Oates. P.O. Evans. Scott. Wilson. 
HARNESSED TO THEIR SLEDGE. 
THEN THE EXPLORERS SET OUT ON THEIR LONG JOURNEY NORTH. 
by Lieut, flowers. 
CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY. 
between depots. To the struggle against the 
elements and the “ difficulty of following the 
track ” are added the first slight indications 
of lessening vitality in those who were 
destined first to be stricken down in the con- 
test — a susceptibility to cold : an unnoticed 
frostbite. 
On the evening of the 21st they had “ six 
days’ food in hand, and forty-five miles to the 
next depot/’ where seven days’ food waited. 
Then “ninety miles to go to the ‘Three Degree 
depot.’ Once there ” it looked as though 
they “ ought to be safe/’ but it was desirable 
“ to have a day or two in hand ” to allow for 
contingencies, such as “ difficulty in follow- 
ing the old tracks ” and being unable to find 
the depots in the dim waste of snow by the help 
of observations for latitude, if they could be 
made at all. At the best, the guiding “ cairns 
could only be seen when less than a mile away.” 
One day the tracks would be clear and a 
following wind, albeit swelling into a blizzard, 
urge them at speed under full sail ; another 
they were held up half a day by the force of 
the gale — “ the second full gale already in the 
six days since leaving the Pole.” On other 
days the tracks were repeatedly lost, especially 
on the broken surface where they had zig- 
Vol. xlvi. — 48. 
zagged up through a sea of storm-tossed 
sastmgi to avoid the heaviest mounds. Once 
the track was only recovered thanks to 
“ Bowers’s sharp eyes ” : he espied one of the 
four-mile cairns afar off. Evans got frost- 
bitten in the face ; Oates felt the cold ; 
Wilson, who, like his leader and Bowers, was 
otherwise as fit as was possible under the 
conditions, had a bout of torturing snow- 
blindness, and later strained a tendon in his 
leg, and for a day could not pull. Troubles 
were forgotten in camp, however, and time 
after time they hit off a depot and went for- 
ward with enough to carry them to the next 
and something to spare, but not enough to 
let them satisfy their growing hunger. That 
must wait for enough at the “ Three Degree 
depot ” ; for “ a real feed ” at the old camp at 
the foot of the Glacier. Meanwhile they were 
“ pretty thin, though none feeling w r orn out ” ; 
shortening the hours of rest in the wet sleep- 
ing-bags, and talking more of food ; and glad 
that they had only to pull light sledges, 
especially as Evans’s hands were in a bad 
state. “ It is the sandy crystals that hold 
us up. There has been a very great altera- 
tion of the surface since we were last here.” 
But the last day of the month brought 
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