244 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Jan. 



likes to be thought an invalid, and there are few of us who 

 have not at some time felt embarrassed by an excess of con- 

 sideration for our needs. 



Although the month that followed the arrival of the reliet 

 ships was on the whole a very dismal one, it was by no means 

 uneventful ; in fact, it was a season which displayed the most 

 extraordinary ups and down in our fortunes, and therefore I 

 take up the tale once more with extracts from my diary : 



^Ja?iuary 7. — I write again in camp at Cape Royds, where 

 I have joined Wilson to get some quiet in order to read my 

 letters and consider the situation. I don't know in what state 

 the relief ships expected to find us, but I think they must 

 have soon appreciated that we were very much alive. The 

 messages I sent back to the "Discovery" on the 5th were 

 carried at such speed that by 10 p.m. the dog team arrived at 

 the ice-edge. This meant that my orders had been conveyed 

 forty miles in twelve hours. Early the next morning the first 

 sledge team of men arrived and departed with a large load of 

 parcels and presents. These by arrangement were taken to 

 the main camp, whence another party took them to the ship, 

 and so our friends saw teams of our distressful company 

 coming north with a swinging march, appearing on board with 

 very brown faces and only waiting for their sledges to be loaded 

 before they vanished over the horizon again. The number of 

 parcels sent by our kind friends in England and New Zealand 

 is enormous, but as one cannot tell what each contains till the 

 owner opens it, I decided to send all. 



' Conditions at the ice-edge have been absolutely quiescent, 

 the weather calm and bright, and the loose pack coming and 

 going with the tide ; not a single piece has broken away from 

 the main sheet. I asked Colbeck to start his people on an 

 ice-saw to give them an idea of what the work was like ; a 

 single day was quite enough for them. MacKay suggested 

 that he should get up a full head of steam and attempt to 

 break the ice up by ramming, or, as he says, "butting" it. 

 He has little hope of success, but points out that the *' Terra 

 Nova " is a powerful steamer, and may accomplish something ; 



