ACROSS SOUTH GEORGIA 
the upland, Down through icy water we followed the course 
of this stream. We were wet to the waist, shivering, cold, and 
tired. Presently oiu: ears detected an unwelcome sound that 
might have been musical under other conditions. It was the 
splashing of a waterfall, and we were at the wrong end. When 
we reached the top of this fall we peered over cautiously and 
discovered that there was a drop of 25 or 30 ft., with impassable 
ice-clifis on both sides. To go up again was scarcely thinkable 
in our utterly wearied condition. The way down was through 
the waterfall itself. We made fast one end of our rope to a 
boulder with some difficulty, due to the fact that the rocks had 
been worn smooth by the running water. Then Worsley and 
I lowered Crean, who was the heaviest man. He disappeared 
altogether in the falling water and came out gasping at the 
bottom. I went next, sliding down the rope, and Worsley, 
who was the lightest and most nimble member of the party, 
came last. At the bottom of the fall we were able to stand 
again on dry land. The rope could not be recovered. We had 
flung down the adze from the top of the fall and also the log- 
book and the cooker wrapped in one of our blouses. That 
was all, except our wet clothes, that we brought out of the 
Antarctic, which we had entered a year and a half before with 
well-found ship, full equipment, and high hopes. That was 
all of tangible things ; but in memories we were rich. We had 
pierced the veneer of outside things. We had " suffered, 
starved, and triumphed, grovelled down yet grasped at glory, 
grown bigger in the bigness of the whole." We had seen God 
in his splendours, heard the text that Nature renders. We had 
reached the naked soul of man. 
Shivering with cold, yet with hearts light and happy, we 
set ofE towards the whaling-station, now not more than a mile 
and a half distant. The difficulties of the journey lay behind us. 
We tried to straighten ourselves up a bit, for the thought that 
there might be women at the station made us painfully conscious 
of our unciviUzed appearance. Our beards were long and our 
hair was matted. We were unwashed and the garments that 
we had worn for nearly a year without a change were tattered 
and stained. Tlu'ee more unpleasant-looking ruffians could 
205 
