CHAPTER X 



* 



the polar journey {continued) 



The Southern Journey involves the most important object of the 

 Expedition. . . . One cannot affect to be blind to the situation : the 

 scientific public, as well as the more general public, will gauge the result of 

 the scientific work of the Expedition largely in accordance with the success 

 or failure of the main object. With success all roads will be made easy, all 

 work will receive its proper consideration. With failure even the most 

 brilliant work may be neglected and forgotten, at least for a time. — Scott. 



II. The Beardmore Glacier 



The ponies had dragged twenty-four weekly units of food 

 for four men to some five miles from the bottom of the 

 glacier, but we were late. For some days we had been 

 eating the Summit ration, that is the food which should 

 not have been touched until the Glacier Depot had been 

 laid, and we were still a day's run from the place where this 

 was to be done : it was of course the result of the blizzard 

 which no one could have expected in December, usually 

 one of the two most settled months. Still more serious was 

 the deep snow which lay like down upon the surface, and 

 into which we sank commonly to our knees, our sledges 

 digging themselves in until the crosspieces were plough- 

 ing through the drift. Shackleton had fine weather, and 

 found blue ice in the bottom reaches of the glacier, and 

 Scott lamented what was unquestionably bad luck. 



It was noon of December 10 before we had made the 

 readjustments necessary for man-hauling. We left here 

 pony meat for man and dog food, three ten-foot sledges, 

 one twelve-foot sledge, and a good many oddments of 



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