THE POLAR JOURNEY 505 



rapid fall of temperature in January. The mean actual 

 temperature found on the plateau this year in December 

 was - 8.6°, the minimum observed being - 19.3 . Simp- 

 son remarks that " it must be accounted as one of the 

 wonders of the Antarctic that it contains a vast area of the 

 earth's surface where the mean temperature during the 

 warmest month is more than 8° below the Fahrenheit zero, 

 and when throughout the month the highest temperature 

 was only + 5.5 F." 1 But the mean temperature on the 

 plateau dropped io° in January to - 18.7 , the minimum 

 observed being - 29. 7 . These temperatures have to be 

 combined with the wind force described above to imagine 

 the conditions of the march. In the light of Scott's previous 

 plateau journey 2 and Shackleton's Polar Journey 3 this 

 wind was always expected by our advance parties. But 

 there can be no doubt that the temperature falls as solar 

 radiation decreases more rapidly than was generally sup- 

 posed. Scott probably expected neither such a rapid fall of 

 temperature, nor the very bad surfaces, though he knew 

 that the plateau would mean a trying time, and indeed it 

 was supposed that it would be much the hardest part of 

 the journey. 



On the night of January 15, Scott wrote " it ought to 

 be a certain thing now, and the only appalling possibility 

 the sight of the Norwegian flag forestalling ours." 4 They 

 were 27 miles from the Pole. 



The story of the next three days is taken from Wilson's 

 diary : 



"January 16. We got away at 8 a.m. and made 7.5 

 miles by 1.15, lunched, and then in 5.3 miles came on a 

 black flag and the Norwegians' sledge, ski, and dog tracks 

 running about N.E. and S.W. both ways. The flag was of 

 black buntingtiedwith string to a fore-and-after which had 

 evidently been taken off a finished-up sledge. The age of 

 the tracks was hard to guess but probably a couple of weeks 

 — or three or more. The flag was fairly well frayed at the 



1 Simpson, B.A.E., rgio-igij, " Meteorology," vol. i. p. 41. 



2 See pp. xxxviii-xxxix. 



3 See p. xlvii. 



4 Scott's Last Expedition, vol. i. p. 543. 



