THE DEPOT JOURNEY 129 
Amundsen and his men in some undefined fashion or other 
there and then. Such a mood could not and did not bear 
a moment’s reflection; but it was natural enough. We 
had just paid the first instalment of the heart-breaking 
labour of making a path to the Pole; and we felt, however 
unreasonably, that we had earned the first right of way. 
Our sense of co-operation and solidarity had been wrought 
up to an extraordinary pitch; and we had so completely 
forgotten the spirit of competition that its sudden intrusion 
jarred frightfully. I do not defend our burst of rage—for 
such it was—I simply record it as an integral human part 
of my narrative. It passed harmlessly ; and Scott’s ac- 
count proceeds as follows: 
“One thing only fixes itself definitely in my mind. 
The proper, as well as the wiser, course for us is to proceed 
exactly as though this had not happened. To go forward 
and do our best for the honour of the country without fear 
or panic. There is no doubt that Amundsen’s plan is a 
very serious menace to ours. He has a shorter distance to 
the Pole by 60 miles—I never thought he could have got 
so many dogs safely to the ice. His plan of running them 
seems excellent. But, above and beyond all, he can start 
his journey early in the season—an impossible condition 
with ponies.” } 
We read that on leaving McMurdo Sound the Terra 
Nova coasted eastward along the Barrier face, with Camp- 
bell and his men who were to be landed on King Edward 
VII.’s Land if possible. She surveyed the face of the 
Barrier as she went from Cape Crozier to longitude 170° 
W., whence she shaped a course direct for Cape Colbeck, 
which Priestley states in his diary “is only 200 feet high 
according to our measurement and looks uncommonly like 
common or garden Barrier.” 
Here they met heavy pack, and were forced to return 
without finding any place where the cliff was low enough 
to allow Campbell and his five men to land. They coasted 
1 Scort’s Last Expedition, vol. i. pp. 187-188. Scott started for the Pole on Novem- 
ber 1, 1911. Amundsen started on September 8, rg11, but had to turn back owing to low 
temperatures ; he started again on October 19. 
K 
