ch. lix] The Societies" Expedition 
475 
In his absence of fifty-nine days Scott and his com- 
panions had travelled over 725 miles, but for nine days 
they had been confined to the tent by gales of wind. 
The distance, therefore, was accomplished in fifty march- 
ing days, a daily average of 14^ miles. Taking the whole 
eighty-one days of absence they had covered 1098 miles 
at a little under 15^ miles a day. They had reached the 
limit of possible performance, under the hardest conditions. 
This is, in some respects, the greatest polar journey on 
record without dogs. The only comparison can be with 
the journeys of M'Clintock and Mecham. But they had not 
the intense cold, the danger from crevasses, and the great 
height to climb. Nor can any one journey be compared 
with it as regards the value and importance of its results. 
Scott discovered the vast Antarctic ice-cap and explored 
it for 200 miles, and his observations enabled Captain 
Chetwynd to fix the position of the south magnetic pole. 
Barne and Mulock marched to the south, but, after 
leaving Minna Bluff, they were much hampered by 
southerly gales which confined them to the tent for ten 
days. They had barely reached the mouth of the inlet 
which they were to explore when they were obliged to 
return. The ground was scarcely passable, and they had 
to cross wide crevasses, and clamber over steep ridges. 
Mulock was indefatigable in the use of the theodolite, so 
that this stretch of coast-line has been very accurately 
plotted. But the most important result of Barne's journey 
was the discovery that the ice on the barrier moved. 
Depot A lay on an alignment with a small peak on Minna 
Bluff and Mount Discovery in 1902. Barne found the 
depot was no longer on with this small peak and Mount 
Discovery and, therefore, that it must have moved. Thir- 
teen and a half months after the establishment of Depot 
A Barne measured the displacement, and found that it 
had moved 608 yards. Barne and his party were absent 
68 days. 
The journey of Royds and Bernacchi over the ice of 
the barrier to the S.E. occupied thirty days. Scott wrote, 
"It deserves to rank very high in our sledging efforts, for 
every detail was carried out in the most thoroughly 
efficient manner." A very interesting series of magnetic 
observations were taken by Bernacchi, who carried with 
