182 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Mar. 



and, at first, nothing near them but two dogs cosily coiled up 

 beneath the snow ; but later, as they circled round on their 

 ropes, they had providentially come on the three with whom 

 he had returned. Armitage had picked him to return because 

 his geological work had given him an exceptional knowledge of 

 the locality. 



An hour later the main search party returned; they had 

 done all that men could do in such weather. A completer 

 search was impossible, but it had to be admitted that the 

 chance of seeing Hare or Vince again was very small. Soon 

 after our whaler reappeared with her crew thoroughly ex- 

 hausted ; they had pulled easily whilst under the shelter of 

 the nearer hills, but as they proceeded to the north they had 

 come under the influence of heavy squalls which had driven 

 them away from the land. It was only with the most 

 strenuous exertion, and after hours of arduous struggling, that 

 inch by inch they had gradually been able to regain the 

 shelter of Hut Point, and so reach the ship. 



As we prepared to snatch some few hours of rest after the 

 anxieties of the night, we had sadly to realise the calamity that 

 had befallen us in what appeared to be the certain loss of two 

 of our comrades ; but as the details of the story were un- 

 folded, we could well appreciate that we had been almost 

 miraculously preserved from a far greater tragedy. It seemed 

 almost wonderful that the whole party had not disappeared, to 

 leave us only the terrible discovery of the abandoned sledges 

 or perhaps a frozen silent figure in the snow. Even now we 

 could not clearly understand how the officer of the party and 

 his two companions had been rescued ; all were too dazed to 

 complete their story on this woeful night. Later we learnt 

 that after hours of crouching beneath the boulder under Castle 

 Rock, they had heard the faint shriek of the syren. It had 

 revived their waning faculties, and they staggered once more 

 to their feet to make towards the welcome sound, and thus it 

 was that as they dragged themselves along they mercifully fell 

 into the arms of our sledge party. All three were badly 

 frost-bitten, and on the following day their ears, cheeks, and 



