RECENT EXPEDITIONS TO THE ANTARCTIC 



The last chapter of this Antarctic epic deals with 

 Shackleton's gallant efforts to relieve the twenty-two 

 men on Elephant Island. After trying unsuccessfully to 

 reach them in the steel whaler ''Southern Sky" from 

 South Georgia, he made two other equally unsuccessful 

 efforts from the Falkland Islands and from Puntas 

 Arenas. At last the ''Yelcho'* succeeded on August 

 30th, 1 91 6, finding Wild's party with only four days' 

 supply of food in hand. 



The Ross Sea party under Captain Macintosh left 

 Hobart on December 24th, 191 4. Their main object 

 was to lay a large depot at 83° S. for the benefit of 

 Shackleton should he succeed in crossing the Antarctic 

 continent. They reached MacMurdo Sound on Janu- 

 ary 1 6th. After some short journeys to the south, ten 

 men united at Cape Evans on June 2nd to spend the 

 winter there. Early in October they started to lay 

 the main depots to the foot of the Beardmore Glacier 

 (see Figure 6). On the twenty-sixth of January they 

 reached the site of the final depot and here came across 

 some of Scott's sledges. Early on the return Spencer- 

 Smith's condition became alarming, while Macintosh 

 was so weak he had to be dragged on the sledge. Later 

 Hayward also became affected badly by scurvy. On 

 March 9th Smith died and was buried on the Barrier, 

 and two days later they reached the 1902 hut on Mac- 

 Murdo Sound. They marched 1,561 miles between' 

 September ist and March i8th, which is a wonderful 

 performance under Antarctic conditions. 



On May 8th Macintosh and Hayward tried to cross 

 the young sea-ice to the main (1910) hut at Cape 



71 



