448* SHACKLETON ON THRESHOLD OF SOUTH POLE 



far more briefly. They had simply to follow the path traversed in 

 going out, with a blizzard now blowing at their back and helping 

 them to the rapid progress of from twenty to twenty-nine miles 

 daily. Their ponies were all gone, the one that fell down the crevasse 

 being the last, and for a month they had been obliged to draw the 

 sledges by hand. On the return there was but one sledge to draw 

 and this became lightened by the gradual exhaustion of the food 

 supply. Several times on the return trip their food gave out, but in 

 each case they fortunately reached a food cache in good time to 

 restore it. Yet the continual dependence on horse meat produced 

 dysentery, which by February 4th prostrated the entire party. The 

 southern blizzard, however, continued to help them onward, and on 

 March 4th they succeeded in reaching the ship, which was now 

 awaiting them. The length of the entire journey, including relays, 

 was 1,708 miles and the time occupied 126 days. The results, in 

 addition to the polar record, were the discovery of coal measures, 

 the making of a complete meteorological record, and the discovery 

 of eight distinct mountain ranges and more than a hundred moun- 

 tains. 



Meanwhile the party sent in search of the Magnetic Pole had 

 succeeded in locating it in the vicinity of latitude 70 degrees 25 min- 

 utes south, longitude 15 degrees 4 minutes east. The "Nimrod" had 

 reached the camp in time to meet the two parties^on their return, and 

 they soon set out for home. On the voyage northward they discov- 

 ered a new range of coast mountains on what was apparently an 

 extension of Victoria Land towards Wilkes Land. Thus the dis- 

 puted discovery of Captain Wilkes was confirmed. Shackleton had 

 blazed a track to the vicinity of the South Pole, which cannot remain 

 much longer a terra incognita. 



*NOTE. The numerous illustrations inserted in this book are not included in this 

 count of pages. By adding number of their pages to the above folio, 448, the volume 

 will be found to contain more than 500 pages. 



