THE LAST WINTER 443 



would not allow of our sending a second party to relieve 

 Campbell. 



It was with all this in our minds that we sat down one 

 evening in the hut to decide what was to be done. The 

 problem was a hard one. On the one hand we might go 

 south, fail entirely to find any trace of the Polar Party, and 

 while we were fruitlessly travelling all the summer Camp- 

 bell's men might die for want of help. On the other hand 

 we might go north, to find that Campbell's men were safe, 

 and as a consequence the fate of the Polar Party and the 

 result of their efforts might remain for ever unknown. Were 

 we to forsake men who might be alive to look for those 

 whom we knew were dead ? 



These were the points put by Atkinson to the meeting 

 of the whole party. He expressed his own conviction that 

 we should go south, and then each member was asked 

 what he thought. No one was for going north : one 

 member only did not vote for going south, and he pre- 

 ferred not to give an opinion. Considering the complexity 

 of the question, I was surprised by this unanimity. We pre- 

 pared for another Southern Journey. 



It is impossible to express and almost impossible to 

 imagine how difficult it was to make this decision. Then 

 we knew nothing : now we know all. And nothing is 

 harder than to realize in the light of facts the doubts which 

 others have experienced in the fog of uncertainty. 



Our winter routine worked very smoothly. Inside the 

 hut we had a good deal more room than we needed, but 

 this allowed of certain work being done in its shelter which 

 would otherwise have had to be done outside. For instance 

 we cut a hole through the floor of the dark-room, and 

 sledged in some heavy boulders of kenyte lava : these were 

 frozen solidly into the rock upon which the hut was built 

 by the simple method of pouring hot water over them, and 

 the pedestal so formed was used by Wright for his pendu- 

 lum observations. I was able to skin a number of birds in 

 the hut ; which, incidentally, was a very much colder place 

 in consequence of the reduction in our numbers. 



The wind was most turbulent during this winter. 



