xxxvil WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
Sound, and on this date the Morning left. By March 13 
all hope of the Discovery being freed that year was aban- 
doned. 
The second winter passed much as the first, and as soon 
as spring arrived sledging was continued. These spring 
journeys on the Barrier, with sunlight only by day and low 
temperatures at all times, entailed great discomfort and, 
perhaps worse, want of sleep, frost-bites, and a fast accu- 
mulation of moisture in all one’s clothing and in the sleep- 
ing-bags, which resulted in masses of ice which had to be 
thawed out by the heat of one’s body before any degree 
of comfort could be gained. A fortnight was considered 
about the extreme limit of time for such a journey, and 
generally parties were not absent so long; for at this time 
a spring journey was considered a dreadful experience. 
“Wait till you’ve had a spring journey” was the threat 
of the old stagers to us. A winter journey lasting nearly 
three times as long as a spring journey was not imagined. 
I advise explorers to be content with imagining it in the 
future. 
The hardest journey of this year was carried out by 
Scott with two seamen of whom much will be written in 
this history. Their names are Edgar Evans and Lashly. 
The object of the journey was to explore westwards into the 
interior of the plateau. By way of the Ferrar Glacier they 
reached the ice-cap after considerable troubles, not the 
least of which was the loss of the data necessary for navi- 
gation contained in an excellent publication called Hints 
to Travellers, which was blown away. Then for the first 
time it was seen what additional difficulties are created by 
the climate and position of this lofty plateau, which we 
now know extends over the Pole and probably reaches over 
the greater part of the Antarctic continent. It was the be- 
ginning of November: that is, the beginning of summer ; 
but the conditions of work were much the same as those 
found during the spring journeys on the Barrier. The tem- 
perature dropped into the minus forties; but the worst 
feature of all was a continuous head-wind blowing from 
west to east which combined with the low temperature and 
