59-' 



REVIEW OF REVIEWS. 



small glistening eyes and their terrible 

 array of teeth, by far the most terrifying 

 and longest in the world." These beasts 

 run to twenty feet and more in length. 

 Some of them, seeing a couple of dogs 

 and Ponting, the photographer, on a floe, 

 actually dived beneath it, and heaved 

 it up, splitting it into fragments. As it 

 was 2\ ft. thick, this gives some idea of 

 their strength. Man and dogs had a 

 narrow squeak. These gruesome deni- 

 zens of the Antarctic Seas appear to 

 have been always at hand to snap up a 

 dog falling into a crack in the ice, or 

 to devour a hapless pony lost amid the 

 floes. 



" WEARY WILLY'S " SNOWSHOES. 

 From Captain Scott's narrative, it 

 would appear that dogs get along much 

 more rapidly than the ponies. The 

 great drawback of these was the ease 

 with which they sank into the soft snow. 

 Horse shoes were tried on the quietest 

 pony, called " Weary Willy," with such 

 success that others w^ere sent for from 

 the headquarters at Cape Evans, twenty 

 miles away. The ice had broken up, 

 though, and none could be got, as Cape 

 Evans could not bei reached. This was 

 a severe handicap on the journey to 

 establish a depot thirteen days south of 

 the main camp. The party travelled at 

 night, and slept during the day. The 

 pony section went first, the dog teams 

 started an hour later, but caught up the 

 ponies at the half-march rest. 



"TEARING, FIGHTING DEVILS." 

 The dogs, directly food was in their 

 thoughts, fought furiously on the 

 slightest provocation, " a quiet, peace- 

 able team, with wagging tails one 

 moment, and the next a set of raging, 

 tearing, fighting devils." Hunger and 

 fear are the only realities in dog life, and 

 an empty stomach makes a fierce dog. 

 One day, near the end of the outward 

 march, the pony, " Weary Willy," had 

 lagged behind ; and, being tired, slipped 

 and fell. A dog team was just coming 

 up. The instant they saw him fall, they 

 dashed at him, regardless of control. 

 " Weary Willy " made a gallant fight 

 for it, biting and shaking some of the 

 dogs with his teeth, but getting much 

 bitten himself, though by good hap not 

 seriously. At last the men beat them 

 off, breaking ski sticks and stearing- 



stick, yet the dogs were so tough that 

 they got off uninjured. 



SCOTT LEARNS OF AMUNDSEN. 



On the return from laying the farthest 

 depot, one of the dog teams fell into a 

 crevasse, and was only rescued after 

 tremendous efforts, Captain Scott hav- 

 ing to be lowered some sixty-five feet 

 down it to bring up the last two. When 

 the party reached Safety Camp they 

 learned that two ponies had died, and 

 also got news that Amundsen had been 

 found established m the Bay of Whales 

 — 126 miles nearer to the Pole than 

 Scott's station, with many dogs, ready 

 to start his dash for the South Pole at 

 an earlier date than ponies could set 

 out. " This knowledge," says Mr. Leo- 

 nard Huxley, in Everybody's, " might 

 have hurried a smaller man into staking 

 success upon a rival dash with dogs 

 only ; but Scott resolved to adhere to 

 the plans he had so carefully thought 

 out, and proceed exactly as if this had 

 not happened." This should dispel any 

 lingering doubts that the disaster which 

 overwhelmed Scott and his companions 

 was in any way due to an attempt to 

 reach the Pole earlier than originally 

 arranged before Amundsen came on the 

 scene. 



A SERIES OF MISFORTUNES. 



Misfortune crowded thick and fast 

 on the de\ oted men. " Weary Willy " 

 collapsed and died, ice broke up, and 

 ponies, men, and dogs drifted towards 

 the sea. The men were saved, but two 

 more ponies were lost. The weather 

 seemed to have conspired against them, 

 and it was soon evident that ponies lose 

 condition badly in a blizzard. " This," 

 runs a fatal entry, " makes a late start 

 necessary for next year." 



The next instalment, which the 5/r^«^ 

 has already published in England, deals 

 chiefly with the winter quarters at Cape 

 Evans, with Dr. Wilson's terrible jour- 

 ney, and with the start on the fateful 

 march to the Pole. Every reference to 

 Oates reminds one of that self-sacrific- 

 ing act when the " gallant gentleman " 

 walked out into the night to die ; when 

 Wilson is mentioned, or Bowers, we 

 cannot but think of them buried amid 

 the ice and the snow. To read these 

 manly lines of Scott is indeed a rather 

 trying experience. 



