C APT A IS SCOTT'S OWX STORY. 
2 SI 
though we might have difficulties in the last 
narrows. Having a long lunch hour for 
angles, photographs, and sketches.” 
The afternoon brought up the day’s run to 
seventeen geographical miles. “ It has not 
been a strain, except, perhaps, for me with 
my wounds received early in the day . The 
wind has kept us cool on the march, which 
has, in consequence, been very much 
pleasanter ; we are not wet in our clothes 
to-night, and have not suffered from the 
same overpowering thirst as on previous days. 
Evans and Bowers are busy taking angles ; 
as they have been all day, we shall have 
material for an excellent chart. Days like 
this put heart in one.” 
The record of the igth was beaten by that 
of the 2oth, twenty-three geographical miles, 
rising eight hundred feet. And at camp 
“ we must be ahead of Shackleton’s position 
on the 17th. 
Hopes and F6ars. 
“ I have just told off the people to return 
to-morrow night : Atkinson. Wright, Cherry- 
Garrard, and Keohane. All are disappointed. 
I dreaded this necessity of choosing — nothing 
could be more heartrending*. I calculated 
our programme to start from 85° to' with 
twelve units of food and eight men. We 
ought to be in this position to-morrow night, 
less one day’s food. After all our harassing 
trouble one cannot but be satisfied with such 
a prospect.” 
The last day of this stage, December 21st, 
was severe, owing to crevasses and falls, 
while at midday “ the wind came from the 
north, bringing the inevitable [fog] up the 
valley and covering us just as we were iu the 
worst of places,” delaying them two and a 
half hours. But the stiffest of climbs has 
an end, and camp was pitched at 7.30. 
u We have done a good march, risen to a 
satisfactory altitude, and readied a good 
place for our depot. To-morrow we start 
with our fullest summit load, and the first 
march should show us the possibilities of our 
achievement. For me it is an immense 
relief to have the indefatigable little Bowers 
to see to all detail arrangements. 
“ We have risen a great height to-day and 
I hope it will not be necessary to go down 
again, but it looks as though we must dip a 
bit even to go to the south-west.” 
The last outward stage, the summit journey, 
lasted from December 22nd to January 17th, 
* The points at which this an<l the remaining parlies turned 
hack are shown on the maps in the present instalment. 
Vol. xlvi. — 34. 
twenty -seven days for three hundred and 
fifty-three miles. On December 23rd the 
true summit seemed to be reached, where 
the Glacier merges in the ice-cap, undulating 
but uncrevassed. But, unhappily, on Christ- 
mas Day and the 27th they found themselves 
in the midst of crevasses again. After that, 
however often the undulating plateau offered 
a ridged or rugged surface, the danger of 
crevasses ceased. The general level continued 
to rise* On January 2nd, at the height, of 
nearly ten thousand feet, the plain seemed to 
be flattening out, but the highest levels, ovci 
ten thousand five hundred feet, were only 
reached on January 6th and 7th. 
But the difficulties of the Glacier were 
surmounted only to be succeeded by a new, 
long-drawn struggle in these mountain 
altitudes. The surface of the ice-cap was 
broken and rugged ; the snow in powdery 
crystals, whether loose and soft in the windless 
belt, or drifted into ridges, fantastically 
combed like an Alpine “ cornice,” was as dull 
and dogging for ski or sledge-runner as the 
loose sand of a sea beach. There was rarely 
any “ glide,” but heavy, jerking collar-work. 
The weather remained unkind, the strain of 
guiding ceaseless ; the anxiety of pitting 
effort against time, of measuring hard-wrung 
endurance against known and unknown tasks, 
almost as wearing as physical fatigue. As we 
read this Journal hope alternates with fear, 
but resolution stays constant through un- 
rein i 1 1 in g ill-fortune. 
This, the third stage of our journey, is 
opening with good promise. We made our 
depot this morning, then said an affecting 
farewell to the returning party, who have 
taken things very well, dear, good fellows as 
they are.” 
Then they started with their heavy loads 
about 9.20. Any trepidation as to the 
weight vanished as they went off and up 
a slope at a smart pace — the second sledge, 
close behind, its team well chosen to form the 
supporting party, which proceeded till 
January 4th. 
The dip across which their course ran 
south - west dropped some eleven hundred 
and fifty feet, but then they climbed again 
two hundred and fifty feet and camped at 
seven thousand one hundred feet. Huge 
pressure ridges barred the way to the south, 
and they passed one or two very broad 
(thirty feet) bridged crevasses with the usual 
gaping sides — the whole incline in front a 
confusion of elevations and depressions. Next 
day we had to haul out to the north, then 
west. ... It is rath or trying having to 
