CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY . 
2 3 
had disappeared into the sea. and they were 
surrounded by water. 
Packing up hurriedly, for five long hours 
they fought their way over three-quarters of a 
mile of drifting ice, getting ponies and loads 
from floe to floe. They stuck to their charges 
like men. On them depended the hope of 
reaching the Pole, for the loss of more ponies 
and equipment must spell ruin for their 
chief’s plans. Open water cut them off from 
the Barrier, and had they been able to reach 
it there w r as small prospect of finding a way 
for the ponies up the ice-wall. And all round 
the savage killer-whales were blowing and 
snorting in the open water-spaces. 
Crean then, with great gallantry, volun- 
teered to 
make his way 
somehow to 
firm ground 
and find help. 
It was a des- 
perate adven- 
ture. He 
jumped from 
floe to floe, 
and at last, 
with the help 
of his ski- 
stick. climbed 
up the face 
of the Barrier 
from a piece 
of ice which 
touched the 
ice-cliff at the 
rightmoment. 
Cherry- 
Garrard stayed with Bow r ers at his request, 
for little Bowers would never give up his 
charge while a gleam of hope remained, and 
for a whole day these two were afloat. 
To the Rescue ! 
To the rescue, then ; but not without a 
plan. First to Safety ( amp, to take up some 
provisions and oil, and then to the scene of 
the disaster, marching carefully along the 
ice-edge. “ To my joy 1 caught sight of the 
lost party,” The two men, jumping from 
floe to floe, reached a bit of ice which the 
turn of the tide had brought to rest against 
the Barrier face. “ VVe got our Alpine rope, 
and with its help dragged the two men to 
the surface. I pitched camp at a safe 
distance from the edge, and then we all 
started salvage work. 
The ice had ceased to drift, and lay close 
and quiet against the Barrier edge. We 
got the men at 5.30 p.m., and all the sledges 
and effects on to the Barrier by 4 a.m. 
As we were getting up the last loads the ice 
showed signs of drifting off, and we saw it 
was hopeless to try and move the ponies. 
The three poor beasts had to be left on their 
floe for the moment, well fed. None of our 
party had had sleep the previous night, and 
all were dog tired. I decided we must rest, 
but turned out at 8.30.” By that time the 
floe had broken from the ice-anchors with 
which they had essayed to hold it, and had 
disappeared. Hope revived when the animals 
were descried through the glasses about a 
mile away to 
the north- 
west. They 
packed a n d 
went on at 
once. They 
found it easy 
to get down 
to the poor 
animals, and 
decided to 
rush them for 
a last chance 
of life. But 
while Scott 
searched for 
and found a 
possible wav 
u p f 0 r t h e 
animals, the 
others tried 
to leap Punch 
across a gap. The poor beast fell in, 
and eventually had to be killed. “ It was 
awful. T recalled all hands and pointed out 
my road. Bowers and Oates went out on 
it with a sledge and worked their way to the 
remaining ponies, and started back with them 
along the same track. Meanwhile, Cherry and 
I dug a road at the Barrier edge. We saved 
one pony. For a time I thought we should get 
both, but Bowers’s poor animal slipped at a 
jump and plunged into the water. We dragged 
him out on some brash ice, killer-whales all 
about us in an intense state of excitement. 
The poor animal couldn’t rise and the only 
merciful thing was to kill it.” 
Thereafter it took three days to get all 
safe to Hut Point by a circuitous route, 
and so on by the hills and the dangerous 
ice-foot. 
quarters and 
( The. next instalment will describe how the party passed their time in their winter 
how they started on their last fatal journey to the Pole.) 
Pemmicaru Biscuits. Butter. 
Cocoa. Sugar. Tea. 
THIS SLUDGING PARTY'S RATION— THE DAILY ALLOWANCE OF 
EACH MAN. 
