44Q WITH SCOTT: THE SILVER LINING 



there during January and February) as soon as the Terra Nova 

 could reach us. 



At Headquarters Simpson was completing his meteoro- 

 logical log — certainly the most valuable record of Antarctic 

 weather which has yet been obtained by any of the numerous 

 expeditions to the southern continent. Ponting was living 

 at Cape Royds, and obtaining many of his most successful 

 studies of animal life. 



To the south stretches the Great Ice Barrier, and some- 

 where off White Island a party of two men are doggedly 

 pursuing their homeward path. They are dragging a queer 

 contraption — a sledge burnt in half — and each night have 

 great difficulty in erecting their four-man tent. Neither Day 

 nor Hooper understands navigation, and their plight, if they 

 miss one of the old pony shelters, will be pitiable. They lie 

 up during a heavy blizzard, and then start off, desperate, 

 through the drifting snow. They arrive safely, and a few 

 days later, returning on their path, see their blindfold tracks 

 passing along the narrow ridge between two huge crevasses ! 



Another stage of some two hundred miles shows us, at 

 the foot of the Beardmore Glacier, a second supporting party, 

 which has just bidden farewell to Captain Scott. Meares, 

 with Demetri and the dog-teams, is proceeding north again 

 for his last journey on the Great Ice Barrier. For three 

 months he has been forwarding stores ahead of the pony 

 parties, and now the Pole party pushes on, unsupported by 

 ponies or dogs, on the two hardest stages to the Pole. 



Scott has just finished the hardest day's work he expe- 

 rienced on the ascent of the Beardmore. " A most damnably 

 dismal day," he calls it. Next day, the 14th — which is that 

 on which all the positions in the preceding figure have been 

 charted — they begin to reach better surfaces, and the three 

 parties, under Evans, Bowers, and the leader, swing along at 

 an encouraging rate. 



Far to the south — indeed, at the uttermost south — five 

 Norwegians have reached their goal : Amundsen, Bjaaland, 

 Hanssen, Hassel, and Wisting. After a few days' rest they 

 have verified their position, and made sure of the Pole by a 

 circular journey round the apparent site. And now they are 

 preparing to return to Framheim and the north. 



Prestrud, Amundsen's lieutenant, has just carried out his 



