APPENDIX 
615 
May I be there ! About this time next year may I be there or there- 
abouts ! With so many young bloods in the heyday of youth and 
strength beyond my own I feel there will be a most difficult task in 
making choice towards the end and a most keen competition — and 
a universal lack of selfishness and self-seeking with a complete absence 
of any jealous feeling in any single one of the comparatively large 
number who at present stand a chance of being on the last piece next 
summer. 
It will be an exciting time and the excitement has already begun 
in the healthiest possible manner. I have never been thrown in with 
a more unselfish lot of men — each one doing his utmost fair and square 
in the most cheery manner possible. 
As late as October 15 he writes further : 1 No one yet knows who 
will be on the Summit party : it is to depend on condition, and fitness 
when we get there.' It is told of Scott, while still in New Zealand, 
that being pressed on the point, he playfully said, ' Well, I should 
like to have Bill to hold my hand when we get to the Pole ' ; but the 
Diary shows how the actual choice was made on the march. 
Note 10, />. 124. — Campbell, Levick, and Priestley set off to the 
old Nimrod hut eight miles away to sec if they could find a stove 
of convenient size for their own hut, as well as any additional paraffin, 
and in default of the latter, to kill some seals for oil. 
Note 11, p. 133. — The management of stores and transport was 
finally entrusted to Bowers. Rcnnick therefore remained with the 
ship. A story told by Lady Scott illustrates the spirit of these 
men — the expedition first, personal distinctions nowhere. It was 
in New Zealand and the very day on which the order had been 
given for Bowers to exchange with Rennick. In the afternoon 
Captain Scott and his wife were returning from the ship to the 
house where they were staying ; on the hill they saw the two men 
coming down with arms on each other's shoulders — a fine testimony 
to both. •Upon my word,' exclaimed Scott, 'that shows Rennick 
in a good light ! ' 
Note 12, p. 148. — Jauuary 29. The seals have been giving a lot of 
trouble, that is just to Mcares and myself with our dogs. The whole 
teams go absolutely crazy when they sight them or get wind of them, 
and there arc literally hundreds along some of the cracks. Occasionally 
when one pictures oneself quite away from trouble of that kind, an old 
seal will pop his head up at a blowhole a few yards ahead of the team, 
and they arc all on top of him before one can say 1 Knife ! ' Then one 
has to rush in with the whip — and every one of the team of eleven jumps 
over the harness of the dog next to him and the harnesses become a 
muddle that takes much patience to unravel, not to mention care lest 
the whole team should get away with the sledge and its load and 
