THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



this amount spin out until the sledging commenced in 

 the following spring. I should certainly have liked more 

 coal, but the delays that had occurred in finding winter 

 quarters, and the difficulties encountered in landing the 

 stores had caused the Nimrod to be kept longer than I 

 had intended already. We gave our final letters and 

 messages to the crew of the last boat, and said good-bye. 

 Cotton, who had come south just for the trip, was among 

 them, and never had we a more willing worker. At 

 10 p.m. the Nimrod 3 's bows were pointed to the north, and 

 she was moving rapidly away from the winter quarters 

 with a fair wind. Within a month I hoped she would be 

 safe in New Zealand, and her crew enjoying a well-earned 

 rest. We were all devoutly thankful that the landing of 

 the stores had been finished at last, and that the state of 

 the sea would no longer be a factor in our work, but it 

 was with something of a pang that we severed our last 

 connection with the world of men. We could hope for 

 no word of news from civilisation until the Nimrod came 

 south again in the following summer, and before that we 

 had a good deal of difficult work to do, and some risks 

 to face. 



There was scant' time for reflection, even if we had 

 been moved that way. We turned in for a good night's 

 rest as soon as possible after the departure of the ship, 

 and the following morning we started digging the stores 

 out of the ice, and transporting everything to the 

 vicinity of the hut. It was necessary that the stores 

 should be close by the building, partly in order that there 

 might be no difficulty in getting what goods we wanted 

 during the winter, and partly because we would require 

 all the protection that we could get from the cold, and 

 the cases would serve to keep off the wind when piled 

 around our little dwelling. We hoped, as soon as the 

 stores had all been placed in position, to make a start 



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