INTRODUCTION xlv 
order that fluid solutions might be handy for the various 
stages of its preparation; for it must be borne in mind that 
the temperature all the while may be anything between 
zero and — 50° F. The whole work no doubt would be 
full of difficulty, but it would not be quite impossible, and 
it is with a view to helping those to whom the opportunity 
may occur in future that this outline has been added of 
the difficulties that would surely beset their path.”’} 
We shall meet the Emperor penguins again, but now 
we must go back to the Discovery, lying off Hut Point, 
with the season advancing and twenty miles of ice between 
her and the open sea. The prospects of getting out this 
year seeming almost less promising than those of the last 
year, an abortive attempt was made to saw a channel from 
a half-way point. Still, life to Scott and Wilson in a tent 
at Cape Royds was very pleasant after sledging, and the 
view of the blue sea framed in the tent door was very 
beautiful on a morning in January when two ships sailed 
into the frame. Why two? One was of course the Morn- 
ing ; the second proved to be the Terra Nova. 
It seemed that the authorities at home had been alarmed 
at the reports brought back the previous year by the relief 
ship of the detention of the Discovery and certain out- 
breaks of scurvy which had occurred both on the ship and 
on sledge journeys. To make sure of relief two ships had 
beensent. That was nothing to worry about, but the orders 
they brought were staggering to sailors who had come to 
love their ship “with a depth of sentiment which cannot 
be surprising when it is remembered what we had been 
through in her and what a comfortable home she had 
proved.’”’? Scott was ordered to abandon the Discovery if 
she could not be freed in time to accompany the relief 
ships to the north. For weeks there was little or no daily 
change. They started to transport the specimens and make 
the other necessary preparations. They almost despaired 
of freedom. Explosions in the ice were started in the be- 
ginning of February with little effect. But suddenly there 
1 Wilson, Nat. Ant. Exp., rg01—-1904, “ Zoology,” Part ii. p. 31. 
2 Scott, Voyage of the Discovery, vol. ii. p. 327. 
