160 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [April 



for his death. In spite of the best feeding and every care he 

 had gradually sickened until he was too weak to stand, and in 

 this condition there had been no option but to put him out of 

 misery. Anton considers the death of Hackenschmidt to have 

 been an act of ' cussedness ' the result of a determination to 

 do no work for the Expedition ! ! Although the loss is serious 

 I remember doubts which I had as to whether this animal could 

 be anything but a source of trouble to us. He had been most diffi- 

 cult to handle all through, showing a vicious, intractable temper. 

 I had foreseen great difficulties with him, especially during the 

 early part of any journey on which he was taken, and this con- 

 sideration softened the news of his death. The dog had been 

 left behind in a very sick condition, and this loss was not a great 

 surprise. 



These items were the worst of the small budget of news 

 that awaited me; for the rest, the hut arrangements had worked 

 out in the most satisfactory manner possible and the scientific 

 routine of observations was in full swing. After our primitive 

 life at Cape Armitage it was wonderful to enter the precincts 

 of our warm, dry Cape Evans home. The interior space seemed 

 palatial, the light resplendent, and the comfort luxurious. It 

 was very good to eat in civilised fashion, to enjoy the first bath 

 for three months, and have contact with clean, dry clothing. 

 Such fleeting hours of comfort (for custom soon banished their 

 delight) are the treasured remembrance of every Polar traveller. 

 They throw into sharpest contrast the hardships of the past 

 and the comforts of the present, and for the time he revels in 

 the unaccustomed physical contentment that results. 



I was not many hours or even minutes in the hut before I 

 was haled round to observe in detail the transformation which 

 had taken place during my absence, and in which a very proper 

 pride was taken by those who had wrought it. 



Simpson's Corner was the first visited. Here the eye trav- 

 elled over numerous shelves laden with a profusion of self- 

 recording instruments, electric batteries and switchboards, whilst 

 the ear caught the ticking of many clocks, the gentle whir of 

 a motor and occasionally the trembling note of an electric bell. 

 But such sights and sounds conveyed only an impression of the 

 delicate methodical means by which the daily and hourly varia- 

 tions of our weather conditions were being recorded a mere 



