THE POLAR JOURNEY 377 



immense, and how annoying. The monotonous march : 

 the necessity to keep the mind concentrated to steer 

 amongst disturbances : the relief of a steady plod when 

 the disturbances cease for a time : then more pressure and 

 more crevasses. Always slog on, slog on. Always a fraction 

 of a mile more. . . . On December 30 he writes, "We 

 have caught up Shackleton's dates." * 



They made wonderful marches, averaging nearly fifteen 

 statute miles (13 geog.) a day for the whole-day marches 

 until the Second Return Party turned back on January 4. 

 Scott writes on December 26, " It seems astonishing to be 

 disappointed with a march of 15 (statute) miles when I had 

 contemplated doing little more than 10 with full loads." 2 



The Last Returning Party came back with the news 

 that Scott must reach the Pole with the greatest ease. This 

 seemed almost a certainty : and yet it was, as we know now, 

 a false impression. Scott's plans were based on Shackle- 

 ton's averages over the same country. The blizzard came 

 and put him badly behind : but despite this he caught 

 Shackleton up. No doubt the general idea then was that 

 Scott was going to have a much easier time than he had 

 expected. We certainly did not realize then, and I do 

 not think Scott himself had any notion of, the price which 

 had been paid. 



Of the three teams of four men each which started from 

 the bottom of the Beardmore, Scott's team was a very long 

 way the strongest : it was the team which, with one addi- 

 tion, went to the Pole. Lieutenant Evans' team had mostly 

 done a lot of man-hauling already : it was hungry and I 

 think a bit stale. Bowers' team was fresh and managed to 

 keep up for the most part, but it was very done at the end 

 of the day. Scott's own team went along with comparative 

 ease. From the top of the glacier two teams went on during 

 the last fortnight of which we have been speaking. The 

 first of them was Scott's unit complete, just as it had pulled 

 up the glacier. The second team consisted, I believe, of the 

 men whom Scott considered to be the strongest ; two from 

 Evans' team, and two from Bowers'. All Scott's team were 



1 Scott's Last Expedition, vol. i. p. 525. 2 Ibid. p. 521. 



