The Gateway was a neck or saddle of drifted snow lying in a gap of the mountain rampart which flanked the last curve of the glacier. Under the cliffs on either hand, like a moat beneath the ramparts, lay a yawning ice-cleft or bergschrund, formed by the drawing away of the steadily moving Barrier ice from the rocks. Across this moat and leading up to the gap in the ramparts, the Gateway provided a solid causeway. To climb this and descend its reverse face gave the easiest access to the surface of the glacier.

Note 23, p. 359.—Return of first Southern Party from Lat. 85 deg. 72 S. top of the Beardmore Glacier.

Party: E. L. Atkinson, A. Cherry-Garrard, C. S. Wright, Petty Officer Keohane.

On the morning of December 22, 1911, we made a late start after saying good-bye to the eight going on, and wishing them all good luck and success. The first 11 miles was on the down-grade over the ice-falls, and at a good pace we completed this in about four hours. Lunched, and on, completing nearly 23 miles for the first day. At the end of the second day we got among very bad crevasses through keeping too far to the eastward. This delayed us slightly and we made the depot on the third day. We reached the Lower Glacier Depot three and a half days after. The lower part of the glacier was very badly crevassed. These crevasses we had never seen on the way up, as they had been covered with three to four feet of snow. All the bridges of crevasses were concave and very wide; no doubt their normal summer condition. On Christmas Day we made in to the lateral moraine of the Cloudmaker and collected geological specimens. The march across the Barrier was only remarkable for the extremely bad lights we had. For eight consecutive days we only saw an exceedingly dim sun during three hours. Up to One Ton Depot our marches had averaged 14.1 geographical miles a day. We arrived at Cape Evans on January 28, 1912, after being away for three months. [E.L.A.]

Note 24, p. 364.—January 3. Return of the second supporting party.

Under average conditions, the return party should have well fulfilled Scott's cheery anticipations. Three-man teams had done excellently on previous sledging expeditions, whether in Discovery days or as recently as the mid-winter visit to the Emperor penguins' rookery; and the three in this party were seasoned travellers with a skilled navigator to lead them. But a blizzard held them up for three days before reaching the head of the glacier. They had to press on at speed. By the time they reached the foot of the glacier, Lieut. Evans developed symptoms of scurvy. His spring work of surveying and sledging out to Corner Camp and the man-hauling, with Lashly, across the Barrier after the breakdown of the motors, had been successfully accomplished; this sequel to the Glacier and Summit marches was an unexpected blow. Withal, he continued to pull, while bearing the heavy strain of guiding the course. While the hauling power thus grew less, the leader had to make up for loss of speed by lengthening the working hours. He put his watch on an hour. With the 'turning out' signal thus advanced, the actual marching period reached 12 hours. The situation was saved, and Evans flattered himself on his ingenuity. But the men knew it all the time, and no word said!

At One Ton Camp he was unable to stand without the support of his ski sticks; but with the help of his companions struggled on another 53 miles in four days. Then he could go no farther. His companions, rejecting his suggestion that he be left in his sleeping-bag with a supply of provisions while they pressed on for help, 'cached' everything that could be spared, and pulled him on the sledge with a devotion matching that of their captain years before, when he and Wilson brought their companion Shackleton, ill and helpless, safely home to the Discovery. Four days of this pulling, with a southerly wind to help, brought them to Corner Camp; then came a heavy snowfall: the sledge could not travel. It was a critical moment. Next day Crean set out to tramp alone to Hut Point, 34 miles away. Lashly stayed to nurse Lieut. Evans, and most certainly saved his life till help came. Crean reached Hut Point after an exhausting march of 18 hours; how the dog-team went to the rescue is told by Dr. Atkinson in the second volume. At the Discovery hut Evans was unremittingly tended by Dr. Atkinson, and finally sent by sledge to the Terra Nova. It is good to record that both Lashly and Crean have received the Albert medal.

Note 25, p. 396.—At this point begins the last of Scott's notebooks. The record of the Southern Journey is written in pencil in three slim MS. books, some 8 inches long by 5 wide. These little volumes are meant for artists' notebooks, and are made of tough, soft, pliable paper which takes the pencil well. The pages, 96 in number, are perforated so as to be detachable at need.

In the Hut, large quarto MS. books were used for the journals, and some of the rough notes of the earlier expeditions were recast and written out again in them; the little books were carried on the sledge journeys, and contain the day's notes entered very regularly at the lunch halts and in the night camps. But in the last weeks of the Southern Journey, when fuel and light ran short and all grew very weary, it will be seen that Scott made his entries at lunch time alone. They tell not of the morning's run only, but of 'yesterday.'

The notes were written on the right-hand pages, and when the end of the book was reached, it was 'turned' and the blank backs of the leaves now became clean right-hand pages. The first two MS. books are thus entirely filled: the third has only part of its pages used and the Message to the Public is written at the reverse end.

Inside the front cover of No. 1 is a 'ready' table to convert the day's run of geographical miles as recorded on the sledgemeter into statute miles, a list of the depots and their latitude, and a note of the sledgemeter reading at Corner Camp.

These are followed in the first pages by a list of the outward camps and distances run as noted in the book, with special 'remarks' as to cairns, latitude, and so forth. At the end of the book is a full list of the cairns that marked the track out.

Inside the front cover of No. 2 are similar entries, together with the ages of the Polar party and a note of the error of Scott's watch.

Inside the front cover of No. 3 are the following words: 'Diary can be read by finder to ensure recording of Records, &c., but Diary should be sent to my widow.' And on the first page:

'Send this diary to my widow.

'R. SCOTT.'

The word 'wife' had been struck out and 'widow' written in.

Note 26, p. 398.—At this, the barrier stage of the return journey, the Southern Party were in want of more oil than they found at the depots. Owing partly to the severe conditions, but still more to the delays imposed by their sick comrades, they reached the full limit of time allowed for between depots. The cold was unexpected, and at the same time the actual amount of oil found at the depots was less than they had counted on.

Under summer conditions, such as were contemplated, when there was less cold for the men to endure, and less firing needed to melt the snow for cooking, the fullest allowance of oil was 1 gallon to last a unit of four men ten days, or 1/40 of a gallon a day for each man.

The amount allotted to each unit for the return journey from the South was apparently rather less, being 2/3 gallon for eight days, or 1/48 gallon a day for each man. But the eight days were to cover the march from depot to depot, averaging on the Barrier some 70-80 miles, which in normal conditions should not take more than six days. Thus there was a substantial margin for delay by bad weather, while if all went well the surplus afforded the fullest marching allowance.

The same proportion for a unit of five men works out at 5/6 of a gallon for the eight-day stage.

Accordingly, for the return of the two supporting parties and the Southern Party, two tins of a gallon each were left at each depot, each unit of four men being entitled to 2/3 of a gallon, and the units of three and five men in proportion.

The return journey on the Summit had been made at good speed, taking twenty-one days as against twenty-seven going out, the last part of it, from Three Degree to Upper Glacier Depot, taking nearly eight marches as against ten, showing the first slight slackening as P.O. Evans and Oates began to feel the cold; from Upper Glacier to Lower Glacier Depot ten marches as against eleven, a stage broken by the Mid Glacier Depot of three and a half day's provisions at the sixth march. Here, there was little gain, partly owing to the conditions, but more to Evans' gradual collapse.

The worst time came on the Barrier; from Lower Glacier to Southern Barrier Depot (51 miles), 6 1/2 marches as against 5 (two of which were short marches, so that the 5 might count as an easy 4 in point of distance);from Southern Barrier to Mid Barrier Depot (82 miles), 6 1/2 marches as against 5 1/2; from Mid Barrier to Mt. Hooper (70 miles), 8 as against 4 3/4, while the last remaining 8 marches represent but 4 on the outward journey. (See table on next page.)

At to the cause of the shortage, the tins of oil at the depot had been exposed to extreme conditions of heat and cold. The oil was specially volatile, and in the warmth of the sun (for the tins were regularly set in an accessible place on the top of the cairns) tended to become vapour and escape through the stoppers even without damage to the tins. This process was much accelerated by reason that the leather washers about the stoppers had perished in the great cold. Dr. Atkinson gives two striking examples of this.

1. Eight one-gallon tins in a wooden case, intended for a depot at Cape Crozier, had been put out in September 1911. They were snowed up; and when examined in December 1912 showed three tins full, three empty, one a third full, and one two-thirds full.

2. When the search party reached One Ton Camp in November 1912 they found that some of the food, stacked in a canvas 'tank' at the foot of the cairn, was quite oily from the spontaneous leakage of the tins seven feet above it on the top of the cairn.

The tins at the depots awaiting the Southern Party had of course been opened and the due amount to be taken measured out by the supporting parties on their way back. However carefully re-stoppered, they were still liable to the unexpected evaporation and leakage already described. Hence, without any manner of doubt, the shortage which struck the Southern Party so hard.

Note 27, p. 409.—The Fatal Blizzard. Mr. Frank Wild, who led one wing of Dr. Mawson's Expedition on the northern coast of the Antarctic continent, Queen Mary's Land, many miles to the west of the Ross Sea, writes that 'from March 21 for a period of nine days we were kept in camp by the same blizzard which proved fatal to Scott and his gallant companions' (Times, June 2, 1913). Blizzards, however, are so local that even when, as in this case, two are nearly contemporaneous, it is not safe to conclude that they are part of the same current of air.

TABLE OF DISTANCES showing the length of the Outward and Return Marches on the Barrier from and to One Ton Camp.

3 miles to each sub-division

Date Camp No. Note. Distance.

Nov. 15, 16 12 One Ton Camp 15 Nov. 17 13 15 Nov. 18 14 15 Nov. 19 15 15 Nov. 20 16 15 Nov. 21 17 Mt. Hooper Depot 15 Nov. 22 18 15 Nov. 23 19 15 Nov. 24 20 15 Nov. 25 21 Mid Barrier Depot 15 Nov. 26 22 15 Nov. 27 23 Nov. 28 24 15 Nov. 29 25 15 Nov. 30 26 15 Dec. 1 27 Southern Barrier Depot 15 Dec. 2 28 11 1/2 Dec. 3 29 13 Dec. 4- 30 8 Dec. 9 31 Shambles 4 Dec. 10 32 Lower Glacier D

Date Camp No. Note. Distance.

Feb. 17 R. 31 4 Feb. 18 R. 32 4.3 Feb. 19 R. 33 7 Feb. 20 R. 34 8 1/2 Feb. 21 R. 35 11 1/2 Feb. 22 R. 36 8 1/2 Feb. 23 R. 37 6 1/2 Feb. 24 R. 38 11.4 Feb. 25 R. 39 11 1/2 Feb. 26 R. 40 12.2 Feb. 27 R. 41 11 Feb. 28 R. 42 Lunch, 13 to Depot 11 1/2 Feb. 29 R. 43 Lunch, under 3 to Depot Mar. 1 R. 44 6 Mar. 2 R. 45 Nearly 10 Mar. 3 R. 46 Lunch, 42 to Depot 9 Mar. 4 R. 47 9 1/2 Mar. 5 R. 48. 27 to Depot 6 1/2 Mar. 6 R. 49 7 Mar. 7 R. 50 Lunch, 8 1/2 to Depot 4 1/2 Mar. 8 R. 51 Mar. 9-10 R. 52 6.9 Mar. 11 R. 53 7 Mar. 12 R. 54 47 to Depot 5 1/4 Mar. 13 R. 55 6 Mar. 14 R. 56 4 Mar. 15 R. 57 Blizz'd Lunch, 25 1/2 to Depot Mar. 17 R. 58 Lunch, 21 to Depot Mar. 18 R. 59 Mar. 19 R. 60 The Last Camp

The numbers are Statute Miles.

Marches

Out Return Lower Glacier to Southern Barrier Depot 5 6 1/2 Southern Barrier to Mid Barrier Depot 5 1/2 6 1/2 Mid Barrier to Mount Hooper 4 3/4 8 Thereafter 4 8

It will be noted that of the first 15 Return Marches on the Barrier, 5 are 11 1/2 miles and upwards, and 5 are 8 1/2 to 10.



NOTES

[1] It was continued a night and a day.

[2] Captain Oates' nickname.

[3] A species of shrimp on which the seabirds feed.

[4] The party headed by Lieutenant Campbell, which, being unable to disembark on King Edward's Land, was ultimately taken by the Terra Nova to the north part of Victoria Land, and so came to be known as the Northern Party. The Western Party here mentioned includes all who had their base at Cape Evans: the depots to be laid were for the subsequent expedition to the Pole.

[5] The extreme S. point of the Island, a dozen miles farther, on one of whose minor headlands, Hut Point, stood the Discovery hut.

[6] Here were the meteorological instruments.

[7] Cape Evans, which lay on the S. side of the new hut.

[8] The Southern Road was the one feasible line of communication between the new station at C. Evans and the Discovery hut at Hut Point, for the rugged mountains and crevassed ice slopes of Ross Island forbade a passage by land. The 'road' afforded level going below the cliffs of the ice-foot, except where disturbed by the descending glacier, and there it was necessary to cross the body of the glacier itself. It consisted of the more enduring ice in the bays and the sea-ice along the coast, which only stayed fast for the season.

Thus it was of the utmost importance to get safely over the precarious part of the 'road' before the seasonal going-out of the sea-ice. To wait until all the ice should go out and enable the ship to sail to Hut Point would have meant long uncertainty and delay. As it happened, the Road broke up the day after the party had gone by.

[9] Viz. Atkinson and Crean, who were left at Safety Camp; E. Evans, Forde and Keohane, who returned with the weaker ponies on Feb. 13; Meares and Wilson with the dog teams; and Scott, Bowers, Oates, Cherry-Garrard, and Lashly.

[10] The favorite nickname for Bowers.

[11] Professor T. Edgeworth David, C.M.G., F.R.S., of Sydney University, who was the geologist to Shackleton's party.

[12] This was done in order to measure on the next visit the results of wind and snow.

[13] Scott, Wilson, Meares and Cherry-Garrard now went back swiftly with the dog teams, to look after the return parties at Safety Camp. Having found all satisfactory, Scott left Wilson and Meares there with the dogs, and marched back with the rest to Corner Camp, taking more stores to the depot and hoping to meet Bowers rearguard party.

[14] The party had made a short cut where in going out with the ponies they had made an elbow, and so had passed within this 'danger line.'

[15] Bowers, Oates, and Gran, with the five ponies. The two days had after all brought them to Safety Camp.

[16] This was at a point on the Barrier, one-half mile from the edge, in a S.S.E. direction from Hut Point.

[17] I.e. by land, now that the sea ice was out.

[18] Because the seals would cease to come up.

[19] As a step towards 'getting these things clearer' in his mind two spare pages of the diary are filled with neat tables, showing the main classes into which rocks are divided, and their natural subdivisions—the sedimentary, according to mode of deposition, chemical, organic, or aqueous; the metamorphic, according to the kind of rock altered by heat; the igneous, according to their chemical composition.

[20] Viz, Simpson, Nelson, Day, Ponting, Lashly, Clissold, Hooper, Anton, and Demetri.

[21] See Chapter X.

[22] The white dogs.

[23] I.e. in relation to a sledging ration.

[24] Officially the ponies were named after the several schools which had subscribed for their purchase: but sailors are inveterate nicknamers, and the unofficial humour prevailed. See Appendix, Note 18.

[25] Captain Scott's judgment was not at fault.

[26] I.e. a crack which leaves the ice free to move with the movements of the sea beneath.

[27] This was the gale that tore away the roofing of their hut, and left them with only their sleeping-bags for shelter. See p. 365.

[28] Prof. T. Edgeworth David, of Sydney University, who accompanied Shackleton's expedition as geologist.

[29] See Vol. II., Dr. Simpson's Meteorological Report.

[30] This form of motor traction had been tested on several occasions; in 1908 at Lauteret in the Alps, with Dr. Charcot the Polar explorer: in 1909 and again 1910 in Norway. After each trial the sledges were brought back and improved.

[31] The Southern Barrier Depot.

[32] Camp 31 received the name of Shambles Camp.

[33] While Day and Hooper, of the ex-motor party, had turned back on November 24, and Meares and Demetri with the dogs ascended above the Lower Glacier Depot before returning on December 11, the Southern Party and its supports were organised successively as follows:

December 10, leaving Shambles Camp— Sledge 1. Scott, Wilson, Oates and P.O. Evans. Sledge 2. E. Evans, Atkinson, Wright, Lashly. Sledge 3. Bowers, Cherry-Garrard, Crean, Keohane. December 21 at Upper Glacier Depot— Sledge 1. Scott, Wilson, Oates, P.O. Evans. Sledge 2. E. Evans, Bowers, Crean, Lashly, while Atkinson, Wright, Cherry-Garrard and Keohane returned. January 4, 150 miles from the Pole— Sledge 1. Scott, Wilson, Oates, Bowers, P.O. Evans; while E. Evans, Crean, and Lashly returned.

[34] The Lower Glacier Depot.

[35] In the pocket journal, only one side of each page had been written on. Coming to the end of it, Scott reversed the book, and continued his entries on the empty backs of the pages.

[36] A unit of food means a week's supplies for four men.

[37] A number preceded by R. marks the camps on the return journey.

[38] Still over 150 miles away. They had marched 7 miles on the homeward track the first afternoon, 18 1/2 the second day.

[39] Three Degree Depot.

[40] Left on December 31.

[41] The Upper Glacier Depot, under Mount Darwin, where the first supporting party turned back.

[42] The result of concussion in the morning's fall.

[43] The Lower Glacier Depot.

[44] Sledges were left at the chief depots to replace damaged ones.

[45] It will be remembered that he was already stricken with scurvy.

[46] For the last six days the dogs had been waiting at One Ton Camp under Cherry-Garrard and Demetri. The supporting party had come out as arranged on the chance of hurrying the Pole travellers back over the last stages of their journey in time to catch the ship. Scott had dated his probable return to Hut Point anywhere between mid-March and early April. Calculating from the speed of the other return parties, Dr. Atkinson looked for him to reach One Ton Camp between March 3 and 10. Here Cherry-Garrard met four days of blizzard; then there remained little more than enough dog food to bring the teams home. He could either push south one more march and back, at imminent risk of missing Scott on the way, or stay two days at the Camp where Scott was bound to come, if he came at all. His wise decision, his hardships and endurance Ove recounted by Dr. Atkinson in Vol. II., 'The Last Year at Cape Evans.'

[47] The 60th camp from the Pole.

THE END