INTRODUCTION XXXV 
of many mistakes in sledging equipment and routine. It is 
amazing to one who looks back upon these first efforts of 
the Discovery Expedition that the results were not more 
disastrous than was actually the case. When one reads of 
dog-teams which refused to start, of pemmican which was 
considered to be too rich to eat, of two officers discussing 
the ascent of Erebus and back in one day, and of sledging 
parties which knew neither how to use their cookers or 
lamp, nor how to put up their tents, nor even how to put 
on their clothes, then one begins to wonder that the pro- 
cess of education was gained at so small a price. “Not a 
single article of the outfit had been tested ; and amid the 
general ignorance that prevailed the lack of system was 
painfully apparent in everything.” } 
This led to a tragedy. A returning sledge party of 
men was overtaken bya blizzard on the top of the Penin- 
sula near Castle Rock. They quite properly camped, and 
should have been perfectly comfortable lying in their sleep- 
ing-bags after a hot meal. But the primus lamps could not 
be lighted, and as they sat in leather boots and inadequate 
clothing being continually frost-bitten they decided to leave 
the tent and make their way to the ship—sheer madness as 
we now know. As they groped their way in the howling 
snow-drift the majority of the party either slipped or rolled 
down a steep slippery snow slope some thousand feet high 
ending in a precipitous ice-cliff, below which lay the open 
sea. It is a nasty place on a calm summer day: in a bliz- 
zard it must be ghastly. Yet only one man, named Vince, 
shot down the slope and over the precipice into the sea 
below. How the others got back heaven knows. One sea- 
man called Hare, who separated from the others and lay 
down under a rock, awoke after thirty-six hours, covered 
with snow but in full possession of his faculties and free 
from frost-bites. The little cross at Hut Point commemo- 
rates the death of Vince. One of this party was a seaman 
called Wild, who came to the front and took the lead of 
five of the survivors after the death of Vince. He was to 
take the lead often in future expeditions under Shackleton 
1 Scott, Voyage of the Discovery, vol. i. p. 229. 
