546 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



in search of the dead when there was a possibly living party 

 waiting in the ice somewhere for us to succour them. That 

 turned out all right, because when we got back, we found 

 Campbell's party self-extricated and waiting for us, alive 

 and well. But suppose they also had perished, what would 

 have been said of us ? 



The practical man of the world has plenty of criticism of 

 the way things were done. He says dogs should have been 

 taken; but he does not show how they could have been 

 got up and down the Beardmore. He is scandalized be- 

 cause 30 lbs. of geological specimens were deliberately 

 added to the weight of the sledge that was dragging the life 

 out of the men who had to haul it ; but he does not realize 

 that it is the friction surfaces of the snow on the runners 

 which mattered and not the dead weight, which in this case 

 was almost negligible. Nor does he know that these same 

 specimens dated a continent and may elucidate the whole 

 history of plant life. He will admit that we were all very 

 wonderful, very heroic, very beautiful and devoted: that 

 our exploits gave a glamour to our expedition that Amund- 

 sen's cannot claim ; but he has no patience with us, and 

 declares that Amundsen was perfectly right in refusing to 

 allow science to use up the forces of his men, or to interfere 

 for a moment with his single business of getting to the Pole 

 and back again. No doubt he was ; but we were not out 

 for a single business : we were out for everything we could 

 add to the world's store of knowledge about the Antarctic. 



Of course the whole business simply bristles with 

 " ifs " : If Scott had taken dogs and succeeded in getting 

 them up the Beardmore : if we had not lost those ponies 

 on the Depot Journey: if the dogs had not been taken so 

 far and the One Ton Depot had been laid: if a pony and 

 some extra oil had been depoted on the Barrier: if a four- 

 man party had been taken to the Pole : if I had disobeyed 

 my instructions and gone on from One Ton, killing dogs 

 as necessary: or even if I had just gone on a few miles 

 and left some food and fuel under a flag upon a cairn : if 

 they had been first at the Pole: if it had been any other 

 season but that. . . . But always the bare fact remains 



