The Voyages of Captain Scott

st round the

d zone of stil

iation.' But not for anything in the world did he want again to see the interior of Victoria Land. Writing two years after this great march he says: 'For me the long month which we spent on t

lers were relieved by having the wind at their backs, the time of trial was by no means over. Only by utilizing all their powers of marching could they hope to retreat in safety from their position, and Dece

t had to propose that marching hours should be increased by one hour, that they should use half allowance of oil, and that if they did not sight landmarks within a couple of days their rations should be reduced.

whereabouts, because he was unable to recognize a single point. Ten hours' pulling per day was beginning to tell upon them, and although a

was more or less responsible for it and so had to make excuses. On this occasion when told that it had 'gone,' he remarked in a resigned tone, 'My poor old nose again; well, there, it's chronic!' By the time it had been brought round a storm was

and equally rash to stop, for if they had to spend another long spell in a blizzard camp, starvation would soon be staring them in the face. So he asked Evans and Lashly if they were ready to take the risk of going on, and promptly discovered that they were. Then they marched straight for the ice distur

the first jerk I was whipped off my legs, and we all three lay sprawling on our backs and flying downward with an ever-increasing velocity. For some reason the first thought that flashed into my mind was that someone would break a limb if he attempted to stop our mad career, and I shouted something to this effect, but might as well have save

efore we came down with tremendous force on a gradual incline of rough, hard, wind-swept snow. Its irregularities

scaped scathless; our legs now show one black bruise from knee to thigh, and Lashly was unfortunate enough to land once on his back, which is bruised and very

he entrance of our own glacier; ahead and on either side of us appeared well-remembered landmarks, whilst behind, in the

king for our own glacier or any other, or whether we were ten or fifty miles from our dep?t; it was more than a month since we had seen any known landmark. Now in

he few scraps they could pick up and the meager contents of their food bag. As quickly as stiffening limbs would allow they collected their scattered articles, repacked the sledge and marched on towards th

yed when Scott and Evans stepped on nothing and disappeared, while Lashly miraculously saved himself from following and sprang back with his whole weight on the trace. The sledge flashed by him and jumped the crevasse down which Scott and Evans had gone, one side of the sledge being cracked by the jerk but the other side mercifully holding. 'Personally,' Scott says, 'I remember absolutely nothing u

struggle he stood upon a thin shaft of ice, which was wedged providentially between the walls of the chasm, and could look about him. To the right or left, above or below, there was not the vestige of another such support, nothing, in fact, but the s

once what a frail support remained, and shouted to Lashly to ask what he could do, and then I knew the value of such a level-headed companion; for whilst he held on grimly to the sledge a

to reach the top. Not for a longtime had he swarmed a rope, and to do so in thick clothing, heavy crampons, and with frost-bitten fingers seemed to him impossible. Of the struggle that followed he remembered little except that he got a rest when he could plant his foot in the belt of his own harness, and again when his feet held on the ri

ck could he get to work. With two on top and only one below the position, however, was very different, and presently Evans, badly frost-bitten, was landed on the

Bruised, sore and tired as they were, Lashly sang merrily as he stirred the pot, while Scott and Evans sat on the s

e night of the 20th they reached their second dep?t and could look out towards the sea, they did not care how far round they might have to walk if only that stubborn sheet of ice had broken away. But it was too evident

ered 1,098 miles, and, not including minor undulations, had climbed heights which totaled to 19,000 feet. On getting back to the Discovery Scott found only Koettlitz, Handsley and Quartley on board, because all the rest of the company had gone to the north

coast-line was more accurately plotted than any other part of Victoria Land, and that the positions and height of over two hundred mountain peaks were fixed. Barne also obtained a very good indication of the movement of the Great Barrier ice-sheet. During Royds' journey, on which the party went on

of the Great Barrier ice-mass with the land, and subsequently had spent much time in studying the windless area to the south of Ross Island. Also, with Armitage and Heald, he had

rease the supply of information; so when the second sledding-season ended, they co