CAPTAIN SCOTT'S OWN STORY. 
were away three and a half months. Going 
slowly, with a heavy load of provisions, they 
built a stone hut in Granite Harbour, pro- 
viding warmth by one of the blubber-stoves 
invented by Atkinson, and obtaining both 
blubber and meat from the numerous seals. 
Apart from their geological notes, especially 
on the fossils, coal and other minerals, and the 
illustrations of glacial action, their strangest 
discovery was, perhaps, that of two species 
of wingless insects in their thousands, 
sheltering under pebbles near their head- 
quarters. 
They explored those western highlands on 
which Scott had looked during his short 
Western trip, daringly passing the huge ice 
falls of the Mackay Glacier by portaging sledge 
and gear up a thousand feet of granite cliffs 
and boulder-strewn slopes. Finally, having 
only ten days’ sledging food left, they made 
their wav over the Blue Glacier towards Hut 
*43 
Point, and they were picked up by the ship 
on February 15th.* 
As spring drew on, Scott, with Bowers, 
Simpson, and P.O. Evans, went for thirteen 
days to the Western Mountains, covering 
a hundred and seventy-five miles in ten 
marching days. He wished for a final prac- 
tice in sledging and photography, as well as 
to lay depots for the next Western party and 
to complete certain observations, especially to 
measure the movement of the stakes already 
* Before leaving the subject of these subsidiary evpeditious, 
we must refer to those of Lieutenant Campbell. During bis 
first winter, he was not in touch with the main party. The 
Terra Nova , which picked him up and transferred his party 
to a new base, did not bring news of him to Cape Evans 
till long after Captain Scott had set out for the Pole, while his 
second and involuntary wintering— a marvellous feat — took 
place later still. Since, therefore, his work was not recorded 
in Scott’s journals, it does not come within the scope of these 
articles, albeit, as Lord Curzon stated on the occasion of 
his presenting a gold watch to Lieutenant Campbell on 
behalf of the Royal ( leographical Society, “ a great personal 
achievement ; one of the most brilliant things ever accomplished 
in the history of Arctic and Antarctic exploration.” 
IN MARCHING ORDER. 
SCOTT, ROWERS, SIMPSON, AND P.O. EVANS STARTING ON THEIR EXPEDITION TO THE 
WESTERN MOUNTAINS. 
