I9I2] ALTERNATIVE BEFORE THE SEARCH PARTY 327 
more towards the return of liglit and usefulness, and 
preparations were started for the future sledging season. 
After dinner I called together the members and told them 
what I proposed to do in the coming season, stating the 
reasons and asking for their criticism. Two alternatives 
lay before us. One was to go south and try to discover 
the fate of Captain Scott's party. I thought it most 
likely that they had been lost in a crevasse on the Beard- 
more Glacier. Whether their bodies could be found or not, 
it was highly desirable to go even as far as the Upper 
Glacier Depot, nearly 600 miles from the base, in the hope 
of finding a note left in some depot which could tell 
whether they had fulfilled their task or turned back before 
reaching the Pole. On general grounds it was of great 
importance not to leave the record of the Expedition 
incomplete, with one of its most striking chapters a blank. 
The other alternative was to go west and north to 
relieve Campbell and his party, always supposing they 
had survived the winter. If they had come through the 
winter, every day of advancing summer would improve 
their chances of living on in Terra Nova Bay. At the 
same time there was good prospect of their being ulti- 
mately relieved by the ship, if indeed she had not taken 
them off in the autumn. As for ourselves, it seemed most 
improbable that we could journey up the coast owing to 
the abnormal state of the ice. Instead of being frozen 
for the winter, the whole Sound to the north and west of 
Inaccessible Island was open water during July ; the ice 
was driven out by the exceptionally strong and frequent 
winds, and there was little chance of a firm road forming 
