INTRODUCTION 



The great adventure of Scott's last expedition has been given 

 to the world in the faithful simplicity of the leader's own 

 words, as they were set down from day to day. His diaries 

 were but the basis of the book that should have been written. 

 We have not the half of what he could have told us. But in 

 another sense, that half is greater than the whole. Here 

 stand first impressions, not retouched : the ebb and flow of 

 his hopes and fears, the lights and shadows of the moment, 

 never reviewed in later perspective after the event ; thumb- 

 nail sketches of character, vividly set down ; notes of the 

 day which reveal his spirit entering into the spirit of his 

 men : and at the end, the singleness of heart that could give 

 all and accept all for one high purpose. I have often liked 

 to think — surely it is true — that the universal thrill awakened 

 by his example strung up the soul of the nation unawares for 

 the great call so soon to be made upon it. 



The other half of the picture has been partly filled in. 

 Others have given the history of outlying explorations with 

 their tale of human resource and endurance ; they have 

 recorded scientific results or described special branches of 

 natural history in the Antarctic. Something, however, is still 

 left to be told. No one will forget Captain Scott's almost 

 incredulous delight at the goodwill and harmony of his little 

 company under the trying conditions of Ross Island. It is 

 for Mr. Griffith Taylor to tell of the daily life of that 

 company from within, to tell in careless detail its lighthearted 

 cheerfulness lining solid effort, which the cloud of English 

 earnestness so constantly turns out upon the night. 



The " other side of the shield " is too often a byword for 

 irreconcilable contradictions. It is not so here. The reader 



