374 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Sept. 



CHARTER XII 



THE SPRING JOURNEYS OF 1902 



Spring Sledging Plans — Start of Sledging Season — Parties Leave the Ship 

 — Submarine Ice — Start on Southern Reconnaissance — An Inopportune 

 Blizzard — Return to the Ship — Fresh Start — Journey to the Bluff — 

 Difficult Travelling — Placing the Depot — Rapid Return — Report of 

 Outbreak of Scurvy — Experiences of Western Party — Steps taken to 

 Combat the Disease— Some Remarks on the Nature of Scurvy — Causes 

 which may have Led to our Outbreak — Impossibility of Determining 

 its Exact Origin — Prospects of Future South Polar Expeditions in this 

 Respect. 



And the deed of high endeavour 



Was no more to the favoured few, 



But brain and heart were the measure 



Of what every man might do Renneix Rodd. 



Tired of the long winter's inaction, impatient to be away 

 on our travels, and anxious to submit our diligent preparations 

 to a practical test, we waited restlessly during the latter end 

 of August 1902 for the sun to achieve a sufficient altitude to 

 give us light for a reasonable proportion of the twenty-four 

 hours. So ignorant were we of our surroundings, and so 

 formidable appeared many of the obstacles which we could 

 view from our neighbouring heights, that it seemed desirable 

 to devote our first efforts principally to reconnaissance. 



In accordance with a plan which had long been conceived, 

 Armitage was to conduct a party to the west, and, travelling 

 light, was to explore the region of New Harbour and endeavour 

 to find some route whereby the inland ice might be reached 

 to the northward of that forbidding range of mountains which 

 faced the ship. It was realised that he would have to cross 



