SOUTH 
pack had opened occasionally, but much of the time the way 
to the north had been barred. The Yelclio had arrived at the 
right moment. Two days earlier she could not have reached 
the island, and a few hours later the pack may have been 
impenetrable again. Wild had reckoned that help would come 
in August, and every morning he had packed his kit, in cheerful 
anticipation that proved mfectious, as I have no doubt it was 
meant to be. One of the party to whom I had said " Well, 
you all were packed up ready," replied, " You see, boss, Wild 
never gave up hope, and whenever the sea was at all clear of 
ice he rolled up his sleeping-bag and said to all hands, ' Roll 
up your sleeping-bags, boys ; the boss may come to-day ' " ; 
and so it came to pass that we suddenly came out of the fog, 
and, from a black outlook, in an hour all were in safety homeward 
bound. The food was eked out with seal and penguin meat, 
limpets, and seaweed. Seals had been scarce, but the supply 
of penguins had held out fairly well during the first three 
months. The men were down to the last Bovril ration, the 
only form of hot drink they had, and had scarcely four days' 
food in hand at the time of the rescue. The camp was in 
constant danger of being buried by the snow, which drifted 
heavily from the heights behind, and the men moved the 
accunmlations with what implements they could provide. 
There was danger that the camp would become completely 
invisible from the sea, so that a rescue party might look for 
it in vain. 
It had been arranged that a gun should be fixed from the 
relief ship when she got near the island/' said Wild. Many 
times when the glaciers were ' calving,' and chunks fell off with 
a report like a gun, we thought that it was the real thing, and 
after a time we got to distrust these signals. As a matter of 
fact, we saw the Yehho before we heard any gun. It was an 
occasion one will not easily forget. We were just assembling 
for lunch to the call of ' Lunch 0 ! ' and I was serving out the 
soup, which was particularly good that day, consisting of 
boiled seal's backbone, limpets, and seaweed, when there was 
another hail from Marston of ' Ship 0 ! ' Some of the men 
thought it was ' Limch 0 ! ' over again, but when there was 
220 
