I9I2] AT THE POLE 



375 



priority. Well, it is something to have got here, and the wind 

 may be our friend to-morrow. We have had a fat Polar hoosh 

 in spite of our chagrin, and feel comfortable inside — added a 

 small stick of chocolate and the queer taste of a cigarette brought 

 by Wilson. Now for the run home and a desperate struggle. 

 I wonder if we can do it. 



Thursday morning, January i8. — ^Decided after summing up 

 all observations that we were 3-5 miles away from the Pole — 

 one mile beyond it and 3 to the right. More or less in this 

 direction Bowers saw a cairn or tent. 



We have just arrived at this tent, 2 miles from our camp, 

 therefore about i^ miles from the Pole. In the tent we find 

 a record of five Norwegians having been here, as follows: 



Roald Amundsen 

 Olav Olavson Bjaaland 

 Hilmer Hanssen 

 Sverre H. Hassel 

 Oscar Wisting. 



16 Dec. 191 1. 



The tent is fine — a small compact affair supported by a single 

 bamboo. A note from Amundsen, which I keep, asks me to for- 

 ward a letter to King Haakon! 



The following articles have been left in the tent: 3 half 

 bags of reindeer containing a miscellaneous assortment of mits 

 and sleeping socks, very various in description, a sextant, a Nor- 

 wegian artificial horizon and a hypsometer without boiling-point 

 thermometers, a sextant and hypsometer of English make. 



Left a note to say I had visited the tent with companions. 

 Bowers photographing and Wilson sketching. Since lunch we 

 have marched 6-2 miles S.S.E. by compass (i.e. northwards). 

 Sights at lunch gave us ^ to ^4 of a mile from the Pole, so 

 we call it the Pole Camp. (Temp. Lunch- 21°.) We built a 

 cairn, put up our poor slighted Union Jack, and photographed 

 ourselves — mighty cold work all of it — less than ]/> a mile 

 south we saw stuck up an old underrunner of a sledge. This 

 we commandeered as a yard for a floorcloth sail. I imagine 

 it was intended to mark the exact spot of the Pole as near as 

 the Norwegians could fix it. (Height 9500.) A note attached 

 talked of the tent as being 2 miles from the Pole. Wilson keeps 



