INTRODUCTION xl vii 
of the wind, returned and the Discovery floated off with 
little damage. The whole story of the release from the ice 
and subsequent grounding of the Discovery is wonderfully 
told by Scott in his book. 
Some years after this I met Wilson in a shooting lodge 
in Scotland. He was working upon grouse disease for the 
Royal Commission which had been appointed, and I saw 
then for the first time something of his magnetic person- 
ality and glimpses also of his methods of work. He and 
Scott both meant to go back and finish the job, and I then 
settled that when they went I would go too if wishing 
could do anything. Meanwhile Shackleton was either in 
the South or making his preparations to go there. 
He left England in 1908, and in the following Antarc- 
tic summer two wonderful journeys were made. The first, 
led by Shackleton himself, consisted of four men and four 
ponies. Leaving Cape Royds, where the expedition win- 
tered in a hut, in November, they marched due south on 
the Barrier outside Scott’s track until they were stopped 
by the eastward trend of the range of mountains, and by 
the chaotic pressure caused by the discharge of a Brob- 
dingnagian glacier. 
But away from the main stream of the glacier, and sepa- 
rated from it by land now known as Hope Island, was a 
narrow and steep snow slope forming a gateway which 
opened on to the main glacier stream. Boldly plunging 
through this, the party made its way up the Beardmore 
Glacier, a giant of its kind, being more than twice as 
large as any other known. The history of their adventures 
will make anybody’s flesh creep. From the top they tray- 
elled due south toward the Pole under the trying con- 
ditions of the plateau and reached the high latitude of 
88° 23’ S. before they were forced to turn by lack of food. 
While Shackleton was essaying the geographical Pole 
another party of three men under Professor David reached 
the magnetic Pole, travelling a distance of 1260 miles, of 
which 740 miles were relay work, relying entirely on man- 
haulage, and with no additional help. This was a very 
wonderful journey, and when Shackleton returned in 1909 
