EXPLORING THE GREAT CONTINENT 



useless and could barely stagger eight miles a day; in 

 fact, they ''walked alongside the sledges." Scott had 

 difficulty in picking up their depot, which, however, was 

 attained on January 13th. The last two dogs (out of 

 nineteen) were killed near here as they were unable to 

 pull. Shackleton's scurvy became rapidly worse and 

 on January i8th his strength gave out and he was un- 

 able to help, and indeed for a time was dragged on the 

 sledge. However, on the twentieth they reached the 

 depot at Minna Bluff (78° 45'). Shackleton was now 

 very ill, but Scott and Wilson managed to bring him 

 back to the ship, which they reached on February 2nd. 

 They had covered 960 miles in 93 days. 



Meanwhile the western party under Armitage left 

 on November 29th to penetrate the mountains (see 

 Figure 8). They ascended the Blue Glacier to six 

 thousand feet and then glissaded down Descent Pass 

 to a level of two thousand feet on the Ferrar Glacier. 

 Then they ascended the latter glacier below wonderful 

 cliffs, which it was my privilege to examine in detail 

 eight years later. On the twenty-third of December 

 they reached the ice divide between the two apposed 

 glaciers, the Ferrar Glacier in the southern valley and 

 Taylor Glacier in the northern valley. Continuing up 

 the Taylor Glacier, they reached the Plateau on New 

 Year's Day at a height of 7,500 feet, being the first 

 to achieve this feat. In January, 1903, they reached 

 nine thousand feet (near latitude 78, longitude 158) 

 and then returned by the same laborious route up 

 Descent Pass, not knowing that an easy track down the 

 Ferrar Glacier lay before them. 



37 



