i 9 o 3 ] OUR WELCOME 93 



the unwonted luxury of clean raiment we sat at a feast which 

 realised the glories of our day-dreams ; how in the intervals of 

 chatter and gossip we scanned again the glad tidings of the 

 home-land ; and how at last in the comfort of our bunks, the 

 closely written sheets fluttered from our hands, and we sank 

 into the dreamless sleep of exhaustion ? 



It was a welcome home indeed, yet at the time to our worn 

 and dulled senses it appeared unreal : it seemed too good to 

 be true that all our anxieties had so completely ended, and that 

 rest for brain and limb was ours at last. 



And so our southern sledge journey came to an end on 

 February 3, 1903, when for ninety-three days we had plodded 

 with ever-varying fortune over a vast snow-field and slept 

 beneath the fluttering canvas of a tent. During that time we 

 had covered 960 statute miles, with a combination of success 

 and failure in our objects which I have endeavoured to set 

 forth in these pages. 



If we had not achieved such great results as at one time 

 we had hoped for, we knew at least that we had striven and 

 endured with all our might. 



