EXPLORING THE GREAT CONTINENT 



of the great Koettlitz Glacier. Here a subglacial stream 

 twenty-five miles long was surveyed. We sledged back 

 round the breaking Barrier to the old 1902 hut at Cape 

 Armitage, where we arrived a week later than the 

 depot party. Here the two parties were held up by 

 open water from March 15th till April nth, when we 

 managed to find a route free from crevasses along the 

 slopes of Erebus to Glacier Tongue, and so reached 

 Cape Evans on April 13th (see Figure 8). 



The outstanding feature of the winter was the jour- 

 ney of Wilson, Bowers, and Cherry-Garrard to obtain 

 data as to the evolution of those primitive birds, the 

 emperor penguins. These lay their eggs in midwinter 

 at Cape Crozier, and the party spent five weeks under 

 almost unbearable conditions with the objective of ob- 

 taining the eggs. Their only light was either from the 

 moon or from a special candle lamp. The temper- 

 ature fell to —77° F. and was constantly below 

 —60°. Their tent and gear were blown away in a 

 furious blizzard and much of it lost. It was so cold 

 that for weeks they were unable to obtain proper sleep, 

 and at the end dozed while marching. Well has this 

 been termed the ''Worst Journey in the World." 



On the thirty-first of October, 191 1, in the second 

 summer, Scott left Cape Evans on his last journey. 

 He had to traverse some nine hundred miles to the 

 Pole, of which three hundred and fifty miles lay at an 

 elevation of nearly ten thousand feet above sea level. 

 Another one hundred and fifty miles was expended in 

 ascending the Beardmore Glacier, while four hundred 

 and twenty miles was on the Ross Ice Shelf near sea 



55 



