SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[March 
— he died a natural death, but left us a shaken party 
with the season unduly advanced. 
But all the facts above enumerated were as nothing 
to the surprise which awaited us on the Barrier. I main- 
tain that our arrangements for returning were quite 
adequate, and that no one in the world would have 
expected the temperatures and surfaces which we en- 
countered at this time of the year. On the summit in 
lat. 85° 86° we had -20 0 , -30 0 . On the Barrier in lat. 
82 0 , 10,000 feet lower, we had -30 0 in the day, -47° 
at night pretty regularly, with continuous head wind 
during our day marches. It is clear that these circum- 
stances come on very suddenly, and our wreck is certainly 
due to this sudden advent of severe weather, which does 
not seem to have any satisfactory cause. I do not think 
human beings ever came through such a month as we 
have come through, and we should have got through 
in spite of the weather but for the sickening of a second 
companion, Captain Oates, and a shortage of fuel in 
our depots for which I cannot account, and finally, but 
for the storm which has fallen on us within 11 miles of 
the depot at which we hoped to secure our final supplies. 
Surely misfortune could scarcely have exceeded this 
last blow. We arrived within 1 1 miles of our old One 
Ton Camp with fuel for one last meal and food for two 
days. For four days we have been unable to leave the 
tent — the gale howling about us. We are weak, writing 
is difficult, but for my own sake I do not regret this journey, 
which has shown that Englishmen can endure hardships, 
help one another, and meet death with as great a fortitude 
