with extraordinary smoothness.... We feel +the cold very little, the great comfort of our situation is the excellent +drying effect of the sun.... Our food continues to amply satisfy. What +luck to have hit on such an excellent ration. We really are an +excellently found party ... we lie so very comfortably, warmly clothed in +our comfortable bags, within our double-walled tent."[297] + +Then something happened. + +While Scott was writing the sentences you have just read, he reached the +summit of the plateau and started, ever so slightly, to go downhill. The +list of corrected altitudes given by Simpson in his meteorological +report are of great interest: Cape Evans 0, Shambles Camp 170, Upper +Glacier Depôt 7151, Three Degree Depôt 9392, One and a Half Degree Depôt +9862, South Pole 9072 feet above sea-level.[298] + +What happened is not quite clear, but there is no doubt that the surface +became very bad, that the party began to feel the cold, and that before +long Evans especially began to crock. The immediate trouble was bad +surfaces. I will try and show why these surfaces should have been met in +what was, you must remember, now a land which no man had travelled +before. + +Scott laid his One and a Half Degree Depôt (i.e. 1½° or 90 miles from +the Pole) on January 10. That day they started to go down, but for +several days before that the plateau had been pretty flat. Time after +time in the diaries you find crystals--crystals--crystals: crystals +falling through the air, crystals bearding the sastrugi, crystals lying +loose upon the snow. Sandy crystals, upon which the sun shines and which +made pulling a terrible effort: when the sky clouds over they get along +much better. The clouds form and disperse without visible reason. And +generally the wind is in their faces. + +Wright tells me that there is certain evidence in the records which may +explain these crystals. Halos are caused by crystals and nearly all those +logged from the bottom of the Beardmore to the Pole and back were on this +stretch of country, where the land was falling. Bowers mentions that the +crystals did not appear in all directions, which goes to show that the +air was not always rising, but sometimes was falling and therefore not +depositing its moisture. There is no doubt that the surfaces met were +very variable, and it may be that the snow lay in waves. Bowers mentions +big undulations for thirty miles before the Pole, and other inequalities +may have been there which were not visible. There is sometimes evidence +that these crystals were formed on the windward side of these waves, and +carried over by a strong wind and deposited on the lee side. + +It is common knowledge that as you rise in the atmosphere so the pressure +decreases: in fact, it is usual to measure your height by reading the +barometer. Now the air on this last stretch to the Pole was rising, for +the wind was from the south, and, as we have seen, the plateau here was +sloping down towards the Pole. The air, driven uphill by this southerly +wind, was forced to rise. As it rose it expanded, because the pressure +was less. Air which has expanded without any heat being given to it from +outside, that is in a heat-proof vessel, is said to expand by adiabatic +expansion. Such air tends first to become saturated, and then to +precipitate its moisture. These conditions were approximately fulfilled +on the plateau, where the air expanded as it rose, but could get little +or no heat from outside. The air therefore precipitated its moisture in +the form of crystals. + +Owing to the rapid changes in surfaces (on one occasion they depôted +their ski because they were in a sea of sastrugi, and had to walk back +for them because the snow became level and soft again) Scott guessed that +the coastal mountains could not be far away, and we now know that the +actual distance was only 130 miles. About the same time Scott mentions +that he had been afraid that they were weakening in their pulling, but he +was reassured by getting a patch of good surface and finding the sledge +coming as easily as of old. On the night of January 12, eight days after +leaving the Last Return Party, he writes: "At camping to-night every one +was chilled and we guessed a cold snap, but to our surprise the actual +temperature was higher than last night, when we could dawdle in the sun. +It is most unaccountable why we should suddenly feel the cold in this +manner: partly the exhaustion of the march, but partly some damp quality +in the air, I think. Little Bowers is wonderful; in spite of my protest +he _would_ take sights after we had camped to-night, after marching in +the soft snow all day when we have been comparatively restful on +ski."[299] On January 14, Wilson wrote: "A very cold grey thick day with +a persistent breeze from the S.S.E. which we all felt considerably, but +temperature was only -18° at lunch and -15° in the evening. Now just over +40 miles from the Pole." Scott wrote the same day: "Again we noticed the +cold; at lunch to-day all our feet were cold but this was mainly due to +the bald state of our finnesko. I put some grease under the bare skin and +found it make all the difference. Oates seems to be feeling the cold and +fatigue more than the rest of us, but we are all very fit." And on +January 15, lunch: "We were all pretty done at camping."[300] And Wilson: +"We made a depôt [The Last Depôt] of provisions at lunch time and went on +for our last lap with nine days' provision. We went much more easily in +the afternoon, and on till 7.30 P.M. The surface was a funny mixture of +smooth snow and sudden patches of sastrugi, and we occasionally appear to +be on a very gradual down gradient and on a slope down from the west to +east." In the light of what happened afterwards I believe that the party +was not as fit at this time as might have been expected ten days before, +and that this was partly the reason why they felt the cold and found the +pulling so hard. The immediate test was the bad surface, and this was the +result of the crystals which covered the ground. + +Simpson has worked out[301] that there is an almost constant pressure +gradient driving the air on the plateau northwards parallel to the 146° +E. meridian, and parallel also to the probable edge of the plateau. The +mean velocity for the months of this December and January was about 11 +miles an hour. During this plateau journey Scott logged wind force 5 and +over on 23 occasions, and this wind was in their faces from the Beardmore +to the Pole, and at their backs as they returned. A low temperature when +it is calm is paradise compared to a higher temperature with a wind, and +it is this constant pitiless wind, combined with the altitude and low +temperatures, which has made travelling on the Antarctic plateau so +difficult. + +While the mean velocity of wind during the two midsummer months seems to +be fairly constant, there is a very rapid fall of temperature in +January. The mean actual temperature found on the plateau this year in +December was -8.6°, the minimum observed being -19.3°. Simpson remarks +that "it must be accounted as one of the wonders of the Antarctic that it +contains a vast area of the earth's surface where the mean temperature +during the warmest month is more than 8° below the Fahrenheit zero, and +when throughout the month the highest temperature was only +5.5° F."[302] +But the mean temperature on the plateau dropped 10° in January to -18.7°, +the minimum observed being -29.7°. These temperatures have to be combined +with the wind force described above to imagine the conditions of the +march. In the light of Scott's previous plateau journey[303] and +Shackleton's Polar Journey[304] this wind was always expected by our +advance parties. But there can be no doubt that the temperature falls as +solar radiation decreases more rapidly than was generally supposed. Scott +probably expected neither such a rapid fall of temperature, nor the very +bad surfaces, though he knew that the plateau would mean a trying time, +and indeed it was supposed that it would be much the hardest part of the +journey. + +On the night of January 15, Scott wrote "it ought to be a certain thing +now, and the only appalling possibility the sight of the Norwegian flag +forestalling ours."[305] They were 27 miles from the Pole. + +The story of the next three days is taken from Wilson's diary: + +"_January 16._ We got away at 8 A.M. and made 7.5 miles by 1.15, lunched, +and then in 5.3 miles came on a black flag and the Norwegians' sledge, +ski, and dog tracks running about N.E. and S.W. both ways. The flag was +of black bunting tied with string to a fore-and-after which had evidently +been taken off a finished-up sledge. The age of the tracks was hard to +guess but probably a couple of weeks--or three or more. The flag was +fairly well frayed at the edges. We camped here and examined the tracks +and discussed things. The surface was fairly good in the forenoon -23° +temperature, and all the afternoon we were coming downhill with again a +rise to the W., and a fall and a scoop to the east where the Norwegians +came up, evidently by another glacier." + +[Illustration: AMUNDSEN'S POLHEIM--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +"_January 17._ We camped on the Pole itself at 6.30 P.M. this evening. In +the morning we were up at 5 A.M. and got away on Amundsen's tracks going +S.S.W. for three hours, passing two small snow cairns, and then, finding +the tracks too much snowed up to follow, we made our own bee-line for the +Pole: camped for lunch at 12.30 and off again from 3 to 6.30 P.M. It blew +from force 4 to 6 all day in our teeth with temperature -22°, the coldest +march I ever remember. It was difficult to keep one's hands from freezing +in double woollen and fur mitts. Oates, Evans, and Bowers all have pretty +severe frost-bitten noses and cheeks, and we had to camp early for lunch +on account of Evans' hands. It was a very bitter day. Sun was out now and +again, and observations taken at lunch, and before and after supper, and +at night, at 7 P.M. and at 2 A.M. by our time. The weather was not clear, +the air was full of crystals driving towards us as we came south, and +making the horizon grey and thick and hazy. We could see no sign of cairn +or flag, and from Amundsen's direction of tracks this morning he has +probably hit a point about 3 miles off. We hope for clear weather +to-morrow, but in any case are all agreed that he can claim prior right +to the Pole itself. He has beaten us in so far as he made a race of it. +We have done what we came for all the same and as our programme was made +out. From his tracks we think there were only 2 men, on ski, with plenty +of dogs on rather low diet. They seem to have had an oval tent. We sleep +one night at the Pole and have had a double hoosh with some last bits of +chocolate, and X's cigarettes have been much appreciated by Scott and +Oates and Evans. A tiring day: now turning into a somewhat starchy frozen +bag. To-morrow we start for home and shall do our utmost to get back in +time to send the news to the ship." + +"_January 18._ Sights were taken in the night, and at about 5 A.M. we +turned out and marched from this night camp about 3¾ miles back in a +S.E.ly direction to a spot which we judged from last night's sights to be +the Pole. Here we lunched camp: built a cairn: took photos: flew the +Queen Mother's Union Jack and all our own flags. We call this the Pole, +though as a matter of fact we went ½ mile farther on in a S. easterly +direction after taking further sights to the actual final spot, and here +we left the Union Jack flying. During the forenoon we passed the +Norwegians' last southerly camp: they called it Polheim and left here a +small tent with Norwegian and Fram flags flying, and a considerable +amount of gear in the tent: half reindeer sleeping-bags, sleeping-socks, +reinskin trousers 2 pair, a sextant, and artif[icial] horizon, a +hypsometer with all the thermoms broken, etc. I took away the spirit-lamp +of it, which I have wanted for sterilizing and making disinfectant +lotions of snow. There were also letters there: one from Amundsen to King +Haakon, with a request that Scott should send it to him. There was also a +list of the five men who made up their party, but no news as to what they +had done. I made some sketches here, but it was blowing very cold, -22°. +Birdie took some photos. We found no sledge there though they said there +was one: it may have been buried in drift. The tent was a funny little +thing for 2 men, pegged out with white line and tent-pegs of yellow wood. +I took some strips of blue-grey silk off the tent seams: it was perished. +The Norskies had got to the Pole on December 16, and were here from 15th +to 17th. At our lunch South Pole Camp we saw a sledge-runner with a black +flag about ½ mile away blowing from it. Scott sent me on ski to fetch it, +and I found a note tied to it showing that this was the Norskies' actual +final Pole position. I was given the flag and the note with Amundsen's +signature, and I got a piece of the sledge-runner as well. The small +chart of our wanderings shows best how all these things lie. After lunch +we made 6.2 miles from the Pole Camp to the north again, and here we are +camped for the night."[306] + +The following remarks on the South Pole area were written by Bowers in +the Meteorological Log, apparently on January 17 and 18: "Within 120 +miles of the South Pole the sastrugi crossed seem to indicate belts of +certain prevalent winds. These were definitely S.E.ly. up to about Lat. +78° 30´ S., where the summit was passed and we started to go definitely +downhill toward the Pole. An indefinite area was then crossed S.E.ly, +S.ly and S.W.ly sastrugi. Later, in about 79° 30´ S., those from the +S.S.W. predominated. At this point also the surface of the ice-cap became +affected by undulations running more or less at right angles to our +course. These resolved themselves into immense waves some miles in +extent,[307] with a uniform surface both in hollow and crust. The whole +surface was carpeted with a deposit of ice-crystals which, while we were +there, fell sometimes in the form of minute spicules and sometimes in +plates. These caused an almost continuous display of parhelia. + +"The flags left a month previously by the Norwegian expedition were +practically undamaged and so could not have been exposed to very heavy +wind during that time. Their sledging and ski tracks, where marked, were +raised slightly, also the dogs' footprints. In the neighbourhood of their +South Pole Camp the drifts were S.W.ly, but there was one S.S.E. drift to +leeward of tent. They had pitched their tent to allow for S.W.ly wind. +For walking on foot the ground was all pretty soft, and on digging down +the crystalline structure of the snow was found to alter very little, and +there were no layers of crust such as are found on the Barrier. The snow +seems so lightly put together as not to cohere, and makes very little +water for its bulk when melted. The constant and varied motion of cirrus, +and the forming and motion of radiant points, shows that in the upper +atmosphere at this time of the year there is little or no +tranquillity."[308] + +That is the bare bones of what was without any possible doubt a great +shock. Consider! These men had been out 2½ months and were 800 miles +from home. The glacier had been a heavy grind: the plateau certainly not +worse, probably better, than was expected, as far as that place where the +Last Return Party left them. But then, in addition to a high altitude, a +head wind, and a temperature which averaged -18.7°, came this shower of +ice-crystals, turning the surface to sand, especially when the sun was +out. They were living in cirrus clouds, and the extraordinary state seems +to have obtained that the surface of the snow was colder when the sun was +shining than when clouds checked the radiation from it. They began to +descend. Things began to go not quite right: they felt the cold, +especially Oates and Evans: Evans' hands also were wrong--ever since the +seamen made that new sledge. The making of that sledge must have been +fiercely cold work: one of the hardest jobs they did. I am not sure that +enough notice has been taken of that. + +And then: "The Norwegians have forestalled us and are first at the Pole. +It is a terrible disappointment, and I am very sorry for my loyal +companions. Many thoughts come and much discussion have we had. To-morrow +we must march on to the Pole and then hasten home with all the speed we +can compass. All the day-dreams must go; it will be a wearisome return." +"The Pole. Yes, but under very different circumstances from those +expected ... companions labouring on with cold feet and hands.... Evans +had such cold hands we camped for lunch ... the wind is blowing hard, T. +-21°, and there is that curious damp, cold feeling in the air which +chills one to the bone in no time.... Great God! this is an awful +place...."[309] + +This is not a cry of despair. It is an ejaculation provoked by the +ghastly facts. Even now in January the temperature near the South Pole is +about 24° lower than it is during the corresponding month of the year +(July) near the North Pole,[310] and if it is like this in mid-summer, +what is it like in mid-winter? At the same time it was, with the +exception of the sandy surfaces, what they had looked for, and every +detail of organization was working out as well as if not better than had +been expected. + +Bowers was so busy with the meteorological log and sights which were +taken in terribly difficult circumstances that he kept no diary until +they started back. Then he wrote on seven consecutive days, as follows: + +"_January 19._ A splendid clear morning with a fine S.W. wind blowing. +During breakfast time I sewed a flap attachment on to the hood of my +green hat so as to prevent the wind from blowing down my neck on the +march. We got up the mast and sail on the sledge and headed north, +picking up Amundsen's cairn and our outgoing tracks shortly afterwards. +Along these we travelled till we struck the other cairn and finally the +black flag where we had made our 58th outward camp. We then with much +relief left all traces of the Norwegians behind us, and headed on our own +track till lunch camp, when we had covered eight miles. + +"In the afternoon we passed No. 2 cairn of the British route, and fairly +slithered along before a fresh breeze. It was heavy travelling for me, +not being on ski, but one does not mind being tired if a good march is +made. We did sixteen [miles] altogether for the day, and so should pick +up our Last Depôt to-morrow afternoon. The weather became fairly thick +soon after noon, and at the end of the afternoon there was considerable +drift, with a mist caused by ice-crystals, and parhelion." + +"_January 20._ Good sailing breeze again this morning. It is a great +pleasure to have one's back to the wind instead of having to face it. It +came on thicker later, but we sighted the Last Depôt soon after 1 P.M. +and reached it at 1.45 P.M. The red flag on the bamboo pole was blowing +out merrily to welcome us back from the Pole, with its supply of +necessaries of life below. We are absolutely dependent upon our depôts to +get off the plateau alive, and so welcome the lonely little cairns +gladly. At this one, called the Last Depôt, we picked up four days' food, +a can of oil, some methylated spirit (for lighting purposes) and some +personal gear we had left there. The bamboo was bent on to the +floor-cloth as a yard for our sail instead of a broken sledge-runner of +Amundsen's which we had found at the Pole and made a temporary yard of. + +"As we had marched extra long in the forenoon in order to reach the +depôt, our afternoon march was shorter than usual. The wind increased to +a moderate gale with heavy gusts and considerable drift. We should have +had a bad time had we been facing it. After an hour I had to shift my +harness aft so as to control the motions of the sledge. Unfortunately the +surface got very sandy latterly, but we finished up with 16.1 miles to +our credit and camped in a stiff breeze, which resolved itself into a +blizzard a few hours later. I was glad we had our depôt safe." + +"_January 21._ Wind increased to force 8 during night with heavy drift. +In the morning it was blizzing like blazes and marching was out of the +question. The wind would have been of great assistance to us, but the +drift was so thick that steering a course would have been next to +impossible. We decided to await developments and get under weigh as soon +as it showed any signs of clearing. Fortunately it was shortlived, and +instead of lasting the regulation two days it eased up in the afternoon, +and 3.45 found us off with our sail full. It was good running on ski but +soft plodding for me on foot. I shall be jolly glad to pick up my dear +old ski. They are nearly 200 miles away yet, however. The breeze fell +altogether latterly and I shifted up into my old place as middle number +of the five. Our distance completed was 5.5 miles, when camp was made +again. Our old cairns are of great assistance to us, also the tracks, +which are obliterated in places by heavy drift and hard sastrugi, but can +be followed easily." + +"_January 22._ We came across Evans' sheepskin boots this morning. They +were almost covered up after their long spell since they fell off the +sledge [on January 11]. The breeze was fair from the S.S.W. but got +lighter and lighter. At lunch camp we had completed 8.2 miles. In the +afternoon the breeze fell altogether, and the surface, acted on by the +sun, became perfect sawdust. The light sledge pulled by five men came +along like a drag without a particle of slide or give. We were all glad +to camp soon after 7 P.M. I think we were all pretty tired out. We did +altogether 19.5 miles for the day. We are only thirty miles from the 1½ +Degree Depôt, and should reach it in two marches with any luck." [The +minimum temperature this night was -30° (uncorrected).] + +"_January 23._ Started off with a bit of a breeze which helped us a +little [temperature -28°]. After the first two hours it increased to +force 4, S.S.W., and filling the sail we sped along merrily, doing 8¾ +miles before lunch. In the afternoon it was even stronger, and I had to +go back on the sledge and act as guide and brakesman. We had to lower the +sail a bit, but even then she ran like a bird. + +"We are picking up our old cairns famously. Evans got his nose +frost-bitten, not an unusual thing with him, but as we were all getting +pretty cold latterly we stopped at a quarter to seven, having done 16½ +miles. We camped with considerable difficulty owing to the force of the +wind."[311] + +The same night Scott wrote: "We came along at a great pace, and should +have got within an easy march of our [One and a Half Degree] Depôt had +not Wilson suddenly discovered that Evans' nose was frost-bitten--it was +white and hard. We thought it best to camp at 6.45. Got the tent up with +some difficulty, and now pretty cosy after good hoosh. + +"There is no doubt Evans is a good deal run down--his fingers are badly +blistered and his nose is rather seriously congested with frequent +frost-bites. He is very much annoyed with himself, which is not a good +sign. I think Wilson, Bowers and I are as fit as possible under the +circumstances. Oates gets cold feet. One way and another I shall be glad +to get off the summit!... The weather seems to be breaking up."[312] + +Bowers resumes the tale: + +"_January 24._ Evans has got his fingers all blistered with frost-bites, +otherwise we are all well, but thinning, and in spite of our good rations +get hungrier daily. I sometimes spend much thought on the march with +plans for making a pig of myself on the first opportunity. As that will +be after a further march of 700 miles they are a bit premature. + +"It was blowing a gale when we started and it increased in force. Finally +with the sail half down, one man detached tracking ahead and Titus and I +breaking back, we could not always keep the sledge from overrunning. The +blizzard got worse and worse till, having done only seven miles, we had +to camp soon after twelve o'clock. We had a most difficult job camping, +and it has been blowing like blazes all the afternoon. I think it is +moderating now, 9 P.M. We are only seven miles from our depôt and this +delay is exasperating."[313] + +[Scott wrote: "This is the second full gale since we left the Pole. I +don't like the look of it. Is the weather breaking up? If so, God help +us, with the tremendous summit journey and scant food. Wilson and Bowers +are my stand-by. I don't like the easy way in which Oates and Evans get +frost-bitten."[314]] + +"_January 25._ It was no use turning out at our usual time (5.45 A.M.), +as the blizzard was as furious as ever; we therefore decided on a late +breakfast and no lunch unless able to march. We have only three days' +food with us and shall be in Queer Street if we miss the depôt. Our bags +are getting steadily wetter, so are our clothes. It shows a tendency to +clear off now (breakfast time) so, D.V., we may march after all. I am in +tribulation as regards meals now as we have run out of salt, one of my +favourite commodities. It is owing to Atkinson's party taking back an +extra tin by mistake from the Upper Glacier Depôt. Fortunately we have +some depôted there, so I will only have to endure another two weeks +without it. + +"10 P.M.--We have got in a march after all, thank the Lord. Assisted by +the wind we made an excellent rundown to our One and a Half Degree Depôt, +where the big red flag was blowing out like fury with the breeze, in +clouds of driving drift. Here we picked up 1¼ cans of oil and one week's +food for five men, together with some personal gear depôted. We left the +bamboo and flag on the cairn. I was much relieved to pick up the depôt: +now we only have one other source of anxiety on this endless snow summit, +viz. the Three Degree Depôt in latitude 86° 56´ S. + +"In the afternoon we did 5.2 miles. It was a miserable march, blizzard +all the time and our sledge either sticking in sastrugi or overrunning +the traces. We had to lower the sail half down, and Titus and I hung on +to her. It was most strenuous work, as well as much colder than pulling +ahead. Most of the time we had to brake back with all our strength to +keep the sledge from overrunning. Bill got a bad go of snow glare from +following the track without goggles on. + +"This day last year we started the Depôt Journey. I did not think so +short a time would turn me into an old hand at polar travelling, neither +did I imagine at the time that I would be returning from the Pole +itself."[315] + +Wilson was very subject to these attacks of snow blindness, and also to +headaches before blizzards. I have an idea that his anxiety to sketch +whenever opportunity offered, and his willingness to take off his goggles +to search for tracks and cairns, had something to do with it. This attack +was very typical. "I wrote this at lunch and in the evening had a bad +attack of snow blindness." ... "Blizzard in afternoon. We only got in a +forenoon march. Couldn't see enough of the tracks to follow at all. My +eyes didn't begin to trouble me till to-morrow [yesterday], though it was +the strain of tracking and the very cold drift which we had to-day that +gave me this attack of snow glare." ... "Marched on foot in the afternoon +as my eyes were too bad to go on ski. We had a lot of drift and wind and +very cold. Had ZuSO_4 and cocaine in my eyes at night and didn't get to +sleep at all for the pain--dozed about an hour in the morning only." ... +"Marched on foot again all day as I couldn't see my way on ski at all, +Birdie used my ski. Eyes still very painful and watering. Tired out by +the evening, had a splendid night's sleep, and though very painful across +forehead to-night they are much better."[316] + +The surface was awful: in his diary of the day after they left the Pole +(January 19) Wilson wrote an account of it. "We had a splendid wind right +behind us most of the afternoon and went well until about 6 P.M. when the +sun came out and we had an awful grind until 7.30 when we camped. The sun +comes out on sandy drifts, all on the move in the wind, and temp. -20°, +and gives us an absolutely awful surface with no glide at all for ski or +sledge, and just like fine sand. The weather all day has been more or +less overcast with white broken alto-stratus, and for 3 degrees above the +horizon there is a grey belt looking like a blizzard of drift, but this +in reality is caused by a constant fall of minute snow crystals, very +minute. Sometimes instead of crystal plates the fall is of minute +agglomerate spicules like tiny sea-urchins. The plates glitter in the sun +as though of some size, but you can only just see them as pin-points on +your burberry. So the spicule collections are only just visible. Our +hands are never warm enough in camp to do any neat work now. The weather +is always uncomfortably cold and windy, about -23°, but after lunch +to-day I got a bit of drawing done."[317] + +All the joy had gone from their sledging. They were hungry, they were +cold, the pulling was heavy, and two of them were not fit. As long ago as +January 14 Scott wrote that Oates was feeling the cold and fatigue more +than the others[318] and again he refers to the matter on January +20.[319] On January 19 Wilson wrote: "We get our hairy faces and mouths +dreadfully iced up on the march, and often one's hands very cold indeed +holding ski-sticks. Evans, who cut his knuckle some days ago at the last +depôt, has a lot of pus in it to-night." January 20: "Evans has got 4 or +5 of his finger-tips badly blistered by the cold. Titus also his nose and +cheeks--al[so] Evans and Bowers." January 28: "Evans has a number of +badly blistered finger-ends which he got at the Pole. Titus' big toe is +turning blue-black." January 31: "Evans' finger-nails all coming off, +very raw and sore." February 4: "Evans is feeling the cold a lot, always +getting frost-bitten. Titus' toes are blackening, and his nose and cheeks +are dead yellow. Dressing Evans' fingers every other day with boric +vaseline: they are quite sweet still." February 5: "Evans' fingers +suppurating. Nose very bad [hard] and rotten-looking."[320] + +Scott was getting alarmed about Evans, who "has dislodged two +finger-nails to-night; his hands are really bad, and, to my surprise, he +shows signs of losing heart over it. He hasn't been cheerful since the +accident."[321] "The party is not improving in condition, especially +Evans, who is becoming rather dull and incapable." "Evans' nose is almost +as bad as his fingers. He is a good deal crocked up."[322] + +Bowers' diary, quoted above, finished on January 25, on which day they +picked up their One and a Half Degree Depôt. "I shall sleep much better +with our provision bag full again," wrote Scott that night. "Bowers got +another rating sight to-night--it was wonderful how he managed to observe +in such a horribly cold wind." They marched 16 miles the next day, but +got off the outward track, which was crooked. On January 27 they did 14 +miles on a "very bad surface of deep-cut sastrugi all day, until late in +the afternoon when we began to get out of them."[323] "By Jove, this is +tremendous labour," said Scott. + +They were getting into the better surfaces again: 15.7 miles for January +28, "a fine day and a good march on very decent surface."[324] On January +29 Bowers wrote his last full day's diary: "Our record march to-day. +With a good breeze and improving surface we were soon in among the double +tracks where the supporting party left us. Then we picked up the +memorable camp where I transferred to the advance party. How glad I was +to change over. The camp was much drifted up and immense sastrugi were +everywhere, S.S.E. in direction and S.E. We did 10.4 miles before lunch. +I was breaking back on sledge and controlling; it was beastly cold and my +hands were perished. In the afternoon I put on my dogskin mitts and was +far more comfortable. A stiff breeze with drift continues: temperature +-25°. Thank God our days of having to face it are over. We completed 19.5 +miles [22 statute] this evening, and so are only 29 miles from our +precious [Three Degree] Depôt. It will be bad luck indeed if we do not +get there in a march and a half anyhow."[325] + +Nineteen miles again on January 30, but during the previous day's march +Wilson had strained a tendon in his leg. "I got a nasty bruise on the +Tib[ialis] ant[icus] which gave me great pain all the afternoon." "My +left leg exceedingly painful all day, so I gave Birdie my ski and hobbled +alongside the sledge on foot. The whole of the Tibialis anticus is +swollen and tight, and full of teno synovitis, and the skin red and +oedematous over the shin. But we made a very fine march with the help of +a brisk breeze." January 31: "Again walking by the sledge with swollen +leg but not nearly so painful. We had 5.8 miles to go to reach our Three +Degree Depôt. Picked this up with a week's provision and a line from +Evans, and then for lunch an extra biscuit each, making 4 for lunch and +1/10 whack of butter extra as well. Afternoon we passed cairn where +Birdie's ski had been left. These we picked up and came on till 7.30 P.M. +when the wind which had been very light all day dropped, and with temp. +-20° it felt delightfully warm and sunny and clear. We have 1/10 extra +pemmican in the hoosh now also. My leg pretty swollen again +to-night."[326] They travelled 13.5 miles that day, and 15.7 on the next. +"My leg much more comfortable, gave me no pain, and I was able to pull +all day, holding on to the sledge. Still some oedema. We came down a +hundred feet or so to-day on a fairly steep gradient."[327] + +They were now approaching the crevassed surfaces and the ice-falls which +mark the entrance to the Beardmore Glacier, and February 2 was marked by +another accident, this time to Scott. "On a very slippery surface I came +an awful 'purler' on my shoulder. It is horribly sore to-night and +another sick person added to our tent--three out of five injured, and the +most troublesome surfaces to come. We shall be lucky if we get through +without serious injury. Wilson's leg is better, but might easily get bad +again, and Evans' fingers.... We have managed to get off 17 miles. The +extra food is certainly helping us, but we are getting pretty hungry. The +weather is already a trifle warmer, the altitude lower and only 80 miles +or so to Mount Darwin. It is time we were off the summit.--Pray God +another four days will see us pretty well clear of it. Our bags are +getting very wet and we ought to have more sleep."[328] + +They had been spending some time in finding the old tracks. But they had +a good landfall for the depôt at the top of the glacier and on February 3 +they decided to push on due north, and to worry no more for the present +about tracks and cairns. They did 16 miles that day. Wilson's diary runs: +"Sunny and breezy again. Came down a series of slopes, and finished the +day by going up one. Enormous deep-cut sastrugi and drifts and shiny +egg-shell surface. Wind all S.S.E.ly. To-day at about 11 P.M. we got our +first sight again of mountain peaks on our eastern horizon.... We crossed +the outmost line of crevassed ridge top to-day, the first on our return. + +[Illustration: BUCKLEY ISLAND--Where The Fossils Were Found.] + +"_February 4._ 18 miles. Clear cloudless blue sky, surface drift. During +forenoon we came down gradual descent including 2 or 3 irregular terrace +slopes, on crest of one of which were a good many crevasses. Southernmost +were just big enough for Scott and Evans to fall in to their waists, and +very deceptively covered up. They ran east and west. Those nearer the +crest were the ordinary broad street-like crevasses, well lidded. In the +afternoon we again came to a crest, before descending, with street +crevasses, and one we crossed had a huge hole where the lid had fallen +in, big enough for a horse and cart to go down. We have a great number of +mountain tops on our right and south of our beam as we go due north now. +We are now camped just below a great crevassed mound, on a mountain top +evidently." + +"_February 5._ 18.2 miles. We had a difficult day, getting in amongst a +frightful chaos of broad chasm-like crevasses. We kept too far east and +had to wind in and out amongst them and cross multitudes of bridges. +We then bore west a bit and got on better all the afternoon and got round +a good deal of the upper disturbances of the falls here." + +[Scott wrote: "We are camped in a very disturbed region, but the wind has +fallen very light here, and our camp is comfortable for the first time +for many weeks."[329]] + +"_February 6._ 15 miles. We again had a forenoon of trying to cut +corners. Got in amongst great chasms running E. and W. and had to come +out again. We then again kept west and downhill over tremendous sastrugi, +with a slight breeze, very cold. In afternoon continued bearing more and +more towards Mount Darwin: we got round one of the main lines of ice-fall +and looked back up to it.... Very cold march: many crevasses: I walking +by the sledge on foot found a good many: the others all on ski." + +"_February 7._ 15.5 miles. Clear day again and we made a tedious march in +the forenoon along a flat or two, and down a long slope: and then in the +afternoon we had a very fresh breeze, and very fast run down long slopes +covered with big sastrugi. It was a strenuous job steering and checking +behind by the sledge. We reached the Upper Glacier Depôt by 7.30 P.M. and +found everything right."[330] + +This was the end of the plateau: the beginning of the glacier. Their hard +time should be over so far as the weather was concerned. Wilson notes how +fine the land looked as they approached it: "The colour of the Dominion +Range rock is in the main all brown madder or dark reddish chocolate, but +there are numerous bands of yellow rock scattered amongst it. I think it +is composed of dolerite and sandstone as on the W. side."[331] + +The condition of the party was of course giving anxiety: how much it is +impossible to say. A good deal was to be hoped from the warm weather +ahead. Scott and Bowers were probably the fittest men. Scott's shoulder +soon mended and "Bowers is splendid, full of energy and bustle all the +time."[332] Wilson was feeling the cold more than either of them now. His +leg was not yet well enough to wear ski. Oates had suffered from a cold +foot for some time. Evans, however, was the only man whom Scott seems to +have been worried about. "His cuts and wounds suppurate, his nose looks +very bad, and altogether he shows considerable signs of being played +out." ... "Well, we have come through our seven weeks' ice-cap journey +and most of us are fit, but I think another week might have had a very +bad effect on P.O. Evans, who is going steadily downhill."[333] They had +all been having extra food which had helped them much, though they +complained of hunger and want of sleep. Directly they got into the warmer +weather on the glacier their food satisfied them, "but we must march to +keep on the full ration, and we want rest, yet we shall pull through all +right, D.V. We are by no means worn out."[334] + +There are no germs in the Antarctic, save for a few isolated specimens +which almost certainly come down from civilization in the upper air +currents. You can sleep all night in a wet bag and clothing, and sledge +all day in a mail of ice, and you will not catch a cold nor get any +aches. You can get deficiency diseases, like scurvy, for inland this is a +deficiency country, without vitamines. You can also get poisoned if you +allow your food to remain thawed out too long, and if you do not cover +the provisions in a depôt with enough snow the sun will get at them, even +though the air temperature is far below freezing. But it is not easy to +become diseased. + +On the other hand, once something does go wrong it is the deuce and all +to get it right: especially cuts. And the isolation of the polar +traveller may place him in most difficult circumstances. There are no +ambulances and hospitals, and a man on a sledge is a very serious weight. +Practically any man who undertakes big polar journeys must face the +possibility of having to commit suicide to save his companions, and the +difficulty of this must not be overrated, for it is in some ways more +desirable to die than to live if things are bad enough: we got to that +stage on the Winter Journey. I remember discussing this question with +Bowers, who had a scheme of doing himself in with a pick-axe if necessity +arose, though how he could have accomplished it I don't know: or, as he +said, there might be a crevasse and at any rate there was the medical +case. I was horrified at the time: I had never faced the thing out with +myself like that. + +They left the Upper Glacier Depôt under Mount Darwin on February 8. This +day they collected the most important of those geological specimens to +which, at Wilson's special request, they clung to the end, and which were +mostly collected by him. Mount Darwin and Buckley Island, which are +really the tops of high mountains, stick out of the ice at the top of the +glacier, and the course ran near to both of them, but not actually up +against them. Shackleton found coal on Buckley Island, and it was clear +that the place was of great geological importance, for it was one of the +only places in the Antarctic where fossils could be found, so far as we +knew. The ice-falls stretched away as far as you could see towards the +mountains which bound the glacier on either side, and as you looked +upwards towards Buckley Island they were like a long breaking wave. One +of the great difficulties about the Beardmore was that you saw the +ice-falls as you went up, and avoided them, but coming down you knew +nothing of their whereabouts until you fell into the middle of pressure +and crevasses, and then it was almost impossible to say whether you +should go right or left to get out. + +Evans was unable to pull this day, and was detached from the sledge, but +this was not necessarily a very serious sign: Shackleton on his return +journey was not able to pull at this place. Wilson wrote as follows: + +"_February 8, Mt. Buckley Cliffs._ A very busy day. We had a very cold +forenoon march, blowing like blazes from the S. Birdie detached and went +on ski to Mt. Darwin and collected some dolerite, the only rock he could +see on the Nunatak, which was nearest. We got into a sort of crusted +surface where the snow broke through nearly to our knees and the +sledge-runner also. I thought at first we were all on a thinly bridged +crevasse. We then came on east a bit, and gradually got worse and worse +going over an ice-fall, having great trouble to prevent sledge taking +charge, but eventually got down and then made N.W. or N. into the land, +and camped right by the moraine under the great sandstone cliffs of Mt. +Buckley, out of the wind and quite warm again: it was a wonderful change. +After lunch we all geologized on till supper, and I was very late turning +in, examining the moraine after supper. Socks, all strewn over the rocks, +dried splendidly. Magnificent Beacon sandstone cliffs. Masses of +limestone in the moraine, and dolerite crags in various places. Coal +seams at all heights in the sandstone cliffs, and lumps of weathered coal +with fossil vegetable. Had a regular field-day and got some splendid +things in the short time." + +"_February 9, Moraine visit._ We made our way along down the moraine, and +at the end of Mt. Buckley [I] unhitched and had half an hour over the +rocks and again got some good things written up in sketch-book. We then +left the moraine and made a very good march on rough blue ice all day +with very small and scarce scraps of névé, on one of which we camped for +the night with a rather overcast foggy sky, which cleared to bright sun +in the night. We are all thoroughly enjoying temps. of +10° or +thereabouts now, with no wind instead of the summit winds which are +incessant with temp. -20°." + +"_February 10._ ?16 m. We made a very good forenoon march from 10 to 2.45 +towards the Cloudmaker. Weather overcast gradually obscured everything in +snowfall fog, starting with crystals of large size.... We had to camp +after 2½ hours' afternoon march as it got too thick to see anything and +we were going downhill on blue ice...."[335] + +[Illustration: BUCKLEY ISLAND--E. A. Wilson, del. Emery Walker Limited, +Collotypers.] + +The next day in bad lights and on a bad surface they fell into the same +pressure which both the other returning parties experienced. Like them +they were in the middle of it before they realized. "Then came the fatal +decision to steer east. We went on for 6 hours, hoping to do a good +distance, which I suppose we did, but for the last hour or two we +pressed on into a regular trap. Getting on to a good surface we did not +reduce our lunch meal, and thought all going well, but half an hour after +lunch we got into the worst ice mess I have ever been in. For three hours +we plunged on on ski, first thinking we were too much to the right, then +too much to the left; meanwhile the disturbance got worse and my spirits +received a very rude shock. There were times when it seemed almost +impossible to find a way out of the awful turmoil in which we found +ourselves.... The turmoil changed in character, irregular crevassed +surface giving way to huge chasms, closely packed and most difficult to +cross. It was very heavy work, but we had grown desperate. We won through +at 10 P.M., and I write after 12 hours on the march...."[336] + +Wilson continues the story: + +"_February 12._ We had a good night just outside the ice-falls and +disturbances, and a small breakfast of tea, thin hoosh and biscuit, and +began the forenoon by a decent bit of travelling on rubbly blue ice in +crampons: then plunged into an ice-fall and wandered about in it for +hours and hours." + +"_February 13._ We had one biscuit and some tea after a night's sleep on +very hard and irregular blue ice amongst the ice-fall crevasses. No snow +on the tent, only ski, etc. Got away at 10 A.M. and by 2 P.M. found the +depôt, having had a good march over very hard rough blue ice. Only ½ hour +in the disturbance of yesterday. The weather was very thick, snowing and +overcast, could only just see the points of bearing for depôt. However, +we got there, tired and hungry, and camped and had hoosh and tea and 3 +biscuits each. Then away again with our three and a half days' food from +this red flag depôt and off down by the Cloudmaker moraine. We travelled +about 4 hours on hard blue ice, and I was allowed to geologize the last +hour down the two outer lines of boulders. The outer one all dolerite and +quartz rocks, the inner all dolerite and sandstone.... We camped on the +inner line of boulders, weather clearing all the afternoon."[337] + +Meanwhile both Wilson and Bowers had been badly snow-blind, though Wilson +does not mention it in his diary; and this night Scott says Evans had no +power to assist with camping work. A good march followed on February 14, +but "there is no getting away from the fact that we are not pulling +strong. Probably none of us: Wilson's leg still troubles him and he +doesn't like to trust himself on ski; but the worst case is Evans, who is +giving us serious anxiety. This morning he suddenly disclosed a huge +blister on his foot. It delayed us on the march, when he had to have his +crampon readjusted. Sometimes I feel he is going from bad to worse, but I +trust he will pick up again when we come to steady work on ski like this +afternoon. He is hungry and so is Wilson. We can't risk opening out our +food again, and as cook at present I am serving something under full +allowance. We are inclined to get slack and slow with our camping +arrangement, and small delays increase. I have talked of the matter +to-night and hope for improvement. We cannot do distance without the +hours."[338] + +There was something wrong with this party: more wrong, I mean, than was +justified by the tremendous journey they had already experienced. Except +for the blizzard at the bottom of the Beardmore and the surfaces near the +Pole it had been little worse than they expected. Evans, however, who was +considered by Scott to be the strongest man of the party, had already +collapsed, and it is admitted that the rest of the party was becoming far +from strong. There seems to be an unknown factor here somewhere. + +[Illustration: MT. KYFFIN--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +Wilson's diary continues: "_February 15. 13¾ m. geog._ I got on ski again +first time since damaging my leg and was on them all day for 9 hours. It +was a bit painful and swelled by the evening, and every night I put on +snow poultice. We are not yet abreast of Mt. Kyffin, and much discussion +how far we are from the Lower Glacier Depôt, probably 18 to 20 m.: and we +have to reduce food again, only one biscuit to-night with a thin hoosh of +pemmican. To-morrow we have to make one day's food which remains last +over the two. The weather became heavily overcast during the afternoon +and then began to snow, and though we got in our 4 hours' march it was +with difficulty, and we only made a bit over 5 miles. However, we are +nearer the depôt to-night." + +"_February 16. 12½ m. geog._ Got a good start in fair weather after one +biscuit and a thin breakfast, and made 7½ m. in the forenoon. Again the +weather became overcast and we lunched almost at our old bearing on +Kyffin of lunch Dec. 15. All the afternoon the weather became thick and +thicker and after 3¼ hours Evans collapsed, sick and giddy, and unable to +walk even by the sledge on ski, so we camped. Can see no land at all +anywhere, but we must be getting pretty near the Pillar Rock. Evans' +collapse has much to do with the fact that he has never been sick in his +life and is now helpless with his hands frost-bitten. We had thin meals +for lunch and supper." + +"_February 17._ The weather cleared and we got away for a clear run to +the depôt and had gone a good part of the way when Evans found his ski +shoes coming off. He was allowed to readjust and continue to pull, but it +happened again, and then again, so he was told to unhitch, get them +right, and follow on and catch us up. He lagged far behind till lunch, +and when we camped we had lunch, and then went back for him as he had not +come up. He had fallen and had his hands frost-bitten, and we then +returned for the sledge, and brought it, and fetched him in on it as he +was rapidly losing the use of his legs. He was comatose when we got him +into the tent, and he died without recovering consciousness that night +about 10 P.M. We had a short rest for an hour or two in our bags that +night, then had a meal and came on through the pressure ridges about 4 +miles farther down and reached our Lower Glacier Depôt. Here we camped at +last, had a good meal and slept a good night's rest which we badly +needed. Our depôt was all right."[339] "A very terrible day.... On +discussing the symptoms we think he began to get weaker just before we +reached the Pole, and that his downward path was accelerated first by +the shock of his frost-bitten fingers, and later by falls during rough +travelling on the glacier, further by his loss of all confidence in +himself. Wilson thinks it certain he must have injured his brain by a +fall. It is a terrible thing to lose a companion in this way, but calm +reflection shows that there could not have been a better ending to the +terrible anxieties of the past week. Discussion of the situation at lunch +yesterday shows us what a desperate pass we were in with a sick man on +our hands at such a distance from home."[340] + +[Illustration: WHERE EVANS DIED--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +FOOTNOTES: + + [294] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 536. + + [295] It is to be noticed that every return party, including the + Polar Party, was supposed by their companions to be going to + have a very much easier time than, as a matter of fact, they + had.--A. C.-G. + + [296] Bowers. + + [297] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 530-534. + + [298] Simpson, _B.A.E., 1910-1913_, "Meteorology," vol. i. p. 291. + + [299] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 540. + + [300] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 541-542. + + [301] Simpson, _B.A.E., 1910-1913_, "Meteorology," vol. i. pp. + 144-146. + + [302] Simpson, _B.A.E., 1910-1913_, "Meteorology," vol. i. p. 41. + + [303] See pp. xxxviii-xxxix. + + [304] See p. xivii. + + [305] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 543. + + [306] Wilson. + + [307] Evidently meaning some miles from crest to crest. + + [308] Bowers, _Polar Meteorological Log._ + + [309] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 543-544. + + [310] Simpson, _B.A.E., 1910-1913_, "Meteorology," vol. i. p. 40. + + [311] Bowers. + + [312] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 550-551. + + [313] Bowers. + + [314] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 552. + + [315] Bowers. + + [316] Wilson. + + [317] Wilson. + + [318] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 541. + + [319] Ibid. p. 549. + + [320] Wilson. + + [321] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 557. + + [322] Ibid. pp. 560, 561. + + [323] Wilson. + + [324] Ibid. + + [325] Bowers. + + [326] Wilson. + + [327] Ibid. + + [328] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 559. + + [329] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 561. + + [330] Wilson. + + [331] Ibid. + + [332] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 561. + + [333] Ibid. pp. 562, 563. + + [334] Ibid. p. 566. + + [335] Wilson. + + [336] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 567. + + [337] Wilson. + + [338] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 570-571. + + [339] Wilson. + + [340] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 573. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE POLAR JOURNEY (_continued_) + + This happy breed of men, this little world, + This precious stone set in the silver sea, + Which serves it in the office of a wall, ... + This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England, + This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings, ... + This land of such dear souls, this dear, dear land. + SHAKESPEARE. + +VI. FARTHEST SOUTH + + +Stevenson has written of a traveller whose wife slumbered by his side +what time his spirit re-adventured forth in memory of days gone by. He +was quite happy about it, and I suppose his travels had been peaceful, +for days and nights such as these men spent coming down the Beardmore +will give you nightmare after nightmare, and wake you shrieking--years +after. + +Of course they were shaken and weakened. But the conditions they had +faced, and the time they had been out, do not in my opinion account +entirely for their weakness nor for Evans' collapse, which may have had +something to do with the fact that he was the biggest, heaviest and most +muscular man in the party. I do not believe that this is a life for such +men, who are expected to pull their weight and to support and drive a +larger machine than their companions, and at the same time to eat no +extra food. If, as seems likely, the ration these men were eating was not +enough to support the work they were doing, then it is clear that the +heaviest man will feel the deficiency sooner and more severely than +others who are smaller than he. Evans must have had a most terrible time: +I think it is clear from the diaries that he had suffered very greatly +without complaint. At home he would have been nursed in bed: here he must +march (he was pulling the day he died) until he was crawling on his +frost-bitten hands and knees in the snow--horrible: most horrible perhaps +for those who found him so, and sat in the tent and watched him die. I am +told that simple concussion does not kill as suddenly as this: probably +some clot had moved in his brain. + +For one reason and another they took very nearly as long to come down the +glacier with a featherweight sledge as we had taken to go up it with full +loads. Seven days' food were allowed from the Upper to the Lower Glacier +Depôt. Bowers told me that he thought this was running it fine. But the +two supporting parties got through all right, though they both tumbled +into the horrible pressure above the Cloudmaker. The Last Return Party +took 7½ days: the Polar Party 10 days: the latter had been 25½ days +longer on the plateau than the former. Owing to their slow progress down +the glacier the Polar Party went on short rations for the first and last +time until they camped on March 19: with the exception of these days they +had either their full, or more than their full ration until that date. + +Until they reached the Barrier on their return journey the weather can be +described neither as abnormal nor as unexpected. There were 300 statute +miles (260 geo.) to be covered to One Ton Depôt, and 150 statute miles +(130 geo.) more from One Ton to Hut Point. They had just picked up one +week's food for five men: between the Beardmore and One Ton were three +more depôts each with one week's food for five men. They were four men: +their way was across the main body of the Barrier out of sight of land, +and away from any immediate influence of the comparatively warm sea ahead +of them. Nothing was known of the weather conditions in the middle of the +Barrier at this time of year, and no one suspected that March conditions +there were very cold. Shackleton turned homeward on January 10: reached +his Bluff Depôt on February 23, and Hut Point on February 28. + +Wilson's diary continues: + +"_February 18._ We had only five hours' sleep. We had butter and biscuit +and tea when we woke at 2 P.M., then came over the Gap entrance to the +pony-slaughter camp, visiting a rock moraine of Mt. Hope on the way." + +"_February 19._ Late in getting away after making up new 10-foot sledge +and digging out pony meat. We made 5½ m. on a very heavy surface +indeed."[341] + +This bad surface is the feature of their first homeward marches on the +Barrier. From now onwards they complain always of the terrible surfaces, +but a certain amount of the heavy pulling must be ascribed to their own +weakness. In the low temperatures which occurred later bad surfaces were +to be expected: but now the temperatures were not really low, about zero +to -17°: fine clear days for the most part and, a thing to be noticed, +little wind. They wanted wind, which would probably be behind them from +the south. "Oh! for a little wind," Scott writes. "E. Evans evidently had +plenty." He was already very anxious. "If this goes on we shall have a +bad time, but I sincerely trust it is only the result of this windless +area close to the coast and that, as we are making steadily outwards, we +shall shortly escape it. It is perhaps premature [Feb. 19] to be anxious +about covering distance. In all other respects things are improving. We +have our sleeping-bags spread on the sledge and they are drying, but, +above all, we have our full measure of food again. To-night we had a sort +of stew fry of pemmican and horseflesh, and voted it the best hoosh we +had ever had on a sledge journey. The absence of poor Evans is a help to +the commissariat, but if he had been here in a fit state we might have +got along faster. I wonder what is in store for us, with some little +alarm at the lateness of the season." And on February 20, when they made +7 miles, "At present our sledge and ski leave deeply ploughed tracks +which can be seen winding for miles behind. It is distressing, but as +usual trials are forgotten when we camp, and good food is our lot. Pray +God we get better travelling as we are not so fit as we were, and the +season is advancing apace." And on February 21, "We never won a march of +8½ miles with greater difficulty, but we can't go on like this."[342] + +A breeze suddenly came away from S.S.E., force 4 to 6 at 11 A.M. on +February 22, and they hoisted the sail on the sledge they had just picked +up. They immediately lost the tracks they were following, and failed to +find the cairns and camp remains which they should have picked up if they +had been on the right course, which was difficult here owing to the thick +weather we had on the outward march. Bowers was sure they were too near +the land and they steered out, but still failed to pick up the line on +which their depôts and their lives depended. Scott was convinced they +were outside, not inside the line. The next morning Bowers took a round +of angles, and they came to the conclusion, on slender evidence, that +they were still too near the land. They had an unhappy march still off +the tracks, "but just as we decided to lunch, Bowers' wonderful sharp +eyes detected an old double lunch cairn, the theodolite telescope +confirmed it, and our spirits rose accordingly."[343] Then Wilson had +another "bad attack of snow-glare: could hardly keep a chink of eye open +in goggles to see the course. Fat pony hoosh."[344] This day they reached +the Lower Barrier Depôt. + +[Illustration: SLEDGING IN A HIGH WIND--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +They were in evil case, but they would have been all right, these men, if +the cold had not come down upon them, a bolt quite literally from the +blue of a clear sky: unexpected, unforetold and fatal. The cold itself +was not so tremendous until you realize that they had been out four +months, that they had fought their way up the biggest glacier in the +world in feet of soft snow, that they had spent seven weeks under plateau +conditions of rarefied air, big winds and low temperatures, and they had +watched one of their companions die--not in a bed, in a hospital or +ambulance, nor suddenly, but slowly, night by night and day by day, with +his hands frost-bitten and his brain going, until they must have +wondered, each man in his heart, whether in such case a human being could +be left to die, that four men might live. He died a natural death and +they went out on to the Barrier. + +Given such conditions as were expected, and the conditions for which +preparation had been made, they would have come home alive and well. Some +men say the weather was abnormal: there is some evidence that it was. The +fact remains that the temperature dropped into the minus thirties by day +and the minus forties by night. The fact also remains that there was a +great lack of southerly winds, and in consequence the air near the +surface was not being mixed: excessive radiation took place, and a layer +of cold air formed near the ground. Crystals also formed on the surface +of the snow and the wind was not enough to sweep them away. As the +temperature dropped so the surface for the runners of the sledges became +worse, as I explained elsewhere.[345] They were pulling as it were +through sand. + +In the face of the difficulties which beset them their marches were +magnificent: 11½ miles on February 25 and again on the following day: +12.2 miles on February 27, and 11½ miles again on February 28 and 29. If +they could have kept this up they would have come through without a +doubt. But I think it was about now that they suspected, and then were +sure, that they could not pull through. Scott's diary, written at lunch, +March 2, is as follows: + +"Misfortunes rarely come singly. We marched to the [Middle Barrier] depôt +fairly easily yesterday afternoon, and since that have suffered three +distinct blows which have placed us in a bad position. First, we found a +shortage of oil; with most rigid economy it can scarce carry us to the +next depôt on this surface [71 miles away]. Second, Titus Oates disclosed +his feet, the toes showing very bad indeed, evidently bitten by the late +temperatures. The third blow came in the night, when the wind, which we +had hailed with some joy, brought dark overcast weather. It fell below +-40° in the night, and this morning it took 1½ hours to get our foot-gear +on, but we got away before eight. We lost cairn and tracks together and +made as steady as we could N. by W., but have seen nothing. Worse was to +come--the surface is simply awful. In spite of strong wind and full sail +we have only done 5½ miles. We are in a _very_ queer street, since there +is no doubt we cannot do the extra marches and feel the cold +horribly."[346] + +They did nearly ten miles that day, but on March 3 they had a terrible +time. "God help us," wrote Scott, "we can't keep up this pulling, that is +certain. Amongst ourselves we are unendingly cheerful, but what each man +feels in his heart I can only guess. Putting on foot-gear in the morning +is getting slower and slower, therefore every day more dangerous." + +The following extracts are taken from Scott's diary. + +"_March 4. Lunch._ We are in a very tight place indeed, but none of us +despondent _yet_, or at least we preserve every semblance of good cheer, +but one's heart sinks as the sledge stops dead at some sastrugi behind +which the surface sand lies thickly heaped. For the moment the +temperature is in the -20°--an improvement which makes us much more +comfortable, but a colder snap is bound to come again soon. I fear that +Oates at least will weather such an event very poorly. Providence to our +aid! We can expect little from man now except the possibility of extra +food at the next depôt. It will be real bad if we get there and find the +same shortage of oil. Shall we get there? Such a short distance it would +have appeared to us on the summit! I don't know what I should do if +Wilson and Bowers weren't so determinedly cheerful over things." + +[Illustration: MOUNT LONGSTAFF--E. A. Wilson, del. Emery Walker Limited, +Collotypers.] + +"_Monday, March 5. Lunch._ Regret to say going from bad to worse. We got +a slant of wind yesterday afternoon, and going on 5 hours we converted +our wretched morning run of 3½ miles into something over 9. We went to +bed on a cup of cocoa and pemmican solid with the chill off.... The +result is telling on all, but mainly on Oates, whose feet are in a +wretched condition. One swelled up tremendously last night and he is very +lame this morning. We started march on tea and pemmican as last night--we +pretend to prefer the pemmican this way. Marched for 5 hours this +morning over a slightly better surface covered with high moundy sastrugi. +Sledge capsized twice; we pulled on foot, covering about 5½ miles. We are +two pony marches and 4 miles about from our depôt. Our fuel dreadfully +low and the poor Soldier nearly done. It is pathetic enough because we +can do nothing for him; more hot food might do a little, but only a +little, I fear. We none of us expected these terribly low temperatures, +and of the rest of us, Wilson is feeling them most; mainly, I fear, from +his self-sacrificing devotion in doctoring Oates' feet. We cannot help +each other, each has enough to do to take care of himself. We get cold on +the march when the trudging is heavy, and the wind pierces our worn +garments. The others, all of them, are unendingly cheerful when in the +tent. We mean to see the game through with a proper spirit, but it's +tough work to be pulling harder than we ever pulled in our lives for long +hours, and to feel that the progress is so slow. One can only say 'God +help us!' and plod on our weary way, cold and very miserable, though +outwardly cheerful. We talk of all sorts of subjects in the tent, not +much of food now, since we decided to take the risk of running a full +ration. We simply couldn't go hungry at this time." + +"_Tuesday, March 6. Lunch._ We did a little better with help of wind +yesterday afternoon, finishing 9½ miles for the day, and 27 miles from +depôt. But this morning things have been awful. It was warm in the night +and for the first time during the journey I overslept myself by more than +an hour; then we were slow with foot-gear; then, pulling with all our +might (for our lives) we could scarcely advance at rate of a mile an +hour; then it grew thick and three times we had to get out of harness to +search for tracks. The result is something less than 3½ miles for the +forenoon. The sun is shining now and the wind gone. Poor Oates is unable +to pull, sits on the sledge when we are track-searching--he is +wonderfully plucky, as his feet must be giving him great pain. He makes +no complaint, but his spirits only come up in spurts now, and he grows +more silent in the tent. We are making a spirit lamp to try and replace +the primus when our oil is exhausted..." + +"_Wednesday, March 7._ A little worse, I fear. One of Oates' feet _very_ +bad this morning; he is wonderfully brave. We still talk of what we will +do together at home. + +"We only made 6½ miles yesterday. This morning in 4½ hours we did just +over 4 miles. We are 16 from our depôt. If we only find the correct +proportion of food there and this surface continues, we may get to the +next depôt [Mt. Hooper, 72 miles farther] but not to One Ton Camp. We +hope against hope that the dogs have been to Mt. Hooper; then we might +pull through. If there is a shortage of oil again we can have little +hope. One feels that for poor Oates the crisis is near, but none of us +are improving, though we are wonderfully fit considering the really +excessive work we are doing. We are only kept going by good food. No wind +this morning till a chill northerly air came ahead. Sun bright and cairns +showing up well. I should like to keep the track to the end." + +"_Thursday, March 8. Lunch._ Worse and worse in morning; poor Oates' left +foot can never last out, and time over foot-gear something awful. Have to +wait in night foot-gear for nearly an hour before I start changing, and +then am generally first to be ready. Wilson's feet giving trouble now, +but this mainly because he gives so much help to others. We did 4½ miles +this morning and are now 8½ miles from the depôt--a ridiculously small +distance to feel in difficulties, yet on this surface we know we cannot +equal half our old marches, and that for that effort we expend nearly +double the energy. The great question is: What shall we find at the +depôt? If the dogs have visited it we may get along a good distance, but +if there is another short allowance of fuel, God help us indeed. We are +in a very bad way, I fear, in any case." + +"_Saturday, March 10._ Things steadily downhill. Oates' foot worse. He +has rare pluck and must know that he can never get through. He asked +Wilson if he had a chance this morning, and of course Bill had to say he +didn't know. In point of fact he has none. Apart from him, if he went +under now, I doubt whether we could get through. With great care we might +have a dog's chance, but no more. The weather conditions are awful, and +our gear gets steadily more icy and difficult to manage.... + +"Yesterday we marched up the depôt, Mt. Hooper. Cold comfort. Shortage on +our allowance all round. I don't know that any one is to blame. The dogs +which would have been our salvation have evidently failed. Meares had a +bad trip home I suppose. + +"This morning it was calm when we breakfasted, but the wind came from the +W.N.W. as we broke camp. It rapidly grew in strength. After travelling +for half an hour I saw that none of us could go on facing such +conditions. We were forced to camp and are spending the rest of the day +in a comfortless blizzard camp, wind quite foul." + +"_Sunday, March 11._ Titus Oates is very near the end, one feels. What we +or he will do, God only knows. We discussed the matter after breakfast; +he is a brave fine fellow and understands the situation, but he +practically asked for advice. Nothing could be said but to urge him to +march as long as he could. One satisfactory result to the discussion: I +practically ordered Wilson to hand over the means of ending our troubles +to us, so that any one of us may know how to do so. Wilson had no choice +between doing so and our ransacking the medicine case. We have 30 opium +tabloids apiece and he is left with a tube of morphine. So far the +tragical side of our story. + +"The sky completely overcast when we started this morning. We could see +nothing, lost the tracks, and doubtless have been swaying a good deal +since--3.1 miles for the forenoon--terribly heavy dragging--expected it. +Know that 6 miles is about the limit of our endurance now, if we get no +help from wind or surfaces. We have 7 days' food and should be about 55 +miles from One Ton Camp to-night, 6x7 = 42, leaving us 13 miles short of +our distance, even if things get no worse. Meanwhile the season rapidly +advances." + +"_Monday, March 12._ We did 6.9 miles yesterday, under our necessary +average. Things are left much the same, Oates not pulling much, and now +with hands as well as feet pretty well useless. We did 4 miles this +morning in 4 hours 20 min.--we may hope for 3 this afternoon 7 x 6 = 42. +We shall be 47 miles from the depôt. I doubt if we can possibly do it. +The surface remains awful, the cold intense, and our physical condition +running down. God help us! Not a breath of favourable wind for more than +a week, and apparently liable to head winds at any moment." + +"_Wednesday, March 14._ No doubt about the going downhill, but everything +going wrong for us. Yesterday we woke to a strong northerly wind with +temp. -37°. Couldn't face it, so remained in camp till 2, then did 5¼ +miles. Wanted to march later, but party feeling the cold badly as the +breeze (N.) never took off entirely, and as the sun sank the temp. fell. +Long time getting supper in dark. + +"This morning started with southerly breeze, set sail and passed another +cairn at good speed; half-way, however, the wind shifted to W. by S. or +W.S.W., blew through our wind-clothes and into our mitts. Poor Wilson +horribly cold, could [not] get off ski for some time. Bowers and I +practically made camp, and when we got into the tent at last we were all +deadly cold. Then temp. now mid-day down -43° and the wind strong. We +_must_ go on, but now the making of every camp must be more difficult and +dangerous. It must be near the end, but a pretty merciful end. Poor Oates +got it again in the foot. I shudder to think what it will be like +to-morrow. It is only with greatest pains rest of us keep off +frost-bites. No idea there could be temperatures like this at this time +of year with such winds. Truly awful outside the tent. Must fight it out +to the last biscuit, but can't reduce rations." + +[Illustration: A BLIZZARD CAMP--E. A. Wilson, del.] + +"_Friday, March 16, or Saturday, 17._ Lost track of dates, but think the +last correct. Tragedy all along the line. At lunch, the day before +yesterday, poor Titus Oates said he couldn't go on; he proposed we should +leave him in his sleeping-bag. That we could not do, and we induced him +to come on, on the afternoon march. In spite of its awful nature for him +he struggled on and we made a few miles. At night he was worse and we +knew the end had come. + +"Should this be found I want these facts recorded. Oates' last thoughts +were of his mother, but immediately before he took pride in thinking that +his regiment would be pleased with the bold way in which he met his +death. We can testify to his bravery. He has borne intense suffering for +weeks without complaint, and to the very last was able and willing to +discuss outside subjects. He did not--would not--give up hope till the +very end. He was a brave soul. This was the end. He slept through the +night before last, hoping not to wake; but he woke in the +morning--yesterday. It was blowing a blizzard. He said, 'I am just going +outside and may be some time.' He went out into the blizzard and we have +not seen him since. + +"I take this opportunity of saying that we have stuck to our sick +companions to the last. In case of Edgar Evans, when absolutely out of +food and he lay insensible, the safety of the remainder seemed to demand +his abandonment, but Providence mercifully removed him at this critical +moment. He died a natural death, and we did not leave him till two hours +after his death. We knew that poor Oates was walking to his death, but +though we tried to dissuade him, we knew it was the act of a brave man +and an English gentleman. We all hope to meet the end with a similar +spirit, and assuredly the end is not far. + +"I can only write at lunch and then only occasionally. The cold is +intense, -40° at mid-day. My companions are unendingly cheerful, but we +are all on the verge of serious frost-bites, and though we constantly +talk of fetching through I don't think any one of us believes it in his +heart. + +"We are cold on the march now, and at all times except meals. Yesterday +we had to lay up for a blizzard and to-day we move dreadfully slowly. We +are at No. 14 Pony Camp, only two pony marches from One Ton Depôt. We +leave here our theodolite, a camera, and Oates' sleeping-bags. Diaries, +etc., and geological specimens carried at Wilson's special request, will +be found with us or on our sledge." + +"_Sunday, March 18._ To-day, lunch, we are 21 miles from the depôt. Ill +fortune presses, but better may come. We have had more wind and drift +from ahead yesterday; had to stop marching; wind N.W., force 4, temp. +-35°. No human being could face it, and we are worn out _nearly_. + +"My right foot has gone, nearly all the toes--two days ago I was proud +possessor of best feet.... Bowers takes first place in condition, but +there is not much to choose after all. The others are still confident of +getting through--or pretend to be--I don't know! We have the last _half_ +fill of oil in our primus and a very small quantity of spirit--this alone +between us and thirst. The wind is fair for the moment, and that is +perhaps a fact to help. The mileage would have seemed ridiculously small +on our outward journey." + +"_Monday, March 19. Lunch._ We camped with difficulty last night and were +dreadfully cold till after our supper of cold pemmican and biscuit and a +half pannikin of cocoa cooked over the spirit. Then, contrary to +expectation, we got warm and all slept well. To-day we started in the +usual dragging manner. Sledge dreadfully heavy. We are 15½ miles from the +depôt and ought to get there in three days. What progress! We have two +days' food but barely a day's fuel. All our feet are getting +bad--Wilson's best, my right foot worse, left all right. There is no +chance to nurse one's feet till we can get hot food into us. Amputation +is the least I can hope for now, but will the trouble spread? That is the +serious question. The weather doesn't give us a chance--the wind from N. +to N.W. and -40° temp, to-day." + +"_Wednesday, March 21._ Got within 11 miles of depôt Monday night; had to +lay up all yesterday in severe blizzard. To-day forlorn hope, Wilson and +Bowers going to depôt for fuel." + +"_22 and 23._ Blizzard bad as ever--Wilson and Bowers unable to +start--to-morrow last chance--no fuel and only one or two of food +left--must be near the end. Have decided it shall be natural--we shall +march for the depôt with or without our effects and die in our tracks." + +"_Thursday, March 29._ Since the 21st we have had a continuous gale from +W.S.W. and S.W. We had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece and bare food +for two days on the 20th. Every day we have been ready to start for our +depôt _11 miles_ away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a +scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things +now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker, of +course, and the end cannot be far. + +"It seems a pity, but I do not think I can write more. + + R. SCOTT." + +_Last entry._ "For God's sake, look after our people." + + +The following extracts are from letters written by Scott: + + +_To Mrs. E. A. Wilson_ + +MY DEAR MRS. WILSON. If this letter reaches you, Bill and I will have +gone out together. We are very near it now and I should like you to know +how splendid he was at the end--everlastingly cheerful and ready to +sacrifice himself for others, never a word of blame to me for leading him +into this mess. He is not suffering, luckily, at least only minor +discomforts. + +His eyes have a comfortable blue look of hope and his mind is peaceful +with the satisfaction of his faith in regarding himself as part of the +great scheme of the Almighty. I can do no more to comfort you than to +tell you that he died as he lived, a brave, true man--the best of +comrades and staunchest of friends. + +My whole heart goes out to you in pity. Yours, + + R. SCOTT. + + +_To Mrs. Bowers_ + +MY DEAR MRS. BOWERS. I am afraid this will reach you after one of the +heaviest blows of your life. + +I write when we are very near the end of our journey, and I am finishing +it in company with two gallant, noble gentlemen. One of these is your +son. He had come to be one of my closest and soundest friends, and I +appreciate his wonderful upright nature, his ability and energy. As the +troubles have thickened his dauntless spirit ever shone brighter and he +has remained cheerful, hopeful and indomitable to the end.... + + +_To Sir J. M. Barrie_ + +MY DEAR BARRIE. We are pegging out in a very comfortless spot. Hoping +this letter may be found and sent to you, I write a word of farewell ... +Good-bye. I am not at all afraid of the end, but sad to miss many a +humble pleasure which I had planned for the future on our long marches. I +may not have proved a great explorer, but we have done the greatest march +ever made and come very near to great success. Good-bye, my dear friend. +Yours ever, + + R. SCOTT. + +We are in a desperate state, feet frozen, etc. No fuel and a long way +from food, but it would do your heart good to be in our tent, to hear our +songs and the cheery conversation as to what we will do when we get to +Hut Point. + +_Later._ We are very near the end, but have not and will not lose our +good cheer. We have four days of storm in our tent and nowhere's food or +fuel. We did intend to finish ourselves when things proved like this, but +we have decided to die naturally in the track.[347] + +The following extracts are from letters written to other friends: + +" ... I want to tell you that I was _not_ too old for this job. It was +the younger men that went under first.... After all we are setting a good +example to our countrymen, if not by getting into a tight place, by +facing it like men when we were there. We could have come through had we +neglected the sick." + +"Wilson, the best fellow that ever stepped, has sacrificed himself again +and again to the sick men of the party...." + +" ... Our journey has been the biggest on record, and nothing but the +most exceptional hard luck at the end would have caused us to fail to +return." + +"What lots and lots I could tell you of this journey. How much better has +it been than lounging in too great comfort at home." + + * * * * * + +MESSAGE TO THE PUBLIC + +The causes of the disaster are not due to faulty organization, but to +misfortune in all risks which had to be undertaken. + +1. The loss of pony transport in March 1911 obliged me to start later +than I had intended, and obliged the limits of stuff transported to be +narrowed. + +2. The weather throughout the outward journey, and especially the long +gale in 83° S., stopped us. + +3. The soft snow in lower reaches of glacier again reduced pace. + +We fought these untoward events with a will and conquered, but it cut +into our provision reserve. + +Every detail of our food supplies, clothing and depôts made on the +interior ice-sheet and over that long stretch of 700 miles to the Pole +and back, worked out to perfection. The advance party would have returned +to the glacier in fine form and with surplus of food, but for the +astonishing failure of the man whom we had least expected to fail. Edgar +Evans was thought the strongest man of the party. + +The Beardmore Glacier is not difficult in fine weather, but on our return +we did not get a single completely fine day; this with a sick companion +enormously increased our anxieties. + +As I have said elsewhere, we got into frightfully rough ice and Edgar +Evans received a concussion of the brain--he died a natural death, but +left us a shaken party with the season unduly advanced. + +But all the facts above enumerated were as nothing to the surprise which +awaited us on the Barrier. I maintain that our arrangements for returning +were quite adequate, and that no one in the world would have expected the +temperatures and surfaces which we encountered at this time of the year. +On the summit in lat. 85°-86° we had -20°, -30°. On the Barrier in lat. +82°, 10,000 feet lower, we had -30° in the day, -47° at night pretty +regularly, with continuous head-wind during our day marches. It is clear +that these circumstances come on very suddenly, and our wreck is +certainly due to this sudden advent of severe weather, which does not +seem to have any satisfactory cause. I do not think human beings ever +came through such a month as we have come through, and we should have got +through in spite of the weather but for the sickening of a second +companion, Captain Oates, and a shortage of fuel in our depôts for which +I cannot account, and finally, but for the storm which has fallen on us +within 11 miles of the depôt at which we hoped to secure our final +supplies. Surely misfortune could scarcely have exceeded this last blow. +We arrived within 11 miles of our old One Ton Camp with fuel for one last +meal and food for two days. For four days we have been unable to leave +the tent--the gale howling about us. We are weak, writing is difficult, +but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, which has shown that +Englishmen can endure hardships, help one another, and meet death with as +great a fortitude as ever in the past. We took risks, we knew we took +them; things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for +complaint, but bow to the will of Providence, determined still to do our +best to the last. But if we have been willing to give our lives to this +enterprise, which is for the honour of our country, I appeal to our +countrymen to see that those who depend on us are properly cared for. + +Had we lived, I should have had a tale to tell of the hardihood, +endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the +heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must +tell the tale, but surely, surely a great rich country like ours will see +that those who are dependent on us are properly provided for.--R. +SCOTT.[348] + +[Illustration: THE POLAR JOURNEY--Apsley Cherry-Garrard, del. Emery +Walker Ltd., Collotypers.] + +FOOTNOTES: + + [341] Wilson. + + [342] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 575-576. + + [343] Ibid. p. 577. + + [344] Wilson. + + [345] See note at end of Chapter XIV. + + [346] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 582, 583. + + [347] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 584-599. + + [348] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 605-607. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +NEVER AGAIN + + And now in age I bud again, + After so many deaths I live and write; + I once more smell the dew and rain, + And relish versing. O my onely light, + It cannot be + That I am he + On whom thy tempests fell all night. + HERBERT. + + +I shall inevitably be asked for a word of mature judgment of the +expedition of a kind that was impossible when we were all close up to it, +and when I was a subaltern of 24, not incapable of judging my elders, but +too young to have found out whether my judgment was worth anything. I now +see very plainly that though we achieved a first-rate tragedy, which will +never be forgotten just because it was a tragedy, tragedy was not our +business. In the broad perspective opened up by ten years' distance, I +see not one journey to the Pole, but two, in startling contrast one to +another. On the one hand, Amundsen going straight there, getting there +first, and returning without the loss of a single man, and without having +put any greater strain on himself and his men than was all in the day's +work of polar exploration. Nothing more business-like could be imagined. +On the other hand, our expedition, running appalling risks, performing +prodigies of superhuman endurance, achieving immortal renown, +commemorated in august cathedral sermons and by public statues, yet +reaching the Pole only to find our terrible journey superfluous, and +leaving our best men dead on the ice. To ignore such a contrast would be +ridiculous: to write a book without accounting for it a waste of time. + +First let me do full justice to Amundsen. I have not attempted to +disguise how we felt towards him when, after leading us to believe that +he had equipped the Fram for an Arctic journey, and sailed for the north, +he suddenly made his dash for the south. Nothing makes a more unpleasant +impression than a feint. But when Scott reached the Pole only to find +that Amundsen had been there a month before him, his distress was not +that of a schoolboy who has lost a race. I have described what it had +cost Scott and his four companions to get to the Pole, and what they had +still to suffer in returning until death stopped them. Much of that risk +and racking toil had been undertaken that men might learn what the world +is like at the spot where the sun does not decline in the heavens, where +a man loses his orbit and turns like a joint on a spit, and where his +face, however he turns, is always to the North. The moment Scott saw the +Norwegian tent he knew that he had nothing to tell that was not already +known. His achievement was a mere precaution against Amundsen perishing +on his way back; and that risk was no greater than his own. The Polar +Journey was literally laid waste: that was the shock that staggered them. +Well might Bowers be glad to see the last of Norskies' tracks as their +homeward paths diverged. + +All this heartsickness has passed away now; and the future explorer will +not concern himself with it. He will ask, what was the secret of +Amundsen's slick success? What is the moral of our troubles and losses? I +will take Amundsen's success first. Undoubtedly the very remarkable +qualities of the man himself had a good deal to do with it. There is a +sort of sagacity that constitutes the specific genius of the explorer; +and Amundsen proved his possession of this by his guess that there was +terra firma in the Bay of Whales as solid as on Ross Island. Then there +is the quality of big leadership which is shown by daring to take a big +chance. Amundsen took a very big one indeed when he turned from the route +to the Pole explored and ascertained by Scott and Shackleton and +determined to find a second pass over the mountains from the Barrier to +the plateau. As it happened, he succeeded, and established his route as +the best way to the Pole until a better is discovered. But he might +easily have failed and perished in the attempt; and the combination of +reasoning and daring that nerved him to make it can hardly be overrated. +All these things helped him. Yet any rather conservative whaling captain +might have refused to make Scott's experiment with motor transport, +ponies and man-hauling, and stuck to the dogs; and to the use of ski in +running those dogs; and it was this quite commonplace choice that sent +Amundsen so gaily to the Pole and back: with no abnormal strain on men or +dogs, and no great hardship either. He never pulled a mile from start to +finish. + +The very ease of the exploit makes it impossible to infer from it that +Amundsen's expedition was more highly endowed in personal qualities than +ours. We did not suffer from too little brains or daring: we may have +suffered from too much. We were primarily a great scientific expedition, +with the Pole as our bait for public support, though it was not more +important than any other acre of the plateau. We followed in the steps of +a polar expedition which brought back more results than any of its +forerunners: Scott's Discovery voyage. We had the largest and most +efficient scientific staff that ever left England. We were discursive. We +were full of intellectual interests and curiosities of all kinds. We took +on the work of two or three expeditions. + +It is obvious that there are disadvantages in such a division of energy. +Scott wanted to reach the Pole: a dangerous and laborious exploit, but a +practicable one. Wilson wanted to obtain the egg of the Emperor penguin: +a horribly dangerous and inhumanly exhausting feat which is none the less +impracticable because the three men who achieved it survived by a +miracle. These two feats had to be piled one on top of the other. What +with the Depôt Journey and others, in addition to these two, we were +sledged out by the end of our second sledging season, and our worst year +was still to come. We, the survivors, went in search of the dead when +there was a possibly living party waiting in the ice somewhere for us to +succour them. That turned out all right, because when we got back, we +found Campbell's party self-extricated and waiting for us, alive and +well. But suppose they also had perished, what would have been said of +us? + +The practical man of the world has plenty of criticism of the way things +were done. He says dogs should have been taken; but he does not show how +they could have been got up and down the Beardmore. He is scandalized +because 30 lbs. of geological specimens were deliberately added to the +weight of the sledge that was dragging the life out of the men who had to +haul it; but he does not realize that it is the friction surfaces of the +snow on the runners which mattered and not the dead weight, which in this +case was almost negligible. Nor does he know that these same specimens +dated a continent and may elucidate the whole history of plant life. He +will admit that we were all very wonderful, very heroic, very beautiful +and devoted: that our exploits gave a glamour to our expedition that +Amundsen's cannot claim; but he has no patience with us, and declares +that Amundsen was perfectly right in refusing to allow science to use up +the forces of his men, or to interfere for a moment with his single +business of getting to the Pole and back again. No doubt he was; but we +were not out for a single business: we were out for everything we could +add to the world's store of knowledge about the Antarctic. + +Of course the whole business simply bristles with "ifs": If Scott had +taken dogs and succeeded in getting them up the Beardmore: if we had not +lost those ponies on the Depôt Journey: if the dogs had not been taken so +far and the One Ton Depôt had been laid: if a pony and some extra oil had +been depôted on the Barrier: if a four-man party had been taken to the +Pole: if I had disobeyed my instructions and gone on from One Ton, +killing dogs as necessary: or even if I had just gone on a few miles and +left some food and fuel under a flag upon a cairn: if they had been first +at the Pole: if it had been any other season but that.... But always the +bare fact remains that Scott could not have travelled from McMurdo Sound +to the Pole faster than he did except with dogs; all the king's horses +and all the king's men could not have done it. Why, then, says the +practical man, did we go to McMurdo Sound instead of to the Bay of +Whales? Because we gained that continuity of scientific observation which +is so important in this work: and because the Sound was the +starting-point for continuing the exploration of the only ascertained +route to the Pole, via the Beardmore Glacier. + +I am afraid it was all inevitable: we were as wise as any one can be +before the event. I admit that we, scrupulously economical of our +pemmican, were terribly prodigal of our man-power. But we had to be: the +draft, whatever it may have been on the whole, was not excessive at any +given point; and anyhow we just had to use every man to take every +opportunity. There is so much to do, and the opportunities for doing it +are so rare. Generally speaking, I don't see how we could have done +differently, but I don't want to see it done again; I don't want it to be +necessary to do it again. I want to see this country tackle the job, and +send enough men to do one thing at a time. They do it in Canada: why not +in England too? + +But we wasted our man-power in one way which could have been avoided. I +have described how every emergency was met by calling for volunteers, and +how the volunteers were always forthcoming. Unfortunately volunteering +was relied on not only for emergencies, but for a good deal of everyday +work that should have been organised as routine; and the inevitable +result was that the willing horses were overworked. It was a point of +honour not to ca' canny. Men were allowed to do too much, and were told +afterwards that they had done too much; and that is not discipline. They +should not have been allowed to do too much. Until our last year we never +insisted on a regular routine. + +Money was scarce: probably Scott could not have obtained the funds for +the expedition if its objective had not been the Pole. There was no lack +of the things which could be bought across the counter from big business +houses--all landing, sledging, and scientific equipment was +first-class--but one of the first and most important items, the ship, +would have sent Columbus on strike, and nearly sent us to the bottom of +the sea. + +People talk of the niggardly equipment of Columbus when he sailed west +from the Canaries to try a short-cut to an inhabited continent of +magnificent empires, as he thought; but his three ships were, relatively +to the resources of that time, much better than the one old tramp in +which we sailed for a desert of ice in which the evening and morning are +the year and not the day, and in which not even polar bears and reindeers +can live. Amundsen had the Fram, built for polar exploration _ad hoc_. +Scott had the Discovery. But when one thinks of these Nimrods and Terra +Novas, picked up second-hand in the wooden-ship market, and faked up for +the transport of ponies, dogs, motors, and all the impedimenta of a polar +expedition, to say nothing of the men who have to try and do scientific +work inside them, one feels disposed to clamour for a Polar Factory Act +making it a crime to ship men for the ice in vessels more fit to ply +between London Bridge and Ramsgate. + +And then the begging that is necessary to obtain even this equipment. +Shackleton hanging round the doors of rich men! Scott writing begging +letters for months together! Is the country not ashamed? + +Modern civilized States should make up their minds to the endowment of +research, which includes exploration; and as all States benefit alike by +the scientific side of it there is plenty of scope for international +arrangement, especially in a region where the mere grabbing of territory +is meaningless, and no Foreign Office can trace the frontier between King +Edward's Plateau and King Haakon's. The Antarctic continent is still +mostly unexplored; but enough is known of it to put any settlement by +ordinary pioneer emigration, pilgrim fathers and the like, out of the +question. Ross Island is not a place for a settlement: it is a place for +an elaborately equipped scientific station, with a staff in residence +for a year at a time. Our stay of three years was far too much: another +year would have driven the best of us mad. Of the five main journeys +which fell to my lot, one, the Winter Journey, should not have been +undertaken at all with our equipment; and two others, the Dog Journey and +the Search Journey, had better have been done by fresh men. It is no use +repeating that Englishmen will respond to every call and stick it to the +death: they will (some of them); but they have to pay the price all the +same; and the price in my case was an overdraft on my vital capital which +I shall never quite pay off, and in the case of five bigger, stronger, +more seasoned men, death. The establishment of such stations and of such +a service cannot be done by individual heroes and enthusiasts cadging for +cheques from rich men and grants from private scientific societies: it is +a business, like the Nares Arctic expedition, for public organization. + +I do not suppose that in these days of aviation the next visit to the +Pole will be made by men on foot dragging sledges, or by men on sledges +dragged by dogs, mules or ponies; nor will depôts be laid in that way. +The pack will not, I hope, be broken through by any old coal-burning ship +that can be picked up in the second-hand market. Specially built ships, +and enough of them; specially engined tractors and aeroplanes; specially +trained men and plenty of them, will all be needed if the work is to be +done in any sort of humane and civilized fashion; and Cabinet ministers +and voters alike must learn to value knowledge that is not baited by +suffering and death. My own bolt is shot; I do not suppose I shall ever +go south again before I go west; but if I do it will be under proper and +reasonable conditions. I may not come back a hero; but I shall come back +none the worse; for I repeat, the Antarctic, in moderation as to length +of stay, and with such accommodation as is now easily within the means of +modern civilized Powers, is not half as bad a place for public service as +the worst military stations on the equator. I hope that by the time Scott +comes home--for he is coming home: the Barrier is moving, and not a trace +of our funeral cairn was found by Shackleton's men in 1916--the +hardships that wasted his life will be only a horror of the past, and his +_via dolorosa_ a highway as practicable as Piccadilly. + +And now let me come down to tin tacks. No matter how well the thing is +done in future, its organizers will want to know at first all we can tell +them about oil, about cold, and about food. First, as to oil. + +Scott complains of a shortage of oil at several of his last depôts. There +is no doubt that this shortage was due to the perishing of the leather +washers of the tins which contained the paraffin oil. All these tins had +been subjected to the warmth of the sun in summer and the autumn +temperatures, which were unexpectedly cold. In his Voyage of the +Discovery Scott wrote as follows of the tins in which they drew their oil +when sledging: "Each tin had a small cork bung, which was a decided +weakness; paraffin _creeps_ in the most annoying manner, and a good deal +of oil was wasted in this way, especially when the sledges were +travelling over rough ground and were shaken or, as frequently happened, +capsized. It was impossible to make these bungs quite tight, however +closely they were jammed down, so that in spite of a trifling extra +weight a much better fitting would have been a metallic screwed bung. To +find on opening a fresh tin of oil that it was only three-parts full was +very distressing, and of course meant that the cooker had to be used with +still greater care."[349] Amundsen wrote of his paraffin: "We kept it in +the usual cans but they proved too weak; not that we lost any paraffin, +but Bjaaland had to be constantly soldering to keep them tight."[350] + +Our own tins were furnished with the metallic screwed stoppers which +Scott recommended. There was no trouble reported[351] until we came up to +One Ton Camp when on the Search Journey. Here was the depôt of food and +oil which I had laid in the previous autumn for the Polar Party, stowed +in a canvas 'tank' which was buried beneath seven feet of snow; the oil +was placed on the top of the snow, in order that the red tins might prove +an additional mark for the depôt. When we dug out the tank the food +inside was almost uneatable owing to the quantity of paraffin which had +found its way down through seven feet of snow during the winter and +spring. + +We then found the Polar Party and learned of the shortage of oil. After +our return to Cape Evans some one was digging about the camp and came +across a wooden case containing eight one-gallon tins of paraffin. These +had been placed there in September 1911, to be landed at Cape Crozier by +the Terra Nova when she came down. The ship could not take them: they +were snowed up during the winter, lost and forgotten, until dug up +fifteen months afterwards. Three tins were full, three empty, one a third +full and one two-thirds full. + +There can be no doubt that the oil, which was specially volatile, tended +to vaporize and escape through the stoppers, and that this process was +accelerated by the perishing, and I suggest also the hardening and +shrinking, of the leather washers. Another expedition will have to be +very careful on this point: they might reduce the risk by burying the +oil. + +The second point about which something must be said is the unexpected +cold met by Scott on the Barrier, which was the immediate cause of the +disaster. "No one in the world would have expected the temperatures and +surfaces which we encountered at this time of the year.... It is clear +that these circumstances come on very suddenly, and our wreck is +certainly due to this sudden advent of severe weather, which does not +seem to have any satisfactory cause."[352] + +They came down the glacier in plus temperatures: nor was there anything +abnormal for more than a week after they got on to the Barrier. Then +there came a big drop to a -37° minimum on the night of February 26. It +is significant that the sun began to dip below the southern horizon at +midnight about this time. "There is no doubt the middle of the Barrier is +a pretty awful locality," wrote Scott. + +Simpson, in his meteorological report, has little doubt that the +temperatures met by the Polar Party were abnormal. The records "clearly +bring to light the possibility of great cold at an extremely early period +in the year within a comparatively few miles of an open sea where the +temperatures were over 40 degrees higher." "It is quite impossible to +believe that normally there is a difference of nearly 40 degrees in March +between McMurdo Sound and the South of the Barrier." The temperatures +recorded by other sledge parties in March 1912 and those recorded at Cape +Evans form additional evidence, in Simpson's opinion, that the +temperatures experienced by Scott were not such as might be expected +during normal autumn weather. + +Simpson's explanation is based upon the observations made in McMurdo +Sound by sending up balloons with self-recording instruments attached. +These showed that very rapid radiation takes place from the snow surface +in winter, which cools the air in the immediate neighbourhood: a cold +layer of air is thus formed near the ground, which may be many degrees +colder than the air above it. It becomes, as it were, colder than it +ought to be. This, however, can only happen during an absence of wind: +when a wind blows the cold layer is swept away, the air is mixed and the +temperature rises. + +The absence of wind from the south noted by Scott was, in Simpson's +opinion, the cause of the low temperatures met by Scott: the temperature +was reduced ten degrees below normal at Cape Evans, and perhaps twenty +degrees where Scott was.[353] + +The third question is that of food. It is this point which is most +important to future explorers. It is a fact that the Polar Party failed +to make their distance because they became weak, and that they became +weak although they were eating their full ration or more than their full +ration of food, save for a few days when they went short on the way down +the Beardmore Glacier. The first man to weaken was the biggest and +heaviest man in the expedition: "the man whom we had least expected to +fail." + +The rations were of two kinds. The Barrier (B) ration was that which was +used on the Barrier during the outward journey towards the Pole. The +Summit (S) ration was the result of our experiments on the Winter +Journey. I expect it is the best ration which has been used to date, and +consisted of biscuits 16, pemmican 12, butter 2, cocoa 0.57, sugar 3 and +tea 0.86 ounces; total 34.43 ounces daily per man. + +The twelve men who went forward started this S ration at the foot of the +Beardmore, and it was this ration which was left in all depôts to see +them home. It was much more satisfying than the Barrier ration, and men +could not have eaten so much when leading ponies or driving dogs in the +early stages of summer Barrier sledging: but man-hauling is a different +business altogether from leading ponies or driving dogs. + +It is calculated that the body requires certain proportions of fat, +carbohydrates and proteins to do certain work under certain conditions: +but just what the absolute quantities are is not ascertained. The work of +the Polar Party was laborious: the temperatures (the most important of +the conditions) varied from comparative warmth up and down the glacier to +an average of about -20° in the rarefied air of the plateau. The +temperatures met by them on their return over the Barrier were not really +low for more than a week, and then there came quite commonly minus +thirties during the day with a further drop to minus forties at night, +when for a time the sun was below the horizon. These temperatures, which +are not very terrible to men who are fresh and whose clothing is new, +were ghastly to these men who had striven night and day almost +ceaselessly for four months on, as I maintain, insufficient food. Did +these temperatures kill them? + +Undoubtedly the low temperatures caused their death, inasmuch as they +would have lived had the temperatures remained high. But Evans would not +have lived: he died before the low temperatures occurred. What killed +Evans? And why did the other men weaken as they did, though they were +eating full rations and more? Weaken so much that in the end they starved +to death? + +I have always had a doubt whether the weather conditions were sufficient +to cause the tragedy. These men on full rations were supposed to be +eating food of sufficient value to enable them to do the work they were +doing, under the conditions which they actually met until the end of +February, without loss of strength. They had more than their full +rations, but the conditions in March were much worse than they imagined +to be possible: when three survivors out of the five pitched their Last +Camp they were in a terrible state. After the war I found that Atkinson +had come to wonder much as I, but he had gone farther, for he had the +values of our rations worked out by a chemical expert according to the +latest knowledge and standards. I may add that, being in command after +Scott's death, he increased the ration for the next year's sledging, so I +suppose he had already come to the conclusion that the previous ration +was not sufficient. The following are some of the data for which I am +indebted to him: the whole subject will be investigated by him and the +results published in a more detailed form. + +According to the most modern standards the food requirements for +laborious work at a temperature of zero Fahr. (which is a fair Barrier +average temperature to take) are 7714 calories to produce 10,069 +foot-tons of work. The actual Barrier ration which we used would generate +4003 calories, equivalent to 5331 foot-tons of work. Similar requirements +for laborious work at -10° Fahr. (which is a high average plateau +temperature) are 8500 calories to produce 11,094 foot-tons of work. The +actual Summit ration would generate 4889 calories, equivalent to 6608 +foot-tons of work. These requirements are calculated for total absorption +of all food-stuffs: but in practice, by visual proof, this does not take +place: this is especially noticeable in the case of fats, a quantity of +which were digested neither by men, ponies, nor dogs. + +Several things go to prove that our ration was not enough. In the first +case we were probably not as fit as we seemed after long sledge journeys. +There is no doubt that when sledging men developed an automaticity of +certain muscles at the expense of other muscles: for instance, a sledge +could be hauled all day at the expense of the arms, and we had little +power to lift weights at the end of several months of sledging. In +relation to this I would add that, when the relief ship arrived in +February 1912, four of us were at Cape Evans, but just arrived from three +months of the Polar Journey. The land party, we four among them, were +turned on to sledge stores ashore. This in practice meant twenty miles +every day dragging a sledge; a good deal of 'humping' heavy cases, from +five o'clock in the morning to very late at night; with uncertain meals +and no rests. I can remember now how hard that work was to myself and, I +expect, to those others who had been away sledging. The ship's party +sledged only every other day "because they were not used to it." This was +extremely bad organization, and in view of the possibility that some of +the men might be required for further sledging in the autumn, just silly. + +Again, there is the experience of the man-hauling parties of the Polar +Journey. There was, you may remember, a man-hauling party on the way to +the Beardmore Glacier. They travelled with a light sledge but they lost +weight on the Barrier ration. It is significant that they picked up +condition when they started the Summit ration, especially Lashly. + +The Polar Party and the two returning parties, who were on the Summit +ration from the foot of the Beardmore until the end of their journeys, +weakened, in Atkinson's opinion, more than they should have done had +their ration been sufficient. The First Return Party covered +approximately 1100 statute miles. At the end of their journey their +pulling muscles were all right, but Atkinson, who led the party, +considers that they were at least 70 per cent weaker in other muscles. +They all lost a great deal of weight, though they had the best conditions +of the three returning parties, and the temperatures met by them averaged +well over zero. + +The Second Return Party faced much worse conditions. They were only three +men, and one of the three was so sick that for 120 miles he could not +pull and for 90 miles he had to be dragged on the sledge. The average +temperature approximated zero. They were extremely exhausted. + +Scott makes constant reference to the increasing hunger of the Polar +Party: it is clear that the food did not compensate for the conditions +which were met in increasing severity. Yet they were eating rather more +than their full ration a considerable part of the time. It has to be +considered that the temperatures met by them averaged far below -10°: +that they did not absorb all their food: that increased heat was wanted +not only for energy to do extra work caused by bad surfaces and contrary +winds, but also to heat their bodies, and to thaw out their clothing and +sleeping-bags. + +I believe it to be clear that the rations used by us must not only be +increased by future expeditions, but co-ordinated in different +proportions of fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Taking into +consideration the fact that our bodies were not digesting the amount of +fats we had provided, Atkinson suggests that it is useless to increase +the fats at the expense of the protein and carbohydrates. He recommends +that fats should total about 5 ounces daily. The digestion of +carbohydrates is easy and complete, and though that of protein is more +complicated there are plenty of the necessary digestive ferments. The +ration should be increased by equal amounts of protein and carbohydrates; +both should be provided in as dry and pure a form as possible. + +There is no censure attached to this criticism. Our ration was probably +the best which has been used: but more is known now than was known then. +We are all out to try and get these things right for the future.[354] + +Campbell reached Hut Point only five days after we left it with the +dog-teams. A characteristic note left to greet us on our return regretted +they were too late to take part in the Search Journey. If I had lived +through ten months such as those men had just endured, wild horses would +not have dragged me out sledging again. But they were keen to get some +useful work done in the time which remained until the ship arrived. + +We had the Polar records: Campbell and his men, unaided, had not only +survived their terrible winter, but had sledged down the coast after it. +We ourselves, faced by a difficult alternative, had fallen on our feet. +We never hoped for more than this: we seldom hoped for so much. + +I wanted a series of Adélie penguin embryos from the rookery at Cape +Royds, but had not expected an opportunity of getting them because I was +away sledging during the summer months. Now the chance had come. Atkinson +wanted to work on parasites at the same place, and others to survey. But +the real job was an ascent of Erebus, the active volcano which rose from +our doors to some 13,400 feet in height. A party of Shackleton's men +under Professor David went up it in March, and managed to haul a sledge +up to 5800 feet, from which point they had to portage their gear. A year +before this Debenham, with the help of a telescope, selected a route by +which they could haul a sledge up to 9000 feet. There proved to be no +great difficulty about it; it was just a matter of legs and breath. + +They were a cheery company, part-singing in the evenings and working hard +all day. It was an uneventful trip, Debenham said, and very harmonious: +the best trip he had down there. Both Debenham and Dickason suffered from +mountain sickness, however, and they were the two smokers! The clearness +of the air was marked. At 5000 feet they could plainly see Mount +Melbourne and Cape Jones, between two and three hundred miles away, and +several uncharted mountains over to the west, but they were unable to +plot them accurately because they could get direction rays from one point +only. The Sound itself was covered by cloud most of the time, but +Beaufort Island and Franklin Island were clear. Unlike David's party, +they could see no signs whatever of volcanic action on Mount Bird, which +is almost entirely covered with ice on which it was to be expected that +some mark might be left. At 9000 feet Terror looked very imposing, but +Mount Bird and Terra Nova were insignificant and uninteresting. The +valley between the old crater and the slopes of the second crater greatly +impressed them, and they found a fine little crevassed glacier in it. +Both Priestley and Debenham are of opinion that it is possible to get to +Terror by this valley, and that there are no crevassed areas or +impossible slopes on the way. All the same it would probably be more +sensible to go from Cape Crozier. + +At a point about 9000 feet up, Priestley, Gran, Abbott and Hooper started +to make the ascent to the active crater on December 10. They packed the +tent, poles, bags, inner cooker and cooking gear, with four days' +provisions, and reached the second crater at about 11,500 feet, to be +hung up by cloud all the next day. At these altitudes the temperature +varied between -10° and -30°, though at sea-level simultaneously they +were round about freezing-point. By 1 A.M. on the 12th the conditions +were good--clear, with a southerly wind blowing the steam away from the +summit. The party got away as soon as possible and reached the lip of the +active crater in a few hours. Looking down they were unable to see the +bottom, for it was full of steam: the sides sloped at a steep angle for +some 500 feet, when they became sheer precipices: the opening appeared to +be about 14,000 paces round. The top is mostly pumice, but there is also +a lot of kenyte, much the same as at sea-level: the old crater was mostly +kenyte, proving that this is the oldest rock of the island: felspar +crystals must be continually thrown out, for they were lying about on the +top of the snow; I have one nearly 3½ inches long. + +Two men went back to the camp, for one had a frost-bitten foot. This left +Priestley and Gran, who tried to boil the hypsometer but failed owing to +the wind, which was variable and enveloped them from time to time in +steam and sulphur vapour. They left a record on a cairn and started to +return. But when they had got 500 feet down Priestley found that he had +left a tin of exposed films on the top instead of the record. Gran said +he would go back and change it. He had reached the top when there was a +loud explosion: large blocks of pumice were hurled out with a big smoke +cloud; probably a big bubble had burst. Gran was in the middle of it, +heard it gurgle before it burst, saw "blocks of pumiceous lava, in shape +like the halves of volcanic bombs, and with bunches of long, drawn-out, +hair-like shreds of glass in their interior."[355] This was Pélé's hair. +Gran was a bit sick from sulphur dioxide fumes afterwards. They reached +Cape Royds on the 16th, the very successful trip taking fifteen days. + +Meanwhile Shackleton's old hut was very pleasant at this time of year: in +winter it was a bit too draughty. With bright sunlight, a lop on the sea +which splashed and gurgled under the ice-foot, the beautiful mountains +all round us, and the penguins nesting at our door, this was better than +the Beardmore Glacier, where we had expected to be at this date. What +then must it have been to the six men who were just returned from the +very Gate of Hell? And the food: "Truly Shackleton's men must have fed +like turkey-cocks from all the delicacies here: boiled chicken, kidneys, +mushrooms, ginger, Garibaldi biscuits, soups of all kinds: it is a +splendid change. Best of all are the fresh-buttered skua's eggs which we +make for breakfast. In fact, life is bearable with all that has been +unknown so long at last cleared up, and our anxieties for Campbell's +party laid at rest."[356] + +For three weeks I worked among the Adélie penguins at Cape Royds, and +obtained a complete series of their embryos. It was always Wilson's idea +that embryology was the next job of a vertebral zoologist down south. I +have already explained that the penguin is an interesting link in the +evolutionary chain, and the object of getting this embryo is to find out +where the penguins come in.[357] Whether or no they are more primitive +than other nonflying birds, such as the apteryx, the ostrich, the rhea +and the moa, which last is only just extinct, is an open question. But +wingless birds are still hanging on to the promontories of the southern +continents, where there is less rivalry than in the highly populated +land areas of the north. It may be that penguins are descended from +ancestors who lived in the northern hemisphere in a winged condition +(even now you may sometimes see them try to fly), and that they have been +driven towards the south. + +If penguins are primitive, it is rational to infer that the most +primitive penguin is farthest south. These are the two Antarcticists, the +Emperor and the Adélie. The latter appears to be the more numerous and +successful of the two, and for this reason we are inclined to search +among the Emperors as being among the most primitive penguins, if not the +most primitive of birds now living: hence the Winter Journey. I was glad +to get, in addition, this series of Adélie penguins' embryos, feeling +somewhat like a giant who had wandered on to the wrong planet, and who +was distinctly in the way of its true inhabitants. + +We returned too late to see the eggs laid, and therefore it was +impossible to tell how old the embryos were. My hopes rose, however, when +I saw some eggless nests with penguins sitting upon them, but later I +found that these were used as bachelor quarters by birds whose wives were +sitting near. I tried taking eggs from nests and was delighted to find +that new eggs appeared: these I carefully marked, and it was not until I +opened one two days later to find inside an embryo at least two weeks +old, that I realized that penguins added baby-snatching to their other +immoralities. Some of those from whom I took eggs sat upon stones of a +similar size and shape with every appearance of content: one sat upon the +half of the red tin of a Dutch cheese. They are not very intelligent. + +All the world loves a penguin: I think it is because in many respects +they are like ourselves, and in some respects what we should like to be. +Had we but half their physical courage none could stand against us. Had +we a hundredth part of their maternal instinct we should have to kill our +children by the thousand. Their little bodies are so full of curiosity +that they have no room for fear. They like mountaineering, and joy-riding +on ice-floes: they even like to drill. + +One day there had been a blizzard, and lying open to the view of all was +a deserted nest, a pile of coveted stones. All the surrounding rookery +made their way to and fro, each husband acquiring merit, for, after each +journey, he gave his wife a stone. This was the plebeian way of doing +things; but my friend who stood, ever so unconcerned, upon a rock knew a +trick worth two of that: he and his wife who sat so cosily upon the other +side. + +The victim was a third penguin. He was without a mate, but this was an +opportunity to get one. With all the speed his little legs could compass +he ran to and fro, taking stones from the deserted nest, laying them +beneath a rock, and hurrying back for more. On that same rock was my +friend. When the victim came up with his stone he had his back turned. +But as soon as the stone was laid and the other gone for more, he jumped +down, seized it with his beak, ran round, gave it to his wife and was +back on the rock (with his back turned) before you could say Killer +Whale. Every now and then he looked over his shoulder, to see where the +next stone might be. + +I watched this for twenty minutes. All that time, and I do not know for +how long before, that wretched bird was bringing stone after stone. And +there were no stones there. Once he looked puzzled, looked up and swore +at the back of my friend on his rock, but immediately he came back, and +he never seemed to think he had better stop. It was getting cold and I +went away: he was coming for another. + +The life of an Adélie penguin is one of the most unchristian and +successful in the world. The penguin which went in for being a true +believer would never stand the ghost of a chance. Watch them go to bathe. +Some fifty or sixty agitated birds are gathered upon the ice-foot, +peering over the edge, telling one another how nice it will be, and what +a good dinner they are going to have. But this is all swank: they are +really worried by a horrid suspicion that a sea-leopard is waiting to eat +the first to dive. The really noble bird, according to our theories, +would say, "I will go first and if I am killed I shall at any rate have +died unselfishly, sacrificing my life for my companions"; and in time +all the most noble birds would be dead. What they really do is to try and +persuade a companion of weaker mind to plunge: failing this, they hastily +pass a conscription act and push him over. And then--bang, +helter-skelter, in go all the rest. + +They take turns in sitting on their eggs, and after many days the fathers +may be seen waddling down towards the sea with their shirt-fronts +muddied, their long trick done. It may be a fortnight before they return, +well-fed, clean, pleased with life, and with a grim determination to +relieve their wives, to do their job. Sometimes they are met by others +going to bathe. They stop and pass the time of day. Well! Perhaps it +would be more pleasant, and what does a day or two matter anyhow. They +turn; clean and dirty alike are off to the seaside again. This is when +they say, "The women are splendid." + +Life is too strenuous for them to have any use for the virtues of +brotherly love, good works, charity and benevolence. When they mate the +best thief wins: when they nest the best pair of thieves hatch out their +eggs. In a long unbroken stream, which stretches down below the sea-ice +horizon, they march in from the open sea. Some are walking on their human +feet: others tobogganing upon their shiny white breasts. After their long +walk they must have a sleep, and then the gentlemen make their way into +the already crowded rookery to find them wives. But first a suitor must +find, or steal, a pebble, for such are the penguin jewels: they are of +lava, black, russet or grey, with almond-shaped crystals bedded in them. +They are rare and of all sizes, but that which is most valued is the size +of a pigeon's egg. Armed with one of these he courts his maid, laying it +at her feet. If accepted he steals still more stones: she guards them +jealously, taking in the meantime any safe opportunity to pick others +from under her nearest neighbours. Any penguin which is unable to fight +and steal successfully fails to make a good high nest, or loses it when +made. Then comes a blizzard, and after that a thaw: for it thaws +sometimes right down by the sea-shore where the Adélies have their +nurseries. The eggs of the strong and wicked hatch out, but those of the +weak are addled. You must have a jolly good pile of stones to hatch eggs +after a blizzard like that in December 1911, when the rookeries were +completely snow-covered: nests, eggs, parents and all. + +Once hatched the chicks grow quickly from pretty grey atoms of down to +black lumps of stomach topped by a small and quite inadequate head. They +are two or more weeks old, and they leave their parents, or their parents +leave them, I do not know which. If socialism be the nationalization of +the means of production and distribution, then they are socialists. They +divide into parents and children. The adult community comes up from the +open sea, bringing food inside them: they are full of half-digested +shrimps. But not for their own children: these, if not already dead, are +lost in a crowd of hungry tottering infants which besiege each +food-provider as he arrives. But not all of them can get food, though all +of them are hungry. Some have already been behindhand too long: they have +not managed to secure food for days, and they are weak and cold and very +weary. + +"As we stood there and watched this race for food we were gradually +possessed with the idea that the chicks looked upon each adult coming up +full-bellied from the shore as not a parent only, but a food-supply. The +parents were labouring under a totally different idea, and intended +either to find their own infants and feed them, or else to assimilate +their already partially digested catch themselves. The more robust of the +young thus worried an adult until, because of his importunity, he was +fed. But with the less robust a much more pathetic ending was the rule. A +chick that had fallen behind in this literal race for life, starving and +weak, and getting daily weaker because it could not run fast enough to +insist on being fed, again and again ran off pursuing with the rest. +Again and again it stumbled and fell, persistently whining out its hunger +in a shrill and melancholy pipe, till at last the race was given up. +Forced thus by sheer exhaustion to stop and rest, it had no chance of +getting food. Each hurrying parent with its little following of hungry +chicks, intent on one thing only, rushed quickly by, and the starveling +dropped behind to gather strength for one more effort. Again it fails, a +robuster bird has forced the pace, and again success is wanting to the +runt. Sleepily it stands there, with half-shut eyes, in a torpor +resulting from exhaustion, cold, and hunger, wondering perhaps what all +the bustle round it means, a little dirty, dishevelled dot, in the race +for life a failure, deserted by its parents, who have hunted vainly for +their own offspring round the nest in which they hatched it, but from +which it may by now have wandered half a mile. And so it stands, lost to +everything around, till a skua in its beat drops down beside it, and with +a few strong, vicious pecks puts an end to the failing life."[358] + +There is a great deal to be said for this kind of treatment. The Adélie +penguin has a hard life: the Emperor penguin a horrible one. Why not kill +off the unfit right away, before they have had time to breed, almost +before they have had time to eat? Life is a stern business in any case: +why pretend that it is anything else? Or that any but the best can +survive at all? And in consequence, I challenge you to find a more jolly, +happy, healthy lot of old gentlemen in the world. We _must_ admire them: +if only because they are so much nicer than ourselves! But it is grim: +Nature is an uncompromising nurse. + +Nature was going to give us a bad time too if we were not relieved, and +on January 17, as there were still no signs of the ship, it was decided +to prepare for another winter. We were to go on rations; to cook with +oil, for nearly all the coal was gone; to kill and store up seal. On +January 18 we started our preparations, digging a cave to store more +meat, and so forth. I went off seal hunting after breakfast, and having +killed and cut up two, came back across the Cape at mid-day. All the men +were out working in the camp. There was nothing to be seen in the Sound, +and then, quite suddenly, the bows of the ship came out from behind the +end of the Barne Glacier, two or three miles away. We watched her +cautious approach with immense relief. + +"Are you all well," through a megaphone from the bridge. + +"The Polar Party died on their return from the Pole: we have their +records." A pause and then a boat. + +Evans, who had been to England and made a good recovery from scurvy, was +in command: with him were Pennell, Rennick, Bruce, Lillie and Drake. They +reported having had a very big gale indeed on their way home last year. + +We got some apples off the ship, "beauties, I want nothing better.... +Pennell is first-class, as always...." "One notices among the ship's men +a rather unnatural way of talking: not so much in special instances, but +as a whole, contact with civilization gives it an affected sound: I +notice it in both officers and men."[359] + +"_January 19. On board the Terra Nova._ After 28 hours' loading we left +the old hut for good and all at 4 P.M. this afternoon. It has been a bit +of a rush and little sleep last night. It is quite wonderful now to be +travelling a day's journey in an hour: we went to Cape Royds in about +that time and took off geological and zoological specimens. I should like +to sit up and sketch all these views, which would have meant long +travelling without the ship, but I feel very tired. The mail is almost +too good for words. Now, with the latest waltz on the gramophone, beer +for dinner and apples and fresh vegetables to eat, life is more bearable +than it has been for many a long weary week and month. I leave Cape Evans +with no regret: I never want to see the place again. The pleasant +memories are all swallowed up in the bad ones."[360] + +Before the ship arrived it was decided among us to urge the erection of a +cross on Observation Hill to the memory of the Polar Party. On the +arrival of the ship the carpenter immediately set to work to make a great +cross of jarrah wood. There was some discussion as to the inscription, it +being urged that there should be some quotation from the Bible because +"the women think a lot of these things." But I was glad to see the +concluding line of Tennyson's "Ulysses" adopted: "To strive, to seek, to +find, and not to yield." + +The open water stretched about a mile and a half south of Tent Island, +and here we left the ship to sledge the cross to Hut Point at 8 A.M. on +January 20. The party consisted of Atkinson, Wright, Lashly, Crean, +Debenham, Keohane and Davies, the ship's carpenter and myself. + +"_Evening. Hut Point._ We had a most unpleasant experience coming in. We +struck wind and drift just about a mile from Hut Point: then we saw there +was a small thaw pool off the Point, and came out to give it a wide +berth. Atkinson put his feet down into water: we turned sharp out, and +then Crean went right in up to his arms, and we realized that the ice was +not more than three or four inches of slush. I managed to give him a hand +out without the ice giving, and we went on floundering about. Then Crean +went right in again, and the sledge nearly went too: we pulled the +sledge, and the sledge pulled him out. Except for some more soft patches +that was all, but it was quite enough. I think we got out of it most +fortunately." + +"Crean got some dry clothes here, and the cross has had a coat of white +paint and is drying. We went up Observation Hill and have found a good +spot right on the top, and have already dug a hole which will, with the +rock alongside, give us three feet. From there we can see that this +year's old ice is in a terrible state, open water and open water slush +all over near the land--I have never seen anything like it here. Off Cape +Armitage and at the Pram Point pressure it is extra bad. I only hope we +can find a safe way back." + +"You would not think Crean had had such a pair of duckings to hear him +talking so merrily to-night...." + +"I really do think the cross is going to look fine."[361] + +Observation Hill was clearly the place for it, it knew them all so well. +Three of them were Discovery men who lived three years under its shadow: +they had seen it time after time as they came back from hard journeys on +the Barrier: Observation Hill and Castle Rock were the two which always +welcomed them in. It commanded McMurdo Sound on one side, where they had +lived: and the Barrier on the other, where they had died. No more fitting +pedestal, a pedestal which in itself is nearly 1000 feet high, could have +been found. + +"_Tuesday, January 22._ Rousing out at 6 A.M. we got the large piece of +the cross up Observation Hill by 11 A.M. It was a heavy job, and the ice +was looking very bad all round, and I for one was glad when we had got it +up by 5 o'clock or so. It is really magnificent, and will be a permanent +memorial which could be seen from the ship nine miles off with a naked +eye. It stands nine feet out of the rocks, and many feet into the ground, +and I do not believe it will ever move. When it was up, facing out over +the Barrier, we gave three cheers and one more." + +We got back to the ship all right and coasted up the Western Mountains to +Granite Harbour; a wonderfully interesting trip to those of us who had +only seen these mountains from a distance. Gran went off to pick up a +depôt of geological specimens. Lillie did a trawl. + +This was an absorbing business, though it was only one of a long and +important series made during the voyages of the Terra Nova. Here were all +kinds of sponges, siliceous, glass rope, tubular, and they were generally +covered with mucus. Some fed on diatoms so minute that they can only be +collected by centrifuge: some have gastric juices to dissolve the +siliceous skeletons of the diatoms on which they feed: they anchor +themselves in the mud and pass water in and out of their bodies: +sometimes the current is stimulated by cilia. There were colonies of +Gorgonacea, which share their food unselfishly; and corals and marine +degenerate worms, which started to live in little cells like coral, but +have gone down in the world. And there were starfishes, sea-urchins, +brittle-stars, feather-stars and sea-cucumbers. The sea-urchins are +formed of hexagonal plates, the centre of each of which is a ball, upon +which a spine works on a ball and socket joint. These spines are used for +protection, and when large they can be used for locomotion. But the real +means of locomotion are five double rows of water-tube feet, working by +suction, by which they withdraw the water inside a receptacle in the +shell, thereby forming a vacuum; starfishes do the same. We found a +species of sea-urchin which had such large spines that they practically +formed bars; the spines were twice as long as the sea-urchin and shaped +just like oars, being even fluted. A lobster grows by discarding his +suit, hiding and getting another, growing meanwhile. A snail or an oyster +retains his original shell, and adds to it in layers all the way down, +increasing one edge. But our sea-urchin grows by an increment of +calcareous matter all round the outside of each plate. As the animal +grows the plates get bigger. + +There was a sea-cucumber which nurses its young, having a brood cavity +which is really formed out of the mouth: this is a peculiarity of a new +Antarctic genus found first on the Discovery. It has the most complex +water-tubes, which it uses as legs, and a few limy rods in its soft skin +instead of the bony calcareous plates of sea-urchins and starfish. After +them came the feather-stars, a relic of the old crinoids which used to +flourish in the carboniferous period, examples of which can be found in +the Derbyshire limestone; and there were thousands of brittle-stars, like +beautiful wheels of which the hubs and spokes remained, but not the +circumference. These spokes or legs are muscular, sensory and locomotive; +they differ from the starfishes in that they have no digestive glands in +their legs, and from the feather-stars in that they do not use their legs +to waft food into their mouths. Once upon a time they had a stalk and +were anchored to a rock, and there are still very rare old stalked +echinoderms living in the sea. This apparently geological thing was found +by Wyville Thomson in 1868 still living in the seas to the north of +Scotland, and this find started the Challenger Expedition for deep-sea +soundings in 1872. But the Challenger brought back little in this line. +Most of the species we found were peculiar to the Antarctic. + +There were Polychaete worms by the hundred, showing the protrusable +mouth, which is shoved into the mud and then brought back into the body, +and the bristles on the highly developed projections which act as legs, +by which they get about the mud. These beasts have apparently given rise +to the Arthropods. In a modified and later form they had taken to living +in a tube, both for protection and because they found that they could not +go through the mud, which had become too viscous for them. So they stand +up in a tube and collect the sediment which is falling by means of +tentacles. They spread from one locality to another by going through a +plankton embryonic stage in their youth. They may be compared to the +mason worms, which also build tubes. + +But as Lillie squatted on the poop surrounded by an inner ring of jars +and tangled masses of the catch, and an outer ring of curious scientists, +pseudo-scientists and seamen, no find pleased him so much as the frequent +discovery of pieces of Cephalodiscus rarus, of which even now there are +but some four jars full in the world. It is as interesting as it is +uncommon, for its ancestor was a link between the vertebrates and +invertebrates, though no one knows what it was like. It has been a +vertebrate and gone back, and now has the signs of a notochord in early +life, and it also has gills. First found on the Graham's Land side of the +Antarctic continent, it has only recently been discovered in the Ross +Sea, and occurs nowhere else in the world so far as is known. + +We left Granite Harbour in the early morning of January 23, and started +to make our way out. Our next job was to pick up the geological specimens +at Evans Coves, where Campbell and his men had wintered in the igloo, and +also to leave a depôt there for future explorers. We met very heavy pack, +having to return at least twelve miles and try another way. "The sea has +been freezing out here, which seems an extraordinary thing at this time +of year. There was a thin layer of ice over the water between the floes +this morning, and I feel sure that most of these big level floes, of +which we have seen several, are the remains of ice which has frozen +comparatively recently."[362] The propeller had a bad time, constantly +catching up on ice. At length we were some thirty miles north of Cape +Bird making roughly towards Franklin Island. That night we made good +progress in fairly open water, and we passed Franklin Island during the +day. But the outlook was so bad in the evening (January 24) that we +stopped and banked fires. "We lay just where we stopped until at 5 A.M. +on January 25, when the ice eased up sufficiently for us to get along, +and we started to make the same slow progress--slow ahead, stop (to the +engine-room)--bump and grind for a bit--then slow astern, stop--slow +ahead again, and so on, until at 7 P.M., after one real big bump which +brought the dinner some inches off the table, Cheetham brought us out +into open water."[363] + +Mount Nansen rose sheer and massive ahead of us with a table top, and at +3 A.M. on January 26 we were passing the dark brown granite headland of +the northern foothills. We were soon made fast to a stretch of some 500 +yards of thick sea-ice, upon which the wind had not left a particle of +snow, and before us the foothills formed that opening which Campbell had +well named Hell's Gate. + +I wish I had seen that igloo: with its black and blubber and beastliness. +Those who saw it came back with faces of amazement and admiration. We +left a depôt at the head of the bay, marked with a bamboo and a flag, and +then we turned homewards, counting the weeks, and days, and then the +hours. In the early hours of January 27 we left the pack. On January 29 +we were off Cape Adare, "head sea, and wind, and fog, very ticklish work +groping along hardly seeing the ship's length. Then it lifts and there is +a fair horizon. Everybody pretty sea-sick, including most of the seamen +from Cape Evans. All of us feeling rotten."[364] Very thick that night, +and difficult going. At mid-day (lat. 69° 50´ S.) a partial clearance +showed a berg right ahead. By night it was blowing a full gale, and it +was not too easy to keep in our bunks. Our object was now to make east in +order to allow for the westerlies later on. We passed a very large number +of bergs, varied every now and then by growlers. On February 1, latitude +64° 15´ S. and longitude 159° 15´ E., we coasted along one side of a +berg which was twenty-one geographical miles long: the only other side of +which we got a good view stretched away until lost below the horizon. In +latitude 62° 10´ S. and longitude 158° 15´ E. we had "a real bad day: +head wind from early morning, and simply crowds of bergs all round. At 8 +A.M. we had to wedge in between a berg and a long line of pack before we +could find a way through. Then thick fog came down. At 9.45 A.M. I went +out of the ward-room door, and almost knocked my head against a great +berg which was just not touching the ship on the starboard side. There +was a heavy cross-swell, and the sea sounded cold as it dashed against +the ice. After crossing the deck it was just possible to see in the fog +that there was a great Barrier berg just away on the port side." We +groped round the starboard berg to find others beyond. Our friend on the +opposite side was continuous and apparently without end. It was soon +clear that we were in a narrow alley-way--between one very large berg and +a number of others. It took an hour and a quarter of groping to leave the +big berg behind. At 4 P.M., six hours later, we were still just feeling +our way along. And we had hopes of being out of the ice in this latitude! + +The Terra Nova is a wood barque, built in 1884 by A. Stephen & Sons, +Dundee; tonnage 764 gross and 400 net; measuring 187´ x 31´ x 19´; +compound engines with two cylinders of 140 nominal horse-power; +registered at St. Johns, Newfoundland. She is therefore not by any means +small as polar ships go, but Pennell and his men worked her short-handed, +with bergs and growlers all round them, generally with a big sea running +and often in darkness or fog. On this occasion we were spared many of the +most ordinary dangers. It was summer. Our voyage was an easy one. There +was twilight most of the night: there were plenty of men on board, and +heaps of coal. Imagine then what kind of time Pennell and his ship's +company had in late autumn, after remaining in the south until only a +bare ration of coal was left for steaming, until the sea was freezing +round them and the propeller brought up dead as they tried to force +their way through it. Pennell was a very sober person in his statements, +yet he described the gale through which the Terra Nova passed on her way +to New Zealand in March 1912 as seeming to blow the ship from the top of +one wave to the top of the next; and the nights were dark, and the bergs +were all round them. They never tried to lay a meal in those days, they +just ate what they could hold in their hands. He confessed to me that one +hour he did begin to wonder what was going to happen next: others told me +that he seemed to enjoy every minute of it all. + +Owing to press contracts and the necessity of preventing leakage of news +the Terra Nova had to remain at sea for twenty-four hours after a cable +had been sent to England. Also it was of the first importance that the +relatives should be informed of the facts before the newspapers published +them. + +And so at 2.30 A.M. on February 10 we crept like a phantom ship into the +little harbour of Oamaru on the east coast of New Zealand. With what +mixed feelings we smelt the old familiar woods and grassy slopes, and saw +the shadowy outlines of human homes. With untiring persistence the little +lighthouse blinked out the message, "What ship's that?" "What ship's +that?" They were obviously puzzled and disturbed at getting no answer. A +boat was lowered and Pennell and Atkinson were rowed ashore and landed. +The seamen had strict orders to answer no questions. After a little the +boat returned, and Crean announced: "We was chased, sorr, but they got +nothing out of us." + +We put out to sea. + +When morning broke we could see the land in the distance--greenness, +trees, every now and then a cottage. We began to feel impatient. We +unpacked the shore-going clothes with their creases three years old which +had been sent out from home, tried them on--and they felt unpleasantly +tight. We put on our boots, and they were positively agony. We shaved off +our beards! There was a hiatus. There was nothing to do but sail up and +down the coast and, if possible, avoid coastwise craft. + +In the evening the little ship which runs daily from Akaroa to Lyttelton +put out to sea on her way and ranged close alongside. "Are all well?" +"Where's Captain Scott?" "Did you reach the Pole?" Rather unsatisfactory +answers and away they went. Our first glimpse, however, of civilized +life. + +At dawn the next morning, with white ensign at half-mast, we crept +through Lyttelton Heads. Always we looked for trees, people and houses. +How different it was from the day we left and yet how much the same: as +though we had dreamed some horrible nightmare and could scarcely believe +we were not dreaming still. + +The Harbour-master came out in the tug and with him Atkinson and Pennell. +"Come down here a minute," said Atkinson to me, and "It's made a +tremendous impression, I had no idea it would make so much," he said. And +indeed we had been too long away, and the whole thing was so personal to +us, and our perceptions had been blunted: we never realized. We landed to +find the Empire--almost the civilized world--in mourning. It was as +though they had lost great friends. + +To a sensitive pre-war world the knowledge of these men's deaths came as +a great shock: and now, although the world has almost lost the sense of +tragedy, it appeals to their pity and their pride. The disaster may well +be the first thing which Scott's name recalls to your mind (as though an +event occurred in the life of Columbus which caused you to forget that he +discovered America); but Scott's reputation is not founded upon the +conquest of the South Pole. He came to a new continent, found out how to +travel there, and gave knowledge of it to the world: he discovered the +Antarctic, and founded a school. He is the last of the great geographical +explorers: it is useless to try and light a fire when everything has been +burned; and he is probably the last old-fashioned polar explorer, for, as +I believe, the future of such exploration is in the air, but not yet. And +he was strong: we never realized until we found him lying there dead how +strong, mentally and physically, that man was. + +In both his polar expeditions he was helped, to an extent which will +never be appreciated, by Wilson: in the last expedition by Bowers. I +believe that there has never been a finer sledge party than these three +men, who combined in themselves initiative, endurance and high ideals to +an extraordinary degree. And they could organize: they did organize the +Polar Journey and their organization seemed to have failed. Did it fail? +Scott said No. "The causes of this disaster are not due to faulty +organization, but to misfortune in all risks which had to be undertaken." +Nine times out of ten, says the meteorologist, he would have come +through: but he struck the tenth. "We took risks, we knew we took them; +things have come out against us, and therefore we have no cause for +complaint." No better epitaph has been written. + +He decided to use the only route towards the Pole of which the world had +any knowledge, that is to go up the Beardmore Glacier, then the only +discovered way up through the mountains which divide the polar plateau +from the Great Ice Barrier: probably it is the only possible passage for +those who travel from McMurdo Sound. The alternative was to winter on the +Barrier, as Amundsen did, so many hundred miles away from the coast-line +that, in travelling south, the chaos caused in the ice plain by the +Beardmore in its outward flow would be avoided. To do so meant the +abandonment of a great part of the scientific programme, and Scott was +not a man to go south just to reach the Pole. Amundsen knew that Scott +was going to McMurdo Sound when he decided to winter in the Bay of +Whales: otherwise he might have gone to McMurdo Sound. Probably no man +would have refused the knowledge which had already been gained. + +I have said that there are those who say that Scott should have relied on +ski and dogs. If you read Shackleton's account of his discovery and +passage of the Beardmore Glacier you will not be prejudiced in favour of +dogs: and as a matter of fact, though we found a much better way up than +Shackleton, I do not believe it possible to take dogs up and down, and +over the ice disturbances at the junction with the plateau, unless there +is ample time to survey a route, if then. "Dogs could certainly have +come up as far as this," I heard Scott say somewhere under the +Cloudmaker, approximately half-way up the glacier, but the best thing you +could do with dogs in pressure such as we all experienced on our way down +would be to drop them into the nearest chasm. If you can avoid such +messes well and good: if not, you must not rely on dogs, and the people +who talk of these things have no knowledge. + +If Scott was going up the Beardmore he was probably right not to take +dogs: actually he relied on ponies to the foot of the glacier and +man-haulage on from that point. Because he relied on ponies he was not +able to start before November: the experience of the Depôt Journey showed +that ponies could not stand the weather conditions before that date. But +he could have started earlier if he had taken dogs, in place of ponies, +to the foot of the glacier. This would have gained him a few days in his +race against the autumn conditions when returning. + +Such tragedies inevitably raise the question, "Is it worth it?" What is +worth what? Is life worth risking for a feat, or losing for your country? +To face a thing because it was a feat, and only a feat, was not very +attractive to Scott: it had to contain an additional object--knowledge. A +feat had even less attraction for Wilson, and it is a most noteworthy +thing in the diaries which are contained in this book, that he made no +comment when he found that the Norwegians were first at the Pole: it is +as though he felt that it did not really matter, as indeed it probably +did not. + +It is most desirable that some one should tackle these and kindred +questions about polar life. There is a wealth of matter in polar +psychology: there are unique factors here, especially the complete +isolation, and four months' darkness every year. Even in Mesopotamia a +long-suffering nation insisted at last that adequate arrangements must be +made to nurse and evacuate the sick and wounded. But at the Poles a man +must make up his mind that he may be rotting of scurvy (as Evans was) or +living for ten months on half-rations of seal and full rations of +ptomaine poisoning (as Campbell and his men were) but no help can reach +him from the outside world for a year, if then. There is no chance of a +'cushy' wound: if you break your leg on the Beardmore you must consider +the most expedient way of committing suicide, both for your own sake and +that of your companions. + +Both sexually and socially the polar explorer must make up his mind to be +starved. To what extent can hard work, or what may be called dramatic +imagination, provide a substitute? Compare our thoughts on the march; our +food dreams at night; the primitive way in which the loss of a crumb of +biscuit may give a lasting sense of grievance. Night after night I bought +big buns and chocolate at a stall on the island platform at Hatfield +station, but always woke before I got a mouthful to my lips; some +companions who were not so highly strung were more fortunate, and ate +their phantom meals. + +And the darkness, accompanied it may be almost continually by howling +blizzards which prevent you seeing your hand before your face. Life in +such surroundings is both mentally and physically cramped; open-air +exercise is restricted and in blizzards quite impossible, and you realize +how much you lose by your inability to see the world about you when you +are out-of-doors. I am told that when confronted by a lunatic or one who +under the influence of some great grief or shock contemplates suicide, +you should take that man out-of-doors and walk him about: Nature will do +the rest. To normal people like ourselves living under abnormal +circumstances Nature could do much to lift our thoughts out of the rut of +everyday affairs, but she loses much of her healing power when she cannot +be seen, but only felt, and when that feeling is intensely uncomfortable. + +Somehow in judging polar life you must discount compulsory endurance; and +find out what a man can shirk, remembering always that it is a sledging +life which is the hardest test. It is because it is so much easier to +shirk in civilization that it is difficult to get a standard of what your +average man can do. It does not really matter much whether your man +whose work lies in or round the hut shirks a bit or not, just as it does +not matter much in civilization: it is just rather a waste of +opportunity. But there's precious little shirking in Barrier sledging: a +week finds most of us out. + +There are many questions which ought to be studied. The effect upon men +of going from heat to cold, such as Bowers coming to us from the Persian +Gulf: or vice versa of Simpson returning from the Antarctic to India; +differences of dry and damp cold; what is a comfortable temperature in +the Antarctic and what is it compared to a comfortable temperature in +England, the question of women in these temperatures...? The man with the +nerves goes farthest. What is the ratio between nervous and physical +energy? What is vitality? Why do some things terrify you at one time and +not at others? What is this early morning courage? What is the influence +of imagination? How far can a man draw on his capital? Whence came +Bowers' great heat supply? And my own white beard? and X's blue eyes: for +he started from England with brown ones and his mother refused to own him +when he came back? Growth and colour change in hair and skin? + +There are many reasons which send men to the Poles, and the Intellectual +Force uses them all. But the desire for knowledge for its own sake is the +one which really counts and there is no field for the collection of +knowledge which at the present time can be compared to the Antarctic. + +Exploration is the physical expression of the Intellectual Passion. + +And I tell you, if you have the desire for knowledge and the power to +give it physical expression, go out and explore. If you are a brave man +you will do nothing: if you are fearful you may do much, for none but +cowards have need to prove their bravery. Some will tell you that you are +mad, and nearly all will say, "What is the use?" For we are a nation of +shopkeepers, and no shopkeeper will look at research which does not +promise him a financial return within a year. And so you will sledge +nearly alone, but those with whom you sledge will not be shopkeepers: +that is worth a good deal. If you march your Winter Journeys you will +have your reward, so long as all you want is a penguin's egg. + +FOOTNOTES: + + [349] Scott, _Voyage of the Discovery_, vol. i. p. 449. + + [350] Amundsen, _The South Pole_, vol. ii. p. 19. + + [351] Lashly's diary records that the Second Return Party found a + shortage of oil at the Middle Barrier Depôt (see p. 395). + + [352] Scott, "Message to the Public." + + [353] A full discussion of these and other Antarctic temperatures + is to be found in the scientific reports of the British + Antarctic Expedition, 1910-13, "Meteorology," vol. i. chap. + ii., by G. C. Simpson. + + [354] Modern research suggests that the presence or absence of + certain vitamines makes a difference, and it may be a very + great difference, in the ability of any individual to profit + by the food supplied to him. If this be so this factor must + have had great influence upon the fate of the Polar Party, + whose diet was seriously deficient in, if not absolutely + free from, vitamines. The importance of this deficiency to + the future explorer can hardly be exaggerated, and I suggest + that no future Antarctic sledge party can ever set out to + travel inland again without food which contains these + vitamines. It is to be noticed that, although the Medical + Research Council's authoritative publication on the true + value of these accessory substances was not available when + we went South in 1910, yet Atkinson insisted that fresh + onions, which had been brought down by the ship, be added to + our ration for the Search Journey. Compare recent work of + Professor Leonard Hill on the value of ultra-violet rays in + compensating for lack of vitamines.--A. C.-G. + + [355] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. ii. p. 356. + + [356] My own diary. + + [357] See p. 234. + + [358] Wilson, _Nat. Ant. Exp., 1901-1904_, "Zoology," Part ii. pp. + 44-45. + + [359] My own diary. + + [360] Ibid. + + [361] My own diary. + + [362] My own diary. + + [363] My own diary. + + [364] Ibid. + + + + +GLOSSARY + + +BLIZZARD. An Antarctic blizzard is a high southerly wind generally +accompanied by clouds of drifting snow, partly falling from above, partly +picked up from the surface. In the daylight of summer a tent cannot be +seen a few yards off: in the darkness of winter it is easy to be lost +within a few feet of a hut. There is no doubt that a blizzard has a +bewildering and numbing effect upon the brain of any one exposed to it. + +BRASH. Small ice fragments from a floe which is breaking up. + +CLOUD. The commonest form of cloud, and also that typical of blizzard +conditions, was a uniform pall stretching all over the sky without +distinction. This was logged by us as _stratus_. _Cumulus_ clouds are the +woolly billows, flat below and rounded on top, which are formed by local +ascending currents of air. They were rare in the south and only formed +over open water or mountains. _Cirrus_ are the "mare's tails" and similar +wispy clouds which float high in the atmosphere. These and their allied +forms were common. Generally speaking, the clouds were due to +stratification of the air into layers rather than to ascending currents. + +CRUSTS. Layers of snow in a snow-field with air space between them. + +FINNESKO. Boots made entirely of fur, soles and all. + +FROST SMOKE. Condensed water vapour which forms a mist over open sea in +cold weather. + +ICE-FOOT. Fringes of ice which skirt many parts of the Antarctic shores: +many of them have been formed by sea-spray. + +NUNATAK. An island of land in a snow-field. Buckley Island is the top of +a mountain sticking out of the top of the Beardmore Glacier. + +PIEDMONT. Stretches of ancient ice which remain along the Antarctic +coasts. + +PRAM. A Norwegian skiff, with a spoon bow. + +SAENNEGRASS. A kind of Norwegian hay used as packing in finnesko. + +SASTRUGI are the furrows or irregularities formed on a snow plain by the +wind. They may be a foot or more deep and as hard and as slippery as +ice: they may be quite soft: they may appear as great inverted pudding +bowls: they may be hard knots covered with soft powdery snow. + +SLEDGING DISTANCES. All miles are geographical miles unless otherwise +stated, 1 statute or English mile = 0.87 geographical mile: 1 +geographical mile = 1.15 statute miles. + +TANK. A canvas "hold-all" strapped to the sledge to contain food bags. + +TIDE CRACK. A working crack between the land ice and the sea ice which +rises and falls with the tide. + +WIND. Wind forces are logged according to the Beaufort scale, which is as +follows: + + Mean velocity +No. Description. in miles per hour. + 0. Calm 0 + 1. Light air 1 + 2. Light breeze 4 + 3. Gentle breeze 9 + 4. Moderate breeze 14 + 5. Fresh breeze 20 + 6. Strong breeze 26 + 7. Moderate gale 33 + 8. Fresh gale 42 + 9. Strong gale 51 +10. Whole gale 62 +11. Storm 75 +12. Hurricane 92 + + + + +INDEX + + Abbott, George P., lv, lvii, 558 + Adam Mountains, 361 + Adare, Cape, xxiii, xxix, xxxiv, 409, 570 + Adélie Land, xxii + Adélie penguins. _See_ Penguins, Adélie + Adventure, the, xviii + Albatross, capture of, 39 + Alexander Land, xxi + Alexandra, Queen, 507 + Amundsen, Roald, + telegram to Scott, 41 + arrives in Bay of Whales, 128 + character, 134 + letter to King of Norway, 482 + forestalls Scott at Pole, 506 + reason of success, 544 + 'Antarctic Adventures' (Priestley), lxi + Antarctic Continent, theories of, xxi + 'Antarctic Penguins' (Levick), lxi + Antarctic regions, + early explorations, xviii + Ross's expedition, xxv + importance of Scott's work, lxii + marine life, 568 + Anton (pony boy), 224, 429 + Aptenodytes forsteri. _See_ Penguin, Emperor + Archer, W. W., 429, 438, 472 + Arctic regions, exploration in, xxix-xxxiii + Arethusa. _See_ Portuguese man-of-war + Armitage, Cape, 108, 566 + Arrival Bay, xlvi + Arrival Heights, 98, 185 + Atkinson, Edward L., + his responsibilities, 1 + on the Terra Nova, 3 + character, 4 + on South Trinidad, 19 + accident to foot, 111 + lecture on scurvy, 215 + lost in blizzard, 303 + Barrier Journey, 324 + in command of First Return Party, 381 + meets Lashly and Evans, 404 + difficulties during Scott's absence, 411 + attempts to find Scott, 426 + in command of Main Party, 427 + journey to Hutton Cliffs, 428 + sledge journey, 429 + fish-trap, 444 + spring journey, 467 + reads Burial Service over Scott, 481 + lands in New Zealand, 572 + Atmosphere, observations on, 35 + Aurora borealis, 244 + + Balloon Bight, xxxiv, 130 + Barne Glacier, 184, 307, 459 + Barrie, Sir J. M., Scott's letter to, 540 + Barrier, the, + Ross's journey, xxiii + Scott's survey, 1902, xxxiv + first arrival at, 81 + Scott's paper on, 214 + snow surface, 239 + Wright's lecture, 455 + movement, 468 + Beardmore Glacier, journey across, 350-367 + Beaufort Island, 557 + Bellingshausen, xxi + Bernacchi, Cape, 425 + Biology, marine, + importance of Ross's expedition, xxvii + Terra Nova observations, 7, 567 + Bird, Cape, xxiv + Bird, Mt., 558 + Bird Peninsula, 409 + Biscuit Depôt, 473 + Black Island, xxv + Blacksand Beach, 100 + Blizzards, 112, 447 + Blubber, uses of, lvi + Bluff Depôt, 114, 119, 418 + Borchgrevink, xxviii + Bowers, Lieut. H. R., + on Terra Nova, 3 + character and personality, 4, 208 + at South Trinidad, 16 + on Depôt Journey, 105 + on Winter Journey, 234 + trip to Western Mountains, 306 + commencement of Polar Journey, 325 + passage of the Beardmore Glacier, 351 + _seq._ Plateau Journey, 368 _seq._ + body discovered, 480 + journey to Pole, 496 + _seq._ return from Pole, 511 _seq._ + Bowers, Mrs., Scott's letter to, 539 + Browning, Frank V., lv, lvi, lvii, lviii + Brown Island, xxv + Bruce, Wilfred M., 565 + Buckley Island, 362 + Butter Point, 425 + + Campbell, Victor, + at Inexpressible Island, lii _seq._ + on Terra Nova, 2 + character, 4 + Terra Nova attempts to relieve, 409 + possibility of rescuing, 441 + rescued, 493 + Cardiff, Wales, 1 + Castle Rock, xxxv, 152, 185, 434 + Cephalodiscus rarus, 569 + Challenger Expedition, xxviii, 568 + Cherry-Garrard, Apsley, + functions, 2 + on Winter Journey, 233 _seq._ + Beardmore Glacier Journey, 351 _seq._ + journey with dogs, 416 _seq._ + illness, 427 + work on penguins, 559 + Christmas Day celebration, 1911, 373 + Clissold, Thomas, 309, 383, 429 + Cloudmaker, 356, 359, 382 + Colbeck, Cape, 129 + Cook, Captain James, Antarctic explorations, xviii, xix, xx, xxi + Corner Camp, 112, 122, 135, 166, 306, 468, 473 + Crater Heights, 98, 162 + Crean, Thomas, + Depôt Journey, 104 _seq._ + Beardmore Glacier Journey, 351 _seq._ + Plateau Journey, 368 _seq._ + snow-blindness, 385 + journey for help, 406 + duties, 438 + on search journey, 472 + Crozier, Capt., xxix + Crozier, Cape, discovery, xxiii, xl, 252, 558 + + Darwin, Mt., 366, 388 + David, Professor, xlvii + Davies, Francis, 92 + Day, Bernard C., 310, 383, 429 + Debenham, Frank, 217, 309, 437, 438, 465, 472, 557 + Dellbridge Islands, 169 + De Long, G. W., xxix + Derrick Point, 98 + Dickason, Harry, liv, lviii, 557 + Diet, + Cook's precautions, xviii + experiments on Winter Journey, 256 + importance of good cooking, 330 + effects of unsuitability, 552 + Dimitri (dog boy), 104, 310, 323, 404, 419, 420, 428, 467 + Disaster Camp, 160 + Discovery, Mt., 151, 186 + Discovery Expedition, 1901-1904, xxxiii _seq._, 456 + Discovery hut, 97, 185 + Dogs, + on Scott's first expedition, xxxvi + on board ship, 49 + effect of blizzards, 113 + ponies as food for, 339 + successful use, 353 + rate of return, 383 + new batch, 410 + hospital, 437 + behaviour in camp, 440 + accommodation, 450 + diet, 452 + disease among, 453 + behaviour while driving, 469 + Dolphins, observations on, 37 + Dominion Range, 362, 370 + Drake, Frank, 3, 97, 565 + Drygalski Ice Tongue, lviii + Dunedin, N.Z., 48 + Dunlop Island, 307 + D'Urville, Dumont, xxii + + Emperor Penguin. _See_ Penguin, Emperor + Enderby, Messrs., xxi + Equator, crossing of, 10 + Erebus, Mt., + discovery, xxiii + first glimpse of, 81 + activity, 184 + ascent of, 557 + Erebus, the, xxii, xxix + Eskers, the, 432 + Evans, Lieut. Edward, + functions, 2 + character, 4 + on Depôt Journey, 104 _seq._ + lectures, 217 + Beardmore Glacier Journey, 351 _seq._ + Plateau Journey, 368 _seq._ + snow-blindness, 391 + symptoms of scurvy, 393 + illness, 399 + sent home, 423 + returns on Terra Nova, 565 + Evans, Seaman Edgar, + on Discovery Expedition, xxxix + as Neptune, 10 + trip to Western Mountains, 306 _seq._ + Beardmore Glacier Journey, 351 _seq._ + Plateau Journey, 368 _seq._ + accident to hand, 378 + journey to Pole, 496 _seq._ + return from Pole, 511 _seq._ + death, 528 + Evans, Cape, xlviii, 86, 96, 181, 317, 434, 444, 447, 493, 502 + Evans Coves, l, liii, 409, 569 + + Fahrt, 458 + Ferrar Glacier, xxxviii + Fire, outbreaks of, 462 + Fodder Depôt, 109 + Forde, Robert, 104, 306, 429 + Forster, Mr., xx + Fram, the, xxix _seq._, xlviii, 46, 133 + Franklin, Sir John, xxix + Franklin Island, 557, 570 + Franz Josef Land, xxxii + Funchal, Madeira, 3. + + Gap, the, 98 + Gateway, the, 339, 351 + Geelmuyden, Professor, xxxi + Glacier Tongue, 152, 185, 430, 449 + Gran, Tryggve, 4, 104 _seq._, 429, 434, 438, 447, 472, 558, 567 + Granite Harbour, lviii, 409, 567 + Granite Pillars, 393 + Great Razorback Island, 169, 186 + Greely, A. W., xxix, xxx + + Haig, Sir Douglas, Scott's letter to, 410 + Halley, Edmund, 11 + Hare, xxxv + Hell's Gate, 570 + Helminthology, 17 + High Peak, 183 + Hobart, Tasmania, xxii + Hooker, Sir Joseph D., xxv + Hooker, Mt., 186 + Hooper, F. J., 15, 28, 310, 383, 438, 472, 477, 558 + Hooper, Mt. _See_ Upper Barrier Depôt + Hope, Mt., 343, 393 + Hope Island, xlvii + Horses. _See_ Ponies, Manchurian + Horseshoe Bay, 98 + Hut Point, lix, 97, 157, 461, 566 + Hut Point Peninsula, xxiv, xxxiv, 185 + Hutton Cliffs, 169, 185, 428 + Hyperoodon rostrata. _See_ Whale, bottle-nosed + + Ice, + Cook's observations, xx + the Fram, xxx + formation of pack, 59 + movement, 440 + Ice cap, Antarctic, xxxviii + Icebergs, 61, 570 + "Igloo back," lvii + Inaccessible Island, 186, 434 + Inexpressible Island, conditions on, liii + Island Lake, 182 + + Jackson-Harmsworth Expedition, xxxii, 216 + Jeannette, the, xxix + Johansen, Lieut., xxx, 132 + Jones, Cape, 557 + + Kayaks, Nansen's use of, xxxi + Keltie Glacier, 358 + Keohane, Patrick, 104 _seq._, 353, 382, 426, 428, 434, 438, 473 + Killer whale. _See_ Whale, killer + King Edward VII.'s Land, xxxiv, xlviii + Kinsey, Mr. J. J., 48 + Knight, E. F., 12, 18 + Knoll, the, xl, 252, 260 + Kyffin, Mt., 352 + + Land crabs, at South Trinidad, 14, 18 + Lashly, W., + on Discovery Expedition, xxxviii + diary, 311 _seq._ + Beardmore Glacier Journey, 351 _seq._ + nurses Lieut. Evans, 393 _seq._ + duties, 438 + on Search Journey, 472 + Levick, G. Murray, liii, 3 + Lillie, Denis G., 4, 565, 569 + Lister, Mt., 186 + Little Razorback Island, 171, 186, 449 + Lower Glacier Depôt, 352 + Lyttelton, N.Z., 2, 44, 573 + + M'Clintock, Sir F. L., xxix + McMurdo Sound, xxiv, xxxiv, 409 + Magnetic Pole, South, xxii, xxv + Markham, Sir Clements, xxix + Markham, Mt., 337 + Marshall Mountains, 362 + Meares, Cecil H., 97, 104, 213, 310, 323, 347, 353, 382, 429 + Melbourne, Mt., l, 557 + Middle Barrier Depôt, 338 + Mill Glacier, 362 + Milne, A. A., on Scott's character, lx + Minna Bluff, xxiv, 186 + Mirage, 118, 386, 423 + Morning, Mt., 186 + Morning, the, xxxvii + Mules, use of, 410, 450, 462, 473, 475, 478, 490 + + Nansen, Fridtjof, + Arctic explorations, xxix _seq._ + on scurvy, 216 + on equipment, 456 + Nansen, Mt., 570 + Nares, Sir G. S., xxix + Neale, W. H., 28 + Nelson, Edward W., 4, 215, 383, 438, 445, 472, 477 + North Bay, 172, 438, 444, 445 + + Oamaru, N.Z., 572 + Oates, Capt. L. E. G., + on Terra Nova, 2, 4 + Depôt Journey, 104 _seq._ + care of ponies, 179, 318 + lecture on horses, 217 + Beardmore Glacier Journey, 351 + Plateau Journey, 369 + suggests use of mules, 410 + death, 485 + commemorative inscription, 487 + journey to Pole, 497 + Observation Hill, 98, 565 + Oestrelata arminjoniana. _See_ Petrel, black-breasted + Oestrelata trinitatis. _See_ Petrel, white-breasted + Oil, shortage of, 550 + Oil fuel, its advantages, 46 + One and a Half Degree Depôt, 502 + One Ton Depôt, 116, 314, 326, 383, 398, 413, 418 + Orca gladiator. _See_ Whale, killer + + Pagoda Cairn, 117 + Parry, Sir W. E., xxix + Peary, R. E., xlviii + Penguin, Adélie, + appearance, xxxix + Levick's book, lxi + habits, 63, 561 + rookery discovered, 83 + curiosity, 86 + embryos obtained, 559 + breeding, 562 + feeding of young, 563 + Penguin, Emperor, + eggs, xxii, 299 + habits and breeding, xxxix _seq._, 82 + embryology, 234 + discovery of rookery, 252, 268 + care of young, 269 + eagerness to sit, 270 + Pennell, Harry L. L., liii, 3, 4, 8, 565, 572 + Petrel, Antarctic, 63 + Petrel, black-breasted, 13 + Petrel, giant, 50 + Petrel, snowy, xix, 50 + Petrel, white-breasted, 13 + Plankton, 6, 69 + Pole, South, + Scott's final arrangements, 379 + altitude, 502 + Amundsen's arrival, 506 + Scott's arrival, 506 + characteristics of area, 508 + Polheim (camp), 507 + Polychaete worms, 568 + Ponies, Manchurian, + on board ship, 49 + their uses, 88 + effect of blizzards on, 113 + Scott's care of, 114 + behaviour on ice, 141 + fodder, 179 + exercising, 190 + treatment and diseases, 218 + Scott's decision, 327 + weights lightened, 331 + difficulties on march, 342 + destroyed, 349 + Ponting, Herbert G., 90, 173, 213, 320, 429 + Portuguese man-of-war, 7 + Pram, 17, 19 + Pram Point, 98, 162, 466, 566 + Priestley, Raymond E., liii, 130, 558 + Ptomaine poisoning, lvii + Pulleyn, Lieut. George, 410 + + Ramp, the, 168 + Rennick, H. E. de P., 3, 565 + Resolution, the, xviii + Roberts, Cape, lviii, 425 + Ross, Sir James C., xxii, 11, 12 + Ross Island, xxiii + Ross Sea, xxiii, xxviii, xlii + Royal Society Range, 493 + Royds, Cape, xlv, xlvii, 98, 183, 461, 559 + + Sabine, Mt., xxiii, 80 + Safety Camp, 110, 122, 136, 306 + St. Paul, island, 33 + Scott, Capt. R. F., + on early explorations, xx + on Ross, xxvii + first expedition, 1901-1904, xxxiii + excellence of equipment, lxii + commencement of second expedition, 1 + visits South Trinidad, 1901, 12 + joins Terra Nova, 31 + Depôt Journey, 104 + character and achievements, 200, 573 + paper on Barrier, 214 + trip to Western Mountains, 306 + Barrier stage of Polar Journey, 319 _seq._ + Beardmore Glacier Journey, 350 _seq._ + Plateau Journey, 368 + strength of team, 377 + alteration in units, 379 + tries new sledge runners, 457 + body discovered, 480 + burial, 483 + his account of journey to Pole, 496 _seq._ + return from Pole, 511 _seq._ + message to the public, 541 + drawbacks of his plan, 545 + 'Scott's Last Expedition,' lix + Scurvy, lvii, 215, 393 + Sea, freezing of, 448 + Sea-cucumber, 568 + Sea-leopard, 65, 66 + Sea-urchins, 567 + Seal, 66, 67, 162 + Seal, crab-eating, 67, 68 + Seal, Ross, 66 + Seal, Weddell, 66, 67, 161, 464, 466 + Shackleton, Sir Ernest, xxxvii, xlvii + Shambles Camp, 349, 502 + Simon's Bay, 31 + Simpson, G. C., 4, 215, 306 _seq._, 429, 502, 504 + Ski, use of, 355, 458, 498 + Ski Slope, 152 + Skua gulls, 464, 499 + Skua Lake, 95, 182 + Sledge meters, 385, 417, 461 + Sledge runners, Nansen on, 456, 457 + Sledges, + Nansen's innovation, xxx + motor, 88, 92, 321 + Smoking, limitations on, 195 + Snow-blindness, 353 + South Bay, 447 + 'South Polar Times,' 437, 445 + South Trinidad, + landing, 13 + bird life, 13, 14 + land crabs, 14 + difficulty of leaving, 15, 18 + Southern Barrier Depôt, 338 + Sverdrup, O. N., xxx + + Taylor, Griffith, lxi, 215, 307, 308, 317, 429 + Temperature, + of polar plateau, 505 + effect on Polar party, 553 + Tent Island, 186, 439, 566 + Terra Australis, belief in existence of, xviii + Terra Nova Bay, 493 + Terra Nova, the, + on Scott's first expedition, xlv + commencement of voyage, 1910, 1 + crew, 2 + arrangement of cabins, 3 + defects in pumps, 5, 28 + plankton nets, 6 + fire on board, 6 + biological observations, 7 + lack of fresh water, 8 + refits at Lyttelton, 44 + overloading, 50 + suitability for ice work, 73 + anchorage, 101 + arrival with mails, 409 + defects, 548 + expedition finally relieved, 564 + trawling, 567 + Terror, Mt., xxiii, xxiv, xli, 252, 558 + Terror, the, xxii, xxix + Terror Point, 253 + Tersio peronii, 37 + Three Degree Depôt, 502 + Tremasome, parasitic growth on, 444 + Turk's Head, 185 + Turtleback Island, 434 + + Upper Barrier Depôt, 333 + Upper Glacier Depôt, 369, 502 + + Victoria Land, xxxiv + Vince's Cross, xxxv + + Waves, height of, 58 + Weddell, James, xxv + Western Mountains, 151, 306, 567 + Whale, 37 + Whale, blue, 70, 71 + Whale, bottle-nosed, 156 + Whale, killer, 69, 90, 142, 154 + Whale, piked, 70 + Whales, Bay of, xlviii, 128, 130 + White Island, xxiv, 111, 493 + Wild, Frank, xxxv + Wild Mountains, 362 + Wilkes, Charles, xxii + Williamson, Thomas S., 429, 438, 472 + Wilson, Dr. E. A., + on Emperor penguins, xli + functions, 2 + character and personality, 4, 203 + Depôt Journey, 104 + Winter Journey, 233 _seq._ + Beardmore Glacier Journey, 351 + Plateau Journey, 368 + body discovered, 480 + journey to Pole, 496 _seq._ + return from Pole, 512 _seq._ + Wilson, Mrs., Scott's letter to, 539 + Wind Vane Hill, 95, 182 + Wright, Charles S., 4, 215, 319, 351, 381, 382, 429, 434, 438, 447, + 455, 472, 481, 489 + + X Cairn, 120 + + +THE END + + +_Printed in Great Britain by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh._ + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORST JOURNEY *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. 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