1902] 49 



CHAPTER XIV 



RETURN FROM THE FAR SOUTH 



Result of Shortage of Food — Nature of the Coastline — Snow-blindness — 

 Approaching the Limit of our Journey — View to the South — New 

 Mountains — Blizzard at our Extreme South — Turning Homeward — 

 Attempt to Reach the Land — The Passing of our Dog Team — Help from 

 our Sail — Difficult Surfaces — Running before a Storm — Finding Depot 

 *B'— Scurvy Again- -Shackleton Becomes 111 — The Last of our Dog 

 Team— Bad Light for Steering — Anxious Days — Depot 'A' — Over- 

 eating — The Last Lap — Home Again — Our Welcome. 



How many weary steps 

 Of many weary miles you have o'ergone, 

 Are numbered to the travel of one mile. 



Shakespeare. 



* An' we talks about our rations and a lot of other things.' 



Kipling. 



Our Christmas Day had proved a delightful break in the 

 otherwise uninterrupted spell of semi-starvation. Some days 

 elapsed before its pleasing effects wore off, and for long it 

 remained green in our memories. We knew by this time that 

 we had cut ourselves too short in the matter of food, but it 

 was too late to alter our arrangements now without curtailing 

 our journey, and we all decided that, sooner than do the latter 

 we would cheerfully face the pangs that our too meagre fare 

 would cost. 



Looking back now on the incidents of this journey, the 

 original mistake is evident, and even at the time, apart from 

 the physical distress which it caused us, it is clear that we 

 suspected, what was indeed the case, that we were slowly but 



VOL. II. E 



