THE POLAR JOURNEY 531 



until they must have wondered, each man in his heart, 

 whether in such case a human being could be left to die, 

 that four men might live. He died a natural death and 

 they went out on to the Barrier. 



Given such conditions as were expected, and the condi- 

 tions for which preparation had been made, they would have 

 come home alive and well. Some men say the weather was 

 abnormal : there is some evidence that it was. The fact re- 

 mains that the temperature dropped into the minus thirties 

 by day and the minus forties by night. The fact also re- 

 mains that there was a great lack of southerly winds, and 

 in consequence the air near the surface was not being 

 mixed : excessive radiation took place, and a layer of cold 

 air formed near the ground. Crystals also formed on the 

 surface of the snow and the wind was not enough to sweep 

 them away. As the temperature dropped so the surface for 

 the runners of the sledges became worse, as I explained 

 elsewhere. 1 They were pulling as it were through sand. 



In the face of the difficulties which beset them their 

 marches were magnificent : 1 1\ miles on February 25 and 

 again on the following day : 12.2 miles on February 27, 

 and 11^ miles again on February 28 and 29. If they could 

 have kept this up they would have come through without 

 a doubt. But I think it was about now that they suspected, 

 and then were sure, that they could not pull through. 

 Scott's diary, written at lunch, March 2, is as follows: 



" Misfortunes rarely come singly. We marched to the 

 [Middle Barrier] depot fairly easily yesterday afternoon, 

 and since that have suffered three distinct blows which 

 have placed us in a bad position. First, we found a shortage 

 of oil ; with most rigid economy it can scarce carry us to 

 the next depot on this surface [71 miles away]. Second, 

 Titus Oates disclosed his feet, the toes showing very bad 

 indeed, evidently bitten by the late temperatures. The 

 third blow came in the night, when the wind, which we 

 had hailed with some joy, brought dark overcast weather. 

 It fell below - 40 in the night, and this morning it took 

 1 \ hours to get our toot-gear on, but we got away before 



1 See note at end of Chapter XIV. 



