lxiv WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
taking the book off their hands; for it was clear that what 
I had written was not what is expected from a Committee, — 
even though no member may disapprove of a word of it. — 
A proper Official Narrative presented itself to our imagina- — 
tions and sense of propriety as a quarto volume, uniform — 
with the scientific reports, dustily invisible on Museum 
shelves, and replete with—in the words of my Commission 
—‘‘times of starting, hours of march, ground and weather ~ 
conditions,”’ not very useful as material for future Ant- — 
arcticists, and in no wise effecting any catharsis of the 
writer’s conscience. I could not pretend that I had ful- 
filled these conditions ; and so I decided to take the un- — 
divided responsibility on my own shoulders. None the — 
less the Committee, having given me access to its informa- — 
tion, is entitled to all the credit of a formal Official Narra- | 
tive, without the least responsibility for the passages which 
I have studied to make as personal in style as possible, so — 
that no greater authority may be attached to them than I 
deserve. 
I need hardly add that the nine years’ delay in the ap- 
pearance of my book was caused by the war. Before I had — 
recovered from the heavy overdraft made on my strength ~ 
by the expedition I found myself in Flanders looking after — 
a fleet of armoured cars. A war is like the Antarctic in one ~ 
respect. There is no getting out of it with honour as long 
as you can put one foot before the other. I came back 
badly invalided ; and the book had to wait accordingly. 
as 
