THE BARRIER SILENCE 



THE Silence was deep with a breath like sleep 



As our sledge runners slid on the snow, 

 But the fate-full fall of our fur-clad feet 



Struck mute like a silent blow 

 On a questioning " Hush ? " as the settling crust 



Shrank shivering over the floe. 

 And a voice that was thick from a soul that seemed sick 



Came back from the Barrier ; * Go ! 

 For the secrets hidden are all forbidden 



Till God means man to know.' 

 And this was the thought that the silence wrought, 



As it scorched and froze us through, 

 That we were the men God meant should know 



The heart of the Barrier snow, 

 By the heat of the sun, and the glow 



And the glare from the glistening floe, 

 As it scorched and froze us through and through 



With the bite of the drifting snow. 



These verses were written by Dr. Wilson for the South Polar Timts. It was char- 

 acteristic of the man that he sent them in typewritten, lest the editor should recognise'his 

 hand and judge them on personal rather than literary grounds. Many of their readers 

 confess that they felt in these lines Wilson's own premonition of the event. 



