198 SCOTT’S LAST EXPEDITION 
accidents of importance.’ Also that they had not been able to 
communicate with Cape Evans until a week before, and had been 
unloading stores every available moment before they came over 
to search for us. And then the world’s news at first hearing made 
us feel safer in the Antarctic. ‘The disruption of China, the 
Franco-German-English trouble in Morocco, the Italians and 
Turks in Tripoli, and the great strikes in England. We had 
missed an eventful year during our sojourn in the peaceful re- 
gions of the South. 
It was no easy business reaching the ship. The sea ice was 
rapidly breaking up, and moving off to the northward in great 
rectangular fragments. Finally the ship butted a cake of floe 
towards the fixed ice and held it there long enough to get the 
sledge over. 
Once on board we made a dive for our mail. A pillow case 
full for each of us, and all home news satisfactory. 
We had been picked up just a month later than the date fixed 
by Captain Scott. We were now only a few hours’ sail from 
Cape Evans, and looked forward to a change and the comforts 
of the hut. But the blizzard we had been watching caught us 
and was succeeded by many others, and not for ten days did we 
get near the hut. In fact, during the ensuing three weeks there 
were only three hours in which we could get into touch with 
headquarters, before we turned our faces to the north. 
So ends my narrative. During the six months that we had 
spent sledging we had mapped a hundred miles of coast and 
hinterland, our detailed surveys extending in places over thirty 
miles from the sea. Our general scientific results are briefly de- 
scribed in the final chapters of the book. All our collections were 
safely brought back to England in the Terra Nova in 1913. 
What is the best personal result of our sledge journeys? A 
group of friends who are closer than brothers. Here’s luck to 
my mates—to Debenham, Wright, and Gran! 
GRIFFITH TAYLOR. 
