3 8 ° 
THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 
Then a strong north wind set in ; a very 
short march was made. Next day the wind, 
though not north, was piercing, the thermo- 
meter at noon - 43 0 ; pitching camp difficult 
and dangerous because so slow ; and all, 
once in the tent, deadly cold. Still the 
words stand: “We must fight it out to the 
last biscuit, but can’t reduce rations.” 
Oates’s Heroic Death. 
At midday on the 15th Oates at last “ said 
he couldn’t go on ; he proposed we should 
leave him in his sleeping-bag. This we could 
not do, and induced him to come on, on the 
afternoon march. In spite of its awful 
nature for him he struggled on and we made 
a few miles. At night he was worse and we 
knew the end had come.” The words of the 
Journal for March 17th have already been 
published : “ He was a brave soul. This 
was the end. He slept through the night 
before last hoping not to wake, but he woke 
in the morning— yesterday. It was blowing a 
blizzard. He said, ‘ I am just going outside 
and may be some time.’ He went out into 
the blizzard and we have not seen him 
since.” 
And here the Journal places it formally 011 
record that they “ stuck to their sick com • ! 
panions to the last. In the case of Edga: 
Evans, when absolutely out of food and hi 
lay insensible, the safety of the remaindei 
seemed to demand his abandonment ; bun 
he died a natural death and we did not 
leave him till two hours after his death,” Anc I 
on March 16th: “ We knew that poor Oate* 
was walking to his death, but though we trier 
to dissuade him we knew it was the act of ai 
brave man and an English gentleman. We 
all hope to meet the end with a similan 
spirit.” 
And so for the last effort. Theodolite and! 
camera and Oates’s sleeping-bag were left 
behind, but the “ diaries and geological speci- 
mens, carried at Wilson’s special request, 
will be found with us or on our sledge.” The 1 , 
note of the 18th runs : “ Ill-fortune presses,, 
but better may come.” The cruel wind cut: 
short the marching, and Scott’s own rights 
foot was badly frostbitten . All three had some; 
foot trouble by the 18th, and Scott could 
calmly contemplate the prospect that “ ampu- 
tation is the least I can hope for now.” But 1 
“ the weather doesn’t give us a chance.” 
WITH THE SEARCH PARTY— THE CAMP ON THE BARRIER. 
I voiu a th'jfumiph by a member of the Search Parly 
