THE SOUTH POLE 



CHAPTER I * 



THE HISTORY OF THE SOUTH POLE 



" Life is a ball 

 In the hands of chance." 



BRISBANE, 



QUEENSLAND, 



April 13, 1912. 



HERE I am, sitting in the shade of palms, surrounded 

 by the most wonderful vegetation, enjoying the most 

 magnificent fruits, and writing the history of the South 

 Pole. What an infinite distance seems to separate that 

 region from these surroundings! And yet it is only 

 four months since my gallant comrades and I reached 

 the coveted spot. 



I write the history of the South Pole! If anyone 

 had hinted a word of anything of the sort four or five 

 years ago, I should have looked upon him as incurably 

 mad. And yet the madman would have been right. 



* This retrospective chapter has here been greatly condensed, as the 

 ground is already covered, for English readers, by Dr. H. R. Mill's 

 " The Siege of the South Pole," Sir Ernest Shackleton's " The Heart 

 of the Antarctic," and other works. TR. 



VOL. I. 1 



