SHACKLETON ON THRESHOLD OF SOUTH POLE 447 



through one of these and was only saved by his harness, and soon 

 after Adams and Shackleton had similar experiences. The glacier 

 they were ascending seemed everywhere seamed with cracks, many 

 of them probably a thousand or more feet deep. 



On and on they went, constantly beset with difficulties and fre- 

 quently with dangers. On December i/th the plateau they were 

 seeking here about 6,000 feet high came in sight, and their diffi- 

 culties seemed over. And here Wild found some geological speci- 

 mens that, on their return to the ship, proved to be coal. There 

 were several seams of this useful mineral, from four inches to eight 

 feet in thickness. Still on they marched, dragging their sledges and 

 ascending steadily, their food in time running so low that they had 

 to reduce themselves to nearly starvation rations. 



On January 6, 1909, they reached latitude 88 degrees 7 min- 

 utes south, and camped in a blizzard. For the next sixty hours 

 the wind blew with a speed of seventy to eighty miles an hour, while 

 the thermometer at times went down to 70 degrees below freezing 

 point. 



The situation was serious. To advance in the face of that wind 

 was impossible, and with their rapidly diminishing food supply it 

 was almost suicidal to venture farther. But on the 9th, when the 

 blizzard began to break, they made another desperate rush forward, 

 and at 9 A.M. reached latitude 88 degrees 23 minutes. Here the 

 British flag was hoisted. The end was reached, with the Pole only 

 one hundred and eleven miles away. Before them stretched still 

 the endless white plain which they had traversed so many days, and 

 they could but conclude that the South Pole was situated on this 

 immense plateau, more than ten thousand feet above the sea level. 

 A photograph of the party and of the floating flag was taken ; they 

 took possession of the plateau in the name of the British king; then 

 they turned their faces north again, having done all of which flesh 

 and blood was capable. 



With the return of Shackleton and his companions we shall deal 



