1904] UNWELCOME NEWS 243 



surprising when it is remembered what we had been through 

 in her and what a comfortable home she had proved in all the 

 rigours of this Southern region. 



In spite of our long detention in the ice, the thought of 

 leaving her had never entered our heads. Throughout the 

 second winter we had grown ever more assured that she would 

 be freed if we had the patience to wait ; we could not bring 

 ourselves to believe — and, as events proved, quite rightly — that 

 the ice-sheet about us was a permanency. When the end of 

 December came and we still found twenty miles between us 

 and the open sea, we had small fits of depression such as my 

 diary showed ; but, as is also shown, they did not interfere 

 with the healthy, happy course of our lives, and any one of us 

 would have scouted the idea that hope should be abandoned. 

 We had felt that at the worst this only opened up for us the 

 prospect of a third winter, and we had determined that if we 

 had to go through with it, it would not be our fault if we were 

 not comfortable. 



It was from this easy and passably contented frame of mind 

 that we were rudely awakened. The situation we were now 

 obliged to face was that if the twenty-mile plain of ice refused 

 to break up within six weeks, we must bid a long farewell to 

 our well-beloved ship and return to our homes as castaways 

 with the sense of failure dominating the result of our labours. 

 And so with the advent of the relief ships there fell on the 

 * Discovery ' the first and last cloud of gloom which we were 

 destined to experience. As day followed day without improve- 

 ment in the ice conditions, the gloom deepened until our faces 

 grew so long that one might well have imagined an Antarctic 

 expedition to be a very woeful affair. 



As we were very human also, it may be confessed that not 

 a little of our discontent arose from wounded vanity. By this 

 time we considered ourselves very able to cope with any situa- 

 tion that might arise, and believed that we were quite capable 

 of looking after ourselves. It was not a little trying, therefore, 

 to be offered relief to an extent which seemed to suggest that 

 we had been reduced to the direst need. No healthy man 



R 2 



