The Voyages of Captain Scott : Retold from the Voyage of the Discovery and Scott's Last Expedition

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d a Norwegian cairn. These tracks they followed until they came to the black flag that had been the first means of telling them of the Norwegians' success. 'We have pi

e Friday, and also easily found the cairns that they had built; but until they reached Three

linging to the ski, pulling became terribly distressing. 'I shall be very glad when Bowers gets his ski,' Scott wrote at R. 3,[1] 'I'm afraid he must find these long marches very trying with short legs, but he is an undefeated little sportsman. I think Oates is feeling the cold and fat

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d and 45 miles between them and their next dep?t, where they had left 7 days' food to take them on the go miles to the Three Degree Dep?t. 'Once there we ought to be safe, but we ought to have a

-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 co

the prospect of bad weather and scant food on the tremendous summit journey in front of them, and with Oates and Evans suffering badly from frost-bites, Scott had to admit that the

first far on their right, and afterwards Bowers caught a glimpse of the second which was far on their left. 'There is not a sign of our tracks between these cairns, but the last, marking

tt and Wilson pulling in front on ski, the others being on foot, found it very difficult to fo

last part of the march they discovered, to their joy and relief, that it was much easier to follow. Through this march they were helped on their way by a southerly breeze, and as the air was at last dry again their tents and equipment began to lose the icy state cau

t without trouble. I shall indeed be glad to get it on the sledge. We are getting more hungry, there is no doubt. The lunch meal is beginning to seem inadequate. We are pretty thin, especially E

as,' Scott wrote, 'given pain all day and is swollen to-night. Of course, he is full of pluck over it, but I don't like the idea of such an accident here. To add to the trouble Evans has dislodged two finger-nails to-night; his han

eed.' After lunch (January 31) the surface, owing to sandy crystals, was very bad, and with Wilson walking by the sledge to rest his leg as much as possible, pulling was even more toilsome work than usual. D

acier Dep?t. With eight days' food in hand Scott hoped that they would easily reach it, for their increased food allowance was havi

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.... The extra food is certai

cks and cairns, they resolved to waste no more time, but to push due north just as fast as they could. Evans' fingers were still very bad, and there was little h

went on ski over hard shiny descending surface. Did very well, especially towards end of march, covering in all 18.1.... The party is not improving in condition, especially Evans, wh

ressed an opinion that Evans injur

ves among huge open chasms. To avoid these they turned northwards between two of them, with the result that they got into chaotic disturbance. Consequently they were compelled to retrace their steps for a mile or so, and then striking to the west they got among a confused sea of sastrugi, in the midst of which they camped for lunch. A little better fortune attended them in the afternoon, and at their twentieth camp Scott estimated that they were anything from 10 to 15 miles off the Upper Glacier Dep?t. 'Food is low and weather uncertain,' he wrote, 'so that many hours of the day w

rly good progress during the day, and between six and seven o'clock their dep?t was sighted and soon afterwards they were camped close to it. 'Well,' Scott wrote at R. 21, 'we

le to use his ski, Bowers went on and got several specimens of much the same type-a close-grained granite rock which weathers red; and as soon as Bowers had rejoine

rregular steep slopes with big crevasses, they slid down towards the rocks, and then they saw that the moraine was so interesting that, af

, showing cellular structure. In one place we saw the cast of small waves in the sand. To-night Bill has got a specimen of limestone with archeo-cyathus-the trouble is one cannot imagine where the stone comes from; it is evidently rare, as few specimens occur in the moraine. There is a good deal of pure white quartz. Altogether we have had a most interesting af

great as the cost was they were more than willing to pay it. The fossils contained in these specimens, often so inconspicuous that it is a wonder they were discovered by the collectors, proved to be the most valuable obtained by the expedition, and promise to solve completely the questions of the age and past history of this portion of the Antarctic continent. At night, after a difficult day amon

wever, was delayed during the next afternoon by driving snow, which made steering impossible and compelled them to camp. 'We have two full days' food left,' Scott wrote on the same evening, 'and though

themselves in pressure. Then, unfortunately, they decided to steer east, and after struggling on for several hours found themselves in a regular trap. Having for a short time in the earlier

ance got worse and worse, and there were moments when Scott nearly despaired of finding a way out of the awful turmoil in which they found themselves.

ce 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. I think we are on or about the right track now, but we are still a good number of miles from

18 (the day after they had made their dep?t), for this showed them that they were still on the right track. In the afternoon, refreshed by tea, they started off confidently expecting to reach their dep?t, but by

pper and one meal only remaining in the food bag; the dep?t doubtful in loca

hick that they had to remain in their sleeping-bags; but presently the weather cleared enough for Scott dimly to see the land of the Cloudmaker. Then they got up and after breakfasting off some tea and one biscuit, so that they might leave their scanty remaining meal fo

e ice, and then Wilson suddenly saw the actual dep?t flag. 'It was an immense relief, and we were soon in poss

p R. 27, beside Cloudmaker' Scott says, 'We camped late, abreast the lower end of the mountain, and had nearly our usual satisfying supper. Yesterday was the worst experience of the trip and gave a horrid feeling of insecurity. Now we are right, but we must march. I

y from the Lower Glacier Dep?t. On the other hand, Scott was becoming most gravely concerned about

, but imagine about 20 miles. We are pulling for food and not very strong evidently.... We have r

nearly broken down in brain, we think. He is absolutely changed from his normal self-reliant self. This morning and this afternoon he stopped the march on some trivial excuse.... Memory shou

face was awful, the soft snow, which had recently fallen, clogging the ski and runners at every step, the sledge groaning, the sky overcast, and the land hazy. They stopped for about an hour, and then Evans came up again, but very slowly. Half an hour later he dropped out again on the same plea, an

our of them started back on ski. Scott was the first to meet the poor man, who was on his knees with hands uncovered and frost-bitten a

down again and showed every sign of complete collapse. Then Scott, Wilso

cious, and when we got him into the tent qu