i9i2] FAREWELL LETTERS 413 



we stuck by dying companions and fought the thing out well to 

 the end. I think this will show that the Spirit of pluck and 

 power to endure has not passed out of our race. . . . 



Wilson, the best fellow that ever stepped, has sacrificed him- 

 self again and again to the sick men of the party. . . . 



I write to many friends hoping the letters will reach them 

 some time after we are found next year. 



We very nearly came through, and it's a pity to have missed 

 it, but lately I have felt that we have overshot our mark. No 

 one is to blame and I hope no attempt will be made to suggest 

 that we have lacked support. 



Good-bye to you and your dear kind wife. 



Yours ever sincerely, 



R. Scott. 



To Vice-Admiral Sir Francis Charles Bridgeman, 

 K.C.V.O., K.C.B. 



My dear Sir Francis, 



I fear we have shipped up; a close shave; I am writing a 

 few letters which I hope will be delivered some day. I want to 

 thank you for the friendship you gave me of late years, and to 

 tell you how extraordinarily pleasant I found it to serve under 

 you. I want to tell you that I was not too old for this job. It 

 was the younger men that went under first. . . . After all we 

 are setting a good example to our countrymen, if not by getting 

 into a tight place, by facing it like men when we were there. 

 We could have come through had we neglected the sick. 



Good-bye, and good-bye to dear Lady Bridgeman. 



Yours ever, 



R. Scott. 



Excuse writing it is - 40 , and has been for nigh a month. 



To Vice-Admiral Sir George le Clerc Egerton, K.C.B. 



My dear Sir George, 



I fear we have shot our bolt but we have been to Pole and 

 done the longest journey on record. 



I hope these letters may find their destination some day. 



Subsidiary reasons of our failure to return are due to the 



